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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious how the newest airpods compare to the pros when it comes to bass. I had first gen airpods, then I bought a set of pros, but the bass was so weak I thought they had to be broken. Turns out it's just an artifact of how they were designed. Some people are okay, but a lot of people feel the same way I do. I ended up returning them and now I'd like to know if the g3 airpods are comparable to the pros, or comparable to the g1/g2 airpods.

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I’ve tried all of them so far. The standard gen 2 AirPods are the best by far. The new 3rd gen ones won’t stay in my ears. Pros are uncomfortable and lack bass. 2nd gen are perfect.

I listen to everything from classical to metal to hard dance.

They’re pretty variable depending on your ear shape. For me the pros are the only option since the others fall out immediately (same for mkbhd).

My wired Apple headphones were useless until I found "ear hooks." They work with AirPods too.

Ironically the Pros do not fit my ears even slightly, but the regular ones are mostly OK.

Maybe I should splash out on some of those custom ones that are fit to your particular ears.

For me it's the other way around, the original AirPods stay in my ear at all times. With the pros, I constantly need to adjust it, and they've fallen out of my ears multiple times whilst in the gym.

I'm a bit reluctant to by the 3rd gen Airpods, since my two other pairs are still in perfect working condition.

I recently picked up a pair of 3rd gen airpods after my first gen died. I also have air pod pros. I didn't even leave the parking lot before I returned the 3rd gen and replaced them with new 2nd gen airpods. The fit was horrible and unlike the APP that have the flexible and size-adjustable ear tip the 3rd gen offered nothing to change fitment. I don't even find that the APP fit as well as the 2nd gen airpods.

If I were you and you find the originals to stay in your ear and the APP to not be great you definitely do not want 3rd gen airpods. I wish they would not have changed the form and fit of the airpods to be more like a "cheap" version of the pros.

Oh, I thought the 3rd gen had the same kind of fit as the 2nd gen? I do like the pros for when I'm working, the noise cancelling is really great. But I can't use them for exercise, since they just fall out so easily.

This is surprising to me given the rubber tips - have you tried the other sizes?

I have, and the medium ones give me the best fit, but it's still not enough. The shape of the 2nd gen was just a better first for my ears.

Interestingly, some people had the opposite complaint about HomePods — that they had too much bass. Apple now has an option in the Home app to reduce bass on HomePods.

Not everyone had the complaint, and I think I know the reason for that: The configuration of the room. At my last place, my HomePods were way too bassy for my ears. At my new place, they're fine. Same gear. Different room geometry.

Are the speakers farther from the corner of the room in your new place? Proximity to the corners is an old trick for increasing bass output.

One is on a new table. The other is on the same table in the same position. Neither have ever been in a corner. (No outlets there.)

Interesting about the corners, though.

You need a seal to get significant bass from earbuds. the non pro airpods do not make a seal (by design).

If they experienced better bass on the G1/G2 Airbuds, it's not a seal issue.

The G1/G2 emphasize the high-bass to make up for the complete lack of sub-bass. Maybe that's the tuning they are looking for?

I primarily listen to rock. Airpods are great for that. I don't listen to much music that has significant sub bass.

I bought the gen3 and returned them for gen2. Two reasons, but the main one was comfort. I forget the gen2's are in my ears. The gen3's were painful.

Second reason: gen3's require Monterey for macOS integration. A painful week-long exchange with Apple support brought this out.

I've used all gens and recently tried G3 for the first time. I instantly noticed that the bass was significantly better than the Pros. It's been a while since I've listened to G1/G2 but from memory I would easily place G3 above all of them in terms of bass. It wasn't enough to persuade me to get some because I love the noise cancellation on the Pros and would rather wait for their update. But I was tempted, in part due to the bass.

They can kneecap them with forced firmware updates. I’m happy with the galaxy buds on iOS. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/17/21069953/apple-airpods-pr...

Fellow Galaxy Buds (plus) user here, also with Apple devices. I generally like them. Battery life is stellar (compared to the others, it's just about satisfying for me). Pass-through mode is noisy and tinny (irritating). Connection reliability leaves a bunch to be desired (randomly disconnects every once in a while).

Galaxy buds plus too! Love the 11hrs on single charge they’re really good. I think random disconnects stopped when I disabled the touch controls and you can downgrade the firmware, I think the last 2 updates sucked, did they make it worst? https://github.com/ThePBone/GalaxyBudsClient The pass through mode might be bad because you have a blocked mic, mine is great.

You'll also probably have a better listening experience with Galaxy Buds on iOS than Android on some Android devices. Apple's AAC encoder, used with AAC headphones like the Galaxy Buds (well, that's the best codec iOS supports for those headphones), have consistently proven themselves to outperform the competition. Linux's PipeWire, which uses the Fraunhofer AAC encoder is pretty good as well, but Apple's AAC is the best, and you can hear it.

Some Android devices use the Fraunhofer AAC encoder, but some don't. If they don't, you can definitely hear the difference—it sounds like a compressed mess.

If you like bass, the new Beats Fit Pros are fantastic. They’re basically AirPod Pros with a different physical design and bass-heavy EQ. I find they keep a seal much better than the AirPod Pros as well.

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