AirPods Pro 2: An Audiophile's Review!

it has been nearly three years since I reviewed the original airpods Pro upon release they were an entirely unique departure from the original airpods they had silicone tips and active noise cancellation transparency mode and other new features that I had to contextualize and demo in my video review they were in many ways a first mover a massive impressive technological leap in the true wireless buds Market with really only one competitor the Sony wf-1000 xm3 great name a product that sounded marginally better than the airpods pro but was worse in literally every category in the last three years Apple has frankly done very little in the audio department they released the good but not great and Incredibly expensive over-ear airpods Max with the same Hardware features as the airpods pro and then they released a refresh of the Dependable but boring entry-level airpods to say that the rest of the market has caught up would be an understatement so hope the question becomes do these second generation airpods Pro improve upon their predecessors enough to a warrant their price premium and B to weather the market for the next several years well I'm a long time Tech reviewer and audiophile so you've come to the right place just like skylum when they came to us as a sponsor to talk about luminar Neo luminar Neo is my go-to AI driven photo editing software in addition to excellent built-in presets and fine editing tools they're AI gizmos are money with easy sliders you can for example relight photos like this one without lifting those ugly crushed Shadows you can clear up your skin you can thin out your face enhance eyes heck you can erase power lines and so much more you can run the software Standalone or as a plug-in inside a Lightroom Photoshop and even Apple photos but what's new are there extensions for even further expansion HDR merge allows you to take up to 10 exposure bracketed images and create a single HDR photo it's got excellent Auto Alignment if you don't have a tripod and ghost reduction for when you've got moving objects in your shot make an HDR processing a one button press is a dream come true the other new plugin noiseless AI is a lifesaver when you don't have enough light data hitting your camera sensor neural Nets in conjunction with manual control options help you get higher quality more precise faster results than trying to do it manually by the end of 2022 Lumen O'Neill will have seven total extensions the app has got an excellent pricing model you can either subscribe monthly or yearly and get all current and future extensions included or if you prefer you can purchase a one-time lifetime license and then buy the extensions packed separately if you do choose to subscribe you can save 10 percent off a yearly subscription by using my link down below and the code snazzy at checkout if you enjoyed the fit and the shape of the original airpods Pro well you're in luck because dimensionally nothing has changed in fact spotting the differences between the two from the exterior is tricky the new Pros well they inherit that skin detect sensor that was introduced on the airpods 3 refresh in lieu of the original Optical sensor and it's mighty good now you can place one or both of the earbuds in your pocket or on a table or anywhere else without resuming media playback accidentally that is something that always bothered me with the original Pros the only other change visible on the buds themselves save for one little microphone Grill being moved is the ear tips the airpods Pro 2 ship with a sparser mesh now media Outlets were quick to criticize this as a classic apple cash grab but it's a stupid argument because the tip fitment tabs they haven't changed at all first generation tips can still fit on the new airpods as do all third party tips and apple sells replacements for both at the same price there is a real reason and it's this tips can and do make a difference in tuning this is a measurable statement of fact and I don't understand the skepticism from Tech blocks in short you should stick to the tips that are intended for the generation of airpods that you own for Optimum sound however there is one exception and it's an excellent Improvement that is made in the second gem tips that I have not seen marketed anywhere by Apple I want you to go right now well don't actually because retention you got to watch this video search the web for airpods thumping you will find endless threats from people over the years stating that while running or walking there's a loud thud in their eardrum with every step this is a phenomenon not exclusive to the airpods the effect is called tunneling and it's the result of sound waves being trapped inside your ear canal going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth now airpods they actually have microphones inside your ear canal so that they can measure and reduce the effect of tunneling caused by artificial noise that is to say the noise created by the airpods but there is another natural tunneling source that comes from bone conduction basically when your ears are sealed off your body is a huge drum and hitting your feet against the pavement will send those vibrations up your bones into your ear canals sounds crazy but it's true both my wife and I experienced audible tunneling discomfort running with the original airpods Pro however with the airpods Pro 2 this effect has