Following on from my various reviews of portable headphones from Apple, I’m proud to bring you another outing; this time centred on the AirPods Pro 2. As keen readers of this blog will note, I didn’t really get on with the AirPods 3. They just didn’t fit, but also the depth of sound lacked a little bass (have a look here for more details)
Largely unknown to my partner, I ditched the AirPods 3 via the trusted recycling site eBay, to which someone in Eastern Europe is now touting my AirPods 3 thanks to the “global shipping programme” that eBay operates. Anyway, after eBay had taken what felt like a shark-sized bite out of the proceeds, I cobbled together the difference and nailed down an order for the AirPods Pro 2.
I owned the original AirPod Pro’s (1st Generation) and got many happy hours of listening out of them; sadly, the charging case malfunctioned, losing the ability to add gas to the left earphone, which pretty much put an end to them.
What are the differences between Gen 1 and Gen 2?
It’s hard to make a side-by-side comparison of 1st Gen vs 2nd Gen airpods without both of them on hand, however, the major differences are the ANC (Anti Noise Cancelling) and the depth of the sound stage.
The broad range and nice depth really makes music pop, and it doesn’t seem specific to one type of music or another. Apparently, this is down to the new chip H2, which removes distortion and improves the performance of the teeny tiny little speakers in your ears. Whatever it’s doing, seems to be a positive.
Personally, I like a little Americana, Jazz and some more upbeat house or techno. Anyone who has small children can probably attest to the need to chill out when and wherever possible, so my listening selection has been more mellow and downbeat. These headphones are tip top there.
Aside from the little while stalked wonders the charging case has some nice additions, the ability to whip on a lanyard and it’s own tiny speaker. This is remarkably useful, it plays a nice chime to let you know when it’s charging and even better than that, if you happen to loose them down the side of the sofa, you can get them to emit a chirp which helps you locate them.
Ear Fit
My major gripe with the Air Pod 3’s was how the little blighters are kept secure in your ears, or rather why they kept throwing themselves onto the floor whenever I smiled.
This problem isn’t present in the Pros; the need to have a secure airtight fit for the noise cancelling means they’re equipped with rubber caps. You have three sizes to choose from depending on the construct of your ears, but for me, the standard cap seemed to do the job pretty well.
Perhaps as I get older, my ears will grow larger, and the extra size will come in handy. I did look this up, and apparently, your ears do get larger, not because they grow, but rather because they lose collagen and gravity does its thing).
Anyway, summary is, ear fit is good.
Downsides?
The first point to note here is that perhaps like my first set of these bad boys, the charging case might malfunction, and this would indeed classify itself as a downside rendering the headphones useless. Time will tell. I will keep you posted.
There are a couple of quantifiable downsides which we can cover to round out what is generally a positive outing for apple headphones;
- They’re pretty comfortable in your ears, but after a very long extended period of time, they do start to cause small discomfort (likely the rubber cap pressing on the inside of your ear).
- When you engage ANC, and this could just be me, the richness of the sound seems to dull. The range seems compressed, and the bass is not so vibrant and deep.
Would I recommend them?
Yes, I would. It’s hard to beat the usefulness of these headphones. They fit nicely in your pocket and your ear, they’re always handy and they deliver as nice a sound as you can get without going over ear.
That said, if you don’t own an iPhone, iPad or iSomethingOrOther you’re not going to enjoy them. They’re part of the broader apple echo system, which gets better the more of it you adopt.
