If you’re someone who loves the sound of lossless on Apple Music and has the AirPods Max, you may be in luck shortly.
Fans of high-res audio are known to spend a pretty penny on their pretty high-def sound.
Life is a little more expensive for a lover of high-resolution audio, depending on the way they go. Tidal HiFi costs a little more than Spotify, while Apple Music includes high-res built-in, and now works on iOS and Android alike. And the headphones to get that sound out can typically need a constant cable connected, and may cost a little more than what a $400 pair of wireless earphones can accommodate.
When the AirPods Max launched several years ago, it seemed as though Apple was diving into with a lossless leader, though they weren’t quite made for what Apple Music was delivering in its highest resolutions. They definitely gave you a solid spatial sound, for sure, and some of the best noise cancellation, but lossless wasn’t quite there. Plus, they worked to provide great mixing capabilities for Apple’s Logic Pro audio software.
Apple is set to update things in April with an update that will bring lossless audio to the AirPods Max, as well as support for spatial audio when mixing on a Mac with Logic Pro.
Essentially, the included USB-C cable for the new generation of USB-C AirPods Max will turn the headphones into a wired pair of high-res headphones supporting sound as high as 24-bit and 48kHz, also known as 24/48.
Pretty much all of what’s on Apple Music is supported in this quality level through over 100 million tracks, though some is supported at much higher. It’s not yet known if the AirPods Max update will enable as high as 24/192 on the headphones, but we doubt it.
However, Apple will dive in a little deeper with the same update, using the USB-C cable on the headphones to add personalised spatial audio with head tracking to AirPod Max, as well as lossless sound. That means engineers and musicians alike will be able to hear a Dolby Atmos mix as they edit and make their music, distinct from what is basically the process now: export the sound to a file and play it back using either a phone with AirPods or finding a way to play it back in spatial on your computer.
It’s the sort of update modern music makers have long been asking for, and one that will also deliver lower latency audio for gamers and live streamers, provided they have the AirPods Max with USB-C that were updated last year.
However, if you have the AirPods Max with Lightning, you are basically out of luck. This is only an AirPods Max USB-C upgrade, and one that will likely only work via Apple software and codecs, meaning Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Expect the update in April, where you’ll need to bring your USB-C cable to and headphones together to make it work.
