Apple Music for Windows Lossless Switcher — automatic sample-rate/bit-depth switching (open source, beta, dev here)

[jordanmgibson]

Full disclosure up front: I'm the developer. It's free, GPL-3.0 open source, no telemetry, nothing for sale.

Some of you know LosslessSwitcher for macOS. Apple Music on Windows has the same problem the Mac app solves, the app never touches the device format, so your DAC sits at one fixed shared-mode rate and the Windows mixer resamples everything to it. But there was no Windows equivalent. I built one (independent implementation, not a port):

https://github.com/jordanmgibson/WindowsLosslessSwitcher

How it resolves the format: three layers, in order:

1. Catalog match: the track is looked up in Apple's public web catalog; a confident match yields the exact lossless format (e.g. 24/96). This is metadata-based, not log-scraping, so the target format is known the moment the track changes.
2. Local file match: local-library and unidentifiable tracks are matched to the actual format of the file in Apple Music's cache. So yes, local files are supported, which I know was a sore point in the macOS thread after local-file detection was discontinued there. It is not perfect but if it is able to identify the format it will switch.
3. Tier fallback: if neither layer identifies the track (including lossy content), the device is set to a format derived from your Apple Music quality setting so it never just hangs on whatever rate the last track happened to use.

Tradeoffs, since interruptions were the recurring complaint in the macOS thread: on a track change that needs a switch, the device is muted instantly (nothing plays at the old rate), the shared-mode format is changed live under Apple Music's running stream, Apple Music rebuilds its pipeline at the new rate within a few seconds, and the app unmutes only after verifying real audio is flowing. The cost is a few seconds of silence at the start of a format-changing track. No pops, song endings play in full, and constant-rate albums play gapless and untouched.

Requirements & status: Windows 11 or Windows 10 (version 2004 / build 19041 or later), Microsoft Store Apple Music with High-Res Lossless enabled. x64 and ARM64 builds, installer (with in-app updates) or portable zip. Currently v1.0.0-beta.1 and unsigned, so SmartScreen will warn on first run.

What I'd love from this crowd: reports of what DAC/AVR/interface you tried it with (there's a tested-devices table in the README), anything that misbehaves. The app has a one-click diagnostics export for bug reports. I am especially interested in ARM64 testers as I haven't been able to test on ARM64 hardware.

Thanks everyone hope you enjoy!

Also was going to add, if you're not using software EQ like EqualizerAPO:

Make sure the volume in Apple Music is at 100% as well as your system volume and Apple Music in the system Volume Mixer.

And that Audio Enhancements are off under Settings -> System -> Sound -> Properties -> Your DAC/Reciever.

As well as Settings -> System -> Sound ->More Sound Settings -> Playback -> Your DAC/Receiver -> Properties -> Advanced -> Uncheck "Enable audio enhancements".

This will give you the closest effect to something like Amazon Music/Tidal's exclusive mode.

I do, however, recommend EqualizerAPO to add negative preamplification, give this a read to see why: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nding-the-windows-audio-quality-debate.19438/ which requires audio enhancements to be on.

 

[Redacted]

Another "ASR Developer Badge" candidate!