AirPods Max gets lossless, low-latency, and an analog cable
Next month, a new software update will bring lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio to AirPods Max, delivering the ultimate listening experience and even greater performance for music production. With the included USB-C cable, users can enjoy the highest-quality audio across music, movies, and games, while music creators can experience significant enhancements to songwriting, beat making, production, and mixing.
This is the other shoe dropping after the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port last year, but without the corresponding USB-C-to-analog jack cable that enabled ultra-low-latency and lossless audio input. (The earlier Lightning model could use a Lightning-to-analog jack to do this.)
Apple says that the included USB-C cable can now be connected to devices for a pure digital lossless experience, and is offering a $39 analog-to-USB cable to enable that connection from analog sources. The company also said that a forthcoming software update will enable 24-bit, 48 kHZ lossless audio on AirPods Max.
On the one hand, this is good news for AirPods Max users. On the other hand, it seems a little weird that all of this wasn’t just part of the product announcement back in September.