2y ago

Apple Explains Why Only USB-C AirPods Pro Support Lossless Audio With Vision Pro

www.macrumors.com

TL;DR: USB-C AirPods Pro support lossless audio with the upcoming Vision Pro headset due to the 5GHz band support in their H2 chip. The previous version only had 2.4GHz.

33 comments

TL;DR There is enough bandwidth in 2.4GHz, but fuck you consumer, buy more AirPods.
- According to Wikipedia the theoretical max bandwidth on the 2.4GHz bandwidth is 706,25 kbit/s downstream.
  I don’t have data from Apple, but Qualcomms lossless Bluetooth audio transmits up to 1Mb/s.
  So, a three minute internet search supports rather apples story than yours.
  
  Wow. Not only incorrect, but incorrect in the worst way by fucking up maths by a factor of a thousand!
  
  Yeah wiki also says.
  Bluetooth 2.0 already supports 3mbps or (2.1mbps real world)
  The bit rate of EDR is 3 Mbit/s, although the maximum data transfer rate (allowing for inter-packet time and acknowledgements) is 2.1 Mbit/s.
  BT5 expands on the Low Energy specifications to allow 2mbps burst.
  Bluetooth 5 provides, for BLE, options that can double the speed (2 Mbit/s burst) at the expense of range, or provide up to four times the range at the expense of data rate.
  Also 802.11n already runs at 54mbps for a 20mhz wide channel.
  
  I think you meant 2.4GHz instead of 2.4kHz, and I think it can transmit a tad more than that given that Wi-Fi 2.4GHz had much more bandwidth than 1Mbit/s.
  
  You can have audio of arbitrary bitrate. Lossless just means it isn't being resampled or transcoded in a way that prevents exactly reconstructing the original signal. There's no reason why you couldn't support lossless audio up to 700Kbps, and the difference between 700kbps and 1mbps is well outside the range of perceptibility. You can also losslessly compress most audio that humans listen to by a significant degree, which is a completely transparent way to support higher bitrates if you can spare the processing time.
Thank you for the tldr.
I know they won’t but I feel this is one product Apple should offer a simple swap program for users that recently purchased the AirPods Pro 2. It’s not a big deal now, and may never really be, but it does feel like a real F-U to Pro 2 owners.
- It might just come in a firmware update.
- Apple has a 14 day return policy for any reason. If you just bought them, return them.
Lost my AirPods Pro 2 which was under Apple Care. Which model would I get if I claim? USB C or lightning?
- See if they can swing you at a cost to USB-C, if you can. That has the better chip and better long-term value (if you can keep it in your pants.. :D )
- I’d say lightning
  
  Hope not but that’s more realistic. I’ll find out in a week.
Does this have any implications for the crappy call quality when you are using Pros for video conferencing - MS Teams etc?
- No, that uses a standard Bluetooth protocol. It’ll continue to be shitty on all Bluetooth mics.
  
  I've not experienced it myself but aptx voice is supposed to improve it, as well as the new codecs in bt 5/5.1
I’m really curious when iPhones can use it, would be a big deal.
- Exactly what I was wondering, too! I’m not holding my breath, though.
I already know the answer, but what I really care about is:
Will these new AirPods support lossless audio with my iPhone 14?
because they're fucking capitalists and want more money from brainless fanboys

33 comments