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Google PlayApple released the first generation of AirPods Pro in October 2019. At that point in time the original AirPods were the best selling wireless headphones in the world. They were ahead of the competition by a wide margin in terms of sound quality, software, and adoption by users. I remember being skeptical at the time because adding the word “Pro” to the end of a product implies a huge leap in quality. I didn’t know what was going to make them better than regular AirPods.
After demoing the first AirPods Pro, I was blown away. The active noise canceling gave me an immense feeling of silence, they fit snugly in my ears, and the transparency mode worked pretty well at allowing me to hear ambient sounds around me when I needed to be aware of my surroundings. The AirPods Pro were also tightly integrated with iOS in such a way that there were plenty of “magic” moments.
As the last three years have ticked by, I’ve dropped my AirPods more times than I could count. I’ve spent hours flipping through couch cushions looking for them, and I’ve even replaced a case because it fell out of my pocket during a run. While they are still terrific headphones, there are more options ranging from cheap discount store earbuds up to highly competent competitors, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Buds2 Pros. The AirPods Pro (Second Generation) have been highly anticipated, and now that they are finally here, do they live up to the hype? This will take you through the changes in the next generation of AirPods and tell you everything you need to know to decide if you need to cop or pass.
How Do They Sound?
AirPods Pro have always sounded good. Music sounds very accurate and very crisp. Comparing AirPods Pro to its bassy cousin, Beats, was more of an apples and oranges comparison. This is because both sets of headphones clearly had different use cases and musical genres in mind. Beats always felt they were built for music and sports. AirPods Pro have felt like they were engineered for a different range of activities, from conference calls, podcasts, music and everything else. AirPods Pro having a larger amount of uses seemed to come at the expense of bass response. But this new generation of AirPods doesn’t compromise the bass.
Slipping on the AirPods Pro 2 felt familiar at first. The sound is as crisp as I remembered, and I began to speculate that perhaps the speaker membrane needed some time to warm up in order to get to peak performance. This opinion changed when I tried out their Personal Spacial Audio.
Adaptive Transparency
Adaptive Transparency is the mode that allows your AirPods to pass through sound from the outside of your ear to the inside of your ear. This is good for allowing you to be aware while still listening to music. Apple’s adaptive transparency has always been industry leading, but the new version feels like it’s lapped its previous version. People’s voices come across almost as clear as if you aren’t wearing any earphones at all. This may seem like a silly feature to have at first, but sometimes you want to wear AirPods as a barrier to let people know you just don’t want to be bothered.
