Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 509 posts

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#391

Post by fomine3 »

js2 wrote: post #184
erikpukinskis wrote: post #3

I would love to buy AirPods one day, but I have just had too many experiences telling someone on Zoom they sound like they’re under water, and they say, “hold on a sec that’s my AirPods.” If Apple could fix that issue, this would be a nice product! Unfortunately I don’t know how Apple could ever signal to me that they had fixed that issue.

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…

Is AAC-ELD standard on Bluetooth? LE Audio is the next standard for audio.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#392

Post by fomine3 »

canuckintime wrote: post #11

Touch volume control removes my biggest pain point with the original. I might actually get two: one for my Apple devices and another for Windows/Android

I hate every touch control on earphones/headphones. It's one of a reason why I bought AirPods Max. I'm curious is it fine finally.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#393

Post by smoldesu »

RockRobotRock wrote: post #336
smoldesu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Airpods simply do not support decent sounding duplex audio: https://youtu.be/N6Y_Q7RYmmY?t=351

No bluetooth device supports decent duplex audio, that I know of.

Correct. We rely on the courage of companies smarter than us to come up with the solutions to these problems, but sometimes they forget to fix the problems they're responsible for causing.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#394

Post by pclmulqdq »

cafed00d wrote: post #152
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…

All of this has a super simple explanation: the shitty products always have org structures that treat software dev as shitty cost centers. It took a long time to realize that the most compelling devices have good, well maintained software. I don’t mean to say that software devs are geniuses or that these orgs have to hire the best of the best. No, they just need to create an org that prioritizes software dev. Low att…

The unsung part of this is that Bluetooth is a ridiculously complicated protocol. Basically everyone has a broken implementation of it. If someone asked me to choose whether to write either a C++ compiler or a bluetooth stack, I would probably choose the C++ compiler.

There are very few people who are both passionate about the problem of wireless devices and who understand all of the stack enough to make a driver that is fast, resilient, and standards-compliant. I hear that Apple sometimes bends the "standards-compliant" part - which is why their airpods only work with their devices.

Apple has done a great job giving this team of <100 engineers the space they need to succeed, and it's a huge feat. Most other companies don't even try to write their own BT stack (for good reason) and just use a vendor solution, so their user experience is subpar.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#395

Post by philliphaydon »

theshrike79 wrote: post #257
cube2222 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I remember my reason for switching to AirPods Max. My Sony xm3 kept connecting to the laptop in my backpack - which was asleep - when I was getting on my bike. I had to unpair my phone and re-pair it to force it to "own" the headphones. It was such a pita. That really was the biggest value add of the Apple headphones, and it works absolutely great. It almost (a 99.5%+ kind of almost) always connects to the devi…

I had the Bose QC35 IIs and had the exact same issue. My work laptop was in sleep mode and still they decided to keep connecting to it. I had to either open up the mobile app, wait for it to do its stuff and force a disconnect with the laptop OR get up, walk to the laptop, open it, turn off BT and close it again. Ordered AirPods Max and I've had pretty much zero issues since. I can walk from my computer to the TV and…

For non apple headphones I just hold the power button when I turn them on so they go into pairing move and pair again to the device. (Mainly switching between laptops) I wish apple did over ear headphones for like $200 instead of $600.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#396

Post by Tagbert »

jeremy_wiebe wrote: post #372
ballenf wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd prefer a hardware switch over pure software anyway. A toggle on the headphones -- a slide switch for Device A or B. (Auto software switching would be better if it worked 99%+ of the time.)

A cord used to plug into whichever device you want to listen to would also work and be correct 100% of the time… barring user error.

I lost my original Airpods about a month before the AirPods Pro came out. It took about a month to get my AirPods Pro. During that 2 month period I used wired headphones and hated every single minute of it. The cord was always in the way. Once, on a crowded bus, the cord got caught and the headphones were pulled out and ended up dragging on the bus floor. I tossed them and bought a cheap pair of Bluetooth headphones for the final 2 weeks. They were crap but at least there was no cord dangling about.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#397

Post by stjohnswarts »

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…

I have some oneplus ones that cost me 1/4 as much and are just as good as my set that died (airpods) the initial (no) setup (needed) was the only advantage for apple's product. People give apple a bit too much credit for this stuff.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#398

Post by stjohnswarts »

okdood64 wrote: post #348
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?

no but 95% will swear they can to justify the extra $$ :)

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#399

Post by ramraj07 »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #303
tomphoolery wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if there was another "commodity" processor one could just insert into their earbuds and write some awesome software, why hasn't anyone done that yet? If you could offer the same features as AirPods (and other Apple headphones) at half the cost, you'd make serious money. People might not care too much about those technical features of them, but I know they care about consistently good performance, and the AirP…

There are a lot of alternatives noted for their performance. Jabra, Bose, Sony all have earned high marks from reviewers.

I have one of each within my family. Sound quality wise they’re better than AirPods but the usability and seamlessness sucks real bad. The good reviews are all like ones that rate the XPS as the best laptop because the reviewers think “a MacBook is not a laptop” and similarly the Jabra is the best Bluetooth headphone because to the reviewer the AirPod isn’t even competition. Which is true if you are on Android anyway.

Re: AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

#400

Post by ramraj07 »

jeremy_wiebe wrote: post #372
ballenf wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd prefer a hardware switch over pure software anyway. A toggle on the headphones -- a slide switch for Device A or B. (Auto software switching would be better if it worked 99%+ of the time.)

A cord used to plug into whichever device you want to listen to would also work and be correct 100% of the time… barring user error.

The AirPods are the best recent example of people who haven’t tried the new thing crapping on it saying the old ways work fine. Multiple times people have crapped on the AirPods and I gift them one and they realize how amazing it is to not have wires at all.

Last time this happened was with the OG iPhone of course. Still remember Maddox’s tear down of the iPhone lol. https://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=iphone/

Post reply on HN