I've been watching the true wireless trend, but been hesistant to pull the trigger in fear of sacrificing features over sound. Christmas was coming and family asked me what I wished for. I learnt when the AirPods Pro 2 were released that reviewers, audiophiles and alike were equally impressed and came to consensus by the new generation of AirPods Pro 2nd.
DISCLAIMER: I don't have any experience with previous or other true wireless earbuds.
These are my impressions of the sound exclusively.
I am listening to these with these features disabled initially:
* noise cancelling
* spatial audio
* adaptive transparency.
Together with the wireless freedom the sound is actually quite good and surpassed my expectations, even as you turn up the volume (I think I topped at 2 levels before max). My drumnbass library I think the punch and bass is beyond my expectations and the imperfections are neglible, but the worst thing I can say is that sometimes at higher volume the mids and highs can be slightly 'canny' and not as crisp as better headphones, but the body of the bass is 80% of the way of what I want - lacking a bit of full-body experience, but still impressive and absolutely acceptable for most people. This is way beyond what I expected for the quite limited (so far) selection in True Wireless, therefore I find the price reasonable and well-worth it for the features alone and don't think the sound is sacrificed for features - Its an excellent match for Apple-users in particular. Actually I expected way less and thought of these as mostly 'podcast'-headphones So I'm really surprised.
A track such as (oldschool dubstep is what I'd call it)
The Airpods Pro 2nd handle surprisingly well with almost full bodied bass, but also excellent details and imaging.
drumnbass
Is where I feel like the canny-ness can be heard with many mids and highs together with subbass, but its definetily in the nitpicking department considering its Apple and its true wireless headphones.
More Truth Dubstep (oldschool dubstep)
Its truly impressive that they can even be considered ok for this type of music.
Truth music is excellently mastered and recording quality top-notch and thats why I think it works great with the AirPods Pro 2nd, I'm sure as I get into the more grainy lighter sound of industrial dnb the shortcomings of the AirPods Pro 2nd is more apparent.
I am listening to podcasts now and the crisp speech-optimized Apple audio that I usually know apple for in iPhone, iPad, Macbook-speakers is also still somewhat present but not as forward - which makes sense when we're talking built-in speakers vs headphones. Nevertheless the headphones do have pleasant and engaging speech for podcasts, reviews - but the best thing is the subbass and resolution of details which they've managed to get right, and much better than you'd expect.
You can be sure I'm going to voice my opinion if I find anything annoying, an issue or long-term irritations in sound, then I will update my review, but so far I have been most comfortable with no processing of the sound - even though that might change depending on my surroundings.
Without ever having tried other noise-cancelling headphones take my comments with a grain of salt.. But my honest opinion is that as soon as you turn on noise-cancelling you can hear a faint mute "high-pitched" sound, kind of like a dog whistle. Everytime sudden noises appear it does not succeed at filtering them. Any background noises like fan from extractor hood from cooking its very relieving the first time, but the second and third time you can somewhat still hear it, but its far less. There's something mythical still about walking into a room that you think is loud, but remains calm.. Its truly an experience worth investing in, just to try it.
I also still have tips to try, but initially I felt like the large tips were larger than what I've previously been comfortable with in in-ears so the default tip or large seems best in my case since smaller doesn't actually go deeper in the ears due to the shape.
I think so far the worst aspect of the AirPods Pro 2 is the fit. I've tried now between normal size, extra-large size and a smaller size. Since they don't go that deep they have a tendency to come loose, even if you wear the right tip-size - the shape of the earbuds makes it hard to press them properly in. Its not a dealbreaker for me, but it might be for others.
The other day I just smiled at a comment during a podcast while working and I felt them come loose, this is all it takes. I wish the eartips were longer and the shape of the earbud did allow for pushing them in further.
EDIT1: Yes I've actually decreased my 4.5 stars to 4 now, I really think its a bad problem on a great set and it gives de-ja-vu vibes from the original headphones that also always were horrible fit - but it can't stand in the way of the otherwise great product.
