As far as I know, everything but macOS is able to automatically switch sample rates as long as you have a DAC connected properly.
2 Likes
Yeah yeah, I had no problem with either iOS or iPadOS. Was not ideal to use them for me, I was trying to solve the macOS issue only.
Appreciate it, thanks again.
2 Likes
It’s kind of funny, I went to a Mac for both home computer use and music needs, trying to kill two birds with one stone thinking the ipad pro (I have a 2019) wouldn’t fit the bill for my music needs. Now with Apple Lossless, the iphone and ipad supposedly works properly. I’m going to test it tonight and see how that works. If it’s doing what it’s suppose to do and sounds on par with Tidal on the ipad, maybe the mac wasn’t the best idea… I like the functionality of the mac but the majority of it is not necessary for me. (most of my music adventure so far is not necessary)
1 Like
Actually it is not kind of funny, there is no issue with lossless playback on macOS. It works flawlessly, and in the instances where you are playing an album that is HiRez a simple change in the AudioMidi preferences is needed. The majority of music is not HiRez yet, it has been 2 full days since it became available and obviously it is a massive undertaking to suddenly switch on this capability.
There are countless other options available to you such as using Roon, or Tidal. Everyone has a different use case, the challenge here is to find what works best for one’s need.
1 Like
Do you need to restart the apple music app every time you switch sample rates on midi?
1 Like
Nope, it did it on the fly and know as the color ball changed on my DAC accordingly.
4 Likes
I personally prefer not to have an extra step such as the AudioMidi. And I’m perfectly okay with Tidal as a streaming service but it does not let you download the music for offline play which I would have preferred. Hence the reason I was hoping Apple would work with no issues for offline playback without additional steps like in ios. Sounds like ios would be a better option for me. Just my thoughts and preferences.
(And I do know Qobuz has the offline option but I wasn’t as impressed with they’re app)
1 Like
Sure, I get that it is a minor inconvenience. It’s also not going to happen all the time, I have seen only a handful of albums in HiRez.
I am confident this will be addressed, and maybe it has in the beta for macOS Monterey.
Windows PCs also have their share of annoyances, this is not a Mac specific issue.
Good luck on setting it up later with iOS.
2 Likes
TIL Apple Music Dolby Atmos spatial audio is AAC encoded and you have to choose Always On if you want to hear it on non-Apple headphones (About spatial audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music - Apple Support).
2 Likes
Yes, it doesnt appear that Atmos/spacial is high res, at least it doesnt quite sound like it.
1 Like
The most consistent gripe I’ve heard regarding Apple Music Lossless (or Hi-Res) has been the inability of the Music app on macOS to automatically switch sample rates to match the track being played.
It’s a gripe I share, even though I pretty much only use Apple Music for mobile listening (I use AirPlay to my Linn, Chord and Devialet setups in the rare situations I’m using it at home … mostly I’m just using Roon) …
So, I decided to start working on a little app to address that. It’ll just run in the menu bar and watch the now-playing file and switch the format settings (bit rate/depth) to match (you can do it manually via the Audio MIDI Utility).
I started it after lunch today, and all the easy stuff is done (enumerating audio devices, setting specified bit rate/depth, providing quick manual overrides, and having it run as a little Menu Bar app). The hard part is the integration into the Music app (in theory, its could watch any app) to track the necessary track info to make the appropriate settings changes, and then doing so without having to stop/start replay.
After that’s done, assuming it’s not locked down or reliant on private APIs (doesn’t appear to be, but there’s what you can ship as a notarized non-store app and what’s allowed in the App Store), I’ll see about a sensible way of making it available.
17 Likes
This would be a perfect feature for Rogue Amoeba to add to SoundSource.
1 Like
Someone manually made this cheat sheet and posted it on another forum. Thought it would be useful here (there may be some errors)…
10 Likes
Kind of confused what this is referring too, #3. Using Apple lossless you have to use an Apple device? You can’t use it on windows?
Notice my name😂
I’m pretty sure you can…the guy probably forgot to add it in.
Edit: No, you can’t. I was wrong.
1 Like
Has anyone tried it out? I watched that Abyss review on YouTube and they’re all crazy over it.
I use an apple device, but it’s a phone. Just seems like a major inconvenience to connect my phone to a dac and use it.
I do like my device using my airport express for audio in my living room for speakers and it’s amazing, but from your cheat sheet it looks like you cant even get the hi res lossless via airplay probably cd quality limited. But kind of confusing because I like airplay as it is lossless. I use it on my AVR for music, but haven’t been using my AVR for music as I have an integrated amp which doesn’t support airplay.
Any idea with airport express?
Apple needs to update iTunes on Windows to support hires lossless audio.
Or better still, make a dedicated iMusic app like they have on Mac (I hate iTunes 
).
1 Like
Sorry, can’t help you there…don’t use an airport express.
Maybe some others here have…