Reading the comments in the Mac Rumors article that I linked to above is very interesting.
The commenters ask why Apple is not making a big deal out of BT LE Audio capability in their new AirPods Pro 2 devices.
The answer is (according to the comments) that with an iPhone and the AirPods Pro 2, the Apple AAC codec is superior in audio quality to the LC3 codec in BT LE Audio. One poster says the only benefit to employing the LC3 codec in Apple devices is that it’s better in dealing with “complexity” in the BT stream and better for battery life.
Another poster says that the LC3 codec does bring better audio quality to Android phone users equipping themselves with Apple’s AirPod 2 Pro devices as their earbuds of choice. According to the comments, the reason Apple is not trumpeting BT LE Audio is they don’t want to advertise “Now you can use our earbuds with an Android phone and get GREAT audio!” Apple wants to sell iPhones and iPhones will do fine with the AAC codec until there are more mainstream uses of BT LE Audio.
Me: But what about HA’s??? iPhone to (name your favorite) MFi HA?
Edit_Update: A survey comparing Apple AAC vs. Android AAC vs. LC3Plus (some commenters on the article below say it was unfair to only make the comparison at 144 kbps).
Personal blind sound quality comparison of the Bluetooth codecs (AAC vs LC3) (hydrogenaud.io)