Spotify lossless audio is still rolling out, works with JBL speakers too

Spotify’s new 24-bit lossless option is still rolling out after nearly five years have passed since the initial tease and official launch last month. It turns out, lossless works with JBL speakers, too.

While Google Cast has its limitations over Wi-Fi, JBL’s speakers like the Authentics lineup have offered hi-fidelity connections well before Spotify announced lossless audio. Tidal, for instance, could stream through Tidal Connect to certain JBL models and retain a quality Bluetooth or Google Cast just couldn’t handle.

The lossless option in Spotify can be activated by going into the settings and under Media & Streaming Quality selecting Lossless. On certain JBL models that support it, the Spotify Connect page will allow users to set Lossless as the default streaming quality.

The signal carries the same 24-bit/44.1 kHz processing as Spotify’s lossless onboard media option.

It’s worth noting that in our testing, Spotify supported sending a lossless signal to our JBL speakers on Windows, while the option didn’t appear on one Android device. On a different Android device, however, the lossless option was available for the same speaker. Hopefully, these small bugs will iron out as Spotify lossless continues to roll out.

It appears that only a handful of JBL speakers support the function. The Authentic 500, 300, and 200 are included in that, as well as the Charge 5 and Boombox 3.

There’s a high likelihood that other speakers beyond JBL’s models will support Spotify’s lossless option over Wi-Fi, though they’ll need to support the same 24-bit depth. The common factor here seems to be a capability to connect over Wi-Fi 6. With that, a higher bit depth can be achieved.

The JBL Authentics 500 and 200 we’ve tested this with sound similar to how they perform with Tidal Connect, using a similar quality. In reality, detail and richness are going to be hard to differentiate between Spotify’s quality tiers, but it’s nice to see the option available on certain models, without a cost increase, no less.