What is a DAC? How to get better Lossless Audio on iPhone and Mac
What is a DAC? How to get better Lossless Audio on iPhone and Mac
Publish Date: 2026-05-20 09:31:00
Source Domain: www.macworld.com
Oliver Schusser, Apple’s Vice President in charge of running Apple Music, recently gave an interview to Billboard magazine in which he discussed a wide range of topics, including the often thorny issue of lossless audio.
Following that interview, several media outlets reported Schusser as having said that “most people can’t tell the difference” when listening to lossless or high-res audio. In fact, what he really said was – “lossless actually doesn’t work over Bluetooth. When you have a wireless connection, lossless doesn’t actually work”. So Schusser was really pointing out the limitations of using Bluetooth for wireless headphones, rather than saying that lossless audio doesn’t matter at all (or, as suggested by some outlets, that it only matters to pretentious audiophiles who like to pretend that they can hear the difference).
It’s true that Bluetooth does require audio files to be heavily compressed for wireless transmission, and that compression can affect the audio quality even when using really expensive Bluetooth headphones such as Apple’s own AirPods Max. But, of course, that completely overlooks the option of using traditional wired headphones instead. Wired headphones do have the ability to play ‘lossless’ or ‘high-res’ audio that retains all the clarity and detail of the original recording – and, of course, many of the best Bluetooth headphones now provide a wired option as well.
However, most computers and mobile devices aren’t designed for handling lossless or high-res audio, so a DAC – a digital-to-analogue-converter – can help your Mac, iPhone or iPad to deliver the best possible sound quality to your wired headphones.
Should you buy a DAC?
Consider a DAC if:
- you use wired headphones
- you listen to lossless/high-res audio
- you want better sound quality from a phone or laptop
You probably don’t need a DAC if:
- you mainly use Bluetooth…
