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AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

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Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#341

Post by cameldrv »

jjcm wrote: post #203
Negitivefrags wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This issue is very bad, and I've had it on all 3 of the sets of AirPods pros I have owned. Another issue I have had on all three is that the noise cancelling degrades over time. When you get a new set, it's kind of night and day how good they are at first. After about 6 months I would say that they noticably suck compared to how they are when you first get them, and they just continue to degrade over time. My guess i…

This might be because each were sold with the old firmware (better noise cancellation), and eventually got updated to the new firmware (better battery).

I've had this happen three times now in 2.5 years. The first symptom is that the noise cancellation gets worse. Some months after that, you start hearing a crackling sound, particularly while speaking, or if you adjust the airpod in your ear.

I believe what is happening is that earwax is building up in the grille on the top inside of the airpod which houses a microphone. As the sound from this microphone gets more distorted, the noise cancellation gradually stops working. You can also see this because after you've had the airpods a couple of months you will never get the ear tip fit test to pass.

Every time this has gotten to the crackling stage, Apple has replaced these without charge, even though I didn't have Applecare. They have some sort of machine in the back of the store that they use to test them, and if your set fails the test, they give you a new pair (sometimes just one).

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#342

Post by deanmoriarty »

askafriend wrote: post #333
deanmoriarty wrote: post #317

Honest question: how can folks justify spending $250+tax on a device that in just a year or two of significant usage will not be usable anymore due to degraded battery? I was gifted a pair and after two years the battery lasts less than one hour in playback mode, and just a few minutes in call mode. What a disappointment. Am I expected to spend another $280?! I also do not want to spend $50+ for a third party battery…

There's no other product that does what it does as well as it does it. It's a no-brainer purchase for me and I won't even blink at replacing them if they're ever lost. I basically can't imagine my life without them (walking around the city, workouts, playing sports, airports/planes, etc). I can imagine this is much less important if you live in a suburb and mostly commute via car or don't have physically active hobbi…

Thought experiment: what’s the highest price Apple could charge for them, after which you’d pass on the purchase?

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#343

Post by RockRobotRock »

paxys wrote: post #66

Lack of simultaneous 2+ device pairing is still a deal breaker for me. If my $80 Jabra earbuds can figure it out, why can't Apple?

AirPods Pro will "pair" to an unlimited number of devices (or at least a very high number). But it can only be connected to one device at once.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#345

Post by deanmoriarty »

Gigachad wrote: post #334
celestialcheese wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use them everyday while working, for multiple hours per day and can expense them. They work better than other bluetooth headsets I've tried, and the noise cancelling is excellent in loud environments. I'm willing to pay a premium for the convenience and seamless pairing to other Apple products I already have (Apple TV, macbook, iphone).

Other than my phone I'm not sure there is another device I own that has given me more benefit per $ than airpods.

Thought experiment: what’s the highest price Apple could charge for them, after which you’d pass on the purchase?

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#346

Post by js2 »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #302
js2 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a limitation of Bluetooth's available bandwidth, especially with bidirectional audio. Apple added support for an improved speech codec, AAC-ELD, to the 3rd gen AirPods last year: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/10/introducing-the-next-... AAC-ELD support was also apparently added to existing AirPods Pro and Max at the same time: https://medium.marco.zone/apple-implemented-the-biggest-impr... I'm not sure whe…

> It's a limitation of Bluetooth's available bandwidth, especially with bidirectional audio. I've often read this is the problem, but I don't buy it. BTLE is up to 1 megabit. A high-quality audio stream is typically up to 320 kbps compressed. Voice can be compressed as low as 64 kbps and still sound as if the person is standing right next to you. That's still less than 400 kbps, well under the 1 mbps BTLE supports. S…

It's explained in the section on SCO at the link in my original comment:

> Bluetooth supports data rates of up to 3 MB/s and fully uncompressed stereo audio only needs about 1.4 MB/s. But, the 3 MB/s data rate is for an Asynchronous Connection Less (ACL) transfers under ideal circumstances. In practice, even 990 kb/s (what Sony’s LDAC codec uses) is not trivial to transmit reliably. But the Hands Free Profile doesn’t even use ACL, but Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) transfers. These have a fixed data rate of 64 kbit/s (bidirectional).

