Do Bluetooth connections support lossless audio?

Does any Apple or other Bluetooth device support lossless audio, such as ALAC?

_{This is a generalized question for people asking about their specific piece of hardware over Bluetooth. Its purpose is to close them as duplicates.}

Solution 1:

No.

For an authoritative answer, please see About lossless audio in Apple Music.

While the difference between AAC and lossless audio is virtually indistinguishable, we’re offering Apple Music subscribers the option to access music in lossless audio compression.

AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and Beats wireless headphones use Apple AAC Bluetooth Codec to ensure excellent audio quality. However, Bluetooth connections aren't lossless.

However

The lossy compressed files on Apple Music will not be transcoded to an Apple audio device, and will be sent bit-for-bit.¹ The quality of AAC files on Apple Music are nearly transparent to lossless files when comparing with headsets in the price range of Bluetooth Apple audio devices. Even so, the sound of these AAC files is likely limited by the listening device.

Considerations

If you only have AAC endpoints, this may have implications on which streaming providers can offer you the best sound quality for your hardware. For instance, Spotify will only stream AAC through a web browser. For its apps will select some bitrate of the Vorbis codec a free and open-source software, packaged in an Ogg container, that will result in transcoding when using Apple hardware, which only supports AAC and SBC.

As their "Standard" output selection, TIDAL offers the highest bitrate allowed on AAC: 320 kbps, which is about 20% more than Apple Music's 256 kbps.

Still depending on how well you can hear, none of this may matter to you, so take advantage of the free trials to compare your listening experience. If they all sound the same to you (and your family), perceived sound quality may not be as big of a factor as say going with the best deal for you (and-or your family).

Non-Authoritative Reference

What You Really Need to Know About Bluetooth Audio, by Brent Butterworth, Published July 15, 2020, Quote:

Many people believe that transmitting an audio signal via Bluetooth will always degrade sound quality, but that’s not necessarily true. If an audio signal is already compressed in a certain codec, and the source device (such as your phone, tablet, or computer) and the “sink” device (such as a wireless speaker or headphones) both support that codec, Bluetooth transmits the encoded audio unaltered, so the sound is the same as you’d get without Bluetooth. The most common example is with Apple Music, which uses AAC, and iPhones, which support AAC. If you use these two things along with a wireless speaker or headphones that also support AAC, Bluetooth will not impact the sound quality. If at least one of the devices doesn’t support AAC, the AAC data is decompressed and then recompressed with another codec, such as SBC. This process can reduce sound quality, although the difference will probably be subtle.

Footnotes:

i lost the link. this is not the correct footnote: About lossless audio in Apple Music