DAC doesn't show the correct quality information with Apple Music on MacOS

Apple Music app on MacOS does NOT do "EXCLUSIVE MODE"

Meaning, the application itself will not "take over" and stream to your DAC with the native bitrate of the music you're playing via Apple Music.

It will ONLY follow a fixed bit rate which you have set on Audio MIDI Setup for the connected DAC.

For example if you set Audio MIDI Setup for your $15k DAC from Nagra at 96k/24bit, all your music played from Apple Music App on your Macbook will be streamed at 96k/24bit, doesn't matter if the track itself is 44.1k or 96k.

Bottomline, playing music from Apple Music App using a Macbook is not bit-perfect, as it will resampled by whatever fixed setting at Audio MIDI Setup.

Using other player, for example Roon, which has "exclusive" mode will ignore sampling rate setting from Audio MIDI Setup and play tracks matching the material sample rate, up to the max supported bitrate of your DAC.

Playing on iOS, on the other hand, is bit-perfect, aka, no resampling. I've tried connecting my iPhone 11 Pro Max to an external DAC and the DAC displaying matching bitrate of the track.

Which is a shame on Apple how they have missed this on the MacOS Apple Music app.

It is not a OS level issue, they just need to upgrade the Apple Music App to have an "exclusive mode" just like what Roon has MacOS App.

Background:

I've been looking forward to Lossless and Hi-Res audio via the Apple eco-system since iTunes Launched. Since the release if the second edition iPod I have been the crazy person purchasing CDs and ripping them to ALAC and using communities like waffles.fm for my Hi-Res Fix. The almost secret and half-hearted release of apple lossless music was no doubt an attempt to avoid difficult conversations with their more recent Apple AirPods Pro customers regarding its lack of hi-res support. This wasn't a big deal to me.

I started using Apple Lossless and Hi Res with Apple Music on my M1 MBP and to my painful surprise, there was no Exclusive Audio Mode! I still can't believe it. I could cry. What a betrayal! The company that brought us the iPod and iTunes - didn't do their homework and does not care about HiFi. CoreAudio in all Apple OS products is flawless and Apple could have easily spent 5 min adding this feature to the Music App.

Solution:

If you're like me, you've been spoiled with apps like Qobuz and JRiver or your iPhone even. They all have exclusive mode. The guys and gals from the original audio standardization company, THX, give the simple answer. The answer none of us want, but definitely the best solution until Apple gets forced to be competitive again.

1. Note: Apple Music for MacOS doesn’t have an exclusive mode, so the macOS audio output format is set by MacOS Audio Midi Setup. If you’ve chosen 24-bit 176.4 kHz per above, then all Apple Music playback will be upsampled to that rate and THXOnyx will show gold LEDs. We recommend 176.4 kHz because it’s an integer multiple of 44.1 kHz and 88.2 kHz, to ensure lossless upsampling for nearly all music.

In summary - the best thing you can do is match the integer of your most frequently used sample rates. This will hopefully cut down your need to change sample rate in AUDIO MIDI by over 75%. This is true for me anyways. 90% of my music is 24bit or 16bit @ 44.1KHz.

Think about it like a video game. If your monitor has a refresh rate of 144Hz but your non VRR GPU is sitting around 90fps, the best solution is to lock your frame rate at an integer of 144Hz. 72fps lock will get rid of screen tear. Sample rate behavior in audio would appear to be similar.

Exclusive Mode is to Audio as Variable Refresh Rate is to Video. The difference is that audio comes in fixed "frame rates" and not variable rates, although I imagine "Variable Sample Rate" technology would still serve as an equally useful technology to "audio exclusive mode".

What a sad year for Apple enthusiasts everywhere. The year Dolby Atmos took marketing priority over uncompressed audio 😭😤.

#TrustIssues

[Edited by Moderator] 

This is really frustrating, you shouldn't have to go into the midi settings to match each time. It just needs to behave either the same as iOS, or have an exclusive mode. It doesn't seem consistent, I have a few DACs and my finding so far seem to be the following

1. Helm Bolt - wired - Appears to change with the source stream (hard to tell but the light shows its Hi-res)
2. Dragonfly Cobalt - wired - Appears to change with the source stream
3. Fiio BTR5 - Wired - uses midi setting
4. Topping D90 MQA - Wired - uses midi setting

All are bit-perfect when connected to iPhone and the bitrate changes with the source. I appreciate it's a bit niche, but surely with lossless, the market segment that cares about this (nerds like us), will soon find this annoying. It's definitely software, in that Roon handles all of the devices as you'd expect. Roon however, doesn't support apple music! Hope this gets fixed in future update for apple music to be able to use an external DAC in exclusive mode.

