I have the Airpods3 arriving today. I don’t care about the ANC at this point, although I may later on. At this point, if I use the smallest (least intrusive) eartip fit, my concern is how the bass compares to the Airpods2 in quantity and quality.
Well, you’ll see (or hear) soon enough, but if you don’t have a proper seal then bass will be highly attenuated to the point where “quality” won’t be much of a factor.
The normal AirPods do a better job without a seal, simply because they’re designed and tuned to work without one.
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How dependent are these on having an iPhone? Will their functionality work with Android?
Just gonna leave this here…
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Got the Airpods Pro about 7 hours ago, and experimented with the eartips. The smalls were a no-go – very weak bass. With the mid-size tips the bass is quite good, and deep. Funny thing, running the eartip ‘Fit’ button gives me a good fit sometimes and sometimes I get the Need to Adjust message, but regardless, the bass is solid and consistent with the middle tips, so I’ll assume for the time being that I’m right on the Fail line for the Fit measurement’s purposes, but otherwise OK.
I tend to hear IEM’s as very to extremely bright in the mid-upper treble, and the Airpods Pro are no exception for me, so after some EQ tweaking the sound is pretty good. I wondered for a long time if the original Airpods were just not up to hi-fi quality in any respect, or whether the lack of bass was the main issue. I’m leaning in the latter direction now, so a bit more tweaking should tell.
EDIT: One thing I wanted to emphasize here is that where I still cannot wear IEMs due to insertion into the ear canals, the Airpods Pro is no issue for me because the medium tips don’t go into my ear canals - i.e. with regular IEMs the tips on most of those have to be well inside to get the proper bass, as well as a secure fit. I get both with the Airpods Pro with only a sense that the tips are “just touching” the openings.
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Sources: iPhone XS-Max, 16/44 WAV files (CD rips).
Disclaimer: I purchased the Airpods Pro from Apple at full price. In this mini-review I’ll use my own definitions for ‘Earbud’, ‘Earphone’, ‘IEM’, etc.
IEM: The most common of hi-fi earphones, these sell for as little as $15 and as much as $5000 USD or more. Key features of the IEM (In-Ear Monitor") are a nozzle projecting from the body, with a choice of interchangeable eartips to mount on that nozzle. These eartips are inserted well into the ear canal to 1) Ensure a stable fit, and 2) To obtain a good seal against the ear canal walls for best bass response.
The Airpods Pro are not IEMs.
Earbud: Any earphone (not always hi-fi) that fits its drivers inside the ears somewhere, as opposed to headphones, which sit on or around the ears.
The original Airpods were a higher-quality type of earbud that focused its sound through a narrow opening in the earbud, rather than across a wide surface as the older round earbuds were designed to do. Those Airpods (and the Earpods before them) were able to achieve much better bass response than the older round earbuds, by getting most of their sound much closer to the ear canals.
The newer Airpods Pro attempt to do even better by moving the sound closer yet, by using interchangeable eartips that have narrower openings (like IEMs), but are mounted on the earbud body rather than on a nozzle as the IEMs are. The Airpods Pro do this very well in my experience, where the middle-size eartips fit up against my ear canals, but do not penetrate noticeably. With this design I have good comfort and a secure fit, and most important - a full-range sound with good bass response.
Describing the Airpods Pro sound in hi-fi terms is really tricky, because you’ll need to get a perfect (or nearly so) fit so that the bass response is properly balanced to the midrange and treble. NOTE: When I tested my fit using the Ear Tip Fit Test in the iPhone’s Bluetooth settings, the results were mixed - sometimes OK on the Left and NOT OK on the Right, or vice-versa. Don’t be misled by these results, since an intermittent “Good Fit” might actually be perfect, as it is in my case. NOTE: ‘Intermittent’ as in an electrical connection is usually a bad thing, but ‘intermittent’ here is just the ‘Fit’ report result, which has no requirement for exactness.
One of the more difficult deep-bass sounds I have for headphones to reproduce accurately is the contrabassoon(?) that weighs in around 10:30 of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony 4th Movement, performed by Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony in 1972. The Airpods Pro play this with very good weight and detail. Another track that has strong bass impacts in the opening seconds is Trombone Shorty’s Backatown. The bass notes here are played back with uneven weight by many headphones, depending on the frequencies for each tone. The Airpods Pro play these notes evenly and convincingly.
