Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Gen Wireless Earbuds Up to 2X More Active Noise Cancelling Adaptive Transparency Personalized Spatial

These AirPods Pro are amazing! The sound quality is super clear, and the noise cancellation really blocks out everything around me. They fit comfortably in my ears and don’t fall out, even when I’m moving around. Battery life is great, and connecting to my phone is quick and easy. Calls sound clear too. Definitely worth the money — I use them every day! Read more

I've had two sets of Gen1 Pros, have previously reviewed the Airpods MAX under the Blue ones, and I'll say that as expensive (and nice) as the MAX headphones are, Apple better have an upgrade path where swapping the internal logic for the H2 chip that's in the Gen2 Airpods Pro is an option (the rest of the MAX is perfectly fine the way it is), 'cause I'm not re-buying them. I'd like to, because the overall experience with the Gen2 Pros are so good with the packaging and driver diameter I'd be fascinated in what it can do with a real driver and closed-back design. But I digress; here's the breakdown for the Gen2 Airpods Pro: Sound Quality: It's hard to overstate (maybe not that hard) the degree to which sound is improved on the new earbuds. Previously they lacked real punch to the bass, and while midrange was okay, the treble ranges were much less responsive. You could really tell that Apple had given them a light Beats treatment to improve response at the bottom end. On the iPhone and iPad this was somewhat correctable with the Audio Accessibility settings, but not completely. It's not necessary with these; they have good response through the range, and have a similar roll-off up top to the Maxes and my Sony MDR-V6 wired cans, so at this point I'd have to say they fixed it. Again, the computational wizardry in these is stunning, and they can actually reproduce the final bass hit in my test track, something few buds can manage (I'm actually looking at you, Sennheiser, why can't you do this?). Suitably impressive for a driver so small that it makes me wonder what's done to achieve it. Magic gnomes, possibly. ANC: Noise Cancellation was one of the bigger features initially, but was rapidly caught by the rest of the direct competitors, and this once again puts Apple out front. Seriously improved: The H1 only sampled 200 times per second, while these sample 48,000 times per second, fast enough to compensate for frequencies all the way up the range. Previous work required good passive dampening for higher frequencies (not hard to do, but it's only passive) and the thin silicone of the tips didn't always meet that need especially if sealing was poor. I have one ear that the Large tips can't seal for, and even without it I didn't feel like the ANC was any less from one ear to the other. I even swapped to a pair of Foam Masters memory-foam tips, and while there may have been better sealing, they didn't seem to make a large difference in dampening, the ANC here is that good. Transparency: This. This is the feature of Apple's ANC headphones that absolutely destroys any and every single competitor in the space that's tried it. On all others it sounds thin and tinny, like you're listening to a phone call. Not here. The Gen1's (and MAX) versions prior had this feature (the MAX was especially impressive) and the Gen2 only improves on it. One, Transparency now works as well on the Pros as it does on the Gen1 MAX, and two (this is the best) they can actually live-cancel loud outside noises that would exceed the dB limit set by the device to which they're paired. I've tested this; first by clanking dishes and glasses together while putting them away, and second by walking up to a car wash vacuum head that ran the row of hoses. The first is loud enough usually I can tell it's above the limit, and the second might as well be an idling passenger jet engine, clearly operating in the "damage" range. In both cases, the Gen2 Pros were able to reduce those sounds so they never exceeded an apparent 85dB. You could probably wear these to a concert in Transparency and get the full experience without the hearing damage, and still hear clearly as well. Remember that 48,000 samples per second? Well, when your audio logic is this fast, you can do things like the Transparency mode here. Finally, the Apple Ecosystem: Apple's had for a while a feature for their devices called Handoff. It lets you share media and functionality between and across multiple devices. With the Beats and Airpods lines, it allows for seamless device-switching depending on use, listen to music on the Mac, and if you get a call, they'll switch to the phone once you answer. When done, they'll go back to the Mac once it restarts the audio stream. A useful feature, but the H1-driven devices were always a little slow to migrate, and sometimes just wouldn't. The improved performance of the H2 controller in the Gen2 Pros solves this. I've not once in two weeks of use had a situation where they failed to start and join upon being removed from the case, nor have they failed to switch to the phone. They boot fast. They join fast. They know what the goal is and will consistently pair with the intended target device. They really can just Do What I Mean. It's pretty much eliminated the biggest frustration I had with the Gen1 buds. Now they sound great, kill sound great (ha), and deliver on the promises made with prior versions of cross-device support. So that's pretty much it. Battery life is improved and I can confirm that Apple's sandbagging when they say "six hours of listening" as it's closer to seven, and seems likely to hit 10 if you turn of ANC and Transparency, as like all previous Airpods they include an "Off" setting that only outputs and relies on passive dampening only. Calls sound good and you'll sound better when using them, and reasonably get nearly three hours of talk on a single charge when new; past that and you'll have to do some ear-juggling to keep going. An absolute home run! Read more

