Airpods, MBP and iPhone sound difference

[fyun89]

I just got my AirPods!

At first I connected it to my iPhone 6 Plus and the sound quality was so-so. I liked the sound profile of the stock apple EarPods. So it was alright. (***EarPods have been broken-in for almost 3 years; so AirPods may get better bc it's as good as EarPods out of the box!)

But when I connected it to my 2012 rMBP, sound quality was pretty impressive! Honestly, this is same for the wired EarPods as well. But I didn't expect bluetooth connection would work the same as the wired earphones.

Anyone else think that the capability of AirPods are constrained by Bluetooth? I kind of regret not waiting for second gen since it will most likely use BT 5.0....

 

[geesus]

I definitely notice a difference between my iPhone SE and my 2015 MBP but I wouldn't say either is 'better' just a different profile. However, I do get very brief drop-outs when using my MacBook with them and narrowing the problem down, it seems related to browsing the web and sites with auto-playing videos like Facebook, oddly.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I did think the iPhone 7 Plus's Bluetooth connection sounded a bit better than on my 6s, and maybe a bit better than my 2012 rMBP. In theory they should all be transmitting AAC at the same bitrate though. Try an iPhone 7 and see if you can hear the same difference.