GoKawiil
Tech News
Qualcomm introduced its Sound Elite platform built around a new S3 chip small enough to fit inside earbuds, allowing them to stream Wi-Fi lossless audio without needing a paired phone nearby. The design lets users leave their phone in another room while still receiving uninterrupted high-quality sound.
Apple Music and Spotify both include adjustable audio quality and equalizer settings that can noticeably improve sound on an iPhone. Users can raise streaming quality tiers in each app's settings menu, then fine-tune sound using built-in EQ presets or custom sliders. Volume normalization features like Apple's Sound Check and Spotify's Volume normalization can also be toggled to balance loudness across tracks.
Apple Music lets users set separate audio quality levels for cellular, Wi-Fi, and downloads within iPhone Settings under Apps > Music > Audio Quality. This allows listeners to save mobile data by keeping cellular playback at High Quality while reserving Lossless streaming for Wi-Fi or downloaded files. Bluetooth headphones don't support true lossless playback, and Hi-Res Lossless requires an external DAC for sample rates above 48kHz.
Apple's own guidelines reveal that lossless audio streaming through CarPlay only works over a wired USB connection, not wirelessly. This is because wired CarPlay uses the uncompressed LPCM codec, while wireless CarPlay relies on AAC-LC, a lossy codec that discards some original audio data to reduce file size.