The Airpods Pro midrange will probably vary less among different users than the bass and treble, for various reasons, but the crucial factor is getting accurate tonality of instruments and voices. In my listening thus far (6 days), the tonality has been spot-on. Reviews often note how well or how poorly a headphone sounds with good quality recordings versus poor quality recordings. I haven’t experienced anything different in that respect with the Airpods Pro compared to my other headphones, and that for me is a good indicator that this earphone is a high fidelity product - assuming of course a good quality source, good recordings, and a reliable and clean Bluetooth connection.
Treble is the most difficult part of the sound spectrum to analyze, and if you have a look through some of the Innerfidelity test charts, you’ll see why. Those very ragged lines representing the treble measurements stand in stark contrast to the much smoother parts of those lines that represent the midrange and bass responses. Given my experience with many quality IEMs to date, I’m confident that the Airpods Pro treble is either pretty smooth and reasonably neutral, or smooth enough in the neutral ballpark to be easily treatable with the iPhones’ settings, or whatever the Android phones have to offer.
Summarizing the above, the Airpods Pro may be a great Earphone, at full price, for users whose requirements are similar to mine: High comfort with no significant penetration of the ear canals; A good frequency response or one that’s easily addressable with an effective EQ; Price that suits these factors plus the convenience factors.
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That’s the exact set of three I’m debating between (well, debating adding the Sony to my existing set)! I do love the fit of the 20i - I’ve had a great deal of trouble keeping the AirPods Pro in. Hoping for 3rd party foams that aren’t as shady as the one seller I’ve found.
Shocked to hear the AirPods Pro performed better for you than the 20i and it makes me feel better about my next flight.
I am somewhat disappointed in one trend - I was able to plug in and recharge my 20i for uninterrupted usage during a flight from SEA to NRT but the NC 700 (and WH-1000XM3) immediately shuts off when plugged in, and of course, TWS battery life is nowhere near international travel length…
Apple Airpods Pro Review
Review unit provided by headphones.com
Introduction:
The audiophile world has set itself apart from the traditional consumer market for some time now. When the average person thinks “I want to buy the best headphones”, they usually end up in a shopping mall to get the latest and greatest from Bose or Beats, attaching what some consider to be a hefty price tag to specific features like noise cancelling or wireless, rather than anything to do with sound quality. Naturally these are all a far cry from what headphone enthusiasts consider ‘high end’, and this knowledge often brings with it a sense of superiority. I’ll see your Bose and Beats products, and raise you a Focal Utopia, LCD4, or ZMF Vérité. After all, we’re the ones who’ve bothered to do the research - we know what we’re talking about. But that supposedly well-earned superiority complex is not without its shortcomings. It’s precisely because of this that a consumer oriented product like the Airpods Pro is likely to be overlooked by headphone enthusiasts like myself. And it’s also because of this that the Airpods Pro were not at all what I expected them to be.
Before going further I should state that by no means am I an Apple user. I’ve used Apple products in the past and I recognize the value of such an ecosystem for many people; for better or worse, it’s just not what I’m currently using. The contents of this review will also therefore be primarily focused on the sound quality aspects of the Airpods Pro, and not their integration and functionality within that ecosystem.
In the box:
AirPods Pro
Wireless Charging Case
Silicone ear tips (three sizes)
Lightning to USB-C Cable
Documentation
Specs:
Type - In-ear
Driver Type - “Custom high-excursion Apple driver” - most likely a dynamic driver
Active Noise Cancellation - Yes
Water resistance - Yes (IPX4)
Charging - Qi-certified chargers or the Lightning connector
Battery - Up to 4.5 hours and up to 24hrs with case
Bluetooth - 5.0
Price - $249
Source:
LG V30 and OnePlus 7T (not currently an Apple user) -> Tidal High and Master quality -> Airpods Pro
Music:
Patricia Barber - Smash
Renee Olstead - Renee Olstead
GoGo Penguin - Humdrum Star
Molly Johnson - Because of Billie
Tiziano Bianchi - Now an Then
Kyle Eastwood - Cinematic
Adam Baldych - Sacrum profanum
Eric Clapton - Chronicles
Periphery - Hail Stan
Opeth - Pale Communion
Performance:
The Airpods Pro are not a traditional IEM in the sense that they don’t actually sit as deeply into the ear canal as other IEMs. So in many ways, as some have pointed out, it’s still more of an ‘earbud’ rather than an in-ear monitor. But I always found with the older style apple in-ears that they fell out too easily, and with the addition of tips on the Airpods Pro, Apple has found a competent middle ground. I personally don’t mind the deeper insertion style of traditional IEMs, but I know that many people do - or they haven’t had the opportunity to experiment with a wide range of different tips to get the fit right.
