Lossless audio over AirPlay doesn’t seem to be as black and white. AirPlay can transmit locally stored lossless hard files losslessly to an AirPlay receiving device – the Airplay 2 protocol supports up to 24-bit/48kHz. But frustratingly, Apple Music’s Lossless streams seem to convert from ALAC (Apple’s lossless codec) into AAC (Apple’s lossy codec) at a pretty lowly 256kbps when transmitted over AirPlay – and therefore not losslessly.
There has been a suggestion that Apple is working on a software update to enable lossless over AirPlay (we are asking Apple if that is indeed the case), so fingers crossed that this transpires and thus Apple’s lossless offering becomes more validated. If Spotify Hi-Fi’s lossless streams really will be deliverable losslessly over Spotify Connect, as the company has said it will, Apple will no doubt want to make sure its wi-fi protocol is capable of the same thing.
AirPlay aside, select Apple hardware can play losslessly in other ways. Some, such as the HomePod 2, can natively play lossless audio over wi-fi by drawing directly from the Apple Music servers, for example. And here's how to play hi-res music and lossless audio on your iPhone.