entirely disappeared for Megan and it's drastically reduced itself for me passive radiation in general is much improved and that is excellent the last Hardware change on the buds themselves but not one that is visible to the naked eye is the updated capacitive control surface in addition to the force sensitive playback controls we've had since the original airpods you can Now swipe up and down to raise and lower the volume respectively One swipe represents one volume gradation increase just as it would be if you press the volume button on your phone or on your keyboard so sometimes you've got a swipe swipe swipe to get the volume up quickly but I find myself using it to control the volume anytime my phone isn't already in my hand I do it instead of reaching into my pocket it's that good it works that well I am super glad that it exists and that I will never have to summon Siri ever again to change volume when my phone isn't in my hand or in my pocket the case that's the thing that really looks different not coincidentally it's also one of the things that inherits the most new features now while the physical size hasn't changed its feature set has the addition of greatest import well in my opinion that's got to be the U1 chip this allows for several nice quality of life changes not only does it permit find my network integration giving you the case's approximate location as long as another iPhone user on the planet is nearby but the case itself can now communicate with your phone via find my even without the buds inside this is a huge help to me a Serial case misplacer now while the case gets you one the airpods themselves they do not they are able to be roughly located using the find my app based on Bluetooth signal strength as they have always been or via audible alert but that's only to devices where the buds have been paired that doesn't extend to the fine my network so you've got to make sure that you save yourself the headache of losing the buds just put them back in the case when you're done speaking of audible alerts the case also inherits its own speaker but unfortunately the speaker cannot play Rapper's Delight Taylor's version it can only chirp Like A stupid bird it has an on by default but disableable confirmation tone when it's plugged in or placed on its own charger and it can also squawk when lost quite loudly I might add by the way let's talk Chargers USBC didn't become a thing really frustrating it really should be we're stuck with lightning but at least we have Qi support Max safe support and now Apple watch charger support which no one asked for that but okay it's kind of convenient because I have a Max save Duo charger and I don't have to charge my Apple watch every day because sometimes I don't wear my Apple watch and so it's nice to be able to you know be able to charge my phone and then whatever secondary device but it's gas USBC the other benefit of the U1 is battery status every airpods model up until now has required you to flip the lid to wake the buds up which would then communicate with you the updated battery level on the case but then you have to remove the earbuds individually to get their individual battery status it sucked that whole song and dance that's done with the airpods Pro 2 they now persistently update status for both the case and the buds real time even when separated it is spectacular the last new case feature is well just a little cute lanyard Loop right here I won't be using it but I know that many people buy a case explicitly for this purpose so for those people that's going to be nice it also cleverly doubles as an antenna uh for the case itself which you know is the most Apple thing I've ever heard and in a good way you can't help but smile a little bit they're like hey we gotta have an antenna why not make it a loop ah anyway enough foreplay Let's Jam these things in now while I don't like the term myself I am what most people would classify as an audio file I've been into Hi-Fi for the better part of 10 years owning all manner of equipment and I've been to trade shows Etc I'm an audio nerd it was always my opinion that the sound quality on the original airpods Pro was fine and inoffensive but just fine the tuning wasn't to my personal preference it lacked defined sub Bass But felt bloated in the mid bass mids in the two to four kilohertz range were decent but there was pretty aggressive roll-off right after five kilohertz which resulted in a disappointing lack of Sparkle with female vocals feeling bailed and with brass and percussive instruments losing all hutzpah furthermore The Sound Stage was it was it was okay but not great with not a lot of Headroom there was lacking instrument separation and a general lack of detail pretty much anywhere but the lower mids the sound was fine but not quite good earpods Pro 2 have stepped things up noticeably the first thing that immediately stands out is the sub bass there is a lot more in Georgia Smith's on my mind in the course there's this gnarly Distortion heavy sine wave bass that comes in and I wouldn't say that on the new airpods it's super tight yet like it is on really good headphones but it takes the burden away from that horrid mid base of the prior generation and it just brings a lot of dynamicism and fun to the low end that the ogs lacked lower and upper mid-range those are also noticeably improved Over The Originals which is nice considering that this is one