Apple hasn’t been particularly transparent when it comes to the exactly what type of sound tech is going on in the Airpods Pro, stating only that it’s a “custom high excursion driver”, which we’ll come back to. However not only does it look like some version of a dynamic driver from their marketing materials, it also sounds like one as well. To be more specific, there are two distinct advantages for dynamic drivers over balanced armatures in IEMs, namely that they have a more natural sounding timbre and they do a much better job of handling bass frequencies. Both of these qualities immediately stand out to me with the Airpods Pro. Conversely, they do not sound like they gain the benefits of multi-BA IEMs either.
Build, Design & Comfort - 9.5/10
As mentioned, the Airpods Pro are only partially in-ear, and that’s a good thing for comfort. Not only do the Airpods Pro feel well-constructed, their unique ability to create a seal at the outermost part of the ear canal is likely to be considerably more comfortable for a wide variety of users. One quick note about extra features, the side of the protruding ends that stick out from the ear have a small tactile button that enables and disables the active noise cancellation - and from my experience using this, it works well. Moreover, the fact that the Airpods Pro do protrude out from the ear in this way also allows for them to be somewhat smaller in the ear than some of their wireless ANC competitors such as the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless.
The most important part of the design is that the Airpods Pro are simply easy to use. You don’t have to fiddle with the seal, you don’t have to insert them to extreme depths, and at the same time they don’t fall out. The ability to put them on and take them off by literally just placing and removing them is a welcome change from what I’m used to with traditional IEMs.
Detail Retrieval - 6/10
Okay so this should come as no surprise. No, the detail retrieval is nothing special here. If technical ability is the most important thing to you, your money would be best spent on a wired option, or even an over-ear. For individual instrument lines, there are no textural nuances, there’s no ‘plankton’ or highly resolving treble, and no ‘liquid midrange’ like many of us audiophiles like to experience. Effectively the Airpods Pro are good enough to get by for what they are - they do produce sound, but it’s not particularly detailed.
Speed & Dynamics - 7.5/10
Also unsurprisingly this is not a particularly fast in-ear. When comparing the Airpods Pro to some multi-BA IEMs around the same price, this was immediately noticeable. However, impressively they do have some decent dynamics, especially in the bass. This is again due to the high excursive characteristics of what I can only assume is a dynamic driver being employed. Specifically, it’s able to exert enough force to the outside of the diaphragm that the large waves for bass frequencies hit with decent impact. Now, it’s not on the level of closed back over-ear headphones, or even most wired IEMs that do use dynamic drivers. This is not a “punchy” nor a “tight” experience. But again, for what they are, I’m reasonably impressed.
Stage & Imaging - 7.5/10
I have to admit that I’m impressed with the imaging of the Airpods Pro. While not particularly spacious most of the time, occasionally I hear instruments farther away from me than I expect. And importantly there are no significant gaps for the images. Structural definition is also reasonable, although again not on the level of wired multi-BA IEMs. Thankfully, it doesn’t sound muddy, but that’s largely to do with the tonality, which we’ll get to.
Timbre - 8/10
Thankfully the Airpods Pro also have a reasonably natural timbre. There’s no metallic straining or smearing of details the way some multi-BA IEMs do. At the same time, if descriptions of ‘natural’ sound like the opposite of ‘analytic’ or ‘clinical’, the Airpods Pro surprisingly land closer towards the latter. And while this isn’t strictly a driver-related timbre, the frequency response does have an important impact on how a headphone’s timbre come across. For the Airpods Pro, it’s solidly acceptable, and nothing sounds shrill or boxed in.
Tonality
This is where the Airpods Pro shine, at least to my ear. While not perfect by any means, at this price, with the concessions that are required to A) make it wireless and B) add ANC - nevermind the fact that it’s a product that typically contains the ‘Apple Tax’ - I’m thoroughly impressed. I imagine the average listener will also be impressed, probably more-so even than I was, specifically because of how well the bass transitions into the midrange. Most consumer headphones don’t do this properly, at any price. With the Airpods Pro, it’s likely the first time many of these consumers have heard exceptionally linear sub-bass extension, while at the same time not suffering an over-emphasized presentation at any point below 100hz.
If you walk into any consumer department store or shopping center, you’ll notice that most of the headphone products are marketed as having “extra bass” or something similar, suggesting that the average consumer wants this. In reality, it’s mostly just a bloated, boomy mess. With the Airpods Pro, that’s specifically not the case. It’s clean and distinct, sitting slightly lower than it should, but at the same time it’s exceptionally well extended. Moreover, the transition into the midrange is also very clean. This causes certain tones in the bass to come through with significantly more clarity.
