Apple

just so you know foam tips won’t give you as good of an experience you’re basically taking all their noise canceling engineering and throwing it in the trash, apple makes them so they are a tight fit to function perfectly with the buds.

If you are referring to the comply foam tips, please do not think that they are “noise reduction” or “hearing protection” tips. Yes, they get a better seal than the stock tips, but they are absolutely not ear protection devices, and arguably would be worse than going unprotected due to the false sense of confidence.

Hearing protection is a serious, serious deal - any damage, no matter how small, is permanent and will never heal. It’s also cumulative, so it will build up over time if you’re in loud environments. Earbuds are not protective devices, and noise cancellation is not protection. Noise cancellation filters out sounds that you don’t want to hear, but they absolutely do not do anything to the high energy pressure waves that cause hearing damage and permanent loss. If you work in a noisy environment (sustained sounds over 90dB) there are all kinds of great hearing protection devices that also have Bluetooth connectivity - sure, the sound quality might not be as good as AirPods, but I’ll take that for a short amount of time vs not actually being able to hear for the rest of my life. Look at brands like Walker and 3M. Net/net if it’s not explicitly labeled as hearing protection you might as well just have nothing in your ears.

Source: firearms enthusiast, woodworker and aficionado of other noisy hobbies who will have his ears go “RRRREEEEEEEE” and say “What?” a lot because he was stupid about ear pro when he was younger.

I have tinnitus and it’s allowed me to enjoy concerts without the muffled sound of earplugs. As a huge music guy, I would have paid for these if that was the only thing they do.

I’m a woodworker and adaptive mode is huge when I’m running my bigger machines for a long time. It doesn’t eliminate the sound completely but it is a huge reduction and it’s less cumbersome than wearing bulky earmuffs.

And why tf do the airpod maxes not have it…

You just convinced me to give it a go.

I’m confused, what do you mean it still allows contextual sound in?

I tried adaptive mode and found it drains the battery of my AirPod Pros a lot faster. Have others experienced this too?

Works as advertised

Oh nice, didn’t know about that function. Thank you!

So the foam tips are interesting. I originally thought they were nothing special… just a different material which some people might like better than silicone. (There have long been foam and silicone options for in ear headphones)

I’m wondering if the foam actually gives you better sound isolation though? (The theory being that the sound attenuation through the foam is greater than a single flap of silicone.

Anyways, yes… the most annoying thing about transparency mode is turning on a faucet to wash your hands! God damn it’s annoying!

Adaptive mode fixes that quicker than turning on noise cancellation would take me. Within a second or so of the faucet being on, it takes the edge off.

It gets better the more you use them in the same environments. There’s something predicative about them that I don’t know how it’s doing it, but I use my everywhere, no exception. At this point, I have no need to take them out unless I’m asleep. It’s a fantastic algorithm that has some type of ML built in, because I’ve loved them since the feature was released in beta, but is is continually getting better to the point where I rarely, if ever, have to adjust my volume anymore.

Wow. I just got the pro 2 after having the pro 1 for the past three years. I work as a trim carpenter so I’m always cutting stuff but also trying to talk to my boss. I had no idea that I had the adaptive mode on, I just thought it was transparency like on the first gen. What a game changer! I’m so excited now, I noticed things were better with the second gen, but this was an upgrade I should have done long ago! Thanks for bringing this up!

It's amazing for walking and commuting

slightly hear things coming your way or interacting really close to you while removing all the shit hawks from far away

Do not use AirPods in place of proper hearing protection gear. You can cause permanent damage to yourself.

I do wish it was more customisable

It’s really really good.

anyone know how it works in concerts?

Yes adaptive mode is amazing. I commute into the city via walking and train a couple days a week and it is fantastic. I've removed regular transparency as well and just use adaptive when I need to hear. I feel like the people that complain that it "doesn't do anything" aren't in the environments it was made for so they don't see much of a difference, but if you're in the city or noisy environments it's a game changer.

Last night I was at a loud Friendsgiving party and I was so so thankful to have my adaptive noise control. It’s barely noticeable but that’s actually a good thing for its functionality. It completely eliminated the really annoying fan noise and when the crowd got rowdy it didn’t hurt my ears. Huge QOL improvement. And don’t even get me started on walking around near cars

I also noticed Transparency mode improved. Or it could be some kind of placebo.

In the past, transparency mode would make the music a bit too quiet in an environment with a lot of white noise.

Now, even with transparency I can hear the music clearly while also being able to hear my surroundings.

I go from noise cancellation to adaptive mode since it’s just better at cancelling sounds, but adaptive mode works great when you need to be aware of your surroundings and have it go to noise cancellation when needed.

That’s what I’ve been saying!

Can we circle back to the hearing protection custom tips? I’d appreciate a link to that lol

There are a lot of loud trucks driving along the first quarter of my dog walk route. I immediately realized the value of adaptive sound. I can still hear the trucks and maintain spacial awareness. However the truck noise is reduced and I do not need to turn the volume up to unsafe levels to continue to hear what I’m listening to.

I noticed how good it was at our Santa Clause parade last weekend. It would automatically adjust to limit the loudness from the sirens and bands and what not. I was really impressed.

It’s really good but I wish it could have better cancelling while at home with noises from outside