I had a couple of days to take some time to get a good impression. here are some updates:
--ANC--
I went into the city (SF, bay area) to pick up an item. I thought it was a good time to try the ANC in a real use case instead of at home. There was construction across the street, sounds of the road and some crazy homeless dude shouting at thin air or a bird or both. Wind was also strong and it was a chilly day.
Result: It passed. The sound was dramatically reduced and it did do a better job than the airpods pro but the airpods pro did well on it's own. The construction on the higher frequency sounds can be heard but it was significantly recessed. There were works blowing leafs and that was also reduced. When i take the headphones off, i can hear that there were much louder than I expected. Homeless dude also trying to talk to me and followed me for a block. I didn't anything until i heard a faint "hey buddy, i'm talking to you".
I do notice that the ANC changes slightly when rotate my head, maybe i had a seal open on the bottom of the cups but in that busy street as a rotated my head, the ANC would fluctuate and adjust, it's more noticeably if i did it fast (turning my head and i think it's because the mics were changing their position which causes changes in level recordings).
Since it was chilly, these acted like muffins and kept my ears warm but when the sun came out, i started to get a bit hot with them on and i had to take them off for a second. I was also wearing a mask and my face in general was hot.
Overall - ANC passed, they were great and when i used transparency mode on, i didn't have to take my headphones off when i was speaking with the store.
I did have one problem today where the ANC was not working or only worked on one ear. I had to reset the pairing to fix the issue. It was rather strange.
-----Audio sound------
I have been using it compared to the Focal Elex + THXAAA AMP + SCHITT MODI setup. I will say that, i still prefer the sound from wired setup better than the Focal. while the Apple airpods provide a nice - non-fatiguing sound with better bass. The clarity difference between the two heaphones was night and day. The airy-ness of my open headphones just provided better breath to the instruments and better resolution in the sound using the same sound source (one is BT, while the other is wired) is very significant. And while I did enjoy the airpro max - I kept going back to my wired setup as my audio choice.
This primarily because of preference. While i like bass, i don't like over powering bass. I like bass that is impactful and not extras, like a precise punch instead of wack. Bass on the airpods when needed are there where I do notice it because i'm not use to it, but i love my mids and highs more, so this just someone take away some from the Mids. When you have vocal specific focused songs, i think it does a good job and the sound signature is wider than other ANC BT headphones i have tried.
Spatial audio has been the biggest and welcome surprise to the airpods brand. I just found out about it, maybe a week ago and these create a sound signature in movies which support it that not only I enjoy, but greatly prefer. I tried watch a movie with it off and it feels meh without it. the spatial audio fills my head in a way no other headphone - including the expensive set has done. For movies that support this feature, this is something that is worth an extra 50 to 100 bucks for my money. I really hope they support it on the apple tv soon.
--CASE--
And the "case", i would agree with some people on the internet - It's NOT a case. It's a cover. And for a cover, it doesn't bother. As a case, it's worthless. But i actually don't like cases because 1) i don't use them for headphones 2) it makes it harder for me to shove it my backpack. This just covers what i want covered and calls it a day. I'm ok with that.
--ANC--
I went into the city (SF, bay area) to pick up an item. I thought it was a good time to try the ANC in a real use case instead of at home. There was construction across the street, sounds of the road and some crazy homeless dude shouting at thin air or a bird or both. Wind was also strong and it was a chilly day.
Result: It passed. The sound was dramatically reduced and it did do a better job than the airpods pro but the airpods pro did well on it's own. The construction on the higher frequency sounds can be heard but it was significantly recessed. There were works blowing leafs and that was also reduced. When i take the headphones off, i can hear that there were much louder than I expected. Homeless dude also trying to talk to me and followed me for a block. I didn't anything until i heard a faint "hey buddy, i'm talking to you".
I do notice that the ANC changes slightly when rotate my head, maybe i had a seal open on the bottom of the cups but in that busy street as a rotated my head, the ANC would fluctuate and adjust, it's more noticeably if i did it fast (turning my head and i think it's because the mics were changing their position which causes changes in level recordings).
Since it was chilly, these acted like muffins and kept my ears warm but when the sun came out, i started to get a bit hot with them on and i had to take them off for a second. I was also wearing a mask and my face in general was hot.
Overall - ANC passed, they were great and when i used transparency mode on, i didn't have to take my headphones off when i was speaking with the store.
I did have one problem today where the ANC was not working or only worked on one ear. I had to reset the pairing to fix the issue. It was rather strange.
-----Audio sound------
I have been using it compared to the Focal Elex + THXAAA AMP + SCHITT MODI setup. I will say that, i still prefer the sound from wired setup better than the Focal. while the Apple airpods provide a nice - non-fatiguing sound with better bass. The clarity difference between the two heaphones was night and day. The airy-ness of my open headphones just provided better breath to the instruments and better resolution in the sound using the same sound source (one is BT, while the other is wired) is very significant. And while I did enjoy the airpro max - I kept going back to my wired setup as my audio choice.
This primarily because of preference. While i like bass, i don't like over powering bass. I like bass that is impactful and not extras, like a precise punch instead of wack. Bass on the airpods when needed are there where I do notice it because i'm not use to it, but i love my mids and highs more, so this just someone take away some from the Mids. When you have vocal specific focused songs, i think it does a good job and the sound signature is wider than other ANC BT headphones i have tried.
Spatial audio has been the biggest and welcome surprise to the airpods brand. I just found out about it, maybe a week ago and these create a sound signature in movies which support it that not only I enjoy, but greatly prefer. I tried watch a movie with it off and it feels meh without it. the spatial audio fills my head in a way no other headphone - including the expensive set has done. For movies that support this feature, this is something that is worth an extra 50 to 100 bucks for my money. I really hope they support it on the apple tv soon.
--CASE--
And the "case", i would agree with some people on the internet - It's NOT a case. It's a cover. And for a cover, it doesn't bother. As a case, it's worthless. But i actually don't like cases because 1) i don't use them for headphones 2) it makes it harder for me to shove it my backpack. This just covers what i want covered and calls it a day. I'm ok with that.
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