AirPods Pro 2 will have Lossless Audio Support and a Charging Case that Makes Sound

AirPods Pro may support Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) and could even come with a case that makes a sound to help you find it. There currently isn’t an AirPods model that supports lossless audio, a form of file compression that preserves all of the data in the original audio file, resulting in higher quality sound.

For each AirPods model, even the pricey Max uses Bluetooth to deliver audio, limiting the devices to using Advanced Audio Codec (AAC), a lossy form of audio compression. Thus far, the only Apple devices that can take advantage of lossless audio on Apple Music include the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, and Apple HomePod.

The main downside to lossless audio is that files take up more storage space on your device, and streaming it online can quickly eat up mobile data.In case the AirPods Pro 2 does support ALAC, Apple will either have to ditch Bluetooth or jump over some of the technology’s hurdles to accomplish that. Gary Geaves, the vice president of acoustics at Apple said that the limitations of Bluetooth were brought up in What Hi-Fi.

Geaves said the company would need to work hard to get the most out of Bluetooth technology and also noted that “there are several tricks we can play to maximize or get around some of the limits of Bluetooth,” but “more bandwidth” would be ideal a potential hint of what’s to come. Kuo predicts that the Pro 2 could sport a redesign and focus on fitness. In addition, Kuo says that Apple may release thePro 2 in the fourth quarter of 2022, about three years after the release of the first AirPods Pro