so i've had the airpods pro since launch day. been using them a lot in different situations - walking the dog, at the gym, in the office - and i'm not super happy with the noise cancellation especially after reading and seeing other peoples reviews. fit is great with both the small and medium tips. both yield good fit results when i run the test. when i'm walking around the neighborhood and a car drives by i can still definitely hear it drive by. it's for sure better with anc on but not nearly the level i was expecting. at the gym, i can still hear the music being played over the speakers and the clanking of weights. again, better with anc on but still very noticeable. i've also taken them to starbucks and could still hear people talking and the clanking of their frothing pitchers. ijustine's video had her sitting outside next to a busy street and she said she could barely hear cars driving by. am i expecting too much or do i possibly have a faulty pair?
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am i expecting too much from anc?
- Thread starter alleyooptroop
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You're expecting too much if you expect little earbuds to completely cancel out all noise. Even the ones that go completely over the ears won't make everything silent. At least for me, on loud trains, if outside volume is usually 100%, ANC will reduce it to 30% which allows me to listen to actual dialogue in movies without blasting the volume.
appreciate your pov. i guess i just wanted to hear more accurate testimonials on what the anc will cut out and make sure i didn't have a defective pair. your train analogy helps
I was in the same boat - never had ANC of any type - and expected a lot. I can't get the "test" to give good results on a regular basis (and don't have the patience to play with them all the time) but walking around in our local mall I was impressed with the difference when switching between NC/Transparent/Off. And this was without getting a green test. Like you said - expecting too much.
what sounds do you still notice when walking around the mall? are you still hearing people's voices?
Noise canceling works best with constant noise sources - think jet engines, trains, etc. More sudden, higher pitched, or intermittent noises it's not as effective at. I have the well regarded Sony WH-1000XM2 over the ear noise canceling headphones as well as the AirPods Pro now and find them comparable. I haven't flown yet with the AirPods Pro, but even with the Sony's you still will hear noises. In flight for example, you can hear the announcements clearly, talk to the flight attendants, etc., but the droning noise of the airplane itself is reduced significantly. So it's more noise 'reduction' than it is 'canceling'. Hope this helps!
I think its expectations and personal opinion. I was at the gym, and I experience what you experienced, but the voices, music, and metal clanging was far less. I had the volume at 50%-60%. With the normal AirPods, I would normally have the music to 80%. The APP far reduced the noise by a significant margin. All in all I was happy with the, especially given before my experience at the gym I was 50-50 set on returning them because of ear ache, but that appears to have died down.
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My bose QC25 experience was like that. You can still hear muffled announcements, but the jet engine is quiet.
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You will still hear people voices, that’s something ANC can‘t fully cover. You would need fully sealed headphones, or earphones that do not have a vent that lets air in like the AirPods pro do.
ANC is frequency based not loudness based, that is it will not reduce volume of exterior noise but rather cut out certain frequencies. Bass, rumble, low end whine etc. Think the constant bottom end hum of a jet engine. So ANC is really good at cutting everything from below 260Hz and above 9kHZ very low end and very bottom end. A side effect is that mid range frequencies such as voices or air cabin trolley bangs or babies crying appear clear and on their own. In regards to the AP's ANC they are very good given that their amp is fully contained in the microscopic capsule of the AP itself, you can get better like the Bose in ear for cheaper (you have to carry around the small but seperate power amp) but then you are sacrificing overall music delivery quality and being in the Apple ecosystem. To surmise, I think the AP's are fantastic at ANC all things considered.
A good test is sit under a fan and turn NC on and off, blocks it all together, great in my small home office heading into summer here, also will be for air con when start using it. My last plane trip in July i had bose QC 35, so will be interesting on my next one in January with APP only.
agree that the AP's block out "white noise" type sounds pretty well. i was surprised by how many of the other sounds leaked through though. but i get it now. lot of good info in this thread
I just came back from a walk along a busy street. I played with the different settings on my APP’s. I would say about 20% of the noise reduction is passive noise reduction from the silicone tips in my ears. When I turn on active noise cancellation noise is reduced approximately 20% more. I could clearly hear most of the noises around me but, at a slightly lower volume. Where I might use 80% volume on my AirPods 2, I only needed 60% volume on my APP’s. I’m not that impressed with the active noise cancelling ability of any of the earbuds on the market (and I’ve tried them all). I will keep mine because of how seamlessly they work with my other Apple devices. I also think they are overpriced by $50.
