Apple Music Lossless. Static and crackling interference on songs

OK, further to my previous post/problem, I continued to fiddle around, turned Dolby Atmos completely off (it was previously on automatic) and that fixed it. All sounds fine now. So much for innovation.

AAC is not "lossless". Apple's lossless codec is ALAC.

Also, Apple's lossless option does not stream over wireless connections in any way, including both Airplay and Bluetooth. It does not matter if you are using their AirPods or not. It will get compressed into AAC format, and it's that process that's causing the static feedback that people are reporting. Just wanted to clarify, because there seems to be some confusion.

See this link for more info:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183

I noticed it too after switching to lossless under the Audio Quality settings (for Wi-Fi streaming and Downloads). Turns out I didn't realize that lossless only works for:

1. Wired connection to headphones, receivers, or powered speakers
2. Built-in speakers
3. Any audio setup that uses an external digital-to-analog converter

I attempted to listen over Bluetooth 5.0 to my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones, and the music plays fine most of the time, but it occasionally cuts out with static and skips to the next song. Switching back to "High Quality" resolves the issue. I think what's happening is Apple is converting to a compatible, compressed format on the fly, so that it will transfer to the headphones over Bluetooth. But it occasionally gets tripped up, hence the static.

Since there's no point in attempting lossless over Bluetooth (it just gets compressed anyway), I've left this disabled for now. And for anyone thinking it's my internet connection, I assure you it's not. I consistently get 300-400 Mbps download speeds from servers two states away.

It seems Apple Music still has a few wrinkles to iron out regarding this new format. The app needs to do a better job understanding what output device is connected and ignore the lossless setting when it detects Bluetooth. That would let us keep lossless enabled and not have to change back to HQ manually.

The same thing has been happing to me but when it happens for me after the static sound is done a new song starts playing

To me that sounds like corrupt data in the file. Are you live streaming and do you have a solid Internet connection? I guess even if you do, maybe there's an issue somewhere between you and Apple's servers?

I've started noticing the exact same thing. Streaming Apple Music Lossless I get occasional crackles and pops every few seconds or so. At first I thought the track I was listening to intentionally had that lo-fi/vinyl crackle and popping, but switching to other tracks made me realize it persists across all songs played on Apple Music. I'm playing on a 16-inch 2019 Macbook Pro, with a Topping E30 Dac + Topping A50s Amp and a Sennheiser HD 660S. I've isolated the problem to just Apple Music since neither Deezer nor Tidal have the same popping. I've even tried switching sample rates on Audio Midi to no effect.

sonofaman wrote:

Did Apple ever come back to any of these questions with a formal response? I have a 100Mbps line

No. As it says below, "This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions." Only other users like you are here, not Apple (except for moderation).

Well, it stopped for me completely after changing the setting back from lossless to high quality. Everyone needs to keep in mind that except for a handful of select scenarios, the “lossless” setting does nothing for you and should be left disabled. I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max, so this is not about processing speed.

So unless you’re in a situation where an exception applies, keep it disabled. Workaround until Apple resolves the issue. You’re welcome.

Yeah, not really an issue with the app, the function works just as it was designed, the issue is they misspelled "Lossless", they meant for it to say "Useless" but have not gotten around to fixing it.

Having this issue as well. I just got the AirPod max and thinking of returning them because what’s the purpose if I can enjoy them. I tried going back to high quality, maybe it takes a while or I need to restart my phone, but it still happens. You will hear 2-3 long static pulses, almost like pink noise and then it just pulses every 1/2 second. Really annoying. If not fixed I am going to cancel my Music subscription.

i have this issue too - it's crackling on the opening bars of a lot of tracks

I tried playing the same tracks from AmazonHD and it's all ok

same hardware set-up for both test MacBook Pro + SBX3 + Yamaha HS5's

I've had this problem ONLY when streaming. Whenever I download the tracks in high-res, I don't get any static or dropouts. I suspect Music is starting to download the music from the server, hitting a hitch, and instead of failing gracefully, it produces static and cuts out.

(I suppose that's what happens when you wrap your music in a proprietary Dolby format instead of using even ALAC or some other more open codec)

I have been having the same problem. I thought it was my new air pods 3rd gen, but then it happed when I was in the car (Bluetooth). The song starts and partway through will scratch and crackle and then skip to the next song. I noticed that it happens only when streaming vs downloaded.