I have always wanted to love AirPods. The original AirPods Pro were the closest I came outside of the excellent AirPods Max. Even those have a fatal flaw. They are much too expensive and still do not support lossless. I personally do not find that lack of support a big deal. But many do. After all, Apple offers lossless music at no extra cost. But their super premium headphones can’t support it. It is understandable why some consider the product overpriced With lossless support, that price would be easier to justify.

AirPods are not alone in being imperfect. Truly wireless earbuds are a generally flawed category with inherent compromises. Clearly, people are willing to put up with those compromises as they are flying off the shelves. Unsurprisingly, AirPods led the way. Even so, they could be better. The regular AirPods don’t come with any ear tips and simply will not fit a lot of people well. When it comes to earbud quality, a secure fit is almost as important to the sound as good drivers. This results in a lot of people making do with subpar sound quality.

AirPods Pro partially fixed that by including different sized ear tips. It wasn’t quite enough. And they still didn’t stay securely seated for my ears. This complaint was widespread. Many wanted to love them, but couldn’t. There was also some criticism that the sound wasn’t significantly better than the regular AirPods.

Apple tried to differentiate with ANC and Transparency Mode. These were solid offerings in a small package. But they came at the cost of battery life. These were apparently hard computer science problems because it took Apple 3 years to address them. It was a long wait. But the replacements are finally here. Here are my thoughts on what that “finally” actually covers:

External differences

You would be hard pressed to spot the difference between the two generations of AirPods. But there is a difference to be spotted. The skin sensor has been moved to help the AirPods distinguish when they are touching skin and when they are in a pocket. This will help to save battery life for those who frequently rock only one pod at a time.

There are also differences in the case. While it is the same size, it has a place for a strap. You must buy it separately. Any strap will do. The case also sports a speaker that provides helpful audio cues. It also can play a sound to help you find it when you inevitably misplace it.

I cannot say that there are any differences in the ear tips besides a forth one for extra small ears. That means that more people will have a better fit. That said, I am also enjoying a better fit and I doubt my ears have changed that much. I use a medium in my right ear and a large in my left. Before, neither tips felt particularly secure in my ears. Now, they do. Don’t hesitate to use different sized tips for your ears. No one can tell just by looking so you have no reason to feel self-conscious.

All of these physical improvements, both real and imagined, are very welcome. They are very subtle changes that make a real difference in usability. It is nice to see Apple taking that more seriously this time around.

Astonishingly great sound

If we were waiting on the earbuds that proved wireless was as good or better than wired, the wait is over. Rocking the latest bluetooth standards, these pods give you the best sound you could hope for across the entire frequency range. I make that statement with a straight face and no qualifiers. You might have a pair of very expensive headphones that sound better. But these AirPods are embarrassed by nothing on the market. And I have AirPods Max.

We are well into the era of computational audio where the computer chip and AI are doing as much for the sound quality as the drivers. It is no different than how we are getting far better smartphone photos than what the glass has any right to accomplish. Of course we know that it is not just the glass. Computational photography has changed the game forever. The same is happening in the realm of computational audio.

I have some experience in audio engineering and far too boastful about that fact than my actual experience can support. So take what I say about the sound with a grain of salt. For the record, all audiophiles are pompous asses who should probably be ignored. I am more of an enthusiast with an album on iTunes. I have been into making audio since I was a little kid. The toys have gotten a lot more expensive since that time. Suffice it to say I have spent an embarrassing amount of money on headphones and every other type of audio equipment. These are a few of my observations after a short time with AirPods Pro 2:

Midrange and up

I would not describe these pods as mid-forward. But they seem a lot more balanced than any headphones with AirPods in the name. The midrange of the frequency spectrum is often associated with presence. As will all frequencies, the best mids are those that you cannot hear. It just sounds right. If you can hear the mids, they are working too hard. What you should hear is clarity. The midrange is best when it is aurally invisible.

Above the mids you will find the air, tingle, and sizzle. Mids and highs work together to form a dome of sweetness over the mix. When mixed well in the headphones, people often say they hear things in familiar tracks they never heard before. There are some psychological reasons that amount to placebo. But to the extent that it actually happens, that is where the revelation usually lies. You have nothing to worry about in the midrange and up. AirPods Pro Gen 2 has you covered.

