When Apple announced that Apple Music will be getting lossless audio streaming, it came as a bit of a rude shock to discover that Apple’s own AirPods, including its $550 AirPods Max, would not support it. This is because in order to stream lossless, you would need a wired connection and in the case of hi-resolution lossless, a USB DAC.
However, during an episode of the Genius Bar podcast, Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech revealed that Apple could be working on a way to fix that. How, you ask? According to Prosser, this could come in the form of a new audio format that would allow for lossless audio to be streamed over Bluetooth.
At the moment, Apple’s AirPods stream the AAC format over Bluetooth, which is perfectly fine for most users, but not so great for those who might want something higher quality like ALAC, the lossless format that Apple will be using. If this is the case, that means all Apple needs to do is push out a software update to its AirPods lineup and they will be able to enjoy the new lossless audio.
However, we should note that there could still be some hardware limitations. The AirPods and AirPods Pro aren’t exactly considered audiophile grade headphones, so we’re not sure even if they could stream lossless tracks, whether their hardware will be good enough where listeners can tell the difference.
Filed in . Read more about AirPods, Apple Music, Entertainment, Headphones and Music. Source: appletrack