EDIT2: Regarding spatial audio, even in fixed-mode I think has a place for tracks like:
There's something with the imaging in particular that vastly improves.
DISCLAIMER: I don't have any experience with previous or other true wireless earbuds.
These are my impressions of the sound exclusively.
I am listening to these with these features disabled initially:
* noise cancelling
* spatial audio
* adaptive transparency.
Together with the wireless freedom the sound is actually quite good and surpassed my expectations, even as you turn up the volume (I think I topped at 2 levels before max). My drumnbass library I think the punch and bass is beyond my expectations and the imperfections are neglible, but the worst thing I can say is that sometimes at higher volume the mids and highs can be slightly 'canny' and not as crisp as better headphones, but the body of the bass is 80% of the way of what I want - lacking a bit of full-body experience, but still impressive and absolutely acceptable for most people. This is way beyond what I expected for the quite limited (so far) selection in True Wireless, therefore I find the price reasonable and well-worth it for the features alone and don't think the sound is sacrificed for features - Its an excellent match for Apple-users in particular. Actually I expected way less and thought of these as mostly 'podcast'-headphones So I'm really surprised.
A track such as (oldschool dubstep is what I'd call it)
The Airpods Pro 2nd handle surprisingly well with almost full bodied bass, but also excellent details and imaging.
drumnbass
Is where I feel like the canny-ness can be heard with many mids and highs together with subbass, but its definetily in the nitpicking department considering its Apple and its true wireless headphones.
More Truth Dubstep (oldschool dubstep)
Its truly impressive that they can even be considered ok for this type of music.
Truth music is excellently mastered and recording quality top-notch and thats why I think it works great with the AirPods Pro 2nd, I'm sure as I get into the more grainy lighter sound of industrial dnb the shortcomings of the AirPods Pro 2nd is more apparent.
I am listening to podcasts now and the crisp speech-optimized Apple audio that I usually know apple for in iPhone, iPad, Macbook-speakers is also still somewhat present but not as forward - which makes sense when we're talking built-in speakers vs headphones. Nevertheless the headphones do have pleasant and engaging speech for podcasts, reviews - but the best thing is the subbass and resolution of details which they've managed to get right, and much better than you'd expect.
You can be sure I'm going to voice my opinion if I find anything annoying, an issue or long-term irritations in sound, then I will update my review, but so far I have been most comfortable with no processing of the sound - even though that might change depending on my surroundings.
Without ever having tried other noise-cancelling headphones take my comments with a grain of salt.. But my honest opinion is that as soon as you turn on noise-cancelling you can hear a faint mute "high-pitched" sound, kind of like a dog whistle. Everytime sudden noises appear it does not succeed at filtering them. Any background noises like fan from extractor hood from cooking its very relieving the first time, but the second and third time you can somewhat still hear it, but its far less. There's something mythical still about walking into a room that you think is loud, but remains calm.. Its truly an experience worth investing in, just to try it.
I also still have tips to try, but initially I felt like the large tips were larger than what I've previously been comfortable with in in-ears so the default tip or large seems best in my case since smaller doesn't actually go deeper in the ears due to the shape.
I think so far the worst aspect of the AirPods Pro 2 is the fit. I've tried now between normal size, extra-large size and a smaller size. Since they don't go that deep they have a tendency to come loose, even if you wear the right tip-size - the shape of the earbuds makes it hard to press them properly in. Its not a dealbreaker for me, but it might be for others.
The other day I just smiled at a comment during a podcast while working and I felt them come loose, this is all it takes. I wish the eartips were longer and the shape of the earbud did allow for pushing them in further.
EDIT1: Yes I've actually decreased my 4.5 stars to 4 now, I really think its a bad problem on a great set and it gives de-ja-vu vibes from the original headphones that also always were horrible fit - but it can't stand in the way of the otherwise great product.
EDIT2: Regarding spatial audio, even in fixed-mode I think has a place for tracks like:
There's something with the imaging in particular that vastly improves.