Is lossless audio worth it?

Lossless music streaming is the new game in town when it comes to the best music subscriptions. The marketing promises superior sound quality over the lossy compression formats we’ve dealt with for years, the marketing writes itself. Though those of you who are still rocking a physical CD, music and FLAC collections have been streaming play for quite some time are ahead.

But as we know, snake oil sellers love the audio industry. So is lossless audio streaming really worth it? Here’s an rundown of the pros and cons, the reality, and basically everything else you need to know about the world of lossless music streaming services.

What is lossless audio?

When streaming music from the Internet, file compression is a must – at least if you don’t want to use up your data volume in a few hours. Compression falls into two different categories, lossy and lossless. Lossy compression discards some of the data from the original file to save space, while lossless compression gives you a perfectly faithful reproduction of the original with no loss when you decompress it. Obviously, this has sparked a long-running debate about differences in audio quality.

Lossy compression is based on psychoacoustic compression that was developed to cut out bits of audio data that you cannot hear to achieve very high compression rates – hence the term “lossy”. Studies show that this works very well with no noticeable difference between the source material and a lossy, high bit rate file. However, these popular ad-supported and affordable music streaming options often use lossy bit rates as low as 128 kbps. This can lead to a noticeable loss of quality when listening through high-quality headphones.

Lossless music files use encoding algorithms specifically designed for optimal audio compression to reduce file size without sacrificing quality. Decompress a lossless file and you have a bit-perfect version of the source. Lossless file types, including Apple’s FLAC and ALAC, can offer compression rates of up to 50%.

Let’s look at the data sizes for a quick comparison. A four-minute lossy-compressed track is around 3.8 MB at 128 kbps or 9.6 MB at 320 kbps, while a CD equivalent at 1,411 kbps is 42 MB and a 24-bit 192 kHz Hi-Res track has a whopping 277 MB. After an hour of listening time, the difference can be between as little as 60 MB and over 4 GB of data used. Lossless file types can shrink CD file sizes to around 25MB per track and under 400MB for an hour of streaming.

Lossless streaming services ensure that you always hear the best quality available. However, with the disadvantage of higher data consumption than lossy.

If you are looking for a lossless music streaming service, there are a few to choose from. In fact, almost all of the big names in the industry now offer lossless music either as part of a standard subscription or as an optional extra. However, these services vary considerably depending on the audio bit rate, sample rate and price.

The following list provides a quick comparative overview of the most popular lossless music streaming services in the industry.

• Apple Music – 24 bit 48 kHz (192 kHz requires a DAC), $ 9.99 / £ 9.99 / € 9.99
• Amazon Music HD – 24-bit 192 kHz, $ 9.99 / £ 9.99 / € 9.99 (Prime: $ 7.99 / £ 7.99 / € 7.99)
• Deezer Hi-Fi – 16-bit 44.1 kHz, $ 14.99 / £ 14.99 / € 14.99
• Spotify HiFi – TBC
• Tidal Hi-Fi – 24-bit 192 kHz, $ 19.99 / £ 19.99 / € 19.99
• Qobuz – 24-bit 192 kHz, $ 14.99 / £ 14.99 / € 19.99

CD quality is as good as your ear can hear and uses less data to stream than Hi-Res, so I wouldn’t choose a streaming service based solely on bitrate specifications. Instead, the size of the library and app features have a much greater impact on your listening experience than a higher sample rate. Especially if you’re planning on listening through your bluetooth headphones as we’ll explore below.

A golden rule for audio is that your sound is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. You can pay for hi-res sound, but bad speakers or headphones can make that investment worthless. The same goes for Bluetooth, which has been one of the weaker links in the audio chain in the past.

For example, Apple’s AirPods Pro only support lossy AAC, so in this case it doesn’t make sense to buy Apple Music for its lossless files. While AAC, aptX, and LDAC are solid sounding lossy codecs, they still compress your lossless audio, especially Hi-Res versions. Granted, compressing from a high quality source is still better than recompressing an inferior source.

The problem is, Bluetooth is unable to sustain the high bit rates required for lossless audio. Please see below for more information on the limitations of Bluetooth. The most important takeaway is that if you want to listen to music exclusively through wireless headphones, the investment in lossless audio quality versus a decent lossy compression subscription is probably not worth it. That is, unless you plan on investing in some of the latest Bluetooth technologies.

Next: Why you should (and why not) care about Bluetooth lossless audio

Currently, the only announced lossless Bluetooth audio codec is Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless. Qualcomm offers bit-accurate playback in CD quality (16-bit 44.1 kHz) via Bluetooth with this codec and devices optimized with Snapdround Sound. The Sony LDAC also offers almost lossless playback in CD quality at 990 kbps, although not every device offers an interference-free playback experience at this bit rate. When you’re paying for a lossless source, you’ll want a playback device and headphones that support these codecs as well.

For those with a hi-res music collection or lossless streaming service, lossless playback via Bluetooth will seem unattainable for the foreseeable future. Although both LDAC and aptX Adaptive support 24-bit, 96 kHz lossy playback.

So let’s wrap it all up – does lossless audio streaming play a role and is a subscription worthwhile? Well, like most things, it depends.

If you have a high-end home speaker setup or a pair of headphones, you will be best able to take advantage of lossless audio. Those on the go need a more generous amount of data and products that support high-end Bluetooth codecs to get the most out of the available audio quality. And remember, don’t fall for the marketing game: CD quality audio is as good as you’ll ever need it to be.

Customers who typically listen to music in less than ideal environments, such as on public transport or in the gym, will not benefit from lossless music. Likewise, using a cheaper pair of earbuds as your primary hearing tool is not worth the cost and data consumption.

The differences between lossless streaming services and their decent lossy equivalents are small, if not imperceptible. You only notice this when you compare lossless sources with particularly heavily compressed music from ad-supported services, and even then you need very good headphones or speakers. Lossless may market itself well, but lossy compression still sounds great. You really need a pair of “golden ears” and the right gear through your audio chain to tell the differences.