AirPods (and AirPods Pro [and AirPods Pro 2nd generation]) now available

[Junglist]

in terms of sound quality and noise cancelling, compared to other £250 headphones the Airpods Pro are hot garbage and one of the worst in class you can get for that sort of price.

What you're paying for is the ease of connectivity and for people who like to show off. Saying that, they are still definitely better value for money than the regular airpods, as at least they provide better audio quality and noise cancelling

Which is the part I'd be paying for. I love my Sony's but the connection takes 10-15 seconds whereas my Airpods connected within 5 seconds tops. Though I've not had the issues others have had with connectivity.

Though I don't know who gets these to show off. I don't think £250 headphones can count as a status object

 

[Deleted member 209350]

Most of the reviews seem to state the opposite and put them on a par with models from Sony, so I'd be interested to hear what you are basing this on.

Haven't heard the Sony wireless ones personally, but i've owned other expensive ear phones approaching that price and sound far far better. Hell, you could spend half the money and still get a pair of earphones (though most likely wired) that sound a hell of a lot better than these

 

[Deleted member 209350]

Which is the part I'd be paying for. I love my Sony's but the connection takes 10-15 seconds whereas my Airpods connected within 5 seconds tops. Though I've not had the issues others have had with connectivity.

Though I don't know who gets these to show off. I don't think £250 headphones can count as a status object

yeah thats more than fair enough, that seems to be the best thing about them in all honesty! Though personally I might just wait for the next generation version.

Also have you not seen the amount of people with regular airpods who get them as a status object? All those memes of looking down at "poor" people didn't stem from nothing haha!

But as I said before, the pro's seem much much better than the regular airpods even if its about £50 more

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Haven't heard the Sony wireless ones personally, but i've owned other expensive ear phones approaching that price and sound far far better. Hell, you could spend half the money and still get a pair of earphones (though most likely wired) that sound a hell of a lot better than these

You can’t really compare wired with wireless, talk about apples and oranges.

Same goes for comparing these with on or over ear headphones.

Absolutely agree you can spend half the money and get something pretty close in terms of sound but you will not get a similar feature set.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

You can’t really compare wired with wireless, talk about apples and oranges.

Same goes for comparing these with on or over ear headphones.

Absolutely agree you can spend half the money and get something pretty close in terms of sound but you will not get a similar feature set.

you can compare in ears with each other, though I agree you cant compare over ears with in ears as they are almost completely different.

But yeah, in terms of the ease of connectivity and integration with apple devices makes this great for sure. But sound quality is most certainly not upto scratch, but then again i dont think they are targeted to be purely about the sound quality anyway.

What im trying to say is, they are very far from being audiophile earphones, and they most likely never will be. Its a similar case with beats headphones/earphones. They are massively overpriced compared to how much better similar priced products sound. They're more of a fashion statement than anything imo.

 

[BigBANGtheory]

I tried the Sony WF-1000XM3 & PowerBeats Pro last week and couldn't decide, then I tried the AirPods Pro and was sold having previously discounted the AirPods(2).

AirProds Pro arrived this morning, I've used them a bit yeah perfectly happy can confirm they are better than the previous AirPods. I wish they cost a lot less but hey its Apple you pays the Apple tax or go elsewhere.

In terms of comparison they are all good choices, the PB better suited to sports use and the Sony's for battery life and if you want to play with EQ settings. I had major issues pairing the Sony's which put me off in practice where as on paper they looked the strongest. The PB I'm not sure I would want to wear for a long time or in bed, its not that they are uncomfortable per se but I can imagine getting ear fatigue after a while. With the Sony's because of the size, weight etc I'd be more concerned about those falling out your ear than the AirPods Pro, obviously the PB have an ear guard/grip.

In terms of audio quality I mean look who knows its subjective right, as far as I could tell they all sounded good i.e. far better than a £50 wired set, better than the original AirPods etc. If you want really good 'audiophile' quality why even look at wireless ear buds.

AirPods Pro
Pros : Apple pairing, loud, bass is ok, noise cancelling and transparency, good in ear seal, light and comfortable, minimalist design, small pocket sized case
Downsides : no volume control on the ear buds, battery life, lightning port rather than USB-C (though they give you a USB-C to Lightning cable), Apple tax

 

[Deleted member 209350]

I tried the Sony WF-1000XM3 & PowerBeats Pro last week and couldn't decide, then I tried the AirPods Pro and was sold having previously discounted the AirPods(2).

AirProds Pro arrived this morning, I've used them a bit yeah perfectly happy can confirm they are better than the previous AirPods. I wish they cost a lot less but hey its Apple you pays the Apple tax or go elsewhere.

In terms of comparison they are all good choices, the PB better suited to sports use and the Sony's for battery life and if you want to play with EQ settings. I had major issues pairing the Sony's which put me off in practice where as on paper they looked the strongest. The PB I'm not sure I would want to wear for a long time or in bed, its not that they are uncomfortable per se but I can imagine getting ear fatigue after a while. With the Sony's because of the size, weight etc I'd be more concerned about those falling out your ear than the AirPods Pro, obviously the PB have an ear guard/grip.

In terms of audio quality I mean look who knows its subjective right, as far as I could tell they all sounded good i.e. far better than a £50 wired set, better than the original AirPods etc. If you want really good 'audiophile' quality why even look at wireless ear buds.

