I already own both the Sony wf1000xm3 and the Master & Dynamic MW07 so I never had any real interest in the AirPods Pro. About three months ago the play/pause button my my MW07 stopped working and the Sony’s wobble and come loose when I walk no matter what tips I try so I didn’t wanna deal with that again. So I broke down and bought a set of the AirPods Pro right after the MW07 started acting up.
Comfort and fit- These use a slightly different shape than the normal AirPods. If you don’t like the way AirPods fit in your ears you will still hate these when it comes to comfort. The silicone tips don’t go into the ear canal like normal iems so expect to have to adjust them once in a while. The tips are also proprietary so you can’t throw any normals tips on either. Dekoni has a set of their foam tips out now and I really enjoy them over the stock silicon tips but I’ll go over my experience with that later. From what I can tell on Apple’s website is that these use a dynamic driver to handle the sound.
Onto the review of the sound! My personal preference are a dynamic hybrid iem where I get good hitting bass and have a brighter treble with decent mids. I listen to a lot of genres but I hover in the classic rock, blues and edm music with some rap here and there.
Gear used
iPhone X, FiiO m11
Lows- The lows have a rather teasing effect when it comes to the impact and thump you get from the sub bass region. You can hear the dynamic driver wanting to give a rumble but it gets about halfway into it then just gives up. After you get teased by the sub bass the rest of the low end feels fairly neutral.
Mids- Feels flat as can be. Vocals aren’t in your face and nothing creeps into the mids from the low end range.
Highs- There is a slight boost in the treble. I don’t hear any real sparkle but you can tell it’s boosted a little. It still feels fairly calm and I imagine that was so any non audiophile would enjoy the treble more than whatever came with their phone.
Soundstage- Super intimate! The imaging is ok but with the soundstage not really existing it’s easy to miss a pair of decent wired iems.
Stock tips- Apple of course includes their own proprietary silicone tips that clip onto the pros vs a normal nozzle design. I wasn’t a huge fan of the tips at all. In order to get a good seal with the largest size I had to really stuff them in my ear which cause all kinds of pain after a 30 min to hour of listening. The right side AirPod would work it’s way out of my ear after 20ish min so I had to constantly adjust them which reminded me how painful they could be.
Dekoni tips- I got lucky and Dylan from Dekoni audio got me a set of their new bulletz foam tips to test out. Right off the bat the comfort wearing them is way better. I can wear them an easy 3-4 hours at work without any comfort issues. They also actually stay in and don’t require me to adjust the AirPods at all. I don’t really notice any change in sound which is fantastic. Possibly a little hint of a better low end response but the mids and highs stay untouched. While I imagine most people will be fine with the silicon tips I would highly recommend at least getting a set of the bulletz for the AirPods Pro to try out. Especially if you have any comfort issues with the Pros. I have a review of these as well for anyone interested in the tips. https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/dekoni-bulletz-for-airpods-pro.24358/reviews
Battery life- Apple claims 4.5 hours with either noise cancelling or transparency mode on. This is fairly accurate in my testing. The charging case will hold another 19 hours so it can get you through a normal day fairly easily.
Using with android- The only android device I have is the FiiO M11 so I tried these with that and ran into a volume problem where at full blast volume they get to a point just before I consider the volume to be high enough. Wasn’t a fan so I use these with my iPhone exclusively. If using poweramp on android the sound can be upscaled to 96khz which is nice and any EQ will apply to the AirPods Pro as well.
Comparisons- I figured I would compare them to two iems that get a lot of love and cost less since you can buy one of many wireless adapters for the iems. Will compare two true wireless in ears that I feel compete with the AirPods as well. Unfortunately I only have FiiO a wireless adapter for mmcx so the tin t2 were the only traditional iem I could try fully wireless.
Ikko oh10-
I tested these with the standard stock cable in 3.5 via my oem headphone adapter from Apple. These while having a dark signature when no amping applied had a little more clarity at least in the mids. Bass has a more consistent impact and thump.
Tin t2-
I used these with FiiO’s newer mmcx “true wireless” adapter. Both the AirPods Pro and these sound similar for the most part. The highs seem a tad bit more detailed on the AirPods Pro. With the front vent mod on the t2 there was more noticeable bass impact.
Sony wf1000xm3-
The bass and treble are fantastic on these. These allow the use of EQ via their app to fine tune the sound to ones liking. The fit can be strange for a lot of people and the things are huge and look like something that would of come with the original Motorola razer. The XM3 does have a strange compression that randomly happens when listening to music but it’s not constant. Noise canceling and transparency have a range so you can adjust to how intense you want those setting to be. They are much better than the AirPods but the mic leaves something to be desired if being used to make calls.
Master & Dynamic MW07(gen 2)-
These have a more present bass, the mids are a little more boosted and the treble has some peaky spikes that can really kill the experience at higher volumes. The nozzle is also rather short and finding tips that keep them in my ear has always been a pain. They look really pretty though but also cost $50 bucks more. Noise canceling and transparency is about the same as the AirPods. The mic like the xm3 also isn’t the best for calls.
Overall thoughts
While wired iems will always beat the sound of dedicated true wireless in ears, I do see a reason to use them. It’s very nice to bust out the AirPods Pro and throw one in your ear and listen away. I use the transparency mode 80 percent of the time and really enjoy being able to hear what’s going on around me. The voice quality of the mics absolutely destroys all the other true wireless ear buds and when using with an iPhone, Siri becomes more enjoyable to use. Do I think these are worth $250? No, would I recommend them because of ease of use for portable travel or for Apple users who rely on Siri or phone call quality? Absolutely! While you can get cheaper options for sure, the mic on the Pros are probably the best out there. The sound quality for music is never trash or ever super analytical. Sits right in the middle and that’s enough for me when I go out or use these at work with lower volumes. Thanks for reading!
