None of Apple's AirPods support the lossless sound format that Apple Music announced

A few days ago, Apple Music announced that it will allow lossless audio streaming to all its subscribers at no additional cost starting in June. But it turns out that Apple for now does not sell headphones or earphones from its AirPods series that can reproduce that audio without quality losses.

First of all, Apple's wireless earbuds only support the lossy AAC codec (which Apple Music uses as well), so the AirPods and AirPods Pro are out. The AirPods Max have the option of connecting via a cable with a 3,5mm adapter, but that doesn't work either because this introduces an analog step, which is followed by digitizing the signal again and which is not technically lossless. The Apple HomePod and HomePod mini can't play lossless audio either.

Nothing from Apple supports that sound without quality loss

Apple Music will use the ALAC lossless format to deliver the new high-quality content. That starts at 16-bit 44,1 kHz, also known as CD-quality audio. Bluetooth streaming requires specially designed codecs to handle this reliably. The Hi Res Lossless format increases the sound capacity up to 24 bits 48-192 kHz, something that does not support any wireless connection and you will need an external DAC with cable for this.

But Apple doesn't have a wireless codec that can handle lossless streaming yet. That may or may not change with the next release of the AirPods 3 in case they want to boost that audio format without loss of quality. The other new format coming to Apple Music, Dolby Atmos spatial audio, can be enjoyed on headphones using the Apple H1 and W1 chips, which includes the AirPods as well as several Beats wireless headphones, so there will be no problems with it.

Seeing how Apple usually maintains consistency and compatibility, it is possible that in the near future they will announce new models of AirPods, AirPodsPro or AirPods Max.

Source: GSMArena