The Future of Wireless Audio? | AirPods Pro 2 USB-C Review

The new AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C and MagSafe  they're just the same AirPods Pro we had before   but with a different charging port right no  that's not exactly the right take [Music]   welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and  today I want to take you through what I've   managed to learn about the new AirPods Pro 2  with USB-C and there is plenty to talk about   here it is not just about the new USB-C charging  port and what comes with that this latest version   of AirPods Pro 2 have as yet untapped potential  that points to a pretty exciting future so we're   going to get into that but I also want to use  this review as an opportunity to talk about new   features that are unlocked with iOS 17 and as it  happens are also available on the AirPods Pro 2   with Lightning case that you may already own and  ultimately let's see if I can help you decide if   you should run out and buy the new USB-C version  or if you're good sticking with the AirPods Pro   you already own speaking of things you can own did  you know that not only can you absolutely own the   like and subscribe buttons but that notification  bell is well within reach of your ownage too hey   thanks for supporting this channel I appreciate  it on a level that is hard to adequately convey okay so let's kick things off with a real quick  unboxing shall we when you pop open the box and   unwrap the new USB-C AirPods Pro you will  of course notice the USB-C Port but I was   also pleased to see that Not only was a USB-C to  USB-C cable included but it is cloth covered now   Cloud me if you want but folks I am really into  the cloth covered cables these days and I was   legit delighted when I made this discovery and  my 14 year old daughter noticed it too and she   dug it as well so I know I'm not the only one who  thinks this is neat I'm bringing my daughter into   this because she made some other observations that  I want to share here so more on that in a moment   oh and by the way the USB-C cable that comes  with the new iPhone 15s same thing cloth covered   love it anyway back to the USB-C bit I'm going to  editorialize a little bit here because I've heard   plenty of haters clown in the USB-C development  being on the AirPods Pro or the new iPhone 15 or   back when the new iPad started featuring it and  I mean yeah it would have been nice to have this   years ago no doubt one can even argue that it  would have been the environmentally responsible   thing to do and it's likely Apple would not have  done it had it not been nudged firmly by the EU   but I mean if you're trying to absolutely rake in  the dough which Apple is and has been doing for   some time you do stuff like having a proprietary  cable not saying I love it but let's not act like   it was a stupid move but you know what those days  are in the rear view mirror now Apple is clearly   transitioning to USB-C and in the case of the new  AirPods Pro 2 literally in the case this means you   can move toward tossing your Lightning cables into  that drawer or bin with all the other cables you   can't bring yourself to throw out because you  might need it one day but really you may never   touch it again and it's just taking up space  don't act like you don't have that drawer or   bin or massive box you know you do I'm not shaming  I'm just saying anyway you can now charge your air   pods with your iPhone 15 or Mac using your new  USB-C to USB-C cloth covered cable which might   come in especially handy when you're about to  take a flight and your AirPods need to charge just   charge them off your phone and then you can worry  about charging your phone on the seat back charger   now I was curious if you could also charge the  AirPods Pro 2 with Lightning case using an iPhone   15. so I tried it and I can confirm that the  AirPods Pro 2 Lightning will charge that way using   a USB-C to Lightning cable that you may already  have so that's the USB-C stuff what else is new   ipx 54 protection which means dust resistance has  been added let's not dwell on that too much it's   a nice step forward but they aren't waterproof yet  and I look forward to the day I can safely shower   with my wireless earbuds don't judge me so is that  it is that all that's new uh no there is more but   I'm going to get to that in a moment before I do  I want to talk about some of the new features that   were released alongside the new USB-C AirPods Pro  but are not limited to the new AirPods Pro these   are available if you have the Lightning version  as well so long as you're running iOS 17 and your   AirPods Pro had the latest firmware update I'm  talking about adaptive noise control conversation   awareness and personalized volume so to lead off  here's what these three features are supposed to   do personalized volume is meant to adjust the  volume of your music or podcast or whatever   media it is that you're listening to or watching  and adjust the volume based on the noise level   of your surroundings it also learns your volume  preferences over time and starts automatically   delivering your media at what it learns is your  preferred volume so you don't have to go reaching   for the volume control nearly as often eventually  I think you won't even know this is turned on but   if you were to turn it off after getting used to  it I bet you'd miss it conversation awareness is   Apple's take on a feature we've seen attempted  by other headphone makers before turning on   conversation awareness will allow