If you’ve spent a decent amount of money on equipment to enjoy audio at its highest quality, you’ll want to feed it the best quality audio you can get your hands on. Ultimately, your setup will likely dictate which side of the debate you come down on.
Most people can hear the difference between a low bitrate 128kbps MP3 and a much higher 320kbps rip, but what about the difference between that 320kbps MP3 and an ALAC file of the same song? There is some debate as to whether lossless audio is perceivably better than high-quality lossy streams. Lossless Compression: What's the Difference? Can You Really Hear the Difference? TIDAL, Deezer, Qobuz, Spotify and Amazon Music all charge an additional fee for their lossless streams. Apple Music is the outlier here since they offer the feature to all subscribers. TIDALĪnd then there’s the cost, since many services charge extra for lossless streaming.
Without an external DAC, you might not even be getting the full benefit of studio-quality streams, and you’ll have to ditch the AirPods in favor of wired headphones ( even the AirPods Max). If you like storing music on your device for offline listening, you simply won’t be able to fit as many songs or albums on your device if you go the lossless route.
Two examples include Sony’s budget NW-A55 Walkman (around $220) or the pricier FiiO M11 Pro (around $650). You should be sure to match your headphones’ specifications with relation to impedance and maximum power handling when hunting for a suitable headphone amplifier.Īll-in-one portable, high-resolution audio players also exist, with built-in DACs, integration with services like TIDAL, and the ability to play a wide range of high-quality audio formats.
Many DACs also include in-built headphone amplification, which is another way of improving the quality of portable audio. Shopping for a DAC is a bit like shopping for headphones in that cheap offerings may disappoint, but spending marginally more can vastly improve audio quality. To experience the full studio quality of a 192kHz/24-bit lossless stream, you’ll likely need an external DAC. This is true for many sources including laptops, smartphones, portable media players, and streaming devices. Apple states that iPhone users cannot exceed these sample rates without an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC). You may be limited to CD quality (44.1kHz/16-bit) depending on your device’s capabilities. The good news is that switching to wired headphones should do the trick. This is due to the way wireless audio codecs like aptX and Apple’s AAC Bluetooth Codec rely on lossy audio compression to work. Unfortunately, no wireless headphones are currently capable of passing a truly lossless audio feed from your smartphone to your ears.
You only need a smartphone and a suitable set of headphones to experience lossless for yourself. RELATED: What Is Spatial Audio, and How Does It Work? What Equipment Do You Need for Lossless Audio? You’ll likely need to enable the lossless streaming toggle in your platform of choice since it’s usually disabled by default. For example, Apple Music uses the built-in Music app on an iPhone or Apple Music for Android, while rival services have their own apps for these platforms. To use these services you’ll need to use whatever software they provide. Apple Music is a great choice because lossless audio is provided at no extra cost beyond the $9.99 per month flat fee for individuals.Īmazon also offers a lossless music service, Amazon Music HD, at $7.99 per month for Amazon Prime members or $9.99 per month for people who aren’t Prime members. A more popular choice now is to use a streaming service like Apple Music or Deezer to access lossless audio streams (or download tracks for offline listening).