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MagyarGoogle confirms Pixel 8 phones will support lossless audio over USB
Android’s VP of Engineering, David Burke, has just confirmed in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview that the new Pixel 8 phones will support playback of lossless audio formats over USB. The feature was added to Android 14 back in May, when it was in its second beta version, but the OS level is just one stage in the digital supply chain needed to bring high-res audio to listeners' ears. The capability must also be enabled on a hardware level, and this is what will be unlocked on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro through a future software update.
Being entirely uncompressed, lossless formats deliver the most accurate representation of the original audio devoid of any artefacts or filtering. Dave has described Android’s implementation as “bit perfect audio”, which means that the audio stream will be sent out without any kind of treatment like mixing, volume adjustment, or processing effects. He’s also mentioned that app developers will have to adopt the lossless API in their code in order to take advantage of the feature, which means an app update will be required.
As per David’s reply, apart from the Pixel 8 phones, other OEMs are also expected to enable support, so one can reasonably expect a number of Android phones getting this feature soon, hopefully around the same time as the requisite app updates.
Lossless audio files are extremely large (over 10 MB per minute), so it’s a good thing that more and more streaming services are now offering it as an option, namely Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer and Amazon Music HD, with Spotify soon joining the list. However, whether lossless audio truly delivers a significant (or even noticeable) upgrade in sound quality is a subject of often heated debate.
What is certain is that sound quality is only as good as the weakest link in the signal chain, so you’ll need some good hardware. You can pair a good external DAC like the compact iFi GO link DAC & amplifier with audiophile-grade analog headphones: planar magnetic models are a good option, like the budget friendly yet very well reviewed HIFIMAN HE400SE and HIFIMAN SUNDARA planar magnetic headphones. Alternatively you can use a pair of high-quality USB headphones with the DAC built-in, like the Sennheiser Momentum 4 or the Master & Dynamic MH40 Gen 2 headphones.
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