Do AirPods Max support lossless audio when connected with the USB-C cable?

[CyberGene]

I purchased the AirPods Max with USB-C the other day and so far am very satisfied with them.

However, it's not really clear to me whether they support lossless ALAC when they are connected with the supplied USB-C cable to my Mac that plays Apple Music with quality set to "Losless ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz" in the settings.

There's a support article that hasn't been updated for the USB-C version:

About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support

Learn about lossless audio in Apple Music and how to turn it on or off for your device.

support.apple.com

According to that article, lossless is not supported when using the AirPods Max in Bluetooth mode although music will still play fine but will be down-converted to AAC 256 kbps before being transmitted to the AirPods Max. All that makes sense and is expected. The first generation supports a lightning to 3.5 mm headphone jack cable and according to the above article, this means lossless is kinda supported but with the caveat that there's an unnecessary ADC step.

Now, with the USB-C cable directly connected to the Mac and to the AirPods Max, there shouldn't be any unnecessary DAC-ADC step and lossless should be really lossless. But I'm wondering if that's confirmed and stated anywhere? I can't find any information on the Internet.

To complicate things further, the Apple Music app on the Mac always shows the lossless icon, regardless of whether I use the AirPods Max cabled or wireless. I think I can hear an improvement when I connect the cable but since lossy AAC 256 is already good enough to be indistinguishable to lossless for most people and situations, I may be making it up 😀 I'm just wondering if it's OK for peace of mind to enable lossless, so that highest quality is being used or it's not worth it? Please, let's not argue whether lossless is worth it compared to lossy. My question is a concrete one: if the USB-C cable transfers lossless ALAC to the AirPods Max.

 

[david.olstein]

I thought the USB-C jack on the AirPods Max was for charging only and not for transmitting digital audio. If so, it's pretty ridiculous. One of the biggest design flaws in the original AirPods Max was the lack of hi res or even lossless audio. For years, there have been other wireless headphones that were also able to receive digital audio lossless via a USB-C cable. And replacing the lightning jcak wiht a USB-C jack would have been the perfect opportunity to fix this problem. The top Beats headphones are able to receive digital audio via their USB-C jack. There no reason why the AirPods Max headphones shouldn't be able to do that, other than sheer laziness on Apple's part.

 

[CyberGene]

The AirPods Max are currently connected to the Mac with the USB-C cable and I'm listening to Apple Music with lossless enabled, however it seems in the audio section of the system information they are listed as Bluetooth:

Oddly enough, they are also listed under the USB section but there's no indication of whether they are an audio device, probably not, since my LG display is detected as a USB audio device.


To me it seems that unfortunately the AirPods Max don't support USB-C digital audio transfer and the cable is only for charging 😢

 

[Mackilroy]

My guess is you’re connected with Bluetooth, as I’ve tried connecting my Maxes to my laptop with the USB-C audio adapter, and no sound comes through until I disconnect it.

 

[Student of Life]

Would turning off the Bluetooth in the computer force the AirPod Max usbc version to only connect via usbc?

 

[acorntoy]

No.

It's AAC even when connected. This was not updated even with the "new colors" USB-C. It's why the support document hasn't been updated, it doesn't need to be, no "Airpods Max" product supports lossless and therefore the wording is still perfectly valid.

 

[one more]

The top Beats headphones are able to receive digital audio via their USB-C jack.

Not just the top Beats - a mid-range Beats Solo 4 support lossless via USB-C and 3.5 mm headphone jack. Ironically, though, when they are in lossless mode they lose Spacial Audio enhancements, so for me they sounded flatter or more dull compared to Bluetooth variants with Spacial Audio and Dolby Atmos enabled.

 

[david.olstein]

Not just the top Beats - a mid-range Beats Solo 4 support lossless via USB-C and 3.5 mm headphone jack. Ironically, though, when they are in lossless mode they lose Spacial Audio enhancements, so for me they sounded flatter or more dull compared to Bluetooth variants with Spacial Audio and Dolby Atmos enabled.

Bear in mind that Spatial Audio is strictly a lossy format. Lossless tracks are not encoded for Spatial Audio. If Apple wanted to, it could release downmixed hi res binaural versions of Spatial Audio tracks. But they choose not to.

 

[one more]

Bear in mind that Spatial Audio is strictly a lossy format. Lossless tracks are not encoded for Spatial Audio. If Apple wanted to, it could release downmixed hi res binaural versions of Spatial Audio tracks. But they choose not to.

Yes, it is just once you got used to listening to stuff in special audio, listening to “plain lossless” does sound kind of dull.

 

[david.olstein]

Yes, it is just once you got used to listening to stuff in special audio, listening to “plain lossless” does sound kind of dull.

Binaural recordings -- which are stereo recordings typically made with microphones placed in ear position on a dummy head -- can convey a sense of three dimensional space just as effectively as a multichannel spatial audio mix.

When you listen to spatial audio tracks on headphones, what you are listening to is not a multichannel mix. It is binuaral rendering of the multichannel mix that is created on the fly by your Apple Music apple music app and that sense of space is enhanced by other features like head tracking that are available to you if you have an iPhone and compatible headphones.

If Apple wanted to, it could create binaural versions of albums from the lossless spatial audio master and allow uses to stream those versions in lossless, or even hi res, audio instead of listening to lossy spatial audio tracks that are downmixed on the fly. These binaural versions would be different from the stereo mixes. And I wouldn't be surprised if they sounded better than the spatial audio tracks that you currently stream, both because they are derived from a lossless master and stored in a lossless file. And second, because the equipment that woudl be used to create the binuaral downmixes would have a lot more processing power than the app on your headphone. But this is just speculation on my part. The only way to know for sure is if you can compare a lossless binaural version with a lossy binaural version created on the fly.

 

[CyberGene]

Spatial Audio never works for me. I’ve tested it numerous times with both my AirPods Pro and now with AirPods Max, with both custom Spatial Audio profile (using my iPhone to scan my head and ears), or the default profile, with either fixed or head tracked settings and with so many albums I’ve tested for the last few years. I never get any realistic space perception. Quite on the contrary, it sounds rather off, so I just disable it and resort to regular stereo. Not sure what it depends on, could be a psychoacoustic phenomenon that depends on the individual and unfortunately it doesn’t work for me.

As a side note, I have a digital piano, the Yamaha AvantGrand N1X which has binaural samples that get activated when you connect headphones. It’s so realistic that I occasionally get confused that the sound is still coming through the speakers and have to take my headphones off to check that I’m playing on headphones only and nobody can hear me (especially neighbors 😃). So, binaural works on my ears but not always.