Apple Continues to Tease Lossless Support in Future AirPods ⇥ whathifi.com

Kashfia Kabir, What Hi-Fi?:

And the longer it goes on, the more the question needs repeating. Is hi-res audio a priority for Apple?

[AirPods engineer Esge] Andersen remains coy, saying that while audio quality is always a priority, “it is important to understand that 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.”

Lossless support was rumoured for the second-generation AirPods Pro models since Bluetooth 5.0 is capable of 16-bit, 44.1 kHz streaming. But Apple Music streams files up to 24-bit and 192 kHz. Even if it is not possible to hear the difference with human ears, I am sure Apple would love to be able to say some version of its AirPods stream bit-perfect high-resolution audio — eventually.