Simply put, lossless music refers to any digital music file that has not undergone a compression process that discards data. It should be noted that “lossless” is not a direct synonym for “high-resolution,” although much high-resolution audio is presented in this format. Nor is it necessarily equivalent to “CD quality,” although this term commonly refers to audio that retains all of its original data.
Whether it pays off for you is another matter: we look at who actually needs lossless audio.
Furthermore, this sound quality is not exclusive to any particular company or streaming service; any provider that decides to offer it has the technical capability to do so, although we’ll see later why some choose not to go down this path.
Understanding Audio File Compression
In a studio, when sound is recorded and converted into vast sequences of zeros and ones, technicians use digitization methods that do not sacrifice any information. Thus, every nuance of sound is digitally captured with the highest possible resolution, resulting in a digital recording that is virtually identical to the original. However, uncompressed digital audio takes up a lot of storage space, so some form of compression is almost always applied before it is distributed.
Compression reduces file size and, in turn, removes certain audio data, resulting in a loss of quality. However, there are more refined methods where most people wouldn’t notice any loss in sound quality. This type of compression reduces the file size without discarding any data needed to reconstruct the entire recording on your playback device.
Although the mathematical details are complex, the system works—and boy, does it work! Of course, nothing in life comes for free: lossless files are smaller than uncompressed audio files, but they’re still significantly larger than their lossy counterparts—often up to four times as large.
For listeners who want the assurance of getting the most accurate music possible, lossless technology justifies the larger file size. The easiest way to identify the file type is to check its extension on your computer: if it ends in .mp3, .aac, or .ogg, it’s a lossy file. If, on the other hand, it ends in .alac, .aiff, .wav, .flac, or a similar extension, it is a lossless file.
Sources and Lossless Music Playback
Since many of us listen to music on streaming services, it’s important to know the formats each one uses, as well as the information displayed on their players:
Apple Music, for example, displays an indicator when playing lossless, high-resolution, or Dolby Atmos content. If you adjust the settings to reduce data usage, these indicators will disappear, indicating that you're using lossy compression.
Each music streaming service has its own version of these tags and the option to set the highest quality during playback. However, not all providers offer this feature. Spotify, for example, has chosen to stay out of this trend, offering only lossy formats even with its premium subscriptions.
Requirements for Listening to Music Without Loss of Quality
- Ensure you have a source of content that provides it: whether it’s a streaming service, a CD, SACD, or DVD-Audio with its corresponding player, a Blu-ray or UHD Blu-ray with audio tracks in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio, or digital music files stored locally in lossless formats.
- Next, you’ll need a way to play that content. Apps like Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, and Qobuz include decoders that process lossless streams for playback on phones or computers. For music in physical format, a CD or Blu-ray player serves this purpose. For locally stored music, you’ll need software capable of decoding it; there are many free apps available for Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android. One such app—to name a well-known example—is VLC, although it requires some configuration to ensure the app does NOT compress the music and plays it exactly as the audio file is.
- Finally, it is essential to ensure that you do not inadvertently introduce lossy compression due to your choice of headphones, speakers, or hearing aids, since, despite the convenience of wireless listening, even the most expensive Bluetooth devices use some form of lossy compression when receiving the signal from a phone or computer. There are a few exceptions, such as Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless codec, but even with that, it can be difficult to guarantee.
To ensure this, you'll need: a wired connection between the player, the amplifier/AV receiver, and the speakers; wireless speakers that use Wi-Fi and receive a direct stream from services such as Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, or Alexa Cast (but not Apple AirPlay 2); a computer or phone with a built-in headphone jack; or an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC) along with wired headphones or earbuds; or headphones compatible with USB audio via USB-C. If you already own wired headphones, just plug them into your laptop or amplifier—and you’re all set! Even if you don’t have any wired devices, most wireless headphones come with a cable for analog listening. Since many modern phones lack a headphone jack, an external DAC will be your best bet if you want to use your wired headphones. The good news is that, if you’re not fixated on high-resolution audio compatibility for audiophiles, something as affordable as Apple’s Lightning or USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter (which usually costs between 9 and 11 euros) will suffice.
Things to Keep in Mind
Apple AirPlay 2, as mentioned, although it uses Wi-Fi and offers the convenience of wireless streaming, does not support lossless audio, since it converts all audio to 256 kbps AAC before sending it to the speaker. No one would say that 256 kbps AAC sounds bad, but it’s not comparable to, say, 1411 kbps FLAC.
Another common mistake is converting a lossy MP3 file to a lossless format such as FLAC or WAV, since the conversion does not restore the lost information; it simply creates a larger file that still contains the same limited information as the original MP3.
And finally, Dolby Atmos Music may seem like a contradiction. Although it’s promoted as an immersive way to enjoy music, if you listen to it through streaming services that support it (Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music), you’re getting lossy audio. The reason is similar to why Spotify doesn’t offer lossless stereo: lossless Dolby Atmos requires large files, which increases bandwidth demands and costs for the services. That’s why they use Dolby Digital Plus (lossy) instead of Dolby TrueHD (lossless). You’re unlikely to complain about the quality, but if you have the chance to listen to lossless Dolby Atmos—available as a digital download or on Blu-ray with TrueHD—you’ll probably notice an improvement.
