LosslessSwitcher switches your current audio device's sample rate to match the currently playing lossless song on your Apple Music app, automatically.

Let's say if the next song that you are playing, is a Hi-Res Lossless track with a sample rate of 192kHz, LosslessSwitcher will switch your device to that sample rate as soon as possible.

The opposite happens, when the next track happens to have a lower sample rate.

Installation

For macOS Big Sur 11.4 to macOS Sonoma 14.x

Please use releases of version 1.x, such as versions 1.0, 1.1 or 1.1.1 betas. Version 1.x also works up to macOS Sequoia 15.3.1.

You can find the latest stable release of the version 1.x branch here: Link to v1.1

For macOS Sequoia 15.4 onwards

Support for this is still in beta. You can try the latest version 2.0 beta here: Link to v2.0 Beta 1

Steps

1. Download the .zip file of the preferred version.
2. Drag the app to your Applications folder.

If you wish to have it running when logging in, you should be able to add LosslessSwitcher in System Settings:

> User & Groups > Login Items > Add LosslessSwitcher app

App details

There isn't much going on, when it comes to the UI of the app, as most of the logic is to:

1. Read Apple Music's logs to know the song's sample rate.
2. Set the sample rate to the device that you are currently playing to.

As such, the app lives on your menu bar. The screenshot above shows it's only UI component that it offers, which is to show the sample rate that it has parsed from Apple Music's logs.

If you wish, the sample rate can also be directly visible as the menu bar item.

Do also note that:

• There may be short interuptions to your audio playback, during the time where the app attempts to switch the sample rates.
• Prolonged use on MacBooks may accelerate battery usages, due to the frequent querying of the latest sample rate.

Bit Depth switching is also supported, although, enabling it will reduce detection accuracy, hence, it is not recommended.

Why make this?

Ever since Apple Music Lossless launched along with macOS 11.4, the app would never switch the sample rates according to the song that was playing. A trip down to the Audio MIDI Setup app was required. This still happens today, with macOS 12.3.1, despite iOS's Music app having such an ability.

I think this improvement might be well appreciated by many, hence this project is here, free and open source.

Prerequisites

Due to how the app works, this app is not, and cannot be sandboxed. It also has the following requirement, due to the use of OSLog API:

• The user running LosslessSwitcher must be an admin. This is not tested and assumed due to this Apple Developer Forums thread.
• Apple Music app must have Lossless mode on. (well, of course)

Other than that, it should run on any Mac running macOS 11.4 or later.

Disclaimer

By using LosslessSwitcher, you agree that under no circumstances will the developer or any contributors be held responsible or liable in any way for any claims, damages, losses, expenses, costs or liabilities whatsoever or any other consequences suffered by you or incurred by you directly or indirectly in connection with any form of usages of LosslessSwitcher.

Devices tested

Here are some device combinations tested to be working, by users of LosslessSwitcher. Regardless, you are still reminded to use LosslessSwitcher at your own risk.

Version 1.x

Version 2.x

You can add to this list by modifying this README and opening a new pull request!

Do note that Steven Slate Audio VSX software may not be fully compatible with LosslessSwitcher, and both software may interfere with each other. Please refer to discussion https://github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher/discussions/100 for more information.

License

LosslessSwitcher is licensed under GPL-3.0.

Love the idea of this?

If you appreciate the development of this application, feel free to spread the word around so more people get to know about LosslessSwitcher. You can also show your support by sponsoring this project!

Dependencies

• Sweep, by @JohnSundell, an easy to use Swift String scanner.
• SimplyCoreAudio, by @rnine, a framework that makes CoreAudio so much easier to use.
• PrivateMediaRemote, by @DimitarNestorov, in order to use private media remote framework.