Apple Music’s new high-quality lossless music cannot be listened to with AirPods earplugs, AirPods Max headphones and also the HomePod speakers.

With the AirPods and AirPods Pro earplugs , this is due to the Bluetooth connection: it is insufficient to stream lossless music wirelessly. The AirPods Max headphones from Apple can be connected to an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning cable, but even then the lossless music is not passed on unchanged. The digital lossless signal is converted to analog, then back to digital. This means that quality is lost and there is no longer any question of losslessness.

HomePod speakers are also not suitable

The HomePod and HomePod Mini speakers from Apple also cannot play lossless music, even though they have their own WiFi connection, just like iPhone and iPads. To listen lossless music through Apple Music, users need wired speakers on wired headphones. For the highest quality hi-res lossless even an external DAC converter is required.

Spatial sound via Dolby Atmos can be used with AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and the HomePod speakers. Spatial sound is the next step after stereo sound, according to Apple. Instead of two sound channels, many channels will soon be heard in suitable Apple Music songs. That should sound like the music is playing around the listener.

Both spatial sound and lossless music will be added at no extra cost to all Apple Music subscribers from June .