your AirPods  to lower the volume of your media when you start   talking it won't engage just because somebody  talks to you but once you start speaking not   only will it lower the volume of whatever you're  listening to it'll focus on the voices in front of   you and tune into those kind of like an automated  transparency mode but a little more focused for   conversations now if this feature actually works  I'll be thrilled because while I appreciate   attempts at this feature by say Sony for example  on its XM5 headphones and earbuds what I found is   that any sufficiently loud noise will trigger it  turning off noise canceling and piping surrounding   audio in this is not good if what sets off the  feature is something like a lawnmower or a blower   or some other Extremely Loud piece of gear I very  much do not want that noise piped in at me as if   I'm having a conversation with it so if Apple has  this truly dialed into voices and nothing else   sets it off that would be transformative finally  there's adaptive noise control this feature which   also uses machine learning and AI blends noise  canceling with transparency mode the idea is to   cancel out the noise you don't want but let in the  sounds that you do want to hear so let's say I'm   on a flight this happens all the time actually you  want the Roar of the engines to be canceled out   but you do want to hear any announcements made by  the pilot adaptive noise control supposedly makes   this possible I'm really curious to see if and  how this works and whether it's something I'll   use all the time or just in certain scenarios  but for now to test these out I think we should   take a walk I'm in desperate need of a mocha so  let's go get one and see what happens [Music]   thank you [Music] okay that was fun learned a lot and  actually I tested a lot more than you actually   saw uh so let's start with personalized volume  I can tell it's starting to learn uh shortly   after starting to watch a video the volume which  was set lower than I usually have it was raised   automatically probably using the limited info it  gathered since I turned on the feature it matched   the volume level at which I have been listening  to music earlier I tend to listen to videos at a   slightly lower volume so I'm interested to see  if the system can detect the media source and   type and alter it accordingly but I think I'll  need to use this for more than a couple of days   before I'll actually know so I'll pin a comment  in a week or so and let you know so consider   saving this video and coming back again later as  for conversation awareness well I haven't gotten   to my blower yet but I did use this very loud  air hood fan and I put my face right up next to   it and conversation awareness did not kick in it  also didn't kick in when someone really close to   me started talking and it didn't kick in when  a bus rolled by outside so I mean the trigger   behavior is way way better than any other version  of this feature I've experienced that part I love   the moment I speak transparency mode kicks  in and I can hear myself so I'm not speaking   unnecessarily loudly and I can clearly hear who  I'm talking to but one thing that needs some   improving if you don't talk for more than like 10  or 15 seconds then the music starts creeping back   in it doesn't seem to register the other side of  the conversation so I mean you're sitting there   paying attention and talking to your people and  then music gradually ramps up and drowns them out   and it's kind of like a movie worst part is you  have to interrupt them by speaking just so that   you can hear them again let's fix that as for  adaptive noise control it doesn't work exactly   as I had imagined it but to be honest how now  I had imagined it might work would probably be   super annoying of course I can only say that  having experienced how Apple has envisioned it   and I think Apple got this one right it really  is a hybrid of noise canceling and transparency   mode like the noise canceling is pretty light just  walking around and on the street if I don't have   music playing I can hear cars going by and other  Street noises but as soon as there was a droning   sound that got knocked down significantly that  Air hood fan and the microwave were both knocked   down in volume by I'm going to say about 50  percent that's as opposed to the 90 or so that   you would get from full on noise canceling but as  the AirPods Pro 2 were quieting down the fan I was   still able to hear Zeke speaking to me and when I  spoke to Zeke that conversation happened normally   and then eventually the noise canceling would  go up just a little bit now the noise canceling   doesn't act as quickly in adaptive noise control  mode as it does as in full noise canceling mode   takes a couple of seconds for it to calm this  fan noise down it's not snail's pace slow but   it does sound like someone is just turning the  volume down on the fan noise generator again I'm   curious to see how this feature evolves over time  and how I like implementing it into my daily use   of the AirPods Pro 2. I do think that adaptive  noise control is really best for folks who wear   their AirPods Pro all the time and don't really  ever want to take them out that's not me but I can   still see myself using it selectively and overall  I think this was a smart development from Apple   one thing is certain I can't think of another  brand of earbuds or full-size headphones that   can do what the AirPods Pro 2 can do with these  new iOS 17 enabled features other brands