{"id":250364,"date":"2026-05-20T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/what-is-a-dac-how-to-get-better-lossless-audio-on-iphone-and-mac\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:35:09","slug":"what-is-a-dac-how-to-get-better-lossless-audio-on-iphone-and-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/what-is-a-dac-how-to-get-better-lossless-audio-on-iphone-and-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a DAC? How to get better Lossless Audio on iPhone and Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is a DAC? How to get better Lossless Audio on iPhone and Mac<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.macworld.com\/article\/3140785\/what-is-a-dac-how-to-get-better-lossless-audio-on-iphone-and-mac.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-20 09:31:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.macworld.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Oliver Schusser, Apple\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following that interview, several media outlets reported Schusser as having said that \u201cmost people can\u2019t tell the difference\u201d when listening to lossless or high-res audio. In fact, what he really said was \u2013 \u201clossless actually doesn\u2019t work over Bluetooth. When you have a wireless connection, lossless doesn\u2019t actually work\u201d. So Schusser was really pointing out the limitations of using Bluetooth for wireless headphones, rather than saying that lossless audio doesn\u2019t 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).\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u2018lossless\u2019 or \u2018high-res\u2019 audio that retains all the clarity and detail of the original recording \u2013 and, of course, many of the best Bluetooth headphones now provide a wired option as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, most computers and mobile devices aren\u2019t designed for handling lossless or high-res audio, so a DAC \u2013 a digital-to-analogue-converter \u2013 can help your Mac, iPhone or iPad to deliver the best possible sound quality to your wired headphones.<\/p>\n

Should you buy a DAC?\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Consider a DAC if:<\/p>\n