Apple AirPods Pro 2 Secrets Revealed, Including Why There’s No Lossless Audio
Esge Andersen, an engineer on Apple’s acoustics team, was recently the subject of a new interview that just went up on What Hi-Fi? The engineer has been with Apple for more than ten years, and Kashfia Kabir, the Hi-Fi & Audio Editor at the reputable audio publication, got the exclusive interview.
Here’s what we found out.
It’s all about the air flow
According to Andersen, a nice sound depends on air movement. “When we talk about amazing sound, it’s all about how we move the air in the device,” he asserted. “This is kind of unusual because it’s not talking about the enclosure or how it looks. Instead, it’s about making sure that we also build for airflow.”
The most recent AirPods Pro include vents at the back instead of the front, giving them a nearly identical appearance as the first-generation device. Although it might not seem like much, Andersen contends that it is essential to the audio enhancement present in the new earphones, particularly the enhancement of high-frequency responses.
This fits with what Apple has previously told me, that the new venting means there’s less of the obtrusive pressure which can be felt in the ears when noise-cancelling is turned on, and which is noticeably absent in the latest headphones.
Pocket-sized build, big sound
“We wanted to give everybody an AirPods Max in their pocket,” Andersen claims. This is quite the ambition, given the disparity in size. The result, says Kabir, and I agree, is the bass is much better in the second-gen AirPods Pro. The new earbuds also sound better, whatever volume you listen at, which is not always the case. Andersen suggests they can “give the same sound signature at lower level as a higher level.”
Andersen also says the earbuds adjust the tuning according to what you’re listening to. “If you’re on your Apple TV with a bigger screen, our tuning is different than it would be on an iPhone.” Andersen also talks about how Apple is open to improving the sound continually and for every Apple source. “At the end of the day, there is somewhat of a compromise, because you can’t make it perfect for everybody yet. This ability to be able to give you the best experience was our goal… no matter what it is you have, we want to give you the best experience.”
What about lossless?
Many reviewers mourned the absence of lossless audio on the AirPods Pro second-generation earbuds. As What Hi-Fi? points out, the multi-million lossless hi-res tracks in Apple Music can’t be listened to in lossless on any AirPods.
Andersen says that the codec is not the whole story: “We can still make big strides without changing the codec. And the codec choice we have there today, it’s more about reliability. So it’s about making something robust in all environments. We want to push the sound quality forward, and we can do that with a lot of other elements. We don’t think that the codec currently is the limitation of audio quality on Bluetooth products.”
Finally, without giving away anything—I mean, this is Apple, after all—Andersen hints that more changes are coming. Who knows, maybe these will include lossless? He comments on what’s coming next like this: “I don’t know yet 100% what it’s going to be. We are always thinking about the next thing. This is in our DNA.
Source-https://www.forbes.com/
