AirPods Pro 3, impressions

Hardware
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(Opinionated, but honest.)

I recently bought the AirPods Pro 3 and must say I am properly impressed. This is my first pair of any Apple-branded headset (except for the old in-the-box wired ones that never fit me). I have been curious for a long time, but have found earlier AirPods to have sub-par audio performance for its price range. Not so with the AirPods Pro 3’s though.

The APP3 finally reached a level of audio reproduction that can be expected of a product in this class. Great instrument separation and a nice, wide soundstage for in-ears. They are very close to my previous go-to Sennheiser True Wireless series, most recently the v4. Definitely exceeding the Sennheisers in terms of ANC performance too.

However, the way the AirPods seamlessly integrate with all my Apple devices is just next level in user experience. They automatically/easily connect to iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac and Apple TV as needed. Other niceties include the “conversation awareness”, head gestures to accept/reject a call etc. Still, there are a few misunderstandings where I pause music on the phone for a minute, then squeeze for play and it picks up where I left off on the iPad, two rooms over :smile:.

I still have not been in a situation suitable to test out the automatic translation features, but it might be useful at some point I guess.

Now, the “Spatial Audio” feature… That’s a serious crime against studio workers in general and mixing professionals in particular. I had left it on and started listening to some well-known tracks. At first I was afraid there was something wrong with my new AirPods, nothing sounded right. To me, this feature completely mangles the music into something way less enjoyable. I much prefer the signal producers intended and put hours and hours of their skills and experience into finely crafting for me. Also, head-tracking? I can’t think of a single good usecase for this.

That said, if you need a new pair, the AirPods Pro 3 gets a strong recommendation from me. Pro tip: try the Comply tips for it for increased bass, even better comfort and isolation.

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Nice review! They’ve been working out for me, too. The big question, coming from the Max, was if the longer battery life and improved ANC would be enough that I’d be able to work with them all day. They have crossed that threshold. The audio quality bottleneck is the video call’s compression. Latency will never be ideal with wireless vs low latency USB-C, but it’s been consistent (and again, the video call is the main bottleneck until we get more people using original audio settings.)

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I’ve had all three versions and, when they were working, they were all great. Each generation has gotten markedly better.

The originals couldn’t cope with very loud, very high pitched external sounds. The next generation were pretty solid except some Bluetooth glitching. The latest, once I gave them a factory reset, have been very reliable.

But all three have suffered (and continue to suffer from) the most annoying automatic switching — when I am watching video on my iPad and it switches the audio to my phone when an alarm goes off. Sometimes. Even when it does switch, the phone speaker blares the alarm anyway!

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