Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini will get lossless audio after all

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Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini volition get lossless sound after all

(Epitome credit: Futurity)

While AirPods may non benefit from Apple Music's new lossless audio tier (for the moment, at least), another production from Apple's audio hardware range is getting upgraded to have advantage.

The company has published a new back up document indicating that both the original HomePod and more contempo HomePod mini will be updated to back up Apple Music's new sound tier in future. "HomePod and HomePod mini currently use AAC [Advanced Audio Codec] to support excellent audio quality," a section in the FAQ reads. "Support for lossless is coming in a time to come software update."

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While no release date is given for the update, information technology remains a pleasant surprise and an changeabout from what Apple said previously. While we'd heard that Apple Music'due south new spatial audio would be supported by HomePod, there was no indication that Apple tree would exist taking the steps to support lossless on its smart speakers.

For the original HomePod, it's a pretty impressive show of support, given the speaker was officially discontinued just two months ago. Just earlier this calendar week, Apple also updated the HomePod so that you can use it as the speaker for all your TV input sources, provided you also have a second-gen Apple Tv 4K. That hopefully indicates that the discontinuation isn't the cease of the road for the larger speaker, and that something will make use of the same technology in future.

Dorsum to the support document, and Apple clarifies which other devices tin savor the new lossless tier. Firstly, Apple tree Tv set 4K "currently doesn't back up Hi-Res Lossless", with just audio upwardly to 48KHz supported, though the word "currently" suggests that won't be the instance forever.

The document also confirms the reason that AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats don't back up lossless is thanks to their reliance on Bluetooth connections rather than a weakness in the hardware. "Nosotros will deliver music using lossless audio compression to your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Boob tube," the company writes. "Lossless will play back usually on Bluetooth speakers and headphones. Nonetheless Bluetooth connections don't support lossless audio."

With that in listen, there's good news for people who don't mind a wire. The official Lightning to iii.5mm headphone jack adapter, for example, contains a digital-to-analog converter that supports upwardly to 24-bit/48KHz lossless audio. Sadly, while AirPods Max get some benefit by attaching a wire, information technology's not perfect. "AirPods Max can be connected to devices playing Lossless and Howdy-Res Lossless recordings with exceptional audio quality," Apple writes. " Nevertheless, given the analog to digital conversion in the cablevision, the playback will non be completely lossless."

Apple tree Music'south lossless tier will emerge in June at no extra cost to those on the $9.99 per calendar month subscription. At launch, the company says there volition be over 20 meg songs with lossless quality, reaching 75 1000000 past the terminate of the year.

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Freelance contributor Alan has been writing near tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are institute all over the spider web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably discover him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more probable, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-homepod-and-homepod-mini-will-get-lossless-audio-after-all

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