Music streaming apps like TIDAL, Amazon Music, and Apple Music offer Hi-Res Audio streaming in lossless quality. However, to truly enjoy the superior sound output, you'll need to use an external DAC and a pair of premium headphones with your smartphone. Sadly, a bug is preventing Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro owners from enjoying listening to music with their external DAC.

A handful of Pixel 6 users report that due to an underlying bug, connecting external Hi-Fi DACs over USB-C leads to music apps like PowerAMP, FiiO Music, and others to crash with no sound output coming from the connected headphones. Some apps that do not crash end up playing a screeching sound. The issue was first reported when the Pixel phones made their way into the hands of customers. Many users were hopeful that Google would address the issue with the December security update, but the problem persists.

Some DACs do seem to work, but the music is software-processed. This means they do not bypass Android's sound processing and are downsampled, so the benefit of playing back music in lossless quality is lost. The issue has already been posted on Google Issue Tracker; however, the company is yet to acknowledge it.

An external DAC is required to play music in lossless quality on most modern Android smartphones since their built-in DAC is not powerful enough. The DAC also bypasses Android's audio stack that's limited to 24/48 kHz sampling rates. For comparison, Hi-Res audio files have a sampling rate of 192 kHz.

Admittedly, the issue will only affect a limited number of Pixel 6 users as external DACs are not exactly a popular smartphone accessory. Perhaps this also explains why Google has not yet fixed the issue despite it first being reported over a month ago.

External DACs not working is just one of several issues plaguing Google's new Pixel phones. Despite the December security patch fixing many bugs, other more significant issues remain, including poor mobile network connectivity.