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One of the biggest rumors about the AirPods Pro 2 is that they will be the first Apple headphones to get lossless audio support at launch, which could happen later in 2022.
Apple added high-quality tracks to Apple Music last year, but there hasn’t been a way to take full advantage of high-quality tracks with Apple hardware. Even the mighty AirPods Max had no way to listen to lossless tracks.
Instead, Apple focused on adding Spatial Audio support (via Dolby Atmos) to its headphones, including AirPods 3rd Gen, which it introduced in Apple Music at the same time as Loss.
Music lovers have been wondering if Apple will add wireless audio over Bluetooth to its headphones in the future, and rumors have suggested that the AirPods Pro 2 will be the starting point.
I’ve said before that even though it’s possible for Apple to do this, I’m not sure that will happen now. If I think so, we’ll see some evidence of it in iOS 16, but that makes you ask: evidence of what? How does Apple do high quality streaming over Bluetooth?
Obviously, I don’t know what the famous secret apple is or isn’t ripe, but I know how other companies have achieved the same thing. There are technologies Apple is deploying to improve the quality of sound transmission between iPhones and AirPods and make AirPods Pro 2 the best AirPods yet.
What does Apple do?
First, let’s get two things straight. Technology already exists for high-definition streaming over Bluetooth: Qualcomm’s aptX and Sony’s LDAC. Although it is based on aptX technology, there is also Snapdragon Sound.
Apple doesn’t use any of these. The company doesn’t want to pay Qualcomm for a license to use aptX. Also, Apple doesn’t want to use a solution based on Sony’s LDAC software when developing its own software without crediting anyone.
So if it happens, I highly doubt it will happen with any technologies. At least… not without these technologies. by name. What I think is that Apple is throwing in some of the same concepts that Apple uses in these systems, along with some of Apple’s unique technologies. Let’s talk about this technology.
1. Losing and losing into one
When we talk about ‘lossy’ music, we mean it as opposed to ‘lossy’ music, which means that the compression used to make the file smaller for distribution has lost details. Non-destructive files are larger, so they contain finer details in parts such as the singer’s voice or fingers moving on a guitar string.
However, it is for streaming music via Bluetooth. it has to squeeze. So how do you balance the need to compress it with the need to preserve details?
Well, there is a biologically induced possibility: the human ear does not hear all frequencies. When we hear other good details, we are weak in selecting some. So to use lossy compression in some parts and keep the most important parts without loss.
This is what LDAC does. Translated by Android Authority according to a Japanese site (Opens in a new tab), LDAC divides tracks into frequency bands. Those that are most important to our capabilities are prioritized and those that are most important are given limited bandwidth.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple implement this kind of optimization for lossless audio streaming.
2. Adaptive data rates
Now we know how Apple gets as detailed as possible into the limited Bluetooth bandwidth, but there’s another problem: consistency.
To deliver perfect sounding audio, you need a very reliable connection. Here’s why audiophiles love wired headphones: You can’t get more consistent than a big ol’ cable.
Bluetooth interferes easily, and the amount of data it passes decreases with distance. This is a very rare problem with today’s Bluetooth transmitters because they don’t push Bluetooth to its limits – if there is a slight drop in speed, the connection is still good enough for voice to come through.
But if you’re maximizing Bluetooth data capacity with lossless transmission, even a small drop in data rate will cause stuttering because the signal is incomplete.
So here are two solutions used by LDAC that Apple probably thinks (well, not exactly, but in principle) the first is to never use Bluetooth’s maximum bit rate. The second is to be able to adjust the transmission rate on the fly so that the signal is not completely degraded.
Bluetooth 5 has a maximum data rate of 2Mbps, but this is only possible when there is a clear line of sight next to your device. So LDAC is designed to never exceed 1Mbps – which means a full 50% of Bluetooth’s top speed can be lost and you’ll still get full quality music.
And then within 1Mpbs, LDAC has three different data rates that it can use: 990kbps, 660kbps, and 330kbps. When all is well, you’ll get full-quality audio at 990kbps. When the signal gets a little cable, it drops to 660kbps, still retaining most of its quality. And when you’re far away from your phone, it can drop to 330kbps.
330kbps is basically the standard Bluetooth transmission quality today, so you’ve lost the advantage that wasn’t useful back then…but that’s okay. The main thing is to only use that if the connection is not interrupted – it is better to keep the uninterrupted transmission at low quality for a moment, than to throw data while wondering what is going on.
It’s precisely the practical solution that Apple uses by focusing on seamless experiences.
3. ALAC file support
When it comes to maintaining file quality, connection quality is only one component. The format you stream is also a major factor. Standard Bluetooth supports two formats for audio transmission: SBC and AAC.
SBC is only available for Bluetooth, which means that if you have MP3 files or OGG files that Spotify uses, they will need to be converted to SBC to transmit. This favors a lossy process – there is little loss of quality from rapid recoding.
Apple has always beat AAC. AAC is both a music file type (the standard quality Apple Music tracks use) and a Bluetooth transmission format (which headphones support). This means that if you are playing an AAC file on your phone, there is no conversion to some headphones that support AAC, so this is a lossless transfer.
For hi-res/lossless music in Apple Music, Apple uses a different file type, called ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). If Apple were to create its own high-quality Bluetooth transmission system, we’d expect it to be based around ALAC so that no conversion would be necessary — just some smart management of the aforementioned data rates.
These kinds of things aren’t the only tricks that Apple uses—in fact, it’s fine if it’s working on a (still great) replacement for now—but I wanted to explain the kinds of things that Apple can do with Bluetooth right now. Technology.
If this is true, I’ll definitely be the first to buy some new AirPods, and not just because my old ones went through the wash and now look like oceans. What’s more, I’m excited to see what Apple’s amazing driver designs can do with a better music source.
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