Apple's AirPods Pro received an improvement in voice audio quality in 2021 when the third generation of AirPods went on sale, it is now claimed.
Hidden in the AirPods 3 announcement is a sentence that says the new Bluetooth headphones support AAC-ELD, a "superior voice codec that offers full HD voice quality." According to a developer, this codec update is also available for the AirPods Pro. AAC-ELD, or Advanced Audio Codec-Enhanced Low Delay, is a variant of the AAC standard used on most streaming services. However, it also offers better audio quality and lower latency for spoken communication, wrote developer Marco Pfeiffer in a Medium post. Although Apple said the AirPods 3 will get the AAC-ELD codec, Pfeiffer could not confirmthat the company has also added the new Bluetooth profile to the AirPods Pro.
AirPods Pro support the new profile
The result should be improved audio quality when users receive a call, as AirPods automatically switch to a two-way profile when they receive a call, which typically results in poorer audio quality. It's also possible that the AAC-ELD codec was added in older AirPods models, but Pfeiffer could only confirm that the profile is supported by AirPods Pro. Pfeiffer noted that while the new profile is an improvement, it is not perfect. Bluetooth data rate limitations still cause problems when using a two-way audio profile. (Photo by yurchello108 / Bigstockphoto)