Agreed.
I also find it really annoying that they're sticking to their price anchoring on the Gen 2's.
The non-WC case Gen 2 models should be retailing at about $129 at this point and the APP's at $199
I have the QC35 and WH-1000XM3 and they blow the APP out of the water. Apples and oranges.
I agree that I was expecting more. This ANC seems to be very lacking in terms of drowning out noise.
OP, I’m not surprised you had that reaction.
I think reviewers and tech writers in general didn’t necessarily take into account how many people would be brand new to ANC. When they wrote about these, or made videos, so many that I saw seemed to start from an assumption that they were reviewing just another new feature, rather than one that average consumers wouldn’t have spent time researching or experiencing before. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does change expectations.
I think these are great, I would give their ANC an A- for—and this is key: noise canceling earbuds. There is absolutely no substitute for over the ear cans when it comes to ANC, but not everyone knows that, or even how ANC works in general.
I think reviewers and tech writers in general didn’t necessarily take into account how many people would be brand new to ANC. When they wrote about these, or made videos, so many that I saw seemed to start from an assumption that they were reviewing just another new feature, rather than one that average consumers wouldn’t have spent time researching or experiencing before. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does change expectations.
I think these are great, I would give their ANC an A- for—and this is key: noise canceling earbuds. There is absolutely no substitute for over the ear cans when it comes to ANC, but not everyone knows that, or even how ANC works in general.
I have both APP and Bose QC35. The APP are about, in my eyes/ears, 90% as effective as my QC35.
With APP I thought for absolutely sure, I would be using the medium to small tips for max efficiency of ANC. Both the medium and smalls passed the ANC test and sounded great.
Thing is, I ended up trying the large silicone tips and was kinda stunned when I heard them in regards to the medium and small. The large tips made me realize there was an ever so slight sound leakage coming through on my medium tips. I went back and forth between sizes a couple of times to verify this. Sure enough, the large tips sealed passive noise out MUCH better.
So anyone else not fully impressed, maybe give all sizes several tries to nail the true fit.
With APP I thought for absolutely sure, I would be using the medium to small tips for max efficiency of ANC. Both the medium and smalls passed the ANC test and sounded great.
Thing is, I ended up trying the large silicone tips and was kinda stunned when I heard them in regards to the medium and small. The large tips made me realize there was an ever so slight sound leakage coming through on my medium tips. I went back and forth between sizes a couple of times to verify this. Sure enough, the large tips sealed passive noise out MUCH better.
So anyone else not fully impressed, maybe give all sizes several tries to nail the true fit.
I agree 100% with this. So much so I flogged my QC35s and will now just use my APP.
I’m with you, a lot of people say they’re close and I don’t think they’re remotely close to the abilities of the wh series. But, once a little soft Music is playing it helps drown out a lot of what does it through and is surprisingly good. If you’re looking to just sit in silence over the ear no question. If you’re willing to make some trade offs for portability and versatility With a great transparency mode, then the app are great.
Adding more to the conversation even though im sure its already been said. They do a decent job but like many reviewers said, it needs to be a consistent noise. The go-to litmus test for noise cancellation is jet engines. I remember when Bose first came out with their headphones with NC, in their stores they had speakers playing jet engines and allowing you to test out the headphones blocking it out. Headphones/ear buds do an "ok" job with inconsistent ambient noise - such as the cars, people talking, glasses clanging - as you described.
Don't expect it to be flawless. Im sure these reviewers inflated their opinions a bit for some reason and to get views.
Don't expect it to be flawless. Im sure these reviewers inflated their opinions a bit for some reason and to get views.
Exactly. It’s all about how you place the earbud in the ear and with which tip. Getting a good fit is paramount to ANC effectiveness as well as sound quality.
I noticed that the tip seal seems to get better after the silicone warms ups in my ears to where the seal feels equal in both ears and the ANC is in the sweet spot. I’m using the large tips as well.
I returned the pro's due to poor fit and got the Bose 700, ANC is chalk and cheese.