The new AirPods 4 support ultra-low latency lossless audio when used with Apple Vision Pro.
Regular Bluetooth audio is compressed, and its latency is high enough to break the illusion of spatial audio when your head or the virtual source is moving. Even Qualcomm’s aptX Low Latency and open LHDC have latency equalling more than three display frames, for example.
With Apple Vision Pro, Apple built in a custom 20-bit, 48 kHz wireless audio protocol with lossless compression and “ultra-low latency” as a solution to this.
From launch until this month the only earbuds which supported this protocol were the second generation AirPods Pro with USB-C, which cost $250. But now the new regular AirPods 4 support the protocol too, and they start at $130.
As well as the latency advantage, the protocol makes Vision Pro the only Apple device capable of lossless Bluetooth audio, when used with AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro 2.
Both Vision Pro’s built-in audio pods and the custom wireless protocol support Apple’s Personalized Spatial Audio, where the system will tailor the sound to your head and ear geometry for the most precise possible spatial audio. To set that up you need an iPhone with a TrueDepth (FaceID) sensor, which will scan the shape of your head.
