The solution is a Digital Analogue Converter, or a DAC. This initially seems like good news, but output via the Lightning connector is limited to 48kHz, which means all that information in the higher bit-rates will be downsampled and the quality reduced.

However, the internal DAC can be bypassed by a hard-wired connection to a pair of headphones with the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter. Secondly, the iPhone’s onboard DAC is only in a dialogue with the smartphone’s speakers, so it can’t send audio out to external devices. In fact they don’t appear to support apt-X in any form, favouring AAC instead. There are two clear ways of playing Hi-Res audio on an iPhone, but let’s quickly go through the ways that you can’t.įirst, you can’t play tracks via Bluetooth. How to play Hi-Res Audio music on your iPhone That means that there is a way to bypass these limitations, but you’ll need some extra equipment to do so. However, this issue is more of a software-related one. If you’re a music lover and an iPhone owner, you’ll be somewhat frustrated that Apple hasn’t made it easy to listen to music in the highest quality possible, at least not through the native Music app. Thankfully, there is a way to get around Apple’s reluctance with Hi-Res music playback.

How to play Hi-Res Audio music on your iPhone: Unsurprisingly, trying to play Hi-Res audio on an iPhone is a bit of faff.

Playing wav files on iphone