of the first gen's few strengths there is even more presence uh in in Alex Turner's vocals on Arctic Monkeys there better be a mirror ball his voice cuts through the instrumentation where other headphones often falter at bringing him to the front there really is a very good job and that higher female vocals well they suffered the worst on pretty much all other airpods models but not on here on the track Tokai by teko onuki I'm sure I butchered that the singer's high pitched and very quiet power lacking vocals they feel present and they feel forward even with the overly mixed drums and slap bass this is a great song by the way for testing equipment because everything overpowers her voice you've got to have good equipment to hear the difference and also because the backup singers what they sound like they're from a Mario game so that's pretty fun you're still going to lose upper mid treble and the highest end stuff basically eight kilohertz onward snarky puppy's afro-inspired Javi really punishes headphones because it's got a thick powerful sub bass line and then there's a a pretty heavy drum line but then you've got a whammy bar Laden clavinette seriously look at this thing it's ridiculous the pushes really high up into frequencies that the airpods pro they just can't quite handle and then you add in the Brash uh fluegelhorn uh that's German and the trumpets and the breathy bensuri all at the same time these are all instruments I'm not making stuff up and you start to lack distinct instrument separation that you get on better headphones with that said most headphones struggle with this song and the airpods pro despite their lack of texture they never sounded bad they never were super overwhelmed they actually remained really fun and engaging for all 10 minutes of the song and that is not often something I can say so summarized the new airpods Pro they're not fine they're good they're very good they have much better Sound Stage and separation significantly higher pressure sub bass even more than measurements would suggest like this one from critical there are improved myths for even better male vocal performance and finally good female vocal performance with a little roll off over the ogs for a slightly less sibilance symbols that was kind of a struggle of The Originals these are definitely more colored and they're more Dynamic than the originals they are not flat they ain't even close but I think they're a lot more fun and pretty much everyone that buys these will find them to be an enjoyable improvement over the airpods pro one the question becomes well is it worth upgrading to these just due to sound quality improvements I'd submit that no it probably isn't but there's more to these than just sound quality so let's talk about noise control shall we airpods Pro and airpods Max ship with three noise canceling modes you've got off transparency and noise canceling starting from the top off used to be completely useless you would lose all of the low end with the entire sound profile getting thin with airpods Pro 2 I actually enjoy the off mode it doesn't utilize your adaptive EQ settings which does take a noticeable hit in music and movies however it does get rid of the noise floor that's associated with the other two modes which I like when I'm listening to something with a lot of dead space so podcasts and audio books furthermore it can save 30 to 45 minutes of listening time in the battery Department which is really great maybe they should just rename off mode to atom board mode next up we've got transparency mode what was already very good gets even better when airpods Max came out I praised them for sounding more natural and less processed uh in transparency mode than the original airpods Pro with the airpods Pro 2 Apple turns the dial up yet again to 11 because 11 is more than 10. transparency mode on these is it's remarkable to the point where it's almost indistinguishable from having the airpods removed all together from your ears they're that good this year Apple brings another feature called adaptive transparency this is just on by default wherein the buds are supposed to take High decibel high frequency really loud noises and bring them down normalize them so that they're the same volume as everything else in transparency mode does it work kinda when standing on the sidewalk next to a busy road it did seem that cars passing were less loud than they sounded on my airpods Max while other noises like tapping my shoe on the pavement remained unchanged unnormalized just good volume however in other instances like standing outside of our office next to a lot under construction why did we rent a recording studio next to that place I don't know I'm dumb mistakes have been made I I was less convinced by the effect the rumbling of a diesel crane seems just as loud as if I had the airpods in versus removed altogether I actually had to check to make sure that I hadn't messed something up in the settings it was loud enough that it was not enjoyable sure enough if you open up the noise app on the Apple watch when the buds are paired to the Apple watch and only to the Apple watch you can actually see how much the air pods are actively canceling but I remain skeptical of its claims and I often felt that despite what it said it was just frankly too loud suggestions for many other reviewers while good intentions to use airpods in adaptive transparency mode at a concert