The midrange is a bit unremarkable, in a good way, however there does seem to be a slight bit of congestion in the upper midrange, and transition into the treble, and then the treble rolls off a bit causing certain cymbal hits to not sound quite right. Again, this is where a single dynamic driver with high excursive capabilities for bass frequencies starts to exhibit challenges for treble, which on the whole requires a lot more stiffness and rigidity to properly represent finite details. While not muffled or muted sounding (the highs do rise up appropriately and there aren’t any significant issues for the frequency response), the best way I can describe the treble is that it’s somewhat rolled off, and lacking extension.
But again, I have to give the Airpods Pro good marks for the tonality. It’s just not something I expected at all for a consumer product. Add to that the fact that many IEMs somehow get tonality so dramatically wrong, while commanding exponentially higher price tags because they’re ‘audiophile’ products, it means that the Airpods Pro’s tonality (read: not technical ability) is somewhat of a benchmark for wireless in-ears at $249.
Score - 8.5/10
Comparisons
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless - While this also has very good bass extension, this is in my mind exactly what I’d expect from a consumer level IEM - and not from the arena where the celebrated audio company has dominated for decades. The Momentum True Wireless has similar technical abilities as the Airpods Pro, or lack there of, but also a much more ‘V-shaped’ frequency response. This is not a good thing for ideal listening environments, depending on the genre of music of course, because you miss out on a lot of information in the upper mids and lower treble transition. There will be some who are drawn to the Momentum True Wireless, especially for those listening in less than ideal environments (and of course, this is the type of product that you would be taking to those places), but for me the Airpods Pro do a better job overall.
Brainwavz B400 - This is my favorite comparison because the B400 is in many ways what you could get as a wired alternative for slightly less money. It’s a 4 BA driver IEM that has considerably better technical ability (detail, speed, image distinctness), but its bass performance is also not on the same level as that of the Airpods Pro. Both have an agreeable tonality, and they both roll off slightly in the treble above 10khz, but the Airpods Pro actually have better sub-bass extension. This once again demonstrates that for the most part, BA drivers just don’t have the excursive capabilities of dynamic drivers for bass frequencies (the 64 Audio U12T is a notable exception to that… but that’s a different matter entirely).
Campfire Audio Io - Another similarly priced wired multi-BA IEM, the Io uses two balanced armature drivers, and while the general tilt for these IEMs is slightly counterclockwise, it suffers a well-known flaw in the upper midrange around 2-3khz where the drivers cross over. Apart from that one flaw, however, the Io’s general tonality is quite good, and it also has some of the best treble performance of any IEM in this price range. For those who want to properly understand the Airpods Pro’s shortcomings in the treble, compare them with the Io to get a sense of that. The Io’s other major drawback is that it exhibits extremely noticeable BA timbre issues, to the degree that it actually interferes with some of the otherwise excellent technical abilities of this IEM.
Audeze LCD-i3 - The i3 is considerably more expensive, but I wanted include it in this comparison because it’s another great example of different driver tech in IEMs - in this case planar magnetic technology - that allows for better bass representation than the standard multi-BA IEMs. The i3 is also bluetooth capable (not truly wireless) with Audeze’s Cipher module. The i3, and even the lower end iSine products, performs dramatically better on a technical level when compared to the Airpods pro. Keep in mind that Audeze is also targeting apple users with the i3, as they do include a lightning connector as well. For those who are curious about the technical limitations of Apple’s Airpods Pro, compare them to a planar like this and it should become immediately obvious. Now you’re not necessarily missing out by that wide of a margin at the $249 price point, but keep in mind there are some other planar IEMs that are coming in at these lower prices now as well.
Campfire Andromeda - The perennial multi-BA flagship IEM is an absolutely unfair comparison for the Airpods Pro, but since the Andromeda is one of my go-to IEMs I have to ask myself the following: Would I be willing to make the technical performance concessions for the intangible benefits and convenience that the Airpods Pro allow for? My answer to that is still a confident no. Not only does the Andromeda do better for all technical performance categories, it also has better treble extension, and doesn’t suffer the roll-off of lower end in-ears. The one advantage of the Airpods Pro is that they don’t have the dreaded BA timbre, and while it’s not all that bad with the Andromeda, it’s still there and slightly noticeable.
Conclusion:
The Airpods Pro are really good for how convenient they are, however, with the introduction of products like the ES100 or high end DAPs like the iBasso DX220, the performance benefits of high end IEMs still make the cable’s inconvenience worthwhile, and I don’t mind having to make the concession to go wired. This is where audiophiles can comfortably still demarcate themselves and their priorities from the average consumer. But at the same time, the Airpods Pro may be the first taste many people get of really fantastic tonality - especially for clean and linear sub-bass extension. Because of this, I have to applaud Apple emphatically here, and that’s something I’m not normally quick to do.