More here:

https://habr.com/en/post/456182/

> Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) and its enhanced version Enhanced Synchronous Connection Oriented (eSCO) are the modes used for Bluetooth voice transmission. The mode allows you to transmit sound and voice strictly in order, with a symmetrical speed of sending and receiving, without waiting for confirmation of transmission and re-sending packets. This reduces the overall delay in the transmission of audio over the radio channel, but imposes serious restrictions on the amount of data transmitted per unit of time and adversely affects the quality of the audio. When this mode is used, both the voice from the microphone and the audio are transmitted to the headphones with the same quality.

You should also know that (as mh- points out), BTLE is an separate protocol that is not used for audio. Audio devices use Bluetooth classic. That's also explained at https://habr.com/en/post/456182/ in the "Bluetooth 5, Classic and Low Energy" section.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#347

Post by jen729w »

stemlord wrote: post #314
jen729w wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that she was pairing them with a non-Apple device? In which case, fair enough perhaps, but it feels a tad unfair to put the burden of universal discovery for all host devices on Apple. And is it really that un-discoverable? What would you do on any other Bluetooth device? You'd look for a button. What is there on the AirPods case? A button. I still say: if you have a simpler idea, let's hear it. Edit:…

> it feels a tad unfair to put the burden of universal discovery for all host devices on Apple. I guess, but I've always felt apple deliberately thwarts such efforts for product lock in >And is it really that un-discoverable? What would you do on any other Bluetooth device? You'd look for a button. What is there on the AirPods case? A button. Lol but like I said you also have to arbitrarily open the lid and place bot…

> I guess, but I've always felt apple deliberately thwarts such efforts for product lock in

Deliberately thwarting efforts would be not having a button.

There's a button. Like every other Bluetooth headphone case. Push the button.

> Lol but like I said you also have to arbitrarily open the lid and place both airpods inside

Oh come now. In what scenario do you get handed an AirPods case and two loose AirPods and are expected to pair them? Is that what happened to your sister-in-law?

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#348

Post by okdood64 »

robertwt7 wrote: post #319

Airpods is one of the invention that you don’t know you need it but when you buy it, you know it’s good and it just works seamlessly It mentioned in the page that it’ll support high fidelity audio? Does this mean that they came up with new encoding for wireless transmission? Possibly something better than AAC?

Can 99% of people really tell the difference between high bitrate LDAC and high bitrate AAC?

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#349

Post by astrange »

mandeepj wrote: post #95
desro wrote: post #23

A lot of sane improvements to the case (added speaker, lanyard loop, full U1 Find My support), good to see. They tout "H2 Apple Silicon, amazing sound quality with Adaptive EQ," but I can't find any reference to lossless audio in the tech specs, which is a bit of a disappointment. It's surely ironic that Apple Music supports 24/192 lossless audio and none of its headphones can utilize it.

> It's surely ironic that Apple Music supports 24/192 lossless audio and none of its headphones can utilize it. True! But, someone is saying you can come close to it by using a wired connection. I've not tested it though. https://www.reddit.com/r/Airpodsmax/comments/nfc1h3/clearing...

> The one in your lightning to 3.5mm iPhone adapter may not be as good as a $100 desktop DAC hooked up to your PC playing from USB, and that may not be as good as a $500+ DAC in a recording studio.

This isn't true; it's better than the first and possibly better than the second. It's a very good $9 dongle.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#350

Post by atlgator »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #26

It's wild how much money Apple has made from Bluetooth headphones that don't suck. That's literally it. They're portable, pair easily and (somewhat) work with multiple devices. I have top of the line Bose Bluetooth headphones that still, in 2022, have issues with multiple devices. I can't count how many times I've started playing music on my iPhone only to realize that the headphones think my laptop is playing, so th…

Weird. I've got the QC35 (v1) and have no issues switching devices. I don't even have the Bose app on my phone.
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