AirPods Pro
Pros : Apple pairing, loud, bass is ok, noise cancelling and transparency, good in ear seal, light and comfortable, minimalist design, small pocket sized case
Downsides : no volume control on the ear buds, battery life, lightning port rather than USB-C (though they give you a USB-C to Lightning cable), Apple tax

In all honesty, im quite surprised that the pro's are even in the same conversation with Sony XF3's in terms of sound quality, that in itself is very impressive!

Now im really curious, and want to hear them in person. Though i do like a lot of bass, but hearing almost everywhere that the bass is nothing special, and sub standard in a lot of cases

 

[iMacMart]

I had the Sony’s and they were poor, couldn’t even get the connected to my iPhone via the connect app! Returned them in the end ...

 

[Junglist]

The only issue I had with the Sonys is that I had to use my partners Samsung to download the latest firmware. Once i did that I've had no issues connecting to them or the app with either my XS Max or the 11 Pro Max.

I think I may order some of the Pros and see how they compare myself. Wind noise reduction, which the Sony's do really well, is important as I use them on my commute.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

The only issue I had with the Sonys is that I had to use my partners Samsung to download the latest firmware. Once i did that I've had no issues connecting to them or the app with either my XS Max or the 11 Pro Max.

I think I may order some of the Pros and see how they compare myself. Wind noise reduction, which the Sony's do really well, is important as I use them on my commute.

Oh dear, far too much effort to get them then!

I assumed that because their overhead version (WH1000-XM3's) were so good I thought the WF's would be similar, but I guess i was wrong about that

 

[Junglist]

Oh dear, far too much effort to get them then!

I assumed that because their overhead version (WH1000-XM3's) were so good I thought the WF's would be similar, but I guess i was wrong about that

I got these quite close to their release so it may have just been teething issues. As I've said, since then it's been plain sailing other than the slightly longer connection time.

Just loaded up the app for the first time in a while, i have it preset to the levels I like it which I change with a tap, and they've brought something new called 360 reality audio. Works pretty well but a shame it's only working on certain services such as Deezer and Tidal.


edit - After listening to it a few times it's actually amazing however I'm not going to pay £20 a month for it

 

[Feek]

in terms of sound quality and noise cancelling, compared to other £250 headphones the Airpods Pro are hot garbage and one of the worst in class you can get for that sort of price.

Now im really curious, and want to hear them in person.

So you've not even tried them yet? What was your previous statement based on then as it's the opposite of what the pretty much every review I've seen.

 

[iMacMart]

@Feek did you manage to get them seated correctly in your ears in the end?

 

[BigBANGtheory]

In all honesty, im quite surprised that the pro's are even in the same conversation with Sony XF3's in terms of sound quality, that in itself is very impressive!

Now im really curious, and want to hear them in person. Though i do like a lot of bass, but hearing almost everywhere that the bass is nothing special, and sub standard in a lot of cases

I think you should go try them at an Apple Store and compare them maybe to the Powerbeats Pro who's reviewed/claimed bass response it above the Sony's.

There is definitely good bass reproduction in the AirPods Pro imho they probably use some algorithm to control the EQ which if its not to your tastes you probably want the Sony's so you can play about or again if you're that particular about the audio quality maybe wireless earbuds aren't the right product.

 

[Feek]

This track sounds brilliant on them;
https://open.spotify.com/track/0gFQ0zR40UTHeRCg02cJMK?si=Wv14SgXJStW5w3j-bXopyQ

Oh yes, it certainly does.

@Feek did you manage to get them seated correctly in your ears in the end?

It's a faff to get them seated properly. I'm sure that if the diameter of the tip was just 1mm wider then they'd fit perfectly so I really don't know what to do. I've still got the original ones so I could quite easily return these and just carry on with my old ones. Alternatively, I'm sure it won't be long before there are third party replacement tips available and I'd be surprised if there aren't any that are just that fraction larger.
Don't really know what to do.

 

[iMacMart]

Oh yes, it certainly does.


It's a faff to get them seated properly. I'm sure that if the diameter of the tip was just 1mm wider then they'd fit perfectly so I really don't know what to do. I've still got the original ones so I could quite easily return these and just carry on with my old ones. Alternatively, I'm sure it won't be long before there are third party replacement tips available and I'd be surprised if there aren't any that are just that fraction larger.
Don't really know what to do.

Hmmm tough one at that cost

 

[Deleted member 209350]

I got these quite close to their release so it may have just been teething issues. As I've said, since then it's been plain sailing other than the slightly longer connection time.

Just loaded up the app for the first time in a while, i have it preset to the levels I like it which I change with a tap, and they've brought something new called 360 reality audio. Works pretty well but a shame it's only working on certain services such as Deezer and Tidal.


edit - After listening to it a few times it's actually amazing however I'm not going to pay £20 a month for it

These are the WF's you're referring to?

 

[Martynt74]

Is it possible to connect more than 1 pair of Airpods to a device?

I'm debating a pair or the Pros, however it leads to a faff when flying as the wife and i tend to watch things on the ipad. Would be handy if i could get her a cheap set of Gen2's or so and then both watch rather than messing around with splitters.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

So you've not even tried them yet? What was your previous statement based on then as it's the opposite of what the pretty much every review I've seen.

It was based on the fact that my friend had bought the pro's (and he had the gen 1 airpods before) and he told me in terms of sound quality they sound very similar. I have the airpod 1's as well, and the sound quality for the price is not impressive at all, which is what I was basing it on.

But after hearing some other opinions about how the sound quality is actually quite good, now I just want to hear them for myself to confirm

 

[Feek]

Is it possible to connect more than 1 pair of Airpods to a device?

Yes. In the iJustine video posted earlier, she demonstrates this.