In fact, while technical performance is average, the tonality of the Airpods Pro is so good for most of its frequency response that I think manufacturers who focus on enthusiasts and audiophiles as their target market need to take a good listen to what’s been achieved. No, they’re not breaking any performance categories, but they certainly do better at tonality than an uncomfortable amount of IEMs at exponentially higher price tags. There are probably a number of manufacturers who don’t consider this product to be much of a threat, they’re not in the wireless ANC game - but they should still be paying close attention. We should all be paying close attention to this. One day, they’ll all be wireless, and I’m still on the lookout for the first truly wireless IEM to get technical performance on the same level as their contemporary wired counterparts. For now, however, the Apple Airpods Pro at least get a comfortable check mark for their tonality and we’ll have to settle for that.
Overall - 7.8/10
Watch the video review here:
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I’ve been having issues with fit - I even bought the offbrand $30 eBay tips which were…mediocre.
I read an article about stripping the foam insert from Symbio Ws and placing it on the stock tips…magical. I still can’t make the fit tester happy but the rate they slip out of my ears decreased substantially - bass response being the biggest improvement.
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AirPod are not my favorite but, I must say the AirPod pro worked very well.
I really liked the AirPods Pro, but I had a problem with them falling out of my ears (this is a perennial problem with IEMs for me).
I tried custom sleeves, based on laser scans of my ear canals which worked great and provided me with great comfort and isolation. BUT they don’t fit in the charging case. It is a bit of a pain to take the sleeves off to charge, and put them on every time to use them.
So I was pleased to find DUAL-FLANGE silicone tips for the AirPods Pro from DeliDigi via Amazon. Now they fit really well, and they fit in the charging case! They come in white and black.
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New AirPods Pro quality:
“ Pro next year, enabling wireless, 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio for an immersive audio experience at the highest quality.”
A reason to upgrade.
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If the new AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C), which I grabbed along with my annual iPhone upgrade, can do lossless audio with the Vision Pro, then there’s no reason Apple can’t put the necessary source hardware in other devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac).
Seeing the lossless w/ Vision Pro announcement during their latest keynote, I thought the iPhone 15 Pro/Max might have that hardware (and they might), but if not, nothing stops it showing up in the 16, or the next revisions of the iPad or Macs.
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Agreed. I pick up a new AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) for $199 on Amazon.
I would imagine that they will enable the 20 bit 48k transmission, particularly on the latest iPhones, iPads and Macs.
I wonder if the new ones actually sound better or if that person just had some wax buildup or something affecting their OG APP2
you’d think if the sound was actually better on these then Apple would announce that so more people would buy them
I have both the original AirPods Pro 2 (Lightning) and the latest set (USB-C) … and if there is a difference in how they sound, it’s subtle enough that I’m not picking up on it.
Even tried keeping the tips consistent, by swapping one set between the two sets of AirPods Pro 2, to rule out changes from worn tips, and … well … nothing in A/B testing. Maybe something will show up over longer sessions, or with a firmware update (on the iPhone 15) … but so far … not hearing any difference.
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My wife just upgraded to new iPhone and we picked up the AirPods Pro 2 to go along. Barbara is not a fan of putting things in her ears and these are no exception. She does like the presentation of vocals but finds the bass “muddy”. She hates the gimmicky Spatial Audio and the various transparency and ANC modes.
Barbara llikes live music and speakers. She tolerates good headphones, but does not listen frequently to them like we do. IEMs aré a non-starter.
I took a listen to these AirPods and I must agree they seem to be fairly, boosted in the upper and midbass region, I found the trouble to be somewhat lacking and depressed much to the point that these would not be something I would listen to without equalization and I’m not sure how to do EQ on them. That’s just the first impression.
I on the other hand, Am impressed with some of the electronic gimmickry the ANC is quite good and I could see a use case for them, especially if I didn’t have nice wired choices.
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We are here for you and your troubles. Please don’t suffer.
For me they are about rapid switches between Apple devices – watch, phone, tablet, notebook, media server. With noise canceling they work in the gym, work on planes, work on trains, work on busses, work on sidewalks standing over heating grates that blow up your skirt.
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That’s what I get for using audio to text on my iPad when visiting my 95 year old Mom. The proper transcripton was that the TREBLE was lacking and depressed. Nice catch. I’m not correcting the original.
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