Apple should now just adopt the new Bluetooth LE standard. It came out in January 2020 and offers a ton of improvements over Bluetooth 5.0 including much much lower latency, half the power consumption and superior audio. So instead of whining about low bandwidth, Apple should just quickly adopt Bluetooth LE, so that Apple can use it to make the audio experience as good as possible for its customers.Apple in October introduced the redesigned third-generation AirPods, which have an updated design, Adaptive EQ support, spatial audio, and other new features. To explain some of the design decisions Apple made with the AirPods 3, Apple's vice president of acoustics Gary Geaves sat down for an interview with What HiFi (via 9to5Mac), providing some interesting insight into the limitations of Bluetooth and the feature set of the AirPods 3.
According to Geaves, AirPods 3 were built entirely with custom-made components, using nothing "off the shelf." Apple is using a "complicated acoustic system," "carefully tuned bass port," and a "brand new, custom amplifier" all in the name of the best possible sound quality. Apple can optimize for sound with hardware components, but as What HiFi points out, Bluetooth is the real limitation.
When asked if Bluetooth is holding back Apple's hardware and "stifling sound quality," Geaves declined to say too much, but he said that Apple "concentrates very hard" on getting the most out of Bluetooth, and that "it's fair to say" that Apple would "like more bandwidth."
When conceptualizing the AirPods 3, Geaves said that the AirPods team "looked very closely" at the strengths of the second-generation AirPods. The "effortless open fit" that doesn't create a seal in the ear is a big draw of the AirPods, but designing around the lack of a seal "creates challenges for the audio team."
Because no two ears are the same, Geaves said that the sound people experience will be "significantly different, especially the bass," which is what led Apple's AirPods team to add Adaptive EQ, an AirPods Pro feature, to the AirPods 3. It's designed to provide a "consistent frequency response regardless of the level of fit that each person gets."
When designing audio hardware, Apple works from a "strong analytic foundation" and has done "extensive measurements" and "deep statistical research" to inform an "internal acoustic analytic response" that's taken into account. Geaves says that Apple also understands that listening to music "is an emotional experience which people connect with on a very deep level," so Apple works with an "expert team of critical listeners and tuners" as well. The team is from the pro audio industry, and refines the sound for each product, including the new AirPods 3.
The full interview with Geaves goes into more detail on the AirPods 3 and it's well worth a read for those interested.
Article Link: Apple's AirPods Team Wants 'More Bandwidth' Than Bluetooth Provides
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Apple's AirPods Team Wants 'More Bandwidth' Than Bluetooth Provides
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It'll be interesting to see what solution Apple brings. Any bets on if it's Apple developed, acquired, or licensed?
At least the Airpods Max should support USB audio, using the built in DAC, that would give lossless CD quality audio from you Mac/Pc, a real oversight imho for such expensive headphones. The Dali Io’s have that with support for 24bit 96Khz lossles audio, as does Bowers & Wilkins PX models. Sounds amazing.
Cause you might enjoy it even more if you learned the difference. I can't tell either because the kind of music I enjoy doesn't have high-fidelity recordings to begin with, but it's like how you can learn to appreciate subtleties in musical style.
Still, when someone says they can tell the difference between lossless and some very high bitrate AAC, I say prove it. 128kb is believable, but not 320.
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We can have both. Putting a jack back in the iPhone does not mean they have to remove bluetooth.
Considering that iPhones had Bluetooth support since the beginning, yet almost nobody seemed to use BT headphones until Apple turned it into the only option (aside from a bothersome dongle), I think it's more than a very small percentage.
Apple did also release the best wireless earbuds when they removed the jack, but not everyone uses AirPods. And most of what makes them great is how they supplement BT with proprietary protocols to get around limitations, such as the cruddy quality mono mode all other BT headphones go into when using the mic. It's lock-in.
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Apple’s site says Bluetooth AAC (aka compressed) codec over Bluetooth to AirPods.
There's no trade off. Putting the jack back in the iPhone does not mean removing wireless. It means we can have BOTH wired audiophile headphones for when you want sound quality, and wireless headphones for when you want convenience. I know I want BOTH. And no, I damn well don't want a freaking adaptor.
Apple is in a real pickle here. They want to have the best product but that takes spending more money to create a better product which then begs to be charged more for because why offer such good things for the same price as last years model? Looks like they will have to come out with an even more expensive tier of airpods that has their new technology so they can justify creating it. It would just be too crazy to improve your product every year without charging more than the product it replaces.
Make your own wireless standard that piggibacks off the bluetooth antenna and just add more stuff to it that only your standard uses. That way the same antenna can be used by bluetooth and your new tech. The only problem you would have is that you can only connect using one standard at a time. But that doesn't seem like its a big problem with audio equipment since we are used to only connecting to one device at a time with them. The problem is that the apple proprietary standard would only work on Apple products, everyone else will only be able to connect to regular bluetooth. Thats why you need a new product, because people who buy it need to know going in that its greatest features are only compatible with the newest apple devices. They already did this with cinema displays in the past so its not like they don't already create products that do not work as well on non apple devices.
Make your own wireless standard that piggibacks off the bluetooth antenna and just add more stuff to it that only your standard uses. That way the same antenna can be used by bluetooth and your new tech. The only problem you would have is that you can only connect using one standard at a time. But that doesn't seem like its a big problem with audio equipment since we are used to only connecting to one device at a time with them. The problem is that the apple proprietary standard would only work on Apple products, everyone else will only be able to connect to regular bluetooth. Thats why you need a new product, because people who buy it need to know going in that its greatest features are only compatible with the newest apple devices. They already did this with cinema displays in the past so its not like they don't already create products that do not work as well on non apple devices.
I’m a professional musician. I spend every waking hour with live instruments that make infinite-definition music. Yes, I absolutely can hear the difference.
I hear you, but it's not my thing. I'm a meat and potatoes guy.
I can totally tell, I spend most of my days working with live musicians and acoustic instruments. Basically infinite-definition music.
But can you tell the difference between 320kb AAC and lossless when playing a recording of those live instruments? Cause live is always going to sound different from recorded, even if only because of the recording equipment.
The higher power to send wifi is required at both ends, thus the AirPods would run out of battery charge much much quicker.
I want the jack for convenience, not for quality
2021 and Bluetooth is still a pain to use.
Totally. Hearing live calibrates your ear for all the high-frequency information that digital audio just cannot capture.
Yeah I get ya, it's a lottery which devices will connect. What I meant by convenience, is say, I can listen to a podcast or whatever with my headphones so the rest of the house doesn't have to listen to it, and do so while cooking or similar tasks without the cable getting in the way, or without the phone/laptop needing to be in my pocket. I've found that to be the killer app for wireless headphones.I want the jack for convenience, not for quality
Yeah, I still use BT when it makes sense. Luckily my headphones have BT but also a jack.
Apple wants to improve bandwidth for their wireless headphones, adding a wire doesn’t solve the problem…
I still can't believe they absolutely butchered the fitment for the AirPod Pros. Never had an issue with any headphone since the original iPod and these just don't work.
I even pulled out my 12 year old wired Apple in-ear buds and they still fit and make a perfect seal. The difference is one is long and narrow allowing to be inserted further in to the ear, and the other has this monstrous bulbous end to it.
I even pulled out my 12 year old wired Apple in-ear buds and they still fit and make a perfect seal. The difference is one is long and narrow allowing to be inserted further in to the ear, and the other has this monstrous bulbous end to it.
Obviously not, but it's not the lack of a headphone jack that made me go wireless. It's just very convenient.
And again, the option to use wired still exists.