Thread: Airpods Pro
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
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2021-08-28, 19:41

Digging up this thread, because after much hate for Apple headphones I've caved and decided to give the Airpods Pros a go since they are on sale at many third party sellers. I wouldn't be surprised if an updated pair comes with the new iPhones this year, but I would definitely not be willing to pay full price for these. If the Pros were at the normal Airpods price point, I'd say that would be about right for what you are getting, more on this later. I decided to give Apple a shot after killing yet another set of wireless earbuds this past spring, because even with 8 different tip types none of them fit well and they always fell out. I have two or three pairs with one working earbud, frustrating I have to say. Needless to say if that Airpods Pros have this same issue, falling out, they will be a no go in the future.

First thing that hit me about the Airpods Pros, the default tips fit in my ears and they don't start falling out after 5-10 minutes, but I haven't done any outdoor walking or hiking with them yet. The Pros staying in my ears already makes them at least one a step above the others I've owned. Sound quality? Better than wired Apple earbuds, by how much it's hard to say, since the Pros make a proper fitting to the ears with the tips. BT signal strength indoors is great, they stay connected when my phone is at the other end of house, crazy. I've had what I'd call a dual experience with theses. On older BT4.2EDR devices the Airpods Pros sound okayish, but on BT 5.0 devices they sound about what I would expect them to. On a 4.2 device they sound about the same as Soundcore $100 (Cdn) true wireless ear buds that use ceramic drivers, but noticeably worse than my wired Sennhesier over ear headphones (not a high end audiophile set). On a BT 5.0+ devices the Pros sound a lot closer to the over ear headphones, so clearly the data rate and newer tech makes a huge difference. The Pros seem to have a neutral sound, not bass heavy. There seems to be some fall off in high vocal notes, but that could just be Music Store (I'm still saying iTunes store in my head) file compression, I don't have any uncompressed files to immediately compare with at this time. No doubt the normally similarly priced Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 buds would be better than the Pros for sound quality, but the sale price made the Pros a lot cheaper. There is no popping or buzzing, at least indoors, seems about right for a BT 5.0 pair. Noise cancellation? I've had slightly better isolation from earbuds without noise cancellation. It seems to block out some sounds better than others, noise like computer fans are gone, and it dampens the sound of my mechanical keyboard nicely. With voices, coming from speakers, I could hardly even tell the difference between cancellation being on and off, but voices are slightly quieter. Transparency is great, can turn it on and have a brief chat without stopping music, likely the best feature of these earbuds. Battery life could be better, similarly sized buds from other brands are better. Even my cheap buds would get 8 hours on a charge without noise cancellation.

Are the Airpods Pros a good set of ear buds? At third party sale prices, yes. Also from a technical stand point for a device that came out in 2019 they are very good, but around average in terms of audio quality. So I'll stand by my initial statement that I would not pay MSRP for these.

Last edited by PB PM : 2021-08-28 at 19:53.
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