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Comment by cryptofistMonk | Hacker News Reader

Airpods Pro.

Not traditionally an apple guy so didn't expect to like them, but the guy talked us into them while we were upgrading my wife's phone.

Wow. These things are just way better than any other earbuds and so much more convenient and comfortable than headphones. The Bluetooth just works even when switching between my Android and MacBook. The noise cancelling is great as well, way better than my Sennheisers.

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They were such a game changer for me. I used to be a big “audiophile” and spent more than I’d care to admit on headphones.

AirPod pros sound very good. Not as good as a really good audio setup, but good enough for pretty much everyone out there. The noise cancelling is really good. And best of all they are so comfortable.

Idk if I’m gonna have some weird cancer in 40 years from wearing these all the time, but I love them so much.

Can you elaborate on your previous auditory experiences? I'm checking for Steve Jobs/ Apple's reality distortion field. I've seen many recommendations from people who have upgraded to Apple from bad products (e.g. This iPhone 12 is so much better than the Android phone from 2017 which I paid $300 for), as opposed to a fair competitor. In this case, have you used other high-end headphones released recently?

Not OP but I have a pair of nice IEMs, open and closed back headphones and a headphone amp on my computer.

For serious listening sessions I will still plug my IEMs into my phone, but the Airpods Pro are just really convenient and sound good enough that at this point, 90% of my mobile listening is done through them. The sound cancellation is nice and better than my sennheiser momentum m2s (audio quality on those is better than the airpod pros but they have apt-x which is the difference maker, but does not exist on ios yet)

Same. 90% at ... 5x/10x the cost delta is more than good enough to prefer the AirPods.

I’ve owned and tried many headphones from different high end companies. Sennheiser HD800 were my staple for a while. But I’ve also had grado, Hifiman, and some “boutique” options.

Airpod pros don’t give you the same experience as a high end setup. But you come to realize you’re enjoying the headphones more than the music itself. Or at least I did.

With the airpod pros the quality and the overall experience is good enough that I don’t even think about them, just whatever music or audio I’m listening to.

Check out the frequency response curves yourself of the airpod pros [0] and say, an open-back sennheiser hd650 pair [1]. The airpods have a huge bump at about 1.5kHz to 3.5kHz (mids), while the sennheisers are more neutral in low frequencies but also have a bump at ~3kHz to ~7kHz.

Nothing will beat open-back headphones on a good system, but apple's stuff as of late is plenty good.

[0]: https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/apple-airp...

[1]: https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/sennheiser...

I had a similar experience, having used EarSonics IEMs and own a pair of custom Noble Audio ones too, alongside Hifiman open headphones with a nice DAC/amp. The sound doens't compete at the same level, but it's so convenient, feels way more comfortable than any of the above, and quality is adequate for me to enjoy the music I listen to, so in practice I've barely touched all the other cool audio gear I have since I bought the Airpods Pro.

I am a traditionally an Apple guy. Sure some VMs for linux development, but the gear is all Apple stuff.

I had Beats Pro headphones that got damaged after a good amount of use so I replaced them with non-Pro Airpods and have hated it. I have to constantly worry about them falling out while I'm exercising and the case gets all gunky. The handoff between the MacBook Pro and iPhone isn't reliable enough for me to trust it, so I always have to reconnect it if I'm at a quiet place like a co-working space. Also, within the first year one of them just randomly died and I had to send the whole thing back to Apple. Apple care covered it, but still.

I miss being able to do more with what's on my head. With Beats I could easily change the volume, pause, skip, rewind and they almost never came off. The only thing that kinda sucked was in the summer the skin around them would sweat.

Shrug. At least my MacBook Pro has been great.

You may want to check if you are cleaning your ears properly. Getting AirPods was a wake up call for me to actually dig around my ears for the first time in my life. Went from falling out at first touch to staying in no matter what.

I started with the AirPods and upgraded to the Pro’s. having used both I find the pro models fit and stay in my ears much better. You can also set each one to behave differently when clicked, which might help with all the play, pause, rewind etc. But I’ve gotten used to using Siri for anything more complex than play/pause. The Shortcuts app also makes it relatively easy to add custom commands. “Hey Siri, silence” will pause, invoke noise cancelling, then play again. “Conversation mode” will pause and turn off noise cancelling.

