Apple AirPods Pro 2 Secrets: Why No Lossless Audio

Curious to know Apple AirPods Pro 2 Secrets: Why No Lossless Audio? Recently published at What Hi-Fi? It is an interview with Edge Andersen, an engineer in Apple's acoustics team. The Hi-Fi & Audio Editor for the respected audio newspaper, Kashfia Kabir, managed to score an interview with the Apple engineer, who has been there for over a decade.

This is what we discovered.

Ventilation is of utmost importance.

Sound quality, according to Andersen, depends on the free flow of air."When we talk about wonderful sound, it's all about how we move the air in the product," he said, which is odd since it has nothing to do with the product's enclosure or aesthetics.

The latest generation of AirPods Pro looks very similar to the original, except there is now only one vent on the back of each earbud instead of two. According to Andersen, the new earphones sound better, especially at high frequencies.

This squares with what I've been informed by Apple, that the new venting means that the annoying pressure that can be felt in the ears when noise-canceling is turned on is significantly missing in the most recent headphones.

Compact size, powerful output

Andersen asserts, "We wanted to give anyone an AirPods Max in their pocket." Given the vast difference, this is an incredibly lofty goal. Kabir claims that this makes the bass of the new AirPods Pro lot better, and I agree. The new earbuds have improved sound quality regardless of the volume setting, which is only sometimes the case. According to Andersen, "the same sound signature at a lower level as a greater level" is possible.

Furthermore, in the discussion of Apple AirPods Pro 2 Secrets: Why No Lossless Audio. Andersen adds that the earphones' tuning is dynamic and changes based on the music you're listening to. Our tuning is different for an Apple TV's larger screen than for an iPhone. Andersen adds that Apple is always interested in feedback on improving the audio quality of all Apple products. Because you can't please everyone right now, you have to settle for a middle ground. We hope we delivered the best service. Whatever it is you're looking for, we want to make it happen.

However, what about "lossless" compression?

Many critics were disappointed that the new AirPods Pro didn't support lossless audio. According to What Hi-Fi?, none of the AirPods can play Apple Music's millions of lossless high-resolution audio recordings.

Even if we don't change the codec," Andersen argues, "we can still make enormous strides." To top it all off, the current codec options prioritize dependability. So the goal is to create something that can withstand any condition. There are several ways we can improve the sound quality further. The codec is not the bottleneck for high-quality audio on Bluetooth devices.

Andersen concludes by suggesting more alterations are on the way, but he isn't giving anything away (this is Apple, after all). Lossless is one of them! He observes what's to come: I can't say what it will be. To prepare for what's to come, we constantly brainstorm new ideas. We were born with this trait.

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