Questyle's $99 QCC Dongle Pro2 Adds Bluetooth 6.1, LHDC V5 and Auracast — and Ships With MFi Certification for iPhone

Questyle has released the QCC Dongle Pro2, a small USB transmitter that plugs into a phone, computer or games console and beams Bluetooth audio out to headphones or earphones. It's worth being precise about what that means, because the word "dongle" in headphone circles usually conjures a USB DAC — the kind of device that plugs into a phone and gives you a headphone jack. That is not what this is. The QCC Dongle Pro2 has no headphone output at all. Its job is entirely on the transmitting side: it takes over Bluetooth duties from the host device and sends audio out over the air, using codecs that device might not otherwise support.

That distinction matters because it explains exactly why a product like this exists. The iPhone, for instance, does not natively transmit Sony's LDAC, Qualcomm's aptX Adaptive or aptX Lossless, or Savitech's LHDC — codecs that a growing number of premium wireless headphones and earbuds support and use to justify their higher-resolution ambitions. Left to itself, an iPhone streaming to those headphones falls back to Apple's own AAC or the baseline SBC codec, regardless of what the headphones are capable of on the other end. Plugging in a transmitter like the QCC Dongle Pro2 replaces the phone's built-in Bluetooth radio for audio purposes, opening the door to whichever higher-bitrate codec both the dongle and the headphones can agree on.

What's new in this generation

According to reporting from StereoNET, the QCC Dongle Pro2 moves to Bluetooth 6.1 and now supports LHDC V5, LC3, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless and LDAC, on top of the SBC and AAC codecs that are already native to source devices. It also adds support for LE Audio and Auracast, Bluetooth's newer low-energy audio framework and its associated broadcast-listening standard, which lets a single audio source be picked up by multiple compatible receivers at once — think shared listening in a gym, an airport gate, or a venue broadcasting audio to anyone in range with compatible earbuds.

Questyle has also secured Apple's MFi (Made for iPhone/iPad) certification for the Pro2, and describes it as plug-and-play over USB, needing no drivers or companion app to function. The company lists compatibility with iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox, positioning it as a general-purpose transmitter for anything with a USB port rather than an iPhone-only accessory.

Reporting from eCoustics and Basic Tutorials corroborates the Bluetooth 6.1 platform, the codec list and the Auracast and LE Audio additions, framing the Pro2 as squarely aimed at listeners whose source hardware — especially Apple's — locks them out of the codecs their headphones actually support.

Price holds steady

Questyle is keeping the QCC Dongle Pro2 at US$99, the same price as the outgoing QCC Dongle Pro, according to multiple reports. Given the addition of a new Bluetooth version, a new codec (LHDC V5), and infrastructure for LE Audio and Auracast, holding the line on price rather than raising it is arguably the more notable commercial decision here. The Pro2 is available now, with worldwide shipping said to have commenced as of the end of July 2026.

Questyle's framing

Questyle CEO Jason Wang described the new dongle as building on the work of its predecessors, saying the QCC Dongle Pro2 "expands on the promise of its predecessors to break down the barriers" preventing listeners from enjoying premium Bluetooth audio on their devices. That "barriers" framing lines up with the product's actual purpose: it's less a hi-fi upgrade in its own right than a workaround for source devices — chiefly Apple's — that have been slow or unwilling to adopt the higher-bitrate Bluetooth codecs favored by audiophile-oriented headphone makers.

The caveat that matters

None of this works in isolation. A Bluetooth transmitter can only use a codec that the receiving headphones or earphones also support — the QCC Dongle Pro2 can offer LDAC, aptX Lossless or LHDC V5 all it likes, but if your headphones only understand AAC and SBC, that's still all you'll get. StereoNET's coverage is explicit that real-world performance, including latency and wireless stability, depends on the codec support and quality of the connected headphones as well as the listening environment. In other words, the Pro2 is a key that only opens locks it already matches — buyers should check their own headphones' codec support before assuming a jump in quality.

Reading the market signal

The more interesting story here may be about where Bluetooth audio is heading rather than the dongle itself. For years, the competitive story in this space has been the hi-res codec arms race — LDAC versus aptX Adaptive versus aptX Lossless versus LHDC, each claiming better bitrates and lower compression. The Pro2's other additions point somewhere different: LE Audio and its LC3 codec are Bluetooth's new low-power baseline, and Auracast is a broadcast feature built on top of it, aimed at one-to-many listening scenarios rather than squeezing out marginal fidelity gains. That a mainstream $99 transmitter now ships with all of the above — the high-bitrate codecs and the broadcast infrastructure — suggests device makers expect both fights to matter over the next few years, rather than betting entirely on one.

For now, would-be buyers should treat the QCC Dongle Pro2 as a transmitter that removes one specific bottleneck: a source device that won't send the codec your headphones want. It doesn't add power, doesn't add a headphone jack, and its actual listening experience will depend heavily on what's on the receiving end.

This article was written by an AI system from Into The HiFi AI Desk, generated from the following sources, with no human editing pass before publication: StereoNET, "Questyle QCC Dongle Pro2 Breaks Bluetooth Codec Barriers", eCoustics, "Questyle QCC Dongle Pro2 Brings Bluetooth 6.1 and Hi-Res Audio to iPhone, Mac, PCs and Consoles", Basic Tutorials, "Questyle QCC Dongle Pro2: Bluetooth Transmitter with Bluetooth 6.1, LDAC, and Auracast".