Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ AirPods Max to Support Lossless Audio and Ultra-Low Latency Audio Adam Engst In a press release, [1]Apple has announced that its over-the-ear [2]AirPods Max headphones will soon support lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio: With this update, AirPods Max will unlock 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, preserving the integrity of original recordings and allowing listeners to experience music the way the artist created it in the studio. Lossless audio also extends to Personalized Spatial Audio to deliver a more sonically accurate, uncompressed, and immersive experience, and users can enjoy more than 100 million songs in lossless audio with Apple Music. Apple says the new capabilities will arrive in April via a firmware update alongside iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4. The update applies only to the USB-C version of AirPods Max released in September 2024'owners of the original Lightning models are out of luck. While the AirPods Max remain both expensive ($549) and relatively bulky, the addition of lossless audio support and ultra-low latency at least provides more justification for the premium price point and larger size. Notably, Apple's offhand mention of 'using the USB-C cable' means that taking advantage of these new features requires being tethered to your audio source. Don't miss Nick Heer's '[3]absurd timeline' of support for lossless audio in AirPods. [4]Read original article References 1. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/03/lossless-audio-and-ultra-low-latency-audio-come-to-airpods-max/ 2. https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/ 3. https://pxlnv.com/linklog/airpods-max-lossless-audio-usb/ 4. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/03/lossless-audio-and-ultra-low-latency-audio-come-to-airpods-max/ .