Based on research using Apple's about lossless audio page and Darko's video,

• iPhone lighting max is 24/48, so therefore it only plays Apple "Lossless"
• AirPlay max is 24/48
• MacOS is subject to up/down sampling at user's whim via Audio MIDI Setup.
• iPad with USB-C can play up to 24/192, and therefore Apple "Hi-Res Lossless"
• AppleTV 4K over HDMI max is 24/48

It seems except MacOS, all other devices play bit-perfect up to their max, and one would assume downsample at higher rates. My thread on same here

Possible reasons:

• HiRes Pass-Thru is only perceivable if you have audio hardware that comes with a purchase price in the four- to five-digit range. That's far beyond what most customers are willing to pay. Apple Music is designed to be an on-the-go service for prosumer listeners who are happy with their AirPods. It is not intended for people who buy an Esoteric DAC to hook their B&W Nautilus speakers on to.
• Apple does not want to ruin the business of companies like Audirvana, JRiver, qobuz, Tidal and others, who pioneered HiRes Audio over a decade ago already.

IMO, it's a value prop and backlog question for Apple. Apple Product Revenue

• Value prop ($ bang for dev hours): The iPhone makes a ton of $ for Apple, so they supported exclusive mode for that first. Although iPad has its own iPadOS, I doubt iPadOS is that different in some areas from iOS, so it also came with exclusive support at the same time. Plenty of users may try this.
• Backlog: Macs make slightly more $ than iPad, but they have a full blown separate OS with a decade of history and separate code base, so that will take time. I would guess that exclusive will be eventually be built into MacOS & Music app in an easily usable manner, because that's how Apple makes it easy for users. How many users do we (Apple) really think will use this? I want to use this method to listen to Hi-Res on my large setups: both for a 2 channel system, and a surround system that is limited by Apple TV (24/48) and Airplay (24/44-48).
• You can attach a normal pair of headphones or earphones to a Shiit Fulla (24/192) or Audioquest Dragonfly (24/96) black for $100 US to hear Hi-Res. Now hearing the difference, I'm not gonna go there..

I am not sure how Darko did his test, didn't watch his video.

I understand some DAC which is powered by the lightning port is in fact limited to 48/24. This is due to desgin of the DAC chip, and it can't draw enough power from lightning power without error.

However, if your DAC is self powered, using the USB Camera Kit by Apple will get you up to whatever your DAC limit is, at least 192/24 and DSD128 from what I have.

This is what I experience using Apple Music on iPhone

When I play this Album, The Nutcracker Los Angeles Philharmonic & Gustavo Dudamel.

My DAC, which is BTR5 by FiiO will display 96kbps which is MAX for the album

Then I switched to a different album Mozart: Sinofonia Concertante K.364 by Yakov Kreizberg, which is lossless only, my DAC will display 44.1.

This test shows playing Apple Music via Lightning will goes up to 96/24 and will adjust according to the bitrate of the track itself (not like playing Apple Music using a Macbook, which is locked to Audio MIDI Setup configuration)

Moreover, if I play music via Roon, it goes up to 192/24, see screenshot:

Eprom1 wrote:

Rest assured that anything that is passed through the mixer of the OS is degraded a bit.

Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Music HD… they all have no bit-accurate mode either in their own apps. Because bypassing the OS is a difficult task, and only sound enthusiasts with expensive DACs hear the difference.

If You want bit-accurate output, You‘ll have to use Audirvana or Jriver and live with the few streaming services they support.

This isn't correct. Both Qobuz and Tidal support Exclusive Mode directly in the Mac OS app, and output bit-perfect and un-resampled hi-res directly from source (see screenshots below).

There is really no excuse at all why Apple has not implemented the same trivial inclusion of a "Use Exclusive Mode" switch in their Apple Music player.

This really is a non-issue as most music I listen to is stereo 16/44.1 (all anybody really needs, not the topic of conversation though). I have turned off Atmos (keep it for my home theater) and limited Apple Music to 24/48. The occasional track is 16/48 or 24/48. For those it sucks to manually change the sample rate, but I have learned to do it when critically listening. I don't worry about the zero padded 24bit audios.

I use the app SoundSource for its parametric equalizer which I need for my HD800S headphones. I also only pay for Apple Music, so I don't need Roon. SoundSource is a couple clicks away to change the sampling rate when needed.

In my use case at least, adding exclusive mode to the Music app in MacOS will not be a solution as I will lose the parametric equalizer.

I have noticed that Apple Music for Mac rarely plays lossless streams on external DACs (seems a bit random) and won't do Dolby Atmos at all. The Dolby Atmos symbol never appears when using an external DAC, no matter what settings I choose in the Apple MIDI utility.

It's rendering the attribute "lossless" usless. People who want 100% lossless quality need tools like Audirvana or roon that support pass-through without any OS-based resampling. These tools do not support Apple Music at this time.

Your second bullet point is so inaccurate I can't help but empathize with Android/Windows users' distaste for Apple fans (I'm an Apple fan).

Don't be so naive. Apple is a publicly traded company. This means quarter over quarter growth is obligatory in every single product and service category. Apple has their growth down to a science and they always monetize every single feature beyond what any analyst at JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs could ever expect.

Apple Music Exclusive mode will be no different and will surely launch alongside a product that Apple wants you to buy.