The AirPods Pro 2, Apple’s next wireless headphones, will include a long-awaited feature for lovers of high definition sound, the lossless audio , ensures the analyst specialized in Apple, Ming-Chi Kuo.
Last May, the Cupertino firm expanded its Apple Music service with this type of uncompressed audio formats, Apple Lossless . But there were only a few ways to enjoy it with brand devices. IPhone users must use an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC), while a Mac, technically you have to use wired headphones to enjoy hi-fi music.
AirPods Pro 2, better sound, as far as possible
Surprisingly, none of Apple’s wireless headphones support lossless audio out of the box, not even the $ 550 ‘Max’ ones. The next AirPods Pro 2 should be the answer, although there are doubts about the inherent limitations of the Bluetooth wireless standard for transmitting high definition sound.
Gary Geaves, vice president of audio at Apple, quoted in an interview with What Hi-Fi last week the bottleneck of the standard for audio delivery: “ Issues like the amount of latency you have when moving your head and the sound change is a problem, so we have to focus a lot on squeezing the maximum we can get out of Bluetooth. There are a number of tricks we can play to maximize or circumvent some of Bluetooth’s limits, but it’s fair to say that we’d like more bandwidth and… I’ll stop right there. We would like more bandwidth «.
It would be interesting to see if Apple’s solution could be applied to a broader range of wireless audio solutions. Currently, there are some standards, such as Qualcomm’s AptX and Sony’s LDAC that are included in the great WF-1000XM4 and that can transmit audio at a 990 kbps bit rate .
Apple’s challenge will be to overcome that barrier and deliver the best wireless audio experience in the industry, considering that its headphones are among the best sellers on the market. Hopefully, this would put pressure on the group responsible for the standard to improve its characteristics to offer better sound support. Of course, there are no miracles, and lovers of high definition will continue to use wired headphones whose quality can never be achieved by wireless models.
Another novelty in addition to the lossless audio, will be a charging case with a new form factor that will be able to emit a sound for users to track it and the addition of management functions health that Apple has enhanced in its smart watches.
There is no release date for these AirPods Pro 2, although the recent release of the third generation suggests that they will hit the market in the second half. The analyst foresees sales between 18 and 20 million units for a total of headphones of – no less – than 90 million units, 25% more than in 2021.