1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,360 When I started here at Linus Media Group, Linus made sure that I was given a pair of 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:10,720 AirPods Pro. They are admittedly the first pair of AirPods I have ever used, and after hearing all the 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:15,280 hype over the years, it was exciting to be able to try them myself. 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,900 The pairing is great. The connection to my M1 Max? 5 00:00:19,900 --> 00:00:29,320 Not so great. The transparency, for me at least, is essential, and the sound is fine. 6 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:34,160 I still don't feel like they helped me fully appreciate the hype, but I like using them. 7 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:38,160 Now though, there's a second generation of AirPods Pro, and they appear to offer some 8 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:41,360 sizable improvements over the ones I've been using for the past two years. 9 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:52,360 So are they worthy of the upgrade for $250? 10 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:56,760 At first glance, there's little difference between the new and old AirPods Pro. 11 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,560 They have the same basic tips, shape, and case. 12 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:06,920 But look closer, the case now has four holes and a lanyard strap loop. 13 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:11,720 And on the buds themselves, the placement of the grills is completely different. 14 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:17,400 Even the tips. Yes, the Gen 1 tips will fit, but look at how loose that mesh is. 15 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:24,280 Why settle? There are also brand new extra small tips available, which is a big boon for people like Nicole, 16 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:27,800 who were previously having trouble getting a comfortable seal. 17 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:30,920 If these extra small ones fit, that's a game changer. 18 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:36,800 That changes everything. That's pretty amazing. And there's a new vent system for pressure equalization to help active noise-canceling 19 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:41,720 comfort. 20 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:46,960 Most important with headphones is the sound, and under the mesh is a new speaker driver 21 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:52,760 and H2 chip. Altogether, these should make everything sound better no matter what's going on around 22 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,840 you. And they do sound better. 23 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,720 I'm no sound expert by a long shot, but I can definitely tell the difference between 24 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:04,760 these and my old first generation pair. A little bit more bass, a lot fuller. 25 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:10,120 Now to verify my credibility, we headed to headphones.com to test the AirPods Pro in 26 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:16,040 their lab. And yep, it appears that the second gen AirPods Pro do in fact have more bass. 27 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,320 What's more, despite not advertising the feature, our tests confirmed that Apple added 28 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,680 a volume-dependent EQ to the new buds. 29 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:27,400 This adjusts the level of certain frequencies at different volumes. 30 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:31,600 It's great for when you want to still hear some bass with the volume down. 31 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:36,280 So if you're an audio-obsessed AirPods Pro user, you will definitely notice and appreciate 32 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:42,120 the differences. And if you're a normal AirPods Pro user just listening to music off the phone, well, you 33 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:49,160 can probably still wait for your pair to die. Because while the sound improvements are amazing, it's not worth the upgrade alone. 34 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,800 They still sound really good. 35 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:58,360 I tried these against a bunch of similarly priced Bluetooth headphones and I have to 36 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:02,400 say they all kind of sound so similar to each other. 37 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,400 It's Bluetooth compression in small earbud drivers. 38 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:10,160 I mean, if I got any of these, I'd probably be perfectly happy with the sound. 39 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:31,760 Compared to other Bluetooth headphones, when you consider the adaptive noise-cancelling 40 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:35,680 and transparency modes, the differences do reveal themselves. 41 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:40,160 As I mentioned before, I'm one of those people who doesn't like living in ANC. 42 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:45,200 For instance, when I tried the Pixel Buds Pro in ANC, I found them to be almost too effective. 43 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:49,760 I could barely hear myself breathe. It was exhausting and felt suffocating. 44 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:56,560 You, however, might like that. On the other hand, the Sennheiser True Wireless 3 offers a bit more flexibility, allowing 45 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:00,960 you to dial in your transparency in ANC on a slider, as opposed to trusting Apple's 46 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,600 automated systems. But I do trust Apple. 47 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:10,040 These new AirPods Pro sounded better and were more comfortable than any of the other headphones 48 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:16,840 I tried. And even though the previous AirPods Pro already had great ANC and transparency, these are 49 00:04:16,840 --> 00:04:24,160 noticeably better. If you're a frequent flyer or you take lots of walks in a loud city, then you'll definitely 50 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:29,680 appreciate the improvements. The usability has improved a lot too. 51 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,800 For instance, you can now adjust the volume of these AirPods on the Buds themselves just 52 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:40,500 by swiping up or down. It's not fast by any means, but it works well every time I use it. 53 00:04:40,500 --> 00:04:45,640 Not all wireless headphones have onboard volume control, and most split the controls between 54 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:52,480 the headphones. In these Sennheisers, for instance, long pressing the right Bud raises the volume, and the left 55 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:57,080 lowers it. Having it all on one Bud is much simpler. 