They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs, hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that's still yet to come.
For me, I view the purchase as an investment in my hearing health. Instead of having to turn up the volume to account for traffic background noise or the like, I can keep the volume low and use ANC. While $200 is a lot to drop on a piece of electronics with a limited (<3 year) useful life, the calculus changes dramatically when viewed through the lens of a medical assistive device.
It's also nice that there are more volume/seek controls built into the stems, versus the v1.
There are other brands of in-ear headphones that you jam into your ear canal more like earplugs. Possibly those could have an effect. But AirPods Pro are nothing like that.
I agree that we need to be mindful of rapid and dramatic changes to how we interface with the world, since our bodies may not react well in the long run.
First, they do seal, so even if it's not as tight as a foam earplug, it is something.
Second, there's the ANC which is producing out of phase sound and lowering the sound pressure level reaching your ear. I have seen commercial hearing protection with ANC, though I'm not sure if it's allowed to be advertised as such. The theory is sensible at least.
Thirdly, the ANC is allowing you to listen to your audio content at lower volumes, especially in a very loud environment like an airplane.
Fourthly, there's an advertised hearing protection feature in passthrough mode where external noises loud enough to cause hearing damage will be automatically reduced.
Fifthly, There are sound pressure measurements being sent to the iphone for audio content loudness in real time, and also over time notifications you receive if you have been listening too loudly.
So all in all, yes in practice, but we're not exactly talking OSHA here.
I'm genuinely curious: are there any audiophiles on here that could answer?
FWIW - with the ANC off, sounds that make me 'cringe' (sawzall, table saw, hammer drill, etc.) are very much muffled and seem to be just as muffled as when using foam ear plugs. As others have said, there is a big difference between noise levels for a guy remodeling his bathroom with power tools and a someone that saws concrete for a living.
I don't know anything about this channel but I watched a bit of this video and it seems to be a good explanation of how it works:
I've used them in situations where the "ambient" music is ear-splittingly loud (Apple Watch saying GTFO or you're gonna go deaf). Aipods Pro 2 in and I can still hear what people are talking, but the loud noises are brought down considerably.
AW decibel check goes from 90 -> high 60/low 70 with ANC on.
Not as good as actual proper earplugs, especially the ones that look like pine trees, but I carry my Airpods with me everywhere - earplugs I don't. The Airpods go to the Airpods pocket in my jeans, I do have earplugs in my bag, but it's not with me at all times. My pants are =)
My only complaint is that something in the noise cancellation mic tends to wear out over time. After about 18–24 months of use, I start to hear an unpleasant high-pitch sound whenever I touch the mic opening on an earpiece. This could be related to dropping them, which is inevitable. I'm on my third set now.
For my giant router I use muffs. The AirPods act funny around stuff that loud, and it stops feeling comfortable.
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/hearing-protection-us/products/f...
My concern with the Airpods are simultaneously playing music through a small speaker, with its own negative affect on hearing (long term), while also trying to attenuate (poorly) loud noises.
In my experience, Jackhammers and rivet guns will absolutely blast through the foam and the ANC will not be fast enough (the noise also too sharp and high frequency).
Everything else works great but people reading this thread: wear proper hearing-protection!
[1] https://www.engadget.com/apple-airpods-pro-lawsuit-amber-ale...
the amount of air pressure I can feel in my ears when a train is coming into the station is definitely much larger than just letting the silicone tip do the little noice attentuation it can
the weird part is that it's not a sound I can hear, I normally have an ok range of hearing but this is just _pressure_
ANC might be a "huh cigarettes cause cancer, who knew" type thing.
I do wish they'd come down in price more, and ideally in the future be more sweat-resistant and most importantly have replaceable batteries. I don't really love the idea that they're essentially a ~$200 every 2 years subscription at the moment, all while creating a craptonne of ewaste.
Seriously, if you have headphones in every day mainly to mask environment noises, these are a must-have. Best buy in a looooong time.
Likely would come from Google's or Microsoft's (OpenAI) services rather than Apple's, given how terrible Siri is.
More Airpod Pro form factors would be welcome, but the functionality is pretty good.
The only ones that stay in better are the OG Airpods with no noise cancelling. The shape fits my ear perfectly.
Anything that goes in the ear canal? Always pops out eventually.
As a result, I use my old Airpods (not sure what gen, but pre-Pro) for zoom calls. I don't need ANC under these circumstances, and I prefer to not be reaching for my ear every couple minutes to push the pod back in.
It's nearly impossible to make something that small _and_ get a 10/10 iFixit score. You can't put any sane screws in anything that small, stuff needs to be glued down.