Thanks for the reply. I do have each AirPod set to different things, but I find it just doesn't work as well as the interface that I had with the Beats headphones. The tap-tap on my ear is much more distracting than the click-click on the Beats, and so often I have to pause and think whether I can do something. For example, I used to be able to fast forward 30 seconds at a time through podcast ads then rewind 15 seconds once I went into the content. Now I can only do the fast forward part, since the other ear is set to pause. And of course I can't quickly turn up or down the volume.

I know the answer to this is "use Siri" but I dislike using Siri. Even if it worked perfectly, which it doesn't, it would still be annoying to be that guy in a coworker space or cafe that's talking to his phone.

Thanks for the feedback on the Pro's though. Maybe they will help, but I'd like to test them before I commit, which is admittedly a little difficult because of the yuck factor.

I rarely jump back and forth when listening to audio.. so I went digging. In Apple's docs: • To skip forward, double-press the force sensor on the stem of an AirPod. • To skip back, triple-press the force sensor. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207010

So the only issue left is volume. Hey Siri.. how do we change the volume without talking to you?

They didn't work for me. I'm super sensitive to microphonics. With the Airpod Pros, every step I took sounded like someone banging a drum in my ear. It's not specific to Airpod Pro's, most headphones that plug into my ears I have that problem (though not all). I wouldn't have even tried the Airpod Pros except I figured if anyone was going to get that right it would be Apple.

Well, they didn't solve it, I sold them and went back to my non-Pro Airpods

I know this is stupid but use a lower volume?

I used to feel the same way, and still do about how good they are relative to my previous choice from 2005-2019 (wired Etymotic passive isolating buds). I bought them on day 1.

But I'm on my third pair of replacement buds now and still experiencing issues. They no longer have the random squeaking issue that the first two pairs had, but still have issues with Bluetooth connectivity, failing to connect 10-20% of the time, dropping their BT connection during Zoom calls, etc. I'm sure some of this had to do with BT itself, but I was hoping that I'd see no pairing issues at all due to the W1 chip.

I still use them all the time, and I presume I'd have way fewer issues if I used them with a single device. I'd actually buy a second pair if I only had a Mac and iPhone, but with work + personal Macs, iPhone, iPad, and HTPC Mac Mini I'd still be dealing with issues on most of my devices.

I have had each earbud replaced once under AppleCare. If I hadn't gotten AppleCare, I would probably be infuriated that I had spent money on them.

The thing about the AirPods is that most people don't own a good pair of in ear or even over ear headphones.

Apple are a widely known brand and one of the first to release a product. In reality there are many other options each with different tradeoffs: https://crinacle.com/guide/tws/

Personally I find their battery life borderline, even with their rapid charge feature. Most of the time when the battery dies I'm in the middle of listening to something, instead of patiently waiting for it to charge I just grab some wired headphones instead.

Plus, they support "Hey Siri". I use that all the time while running with just my AirPods and watch: "Hey Siri, text $friend I'll be jogging past your house in 3 minutes" or "Hey Siri, remind me about this awesome idea I just had". Being able to do that stuff while on the move and without having to look at a phone is liberating.

Came here to say this too. My wife and I both got them and we've been 100% satisfied. Fantastic product.

I was super hesitant to order mine, but for the last year they’ve been in my ears virtually every day. They’re excellent. The sound quality is good, could be better, but the functionality and convenience is what makes them so usable.

Same here. I bought them and figured I'd use them occasionally, but in the past year, they've been used 8-12 hours per day.

From work to chores to workouts, they live in my ears. Incredible value for the use I get out of them.

I was about to write the same thing. I actually didn't like the ANC I had tried with various over ear headphones. The APPs though are great though.

Second would be the M1 MBA. Much has already been written.

Third, I upgrade my home sound with KEF Q series for the L/C/R. Such a huge upgrade from an old set of speakers that were damaged from a move and rattled all the time.

I use mine a lot but have had to do two rounds of replacements due to hardware issues. The battery life is unsurprisingly short (right about 4 hours now) which only comes up on looong calls without a break.

They'd still be on my maybe top 5 list for recent purchases.

Same, I've been android for 10 years but no other noise cancelling airbuds compare in size and performances.

All the android ones look massive in your ears.

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