AirPods Beta Firmware Hints at Higher Quality Bluetooth Audio for AirPods Max, AirPods Pro 2

Apple's AirPods Max beta firmware supports the L3C Bluetooth codec for higher quality audio which could also be a key feature of the second generation AirPods Pro.

Leaker ShrimpApplePro predicted that AirPods Pro 2 would support L3C ahead of WWDC 2022. In a post on Twitter today, the leaker notes that support for the codec has been discovered in the AirPods Max beta.

Before WWDC22, I posted an exclusive leak im my telegram group that 2nd gen AirPods Pro will support lossless codec L3C. And guess what, in the beta firmware for AirPods Max can enable LC3! Big thanks to my member @marajobsession for finding it out!


After enabling that, quality seems to improve, at least from my member’s
The 2nd Pro’s sound quality will improve more, i think it’s from the new SiP when the driver still the same size (no massive redesign like AirPods 2 to 3 to have a big change of drivers)



Some of the technical properties of LC3 include:
● It is a block-based transform audio codec
● It provides a wide range of usable bitrates
● It supports a frame interval of 10 ms and 7.5 ms
● It supports the following bit depths: 16, 24, and 32 bits per audio sample
● It supports an unlimited number of audio channels
● It supports the following sampling rates: 8 kHz, 16 kHz, 24 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, and 48 kHz

The Bluetooth SIG says "The new LC3 provides higher quality at the same rates as SBC, or even better quality at a much lower data rate. Providing high quality even at low data rates, LC3 will bring tremendous flexibility to developers, allowing them to make better design tradeoffs between key product attributes, such as audio quality and power consumption."


Apple is expected to debut its second generation AirPods Pro later this year. Please download the iClarified app or follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and RSS for updates.