56 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,880 I love the new case. 57 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:06,720 Where is it? If you misplace it, it's much easier to find thanks to the addition of the U1 chip. 58 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:10,040 And when you're trying to figure out what couch cushion it's under, there's now a 59 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:19,240 speaker that can get pretty loud. It also plays fun sound effects when you charge, which you can now do with an Apple Watch charger. 60 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,360 And the U1 chip also makes it clearer when you need to charge. 61 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:26,920 If you want to know how much battery your case has with the older AirPods, you have 62 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:31,760 to put at least one Bud in the case and then open it near your phone to get the reading. 63 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:36,000 Now though, the case's connection to the phone is direct, so the battery level is always 64 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:55,040 there. It's really nice. Apple's really committed to spatial audio. 65 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:59,960 Using crazy audio processing, spatial audio can simulate sounds floating around you. 66 00:05:59,960 --> 00:06:05,400 It's very weird using spatial audio headtracked with noise cancellation on at the beach because 67 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,280 it's like, oh, I'm in a different place. 68 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:14,000 It's neat technology that as of last year I discovered, I'm not that into, especially 69 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:20,880 for music. And with the latest iOS update, Apple added personalized spatial audio, which is actually 70 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:24,760 available to all AirPods introduced after 2019. 71 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:30,120 Using the Face ID camera system, your iPhone can make a map of your ear to tailor the spatial 72 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:36,680 audio to your ear shape. Your brain is tuned to a particular ear shape, which affects how sound bounces into the canal 73 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:41,600 from the space around you. It's part of how you can tell where sound is coming from. 74 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:46,200 Using the ear map, personalized spatial audio should make surround sound and Dolby Atmos 75 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,560 content come to life for you. 76 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:56,480 It's so much boomier. And I don't know, I mean, to my ears, I don't think I'll use it. 77 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:02,640 SM, our headphones guy here at LMG, describes increasing the trebles and the bass in audio 78 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:11,000 as hyping. And sure enough, when I did the hear ID hearing tests with the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pros, hyped 79 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:16,840 was the result. And that hyped kind of sound is what I hear when personalized spatial audio is on. 80 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,280 The difference is very apparent when you turn it off. 81 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:26,320 I don't know. I think I prefer it unpersonalized and I'm only really going to use spatial audio anyway 82 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,000 when I'm listening to video content mixed for surround. 83 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,280 With music, plain old stereo is much better to me. 84 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:39,320 Oh wait, turning it back on requires doing the whole scan again? 85 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:45,640 Oh, and another annoying glitch is that the audio still cuts out if I have too many Bluetooth 86 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:49,760 devices connected to my M1 iMac. I thought this was fixed. 87 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,040 It's cutting out. It's cutting out. 88 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,920 Spatial audio support is strange on the Mac 2. It really depends on the app. 89 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:01,400 Say if I'm watching a video on Firefox, there's no option to turn it on or off until I open 90 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:07,840 an app that does support it, like music. I've even had head tracking anchored to an iPad on my desk and not the iMac that the 91 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:14,400 audio is coming from. Also, the menu bar icon doesn't show a set of AirPods, but the old ones do. 92 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:22,240 I miss that. When it comes to upgrading, if I had bought a pair of AirPods Pro in the last year, I'd 93 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:26,520 be annoyed about all the great features I'm missing with this new model. 94 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:31,680 For the uninflated $250 price tag, it's hard to do better. 95 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,920 Especially because of this case, I believe in the magic now. 96 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:39,960 The second generation AirPods Pro are a super easy way to get great sound out of your Apple 97 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:45,480 devices. As for me, I still have the first generation AirPods Pro that work well. 98 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:49,360 I want to see how long they last, and I want to keep them at the landfill, so I'm going 99 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:54,040 to keep using them. I know what I'm missing out on, and it hurts a little bit. 100 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:01,240 But what if I didn't own any AirPods? What would I spend my own money on? 101 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:08,640 Well, not these. I still can't get over the isolation of silicone tips that are so penetrative and uncomfortable. 102 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:15,400 So I remain ever so drawn to the third generation AirPods, which are the ones I get. 103 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:19,680 Thanks for making this Mac Address easier to find, which you can do by liking and subscribing. 104 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:24,960 I'm curious in the comments below, if you're the type of person who for sound quality improvements 105 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:29,320 alone would actually upgrade a perfectly good set of Bluetooth headphones, like who would 106 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,320 do that? You wouldn't do that. I would. 107 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,320 You would? Yep. Yep.