in lieu of proper hearing protection is extremely unwise they offer limited hearing protection but really limited during production about 23 decibels in reduction best case scenario that's not even transparency mode that's with active noise canceling turned on which doesn't necessarily translate to a direct decrease in volume to SP SPL but that's really just getting out of the weeds what I'm saying is don't go to loud rock concerts if you're not going to wear earplugs okay you'd get out tinnitus and be old and deaf what what when you get out there use protection okay speaking of protection speaking of getting out there you look nice today oh you didn't hear my compliment to you well turn off noise canceling on your airpods pro 2. look active noise canceling was good on the airpods pro but it wasn't fantastic there were better options out there that changes with airpods Pro 2. it is Sensational truly it is unbelievable even when nothing is playing very few noises make it past every frequency with repetitive Cadence is completely gone air conditioners plane engines vibrations gone additionally higher pitched voices those are gone kids bye-bye kids your wife who her the only thing that's going to get past is lower pitched vocals with Timber and by get past what I mean is that you can hear someone is talking you can't actually hear what is being said it is remarkable how improved ANC is and more importantly the pressurization that is present on most ANC headphones certainly on the original Pros that makes some people nauseous and gives them headaches that is entirely gone or almost entirely gone on airpods Pro 2. at least to a degree greater than any other pair of ANSI headphones I've ever used if noise canceling has wigged you out in the past give these a try they may actually work for you the low level noise floor that hiss isn't gone but everything else is it's so good all right let's rapid fire some few remaining thoughts call Quality is better than well just about every other pair of headphones on the market but it's still not great like it is on airpods Max my wife reported that I was intelligible but that it sounded like I was talking on a speakerphone and when I started to type on my loud keyboard she told me that it was loud to the point of being difficult to hear me and that in certain instances she got a painfully sharp noise in her ear this was a problem on the original airpods Pro it's only a problem on the airpods pro and they haven't fixed it I don't know why when I switched back over to my iPhone 14 and typed on the keyboard she said that she couldn't hear it at all improvements should be made battery life is significantly improved with these airpods Pro 2. the Old Pros oh they'd last me about four hours when they were new and then about half that after a couple years which made long distance flights frankly a bit of a pain now you can stretch to six hours on a single charge before putting them back in the case and in a couple years well you'll probably get four we may finally be at a point where we don't have to throw our airpods away every two years because the battery sucks hopefully that's the case in transparency mode wind which would often present itself as a distorted mess on the airpods pro the original ones and even on the airpods max that is greatly improved you still get an inkling of peaking but it is way better if you can't tell I am a huge fan of the airpods pro 2. they took everything that was good about the airpods pro and made it better not least of which the sound quality because now it is genuinely good I would not suggest that really anybody buy the original airpods even on discount now that these exist and if you're feeling like you want to upgrade from the first gens and you're tired of the battery life being sucky you're not going to be disappointed look I'm not here to pretend that the airpods Pro 2 are the only options on the market the market is very healthy the Samsung Galaxy buds 2 Pro measure extremely well and the Bose qce2 are lauded for having even better noise canceling than the airpods Pro 2 but I think that the airpods Pro 2 they're the most well-rounded they're the Jack of all trades and frankly I think they're the only choice even worth considering if you've bought into the Apple ecosystem the ecosystem that makes these airpods just as magical as every version before them they really are fantastic thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed this video please give it a like if you didn't that other button doesn't work please leave a comment down below are you getting the new airpods Pro 2 if you have them do you like them is there something better let me know I'd like to know most importantly and as always I don't know why I'm talking like that stay sassy [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Snazzy Labs

Views: 269,727

Keywords: snazzy labs, quinn nelson, snazzyq, airpods, airpods pro, airpods pro 2, airpods vs airpods 2, original airpods pro vs airpods pro 2, airpods audiophile, audiophile, bluetooth headphones, tws headphones, samsung vs airpods, galaxy buds vs airpods, bose vs airpods, audio, music, noise cancelling, anc headphones, anc buds, airpods 3, airpods pro 3, airpods max, wireless headphones, headphones apple, best headphones 2022, best wireless headphones 2022

Id: J0IMc6sigXE

Length: 21min 51sec (1311 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 30 2022