Can I listen to Apple Music lossless audio with AirPods Max using a Lightning to 3.5mm cable?

No. Apple's Lightning to 3.5mm cable contains an internal analog-to-digital converter that digitizes the signal at a fixed resolution. It therefore cannot deliver fully uncompressed, bit-perfect Hi-Res audio.

Does Apple Music charge extra for Lossless and Spatial Audio?

No. Apple Music includes CD-quality Lossless, Hi-Res Lossless, and Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos at no additional cost on its standard subscription plans.

How do I know if a song is actually playing in Lossless audio?

It depends on where you look, but the answer is on the player. Check the Now Playing screen or desktop player bar for a "Lossless" or "Hi-Res Lossless" badge beneath the track title. Tapping or clicking the badge shows the exact bit depth, sample rate, and codec being decoded.

Why does my external DAC show 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz when playing a 192 kHz track on Mac?

It depends on your Audio MIDI Setup configuration. macOS does not automatically adjust the DAC's sample rate to match the music stream. Open Audio MIDI Setup and select a higher rate in the device's format dropdown, or use a sample-rate switching utility.

How to Get Lossless Audio on Apple Music: Setup Guide

Learning how to get lossless audio on Apple Music takes more than one switch inside the app. It also means configuring the operating system’s audio pipeline and pairing the stream with the right physical hardware.

Apple includes lossless ALAC audio in the base subscription at no extra charge. The catch is that standard Bluetooth connections compress playback back to a lossy format, so many listeners never hear the high-resolution stream they enabled in Apple Music.

This guide covers the hardware you need, the exact settings on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and Android, and the mistakes that quietly undo a lossless setup.

QUICK SUMMARY

Prerequisites: An active Apple Music subscription, wired headphones or studio monitors, and an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for resolutions above the standard Lossless tier. Bluetooth headphones cannot transmit lossless audio.
Expected time: A few minutes per device for system and app configuration.
End result: Bit-perfect Apple Lossless (ALAC) decoding at CD Quality, Lossless, or Hi-Res Lossless levels.

Hardware and System Requirements for Lossless Audio

The resolution you can reach depends on your hardware. Check which tier your equipment supports before changing any settings.

The Bluetooth boundary: AirPods, including AirPods Max and AirPods Pro, send audio over Bluetooth using the AAC codec. That caps bandwidth below lossless levels, so true lossless playback requires a wired connection.
Standard Lossless hardware: The headphone jacks on modern Macs, USB-C to 3.5mm adapters on iPhone, iPad, and Android, and plain wired cables handle the standard Lossless tier natively. No extra equipment is needed.
Hi-Res Lossless hardware: The top tier needs an asynchronous external USB DAC that can decode high-resolution streams. Pair it with quality wired headphones or powered studio monitors.
Network bandwidth headroom: Hi-Res Lossless uses substantially more data per hour than standard compressed streaming. A stable broadband connection or an unrestricted cellular plan is strongly recommended.

An asynchronous DAC uses its own internal clock instead of the computer’s. That reduces timing errors, which is why it suits high-resolution playback.

Step-by-Step: How to Get Lossless Audio on Apple Music Across Devices

Follow the section that matches your device. Repeat the process on every device you listen from, because quality settings do not sync between them.

Enabling Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless on iPhone and iPad

Open the iOS Settings app.
Scroll down and tap Apps > Music, or tap Music on earlier iOS versions.
Under the Audio heading, tap Audio Quality.
Toggle on Lossless Audio at the top of the screen.
Tap Wi-Fi Streaming and choose Lossless or Hi-Res Lossless.
Tap Downloads and choose the quality tier for offline storage.
Optionally, connect your external USB DAC through a Lightning to USB Camera Adapter or a direct USB-C cable, and confirm the Hi-Res Lossless badge appears during playback.

Configuring Apple Music Lossless on macOS and Audio MIDI Setup

Open the Music app on your Mac.
Click Music in the menu bar, then choose Settings (or press Cmd + ,).
Open the Playback tab.
Check Lossless audio.
Set the Streaming and Download dropdowns to Hi-Res Lossless.
Press Cmd + Space, type Audio MIDI Setup, and press Enter.
Select your external USB DAC or headphone output in the left sidebar.
In the Format dropdown, choose a sample rate that matches your material, such as 2 ch 24-bit Integer 96.0 kHz or 192.0 kHz.

Step 8 prevents CoreAudio from resampling your music to a mismatched rate. Without it, a Hi-Res track can be converted before it reaches the DAC.

Setting Up Lossless Audio on Windows 10 & 11

Open the official Apple Music app from the Microsoft Store.
Click the three horizontal dots (...) at the top of the sidebar, then choose Settings (or press Ctrl + ,).
Open the Playback tab.
Under Audio Quality, toggle on Lossless Audio.
Set streaming and download quality to Hi-Res Lossless.
Press Win + R, type mmsys.cpl, and press Enter to open Sound Properties.
Right-click your active audio device, then choose Properties > Advanced.
Set the Default Format to 24-bit, 96000 Hz or 24-bit, 192000 Hz.
Check Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device, then click Apply.

The exclusive control option lets the app send audio straight to the driver. Other programs lose their sound while it is active, which is a fair price for a clean signal path.

Configuring Android for Bit-Perfect Lossless and DAC Playback

Open the Apple Music app on your Android device.
Tap the three dots in the top-right corner, then tap Settings.
Tap Audio Quality and toggle on Lossless Audio.
Set Wi-Fi streaming and downloads to Hi-Res Lossless.
Connect your external USB DAC through USB-C.
If your phone’s audio layer asks, grant Apple Music permission to access the USB device directly.

Some Android manufacturers route audio through their own mixing layer. If the DAC does not show a high-resolution badge, check the phone’s USB audio settings.

Expert Tips for Maximizing Lossless Fidelity

Pro Tip: Three Habits That Protect Your Lossless Chain

Match the DAC sample rate on a Mac. macOS CoreAudio does not switch a DAC’s sample rate on the fly. Whatever rate is fixed in Audio MIDI Setup is the rate every track is resampled to. Audiophiles often add an open-source utility such as LosslessSwitcher, which reads each track’s metadata and matches the DAC clock automatically.

Re-download existing music. Turning on Lossless Audio does not convert songs you already downloaded. Tracks cached earlier stay in their original compressed format until you delete them and download them again.

Avoid AirPlay for critical listening. Streaming to an AirPlay 2 receiver can transcode or downsample the audio, depending on how the receiving hardware implements the protocol. A wired connection is the only guaranteed bit-perfect path.

Common Mistakes with Apple Music Lossless

Most disappointing results come from one of the errors below. Each one is easy to avoid once you know it exists.

Assuming wireless headphones play lossless. AirPods Max, AirPods Pro, and premium Bluetooth sets such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 all use compressed Bluetooth codecs. The Lossless badge in the Now Playing screen describes the source stream, not what reaches your ears over Bluetooth.
Leaving cellular streaming on Hi-Res Lossless. High-resolution streaming over mobile data can use several gigabytes per hour and drain a data allowance fast. Keep cellular streaming on High Quality and restrict Hi-Res to Wi-Fi.
Skipping Windows exclusive mode. Without it, system chimes and background app audio can force the Windows mixer to resample Apple Music. Enable the exclusive control option described in the Windows steps above.
Downloading a huge library in Hi-Res. Multi-thousand-song libraries at the top tier need immense storage. Phones and tablets can run out of internal memory quickly.

If downloads or playlists fail to appear across your devices while you reconfigure, use this guide to fix Apple Music sync library not working errors.