Kuo: AirPods Pro 2 to Feature Lossless Support and Sound-Emitting Charging Case
Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro will feature support for Lossless audio and a charging case that can emit a sound for location tracking purposes, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
In a note to investors, seen by MacRumors, Kuo explained that the second-generation AirPods Pro will feature new selling points that will lead to strong demand, including support for Apple Lossless (ALAC) audio and a charging case that users can trigger a sound from to highlight its location.
It seems likely that this sound-emitting charging case will integrate into the Find My app, similar to how users can currently emit a sound from their individual AirPods inside the case to help find them. This lines up with alleged leaked photos of the next-generation AirPods Pro, which showed a charging case with speaker holes to emit a sound for location tracking, allowing the earbuds and the case to be located separately.
All of Apple's current AirPods products, including the third-generation AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max, do not support Lossless audio. This is because AirPods play audio via Bluetooth, limiting them to the AAC codec. Higher quality Apple Lossless Audio Codec files may need to be streamed to AirPods directly to circumvent Bluetooth and enable a Lossless listening experience, but it is possible that Apple could develop an alternative solution.
Kuo also reiterated that the next-generation earbuds will feature a new design and launch in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is slightly later than the third-quarter prediction suggested by other rumors. Kuo still believes that AirPods may support health monitoring features in the future, but did not directly associate this rumor with the second-generation AirPods Pro.
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Top Rated Comments
AAC 256 is pretty transparent and difficult to spot even when using high end speakers in a perfect listening environment (no background noise).
Lossless on AirPods will only achieve <1% better sound while consuming 20-50% more battery.
The real, important difference is heard when going from 96kbps to 128kbps, 128 to 192, 192 to 256, etc.
I’ve seen several blind tests done with audio experts and most of them can’t even tell the difference, and those that can need a lot of time to decide what is lossless and what is not.
Lossless sound will be an awesome feature! I have Apple Music which includes lossless and use it all the time on my HomePod - Definitely makes a difference in the audio quality
KIDDING. ?