AirPods Pro REVIEW 4 months later Noise canceling: This is a review more with noise cancelling in mind rather than audio quality. I work in a noisy environment with machinery, chatter, & tools being used, anywhere from 8-10 hours per day. While earplugs are available at work, the noise is still discomforting for me. The AirPods Pro 2 gen on the other hand cancel out more noise while erasing most of the discomfort. The AirPods Pro are not going to mute the world around you(unless you’re in a quiet place), but they will either reduce the lesser noise to being almost non-existent, or make most of the louder noise manageable/more comforting. The noises that are still annoying are any higher pitched ones. Btw, you can still hear people speaking to you if you’re up close. I have removed my AirPods Pro while at work & the noise around me does blast my ears & reveal how well the AirPods are canceling noise around me. Briefly speaking about the noise canceling while at home & around my neighborhood. At home in my room, they do a really great job in making everything quiet, even for the neighbors blasting music during summer parties. They were ok for fireworks this recent 4th of July though. One small quirk I discovered is that they don’t really work well in noise canceling mode when laying down in bed for loud noises. I don’t know if it’s some acoustic physics, but when the neighbors are blasting music through summer nights, the AirPods Pro can’t really cancel the noise when I’m laying in bed trying to sleep. Like it’s weird I’m laying in bed with loud music blasting my ears, but if I sit upright, the music mostly disappears, I lay back down, & bam! I’m not sure if maybe another of the earbud sizes will work better. Like I did switch out the earbuds that originally came on the AirPods Pro to the “small” size(I’m not sure if I ever did try out the “XS” & “L” sizes but the small does fit me well), I think the ones I removed are considered the medium size. This terrible quirk made me start to research for better noise canceling headphones for use at home, I’m debating getting the Bose quietcomfort earbuds II or the Bose quietcomfort 45. When I’m walking around in the neighborhood in the morning, I turn on noise cancelling mode & listen to music or some twitch stream, & the world does go quiet. If any cars pass by they are audible up close but the noise quickly lessen as they leave. Again, machinery(i.e. people mowing their lawns/construction workers fixing roads) is still audible but reduced to comfort levels. Even birds, grasshoppers, & cicadas are still audible with their higher pitch noises but they’re not annoying. Also, walking near any busy street with cars passing by on all directions does make the noise more comforting, like enough to regularly pass through those streets. When I’m bike riding I switch to transparency mode to hear for vehicles behind or nearby. I want to be safe while riding my bicycle on the streets so I don’t really use noise canceling since they do reduce car noises, especially quieter ones, & might put me in danger. Using transparency mode while riding my bike outside does require me to raise my volume a bit higher to hear any music I’m listening to or any twitch/YouTube streamer I’m watching. Passing cars are not as annoying during these times, since noise does get a little drown out with music or twitch/YouTube streamers. When I get stuck in any intersection waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, I quickly switch to noise canceling mode & the noise levels become comforting, only trucks are still kinda loud. The one negative during these times is that holding the airpod’s stem to switch to noise canceling mode does take about 3 seconds activate & silence traffic. Random fyi: when you turn off both transparency & noise canceling mode the regular earbud mode does also block out some noise, but not anywhere near with noise canceling mode on. Also, if you’re not listening to anything with noise canceling on, you can hear like white noise, I think maybe it’s the microphones that usually cancel out the noise? Quirky android observations: These are still usable on android phones, I have an s23 ultra that I usually take with me to work(while my iPhone 13 pro max & 13 mini are for personal use). As many others have mentioned, you can’t: use google assist, see your battery levels(apparently there’s an app you can download which does show battery levels, if I remember correctly) , use them with both transparency & noise canceling off, I believe. CLEANLINESS:(TMI, sorry) They do get dirty while working, so earwax builds up, but they’re easily cleanable, both the earplugs and the charging case. AUDIO QULAITY: I use my sennheiser hd 560s with the dac dongle for lossless quality on Apple Music, but I still like the AirPods Pro 2 & are also better than my regular AirPods 2. The sennheiser’s have more detail, but the AirPods Pro are still good. I actually use my AirPods Pro 2 more than my sennheisers since earbuds are just more convenient than using over the ears headphones with a like 6ft wire. CHARGING: Lastly, since I work for 8-10 hrs, I recharge my AirPods Pro 2 while I’m on break. I get a couple 15 & 20 minute breaks & the charging case is pretty fast & will keep them charged throughout the day. But if I do end up working 10hrs I’ll get the low battery warning, I think when they hit 20% & 10% respectively. Also the battery case holds enough charge to keep the AirPods charged for two back to back days working about 8-10 hours a day before you need to charge the case itself. I’ve had them for about 4 months now & the AirPods battery have hold up well despite working like 4 days per week and charging them a couple times per week and draining the AirPods regularly. I was also worry about the constant noise work ruining the noise canceling of the AirPods but they still seem to block out noise since like day one. I did buy AppleCare+ for two years to probably replace them if either the AirPod’s battery or the charging case battery deteriorate in the long run. Read more