have   transparency or pass-through modes they have  dialogue detection some of them have adjustable   noise canceling levels Sony does Sony has all  three of them but none of them are executed   nearly as well as Apple is executing them here so  I've got to give all three a pretty enthusiastic   thumbs up as a reminder those three features work  with your existing AirPods Pro and the new AirPods   Pro with USB-C but I did say there was more that's  new about the AirPods Pro with USB-C that I'd like   to talk about later so let's do that now some of  this is shrouded in mystery some of it is just   flying under the radar so Apple has said that it  has redesigned the acoustic architecture inside   these new AirPods Pro the H2 chip is still  in there and Apple won't get super specific   about it but it seems like it is a combination of  Hardware software and and programming changes that   all come together in the stack but what does that  mean for you well it doesn't mean dramatically   different sound quality for day-to-day use yet  as I listen to Apple music using spatial audio   and standard stereo I don't perceive any super  notable differences in Fidelity whether I've got   ANC on full board turned off or using adaptive  noise control however we do know that the new   AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C can do uncompressed  lossless audio wirelessly we know this because   it is touted as a feature that will work for now  only with the forthcoming Apple Vision Pro headset   now I've learned a little more about this but some  stuff remains a secret what I can tell you is that   it is not Bluetooth and there is no wireless audio  codec involved it's not Flac or aptx or anything   like that it is raw uncompressed lossless audio  at up to 20 bits what's the technology allowing   that though well we can only guess Apple's not  saying I would say it's something that akin to   ultra wide band but Apple would not say that  because Apple made this end to end so it is not   what we know of as uwb we know that the new case  is not involved here that's something else we know   this is a communication protocol again for now  just between the new AirPods Pros H2 chip and the   H2 chip in the new Apple Vision Pro we do not know  what the wireless range might be but usually when   you go up to higher bit rates the range drops so  I would imagine it would be shorter than Bluetooth   now 20 bit may sound like an odd number we're used  to hearing about 16-bit or 24-bit but in Apple's   world 24-bit merges into high res uncompressed  lossless audio and this isn't quite that but   it can be higher than CD quality which is 16-bit I  know it's weird to bring CDs into the conversation   because it's so far away technologically but  that's a common 16-bit reference point now before   you go poo pooing uncompressed lossless wireless  audio this is it's a big deal in my opinion   remember I mentioned my daughter earlier I brought  her up because not only did she have a good time   checking out these new Apple products before  anyone else she knows and yes I made her sign   a strict embargo but she and I ended up having a  conversation about how much she hates Spotify now   because even at its best settings it sounds  flat to her compared to Apple music lossless   that's my girl I'm so proud but yeah it is  possible to hear a difference I think it's pretty   obvious for others it may be more subtle but it is  100 there and frankly I've ditched Spotify almost   entirely in favor of Apple music it's been a bear  trying to move my playlist but I digress perhaps   this uncompressed lossless audio is relegated to  the pairing of these new AirPods Pro USB-C and   an Apple Vision Pro for now but it won't be like  that forever the next natural progression of this   wireless audio technology is for it to move beyond  the confines of the Vision Pro and into the Mac   the iPhone and the iPad it can be done Apple could  do that right now but knowing Apple I think it's   going to wait a bit it's going to see how things  go with the Vision Pro which provides a small test   bed of enthusiasts and it is going to work on  how to make it the best possible Experience for   iPhone iPad and Mac users so it could be a while  but this is real technology and it's around right   now that's what's most exciting to me about these  new AirPods Pro USB-C they can do a lot now but   it looks like they will be able to do even more in  the near future and I'm here for it this could be   big now hopefully at this point you have a feel  for whether you really need the new AirPods Pro   2 with USB-C now or if you'll be good with your  AirPods Pro 2 Lightning for a little while it's   nice to have a choice for now before you know  it only the USB-C version is going to be around   anyway I'd say if you want the latest and greatest  the ipx 54 and that USB-C well here they are but   if all you wanted to do was be able to charge your  air pods with your iPhone 15 and enjoy some of the   new audio processing features well you could do  that with what you've got and maybe don't feel so   pressed to spend on the upgrade thanks as always  for watching everyone what do you think I need   your feedback in the comments section please  also don't forget to like subscribe ring that   bell I'll see you on the next one and until then  here's two other videos I think you might like [Music]

Channel: Digital Trends

Views: 275,899

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Id: ciU1ak2dkYU

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2023