We reported yesterday on Apple Music’s announcement of ’spatial audio’ (using the Dolby Atmos format) and 75m lossless-quality tracks. Overnight, some more details have emerged about what is needed to listen to this music. For example, Bluetooth can’t do lossless music, which means Apple’s AirPods won’t be capable of lossless listening. The tracks will still work, of course, it’s just that something gets, ahem, lost in the wireless transmission.
Wired headphones can play the new lossless music from Apple’s service, but the company’s own AirPods Max ‘phones can’t – even when plugged in to an iPhone using a cable. And it turns out that the HomePod and HomePod Mini smart speakers can’t do lossless either, although all of these devices will cope fine with the spatial audio tracks.
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