Apple AirPods Pro 2nd generation
A new interview with Esge Andersen, an engineer from the acoustics team at Apple, has just appeared at What Hi-Fi?. Kashfia Kabir, the Hi-Fi and Audio Editor at the authoritative audio publication, scooped a chat with the engineer, who has been with Apple for over a decade.
Here’s what we found out.
It’s all about the air flow
Andersen says that the movement of air is key to good sound. He said, “When we talk about good sound, it’s all about how we move the air in the product – which is kind of weird because it’s not talking about the enclosure or how it looks – but it’s about ensuring that we also design for airflow.”
The most recent AirPods Pro look almost identical to the first-gen, but the vents have been changed with one at the back instead of two on the previous model. That might not sound like much, but Andersen claims it’s key to the audio improvement found on the new earbuds, especially improving high-frequency responses.
This fits with what Apple has previously told me, that the new venting means there’s less of the obtrusive pressure which can be felt in the ears when noise-cancelling is turned on, and which is noticeably absent in the latest headphones.
Pocket-sized build, big sound
“We wanted to give everybody an AirPods Max in their pocket,” Andersen claims. This is quite the ambition, given the disparity in size. The result, says Kabir, and I agree, is the bass is much better in the second-gen AirPods Pro. The new earbuds also sound better, whatever volume you listen at, which is not always the case. Andersen suggests they can “give the same sound signature at lower level as a higher level.”
Andersen also says the earbuds adjust the tuning according to what you’re listening to. “If you’re on your Apple TV with a bigger screen, our tuning is different than it would be on an iPhone.” Andersen also talks about how Apple is open to improving the sound continually and for every Apple source. “At the end of the day, there is somewhat of a compromise, because you can’t make it perfect for everybody yet. This ability to be able to give you the best experience was our goal… no matter what it is you have, we want to give you the best experience.”
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.
Andersen says that the codec is not the whole story: “We can still make big strides without changing the codec. And the codec choice we have there today, it’s more about reliability. So it’s about making something robust in all environments. We want to push the sound quality forward, and we can do that with a lot of other elements. We don’t think that the codec currently is the limitation of audio quality on Bluetooth products.”
Finally, without giving away anything—I mean, this is Apple, after all—Andersen hints that more changes are coming. Who knows, maybe these will include lossless? He comments on what’s coming next like this: “I don’t know yet 100% what it’s going to be. We are always thinking about the next thing. This is in our DNA.”
The full interview is well worth a read over at whathifi.com.
