Customize Adaptive Audio on AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2

Adaptive is SO good for commuting. I like being able to hear stuff around me (like people saying "excuse me" in the subway or whatever) but also having the ANC ramp up when a subway train or an ambulance siren is blasting out high-decibel noise. It's important to have situational awareness but also tune out the loudest stuff.

On the first gen AirPods Pro, I needed to toggle on noise cancelling when walking across freeway bridges, but on the second gen, the adaptive mode works so well that I can leave it on all the time - as you say, being easily able to hear conversation, but blocking loud sounds well.

But I turned the Conversation Awareness off after about the first hour - because any random mouth noise, like clearing your throat, would mute the audio for a while - it was a neat idea, but annoying in practice.

Adaptive is also great for phone calls. Full ANC is pretty much unusable on calls because it's like talking with a pillow over your head, but Adaptive will gently ramp up noise cancellation while also piping a little bit of your own mic back through the audio (aka sidetone) so you can hear your own voice.

I was super disappointed when the second generation of AirPods Max shipped without an H2 chip and thus none of the more advanced audio features like this.

That depends entirely on your eartips.

The stock ones that Apple ships with the AirPods? ANC is surprisingly good, but far from perfect.

A quality third-party replacement, such as the AZLA SednaEarfit? They’ll give your over-the-ear headphones a run for the money.

But … with custom-molded silicone eartips such as Snugs … your headphones are the ones left behind. Far behind.

My Snugs in “off” mode are much better earplugs than those foam things you squish and roll before you stick them in your ears.

And, with ANC … put it this way. I have a 1955 Volkswagen Beetle. While it’s possibly the quietest ’50s-era Bug in the Southwest, that’s not saying an awful lot. But the Snugs with ANC on makes the car sound like a desk fan in a library.

I use them as hearing aids. My thousands-of-dollars prescription hearing aids can’t hold a candle to this setup. While the hearing aids definitely do an excellent job at making speech easier to understand, the AirPods basically give me perfectly normal young healthy hearing.

And then add all those fancy adaptive (etc.) features on top … this is the future of hearing health, truly. Just need to work on the form factor, especially the laughably-short battery life.

I wrote waaay too long a writeup here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-hearing-health-ben-goren-kdilc

b&

How much did they pay you for that endorsement? If it ain't much, you got robbed! 🤣 🤣 🤣
And your claims are refuted by Snug's own website! (And they even spelled "achieve" wrong! Duh!

These noise controlling/cancelling features are not what a new buyer should base his decision on. Even with the best fit possible, noise is getting in around them, and they're not even close to being as effective as a pair of over the ear headphones like the Sony WH1000-xm4 or 5.

The AirPods offer very nice, crystal clear sound, buy them for that. Don't expect to walk into a noise restaurant or movie and be comfortable.

Adaptive is SO good for commuting. I like being able to hear stuff around me (like people saying "excuse me" in the subway" or whatever) but also having the ANC ramp up when a subway train or an ambulance siren is blasting out high-decibel noise. It's important to have situational awareness but also tune out the loudest stuff.

On the first gen AirPods Pro, I needed to toggle on noise cancelling when walking across freeway bridges, but on the second gen, the adaptive mode works so well that I can leave it on all the time - as you say, being easily able to hear conversation, but blocking loud sounds well.

But I turned the Conversation Awareness off after about the first hour - because any random mouth noise, like clearing your throat, would mute the audio for a while - it was a neat idea, but annoying in practice.

These noise controlling/cancelling features are not what a new buyer should base his decision on. Even with the best fit possible, noise is getting in around them, and they're not even close to being as effective as a pair of over the ear headphones like the Sony WH1000-xm4 or 5.

The AirPods offer very nice, crystal clear sound, buy them for that. Don't expect to walk into a noise restaurant or movie and be comfortable.

That depends entirely on your eartips.

The stock ones that Apple ships with the AirPods? ANC is surprisingly good, but far from perfect.

A quality third-party replacement, such as the AZLA SednaEarfit? They’ll give your over-the-ear headphones a run for the money.

But … with custom-molded silicone eartips such as Snugs … your headphones are the ones left behind. Far behind.

My Snugs in “off” mode are much better earplugs than those foam things you squish and roll before you stick them in your ears.

And, with ANC … put it this way. I have a 1955 Volkswagen Beetle. While it’s possibly the quietest ’50s-era Bug in the Southwest, that’s not saying an awful lot. But the Snugs with ANC on makes the car sound like a desk fan in a library.

I use them as hearing aids. My thousands-of-dollars prescription hearing aids can’t hold a candle to this setup. While the hearing aids definitely do an excellent job at making speech easier to understand, the AirPods basically give me perfectly normal young healthy hearing.

And then add all those fancy adaptive (etc.) features on top … this is the future of hearing health, truly. Just need to work on the form factor, especially the laughably-short battery life.

I wrote waaay too long a writeup here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-hearing-health-ben-goren-kdilc

b&