AirPods Max Lossless and Low Latency Audio Over USB-C
Apple will bring lossless audio and ulta-low latency audio to AirPods Max in its upcoming iOS 18.4 software update arriving in April, according to the company.
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Apple also said that today it is making a USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable available to buy for $39 from its online store, Apple Store app, and authorized resellers. The cable lets users connect AirPods Max to 3.5mm audio sources like airplane audio ports or connect their iPhone or iPad to speakers or car stereos with 3.5mm inputs.
The update will enable 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, which Apple says is supported by over 100 million songs on Apple Music. Using the headphones’ USB-C cable, musicians will enjoy ultra-low latency and lossless audio in their Logic Pro workflows. The USB-C cable will allow them to produce Personalized Spatial Audio, too.
As someone who was dumb enough to buy the AirPods Max USB-C edition even after bitching for 4 years about the Lightning Version -- and who had to spend $60 on an AirFly to use it in business class -- this update is overdue but welcome.
Allow me to recap the absurd timeline of lossless support for AirPods models.
Whatever Apple’s rationale for the delay, the reason I’m covering the ostensibly esoteric and unrelated bit of AirPods Max news is because it dawned on me while reading Apple’s announcement that I’ve never written about them in an accessibility context.
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A magnetic USB-C port surely would go a long way in shaping an even better user experience for myself (and others).
See also: TidBITS-Talk.
Previously:
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...i bet only 1% of all people could correctly identify "lossless audio" via the new USB-C cable, versus the old cable, in an experiment.
Beyond a certain age, it's just impossible, in any case, to even hear those frequencies.
@Obra Dinn Agreed. Anytime I hear anyone trumpeting that their audio is anything better than 16-bit 44 kHz, I know it's bullshit. No human can tell the difference between that and anything that's higher quality.
Also it's just ridiculous how bad audio over Bluetooth is. Gaming headsets have had lossless super low latency audio for many, many years now. Bluetooth is *just now* getting there, and only if your headphones or earbuds exactly perfectly line up with the capabilities of your bluetooth adapter and also the stars and planets align properly too. Otherwise you get terrible audio with horrible latency. And that's to say nothing of devices needing to be paired and paired again and paired yet again for no reason.
The lack of any ability to use them without a Bluetooth transmitter (which works on a plane but is not ideal in other scenarios) — i.e. no ability to use them connected to any sort of wired device at all (microphone, computer, airplane seat, record player, whatever) over USB or over a USB-C to 3.5mm jack is to me, one or the most egregious and disgusting product regressions I’ve ever seen, especially for $550 headphones.
I’m happy they are fixing this and I’m buying the stupid 3.5mm cable (that is at least braided this time), but what utter trash.
Sonos might not have the same Apple integration, but they at least included 3.5mm to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-C cable in the magnetic pouch that fits in the hard case that the Ace’s come in. Sony includes those cables with their headphones too.
At least the Apple cable will be braided this time. The one for the orignal AirPods Max headphones was so thin and fragile, I was always afraid of it breaking simply by being in a pouch in my bag.
And yet here we are, considering buying accessories that should have been in the box at the outset, merely because Apple have finally delivered a table stakes feature. Turns out Apple's lock-in strategies do work, even for the well-informed.
I'll hold off while my Lightning set are under AppleCare—they were my second pair, after consistent breakdowns and returns of my first pair, which wasn't covered—but I have to acknowledge that in a USB-C-only world, this does unarguably represent good value for the Apple faithful and potentially makes the APMs a serious travel headphone contender, without other over-ear headphones to go. The fact that these headphones are now a proper USB peripheral means we now have a pair of Apple headphones, with all the integration features, that can legitimately meet the needs of everyone and not just the hipsters trailing Apple's war on wires. That's definitely a good thing. If you need the 3.5 headphone plug, it's an option, but it's still optional for wired connections. And Apple gets to claim some sort of moral high ground by arguing that the jack was the problem and not the wire, so all the Apple apologists can still claim a victory. Everyone wins!
