Streaming lossless music to HomePod by AirPlay?

Joseph_Lau wrote:

But isn’t it true that Airplay is streaming in 44.1kHz and 16bit in Apple Lossless format among Apple devices, in my case Apple TV to HomePods.

Wouldn’t it will works with Apple Music in Lossless format? Since the Apple TV 4K is supported device which then decode and Airplay to HomePods (although it won’t support lossless format itself).

HomePod and HomePod mini don’t yet support lossless audio.

If your Apple TV 4K box is running tvOS 11.4 and sending audio via HDMI, you’ll get lossless.

Otherwise, you’ll get AAC via HomePod and HomePod mini.

Apple TV 4K can send lossless audio with wired connections, and not with wireless, and not past 48 kHz.

HomePod and HomePod mini do not support wired input, and do not yet support lossless formats.

Hello Joseph_Lau,

It sounds like you would like to use Apple Lossless on your Apple TV. We understand how important this ice to you and we are here to help.

More information on how to wire your Apple TV to take advantage of Apple Lossless can be found here: About lossless audio in Apple Music

Specifically the section titled "How to listen to lossless on your Apple TV 4K"

This isn't compatible with HomePod at this moment.

Cheers!

Joseph you are on the right track. This should be working over Airplay II. Here’s why…

The audio stream from your Apple TV is digital and must be converted to analog audio in whatever Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) process that takes place in the Homepod. Based on the original Homepod specs it should decode lossless audio codecs.

There is something amiss with the Homepod and Apple Music Lossless doesn’t work story. In fact the Apple Lossless Codec (ALAC) as well as the open standard FLAC Lossless Codec was originally included in the Homepod launch. See the 2018 9-5 MAC story and the Everymac spec page for Homepod.  I seem to remember (but not sure) Apple actually had all the audio codecs published on the initial Homepod specs page but they no longer appear. 

9to5mac.com/2018/01/24/homepod-flac-support/

everymac.com/systems/apple/homepod/specs/apple-homepod-original-smart-speaker-a1693-specs.html

There should be no technical reason why Homepod will not work with Apple Music Lossless and Airplay II unless Apple removed or disabled ALAC in previous software updates. I suspect the pending software update to make Homepod compatible with Apple Music Lossless is to reinstall or re-enable the ALAC codec

I also suspect that although you thought your Homepod was decoding/playing apple lossless music, it was not for the same reason its “not compatible “ with Apple Music Lossless.

Joseph,

Currently it doesn't appear to be available at this time but you should be able to access it after the update is available.

We would recommend checking back with this article at a future time.

Cheers!

My take on this....

Homepod shouldn’t care from which source it is receiving an airplay/ALAC stream (be it from an Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, MAC or directly from Apple Music) if the Homepod has the ALAC codec, its DAC should process that stream as lossless and output it as such to its speakers. 

There could be other design/technical issues I am not aware of so I could be way off base.   It would be helpful if Apple communicated what the pending Homepod update actually consists of. 

FWIW, here is the notice about the future software version for HomePod and HomePod mini and support for lossless.

This (also) from: About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support