Apple’s decision to limit Vision Pro’s Lossless Audio to the just-upgraded AirPods Pro with USB-C charging case was seen as a perplexing one, but an Apple VP confirmed in a new interview a technical hardware upgrade that makes the feature exclusive to the refreshed pair of earphones.
Brian Tong recently interviewed Vice President of Sensing and Connectivity Ron Huang, and Director of Product Marketing Eric Treski to discuss the engineering efforts that power the AirPods lineup. The revelation is discussed around the 27-minute mark.
As first spotted by 9to5Mac, the interview reveals that the USB-C AirPods Pro includes an upgraded H2 audio processing chip that can operate at the 5GHz frequency band. Older H2 chips, including the one of the second-generation Lightning AirPods Pro, are limited to just 2.4GHz frequency. Vision Pro also supports wireless connectivity at 5GHz, with the increased bandwidth deemed necessary to support the higher bitrate and lower latency of the Lossless Audio format.
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Apple announced a refresh to the second-generation AirPods Pro to accommodate a USB-C case instead of Lightning as the iPhone 15 also made a similar switch to the universal connector. While Apple still refers to them as second-generation, the refreshed AirPods Pro also contains other smaller improvements, like improved dust resistance at IP54 rating.
Users who would like to use Lossless Audio once they get their hands on Vision Pro will have to buy a whole new pair of the refreshed AirPods Pro at the same $249 price tag, as Apple is not offering an option to buy the new USB-C charging case on its own.
