🎧 AirPods Max for Musical Production + Apple Music, Dolby Atmos, & Lossless Audio/A.L.A.C.

👑 The AirPods Max are simply wonderful in terms of listening experience, and can be a highly useful asset in music production, despite their EQ-modified/non-flat sound signature—which other headphones such as the Slate VSX headphones offer (as well as a host of other features—and which are often recommended by professional audio engineers and producers throughout the music/audio industry).

With this stated, here are some quick recommendations, ideas, and thoughts if you’re planning to utilize them to mix, master, audio engineer, or musically produce tracks—as well as thoughts and explanations on Dolby Atmos & the newly offered lossless audio in the  Apple Music apps on Apple’s various OSes.

〰️ For minimal latency for effective production—which is mission-critical/essential for producing any track—purchase a directly wired cable (no audio interface/DAC needed) to connect to a machine such as the  MacBook Pro. Also, naturally, this works with the M1.

❕ Also, importantly, when first connecting the cable from the headphones to your Mac machine, be aware of the Digital Crown—the circular dial on the right earpiece—which controls the volume. Make sure to dial it loud enough to be able to actually aurally perceive the sound output, as when you connect it to your computer initially, the audio volume/post-gain may be quite low, making it difficult to immediately hear or perceive any audio. I mention this so you don’t worry if you’re turning up the volume with the Touch Bar and still can’t hear anything despite being maxed—as these are two difference volume controls in practicality when physically wired, which is important to note. Additionally, the button to the right is the noise control button—able to transfer between Active Noise Cancellation/ANC, Transparency, and being completely off, which is also equally important. As an aside, this can be set in System Preferences under Bluetooth when altering the APM’s/AirPods Max’s options. I also mention this as, if you’d like to add the “Off” option, it has to be manually checked under this submenu, as it won’t appear initially—but this is only accessible via Bluetooth.

››› Here’s the official  Apple Support article on the AirPods Max and its functions, buttons, and so forth.

✳️ Here’s the official cable you’ll need: the lightning-to-3.5mm cable.

⚙️ For listening, here are my preferences in the  Apple Music application on macOS (I check off auto-downloads to prevent local-disk space consumption, as I’m not concerned with streaming data usage given I’m on Wi-Fi):



👑/K—General Preferences in  Apple Music on macOS.

👑/K—Playback Preferences in  Apple Music on macOS.

➡️ The audio you’ll hear is effectively the master render from the production, as if it’s been pulled from the DAW and you’re hearing it unmodified. Trust me, it is an experience—this is how we intend you to hear it, as unfiltered, hi-fidelity, clear, and natural as possible; crystal-clear lows, mids, highs, and in-betweens. That is our goal, after all. :)

❗✳️ There is one important caveat here, however—even the AirPods Max do not support lossless audio in its true form, even when wired directly with this cable. With that said, here's an article on headphones which can handle this.

❗››› Therefore, despite being very clear in lossless audio mode, it can’t be considered pure-form or true to the original source production file. As such, we are simply considering using the AirPods Max from the standpoint of music production & general audio and music listening. Here’s an article expounding upon this topic further if you’re interested.

ℹ️ Here’s the official  Apple Support article on lossless audio—definitely take a glance through it to gain a more cohesive & comprehensive understanding if you’d like.

🔊 As for Dolby Atmos, it is essentially spatial audio technology developed by Dolby which integrates with Apple’s spatial audio technology, further serving to enhance it. It’s quite powerful and a true listening experience—and, in contrast to lossless audio, is actually available on all current AirPods models, from Pro to Max.

››› Here is a quite helpful article from  Apple Support about the tech.

›››⭐ And here is the general announcement/official press release from  Apple for Dolby Atmos and lossless audio.

✴️ If you’re looking for a song to stream—here’s EVERGLOW’s brand-new release titled “FIRST.” Give it a listen. :)

⭐ Also, this absolutely must be mentioned: Dolby Atmos and ALAC ( Apple Lossless encoding) in the macOS music app or the mobile OSes (iOS/iPadOS) is simply wonderful. You must try it—I’m telling you, you’ll notice a difference, and the experience is wonderful, especially with a DAC or AI/audio interface. I’ve been utilizing  Music for a few years to date, and with this, the experience offered is now fully unparalleled in my eyes. One other quick note: if you are planning on listening in Hi-Res Lossless, this will, in fact, require a D.A.C.—otherwise known as a(n) [external] digital-to-analog converter/interface, mentioned throughout my article. Despite this, simply “Lossless”/ALAC does not require one.

🎛 If you’re looking for some helpful tips & some DAC recommendations, here’s another helpful article.

🎛 Also a very useful article on DACs v. audio interfaces.

As a side note, I’ve been working on and have built up around twelve or so articles I’m planning on releasing shortly over time—and another music-and-equipment-based one I’ve been constructing for quite some time now. More to come.

—K-D