The AirPods Pro 2 support Dolby Atmos content. This means you get to listen to compatible music and TV tracks in spatial audio. They also support head tracking -- so the audio playback adapts to the way you move your head. This makes the listening experience infinitely more immersive.
The big news is that no model of AirPods earbuds/headphones will support lossless audio. This means that even if you're buying the latest AirPods Pro 2 or the premium AirPods Max, there's no way you can listen to your library of lossless Apple Music songs in any lossless or hi-res format.
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.
Apple AirPods Boasts In-House Technologies
All Apple AirPods use the AAC format. That includes the AirPods Pro 2. Even though these wireless headphones support SBC, Apple prefers and recommends its AAC format.
Yes. You can listen to Dolby Atmos music in Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking on AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and Beats Fit Pro with a compatible iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Turn on spatial audio on your iPhone or iPad
Make sure that you're wearing your AirPods Pro (1st or 2nd generation), AirPods Max, AirPods (3rd generation), or Beats Fit Pro, and that they're connected to your iPhone or iPad. Open Control Center on your iPhone or on your iPad.
AirPods Pro take the listening experience to a new level of individuality. Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking works with all your devices to immerse you deeper in all-around-you sound.
Our Verdict. The Apple AirPods Pro 2 are decent for neutral sound. Compared to their predecessor, their bass is more extended, which helps improve their overall bass. That said, their sound profile is a little warmer rather than rumbly this time around, making vocals and instruments sound cozy and soft.
AirPods Max can be connected to devices playing Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless recordings with exceptional audio quality.
But for now, they use Bluetooth 5.3 and support the AAC LC3 audio codec, which offers 16-bit 48 kilohertz bit rates compared with the 16-bit 24 kilohertz bit rates of AAC. Not high-resolution audio, but a little bump up.
Aside from the design change, which should fit most ears better than the AirPods 2nd Generation (though not very small ears), the biggest change is to the sound quality: It's much improved. Also, battery life is better, and the AirPods 3 are officially water-resistant.
Can I listen to lossless audio using AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, or AirPods (3rd generation)? AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, AirPods (3rd generation), and Beats wireless headphones use Apple's AAC Bluetooth Codec to ensure excellent audio quality. Bluetooth connections don't support lossless audio.
Plus, the AirPods Pro 2 doesn't support LDAC, aptX-HD, or even basic apt-X: it only supports AAC and SBC as a fall-back.
Dolby Atmos is a 3D surround sound technology, while lossless means that track was compressed without any data loss - tracks have higher bitrate, so they should sound better on supported devices than standard AAC, MP3 or any other tracks with lossy compression I guess.
In terms of sound quality, FLAC and ALAC are comparable, although compression and decompression is slightly more efficient with FLAC. In a direct test, this means that a FLAC file will decompress more quickly, and therefore by ready for playback more readily than an ALAC file.
Apple Music Lossless vs.
What is this? Hi-Res Lossless audio is 24-bit with a sample rate of 192 kHz compared to the standard Lossless audio (CD quality), which is pegged at 24-bit at 48 kHz. In simpler terms, you can think of Hi-Res Lossless audio as an even better version of Apple Music Lossless audio.
AirPods stream using the Advanced Audio Coding standard that tops out at 320 kbps.
Many users who recently purchased the AirPods Pro may not be able to justify upgrading to the second-generation AirPods Pro at the current time, unless they particularly want features like Adaptive Transparency, touch controls for volume adjustment, or Apple Watch charger compatibility.
Apple boasts that H2 can deliver 2x more active noise cancellation (ANC) than the H1 chip in AirPods 1. As a result, AirPods Pro 2 ANC performance is comparable to some of the best (and most expensive) earbuds available, such as the WF-1000XM4 and the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II.
After nearly a year, I finally put my beloved Beats Fit Pro in their case for good. The AirPods Pro 2 are the new gold standard for Apple headphones, offering superb sound quality, great battery life and some of the best ANC you can find on a pair of earbuds.
Adaptive EQ tunes music to your ears in real time, based on the fit of AirPods Pro. Inward-facing microphones measure what you're hearing, then adjust the low to high frequencies of a song — so you get consistently detailed playback, every time.
Spatial audio is not same as Dolby Atmos (or DTS:X) or 3D sound. Spatial audio is a technology first created by Apple to bring an immersive experience to music - in particular orchestra/conducted music, opera, and live concerts/performances. As we know music was/is always stereo.
Go to Settings > Bluetooth, then tap the Info button next to the name of your AirPods. Scroll down to the About section to find the firmware version. To use your Mac to check that your AirPods are up to date, make sure that you have the latest version of macOS.
This is a big leap forward for quality audio fans — for a perspective on how significant this is aptX Adaptive offers a maximum bitrate of 420kbps, aptX HD 576kbps, while Sony's LDAC offers a maximum streaming bitrate of 990kbps.
Having a lossless file will do nothing to improve the sound of a song that is poorly mastered. Some album rereleases feature lossless FLAC files, marketed as “audiophile grade” versions, but generally they're also remastered with a wider dynamic range than the original release, which can really improve the sound.