compatibility with the new LE Audio Bluetooth will change a lot of things in the world of wireless audio, and the next AirPods Pro 2 could soon debut.
Introduced in 2020, the global pandemic delayed its implementation, but the new LE Audio is here to stay and will bring important changes that will greatly improve the experience of using the wireless earphones. LE Audio is a new standard that is ready for manufacturers to start adding to their devices, replacing the Bluetooth Classic used so far.
One of the first benefits is lower energy consumption, which manufacturers can take advantage of to make your devices smaller, or to make the batteries last even longer. The generalization of charging cases with integrated battery in True Wireless earphones has meant that the battery is no longer a major problem, but it is always good news to know that the autonomy of a portable device is more important.
The other big improvement will come from the sound quality side. LE Audio is powered by the new low-power, high-quality LC3 codec. It replaces the classic SBC codec and will allow better sound quality at the same bit rate, even with half the speed the quality will be better (again according to the theory) than with the classic SBC. Most audiophiles will surely be quite skeptical of this claim, and there’s no shortage of reasons to be. Will have to check when it becomes available.
The improvements don’t stop there, because we will be able to connect multiple headphones to the same source sound. Yes, we can now connect an iPhone to a pair of AirPods, but we’re talking “many” not just two, and you won’t be limited to AirPods, any compatible headset will be able to do that. Switching devices will also be part of the story. We already know the automatic switching of AirPods when connecting to our iPhone and iPad, for example, but now it will not be automatic is that there will be no switching directly, there will not be interruptions since your headphones will be connected simultaneously on your iPhone and iPad or Mac.
The new AirPods Pro 2 could be unveiled at the iPhone launch event, and there’s no doubt that they’ll support this new standard. We even talked about Apple would prepare a new HiRes codec to be able to listen to “lossless” (or almost) audio via Bluetooth.