Bass and lower

First, there is something lower than base. It is sub-bass. In this subsonic region, you will find sounds that you cannot really hear, but do affect your tunes, usually for the worse. However, subsonic frequencies are a fact of life. The fact that you can’t hear it doesn’t mean that air isn’t moving. It is. And it matters. That is why many microphones audio interfaces, and other gear have a hi-pass filter to let high sounds pass through while blocking low sounds. Those filters are all capable of blocking those subsonic frequencies for a reason.

When those frequencies aren’t tamed, your audio will tend to sound muddy and indistinct at the low end of the spectrum. One has to be careful to block the bad stuff while letting the good stuff through. There are really low tones that we feel more than hear. When you can’t feel them, the sound is described as thin.

Many bass-heavy buds and phones are super muddy and get their lows by sacrificing the highs. Base-heavy music should not be mistaken for mud-caked noise. Strong base darkens the sound of the mids and highs and keeps them from overtaking the experience. But it doesn’t drawn them out. It controls without usurping.

You should be able to describe your bass as having bounce, thump, kick and stomp. It is like biting into a grape with a pleasing snap as opposed to one that is soft and cloying.

I will just go for the controversial thing: This is the best base I have ever heard in anything in this size and price class. Further, it punches way above its weight and beats out many headphones with which they are not even competing. If there is room for improvement in the sound, it is hard to imagine what it is.

Bring on the noise

The $250 asking price is satisfied with the sound quality alone. But that is not all you get. We must also talk about the quality of the no-sound. That is to say, we must address the active noise cancellation prowess of the new AirPods Pro. Since I have already made some strong pronouncements, I just as well finish burning down my reputation with the following: ANC on AirPods Pro is on par with that on AirPods Max. At the time of release, they had the best ANC of any consumer headphones on offer. Yeah, it’s that good!

That said, there have been a few flagship releases from other companies since then. I have not tried them all. There might be some that are better. But you will have to go to over-ear phones and climb the price ladder to get there. Some have said the new Bose buds have better ANC. I have not tried them. But every time I check out competitors to Apple products praised by others, I walk away with a decidedly different opinion.

I can tell you that ANC is subjective in the same way that audio quality is subjective. It is tuned to deal with certain frequencies. Some ANC is better at blocking out low sounds while other brands concentrate on higher sounds. Which is best? There is no objective test of which I am aware. But I can say that if you liked Apple’s opinion with regard to their $550 headphones, you will love it in the AirPods Pro 2. It is shocking that something that comes in such a small package can pack some much sound, and no-sound.

Transparant

Nothing: the company, made transparent ear buds while Apple engineered transparent audio passthrough. The transparency mode is new and improved. Many hailed the originals as the very best with no peer. That advantage is even wider now.

If you want it to sound like there is nothing in your ears, don’t put anything in your ears. The next best thing to that is putting AirPods Max or AirPods Pro 2 in your ears. Again, they are on par. And they were already the best. This is what I mean by computational audio. It is not just the microphones. It is also the smarts that decide when to reduce loud noises. The environment is being sampled at 48 khz. It is like putting up a shield whenever loud noises are detected.

When there are no particularly loud noises, you hear the music and your environment with extremely high fidelity. With no music playing, you can easily forget you are wearing ear buds at all. One note about the music: it is being actively equalized to account for the environment around you. There are inward-facing mics that listen to what you hear and make adjustments on the fly. The upshot is that music sounds the same with or without noise cancelation and without regard to your environment.

Miscellaneous

I have been listening to a lot of music since I got these out of the box. I have also listened to podcasts and audiobooks. Everything sounds as good as I have ever heard it on more expensive headphones. I was using the Beats Fit Pro. And I suspect we will see a new version of those in short order. But it doesn’t matter. I am back on the AirPods Pro. And I’m pretty sure I will be staying for quite a while.

The case is impossibly small and can now charge next to me at night on my watch puck. If you typically listen to audio while out and about for more than six hours of playing time, you should consider getting two pair of these to always have some charged and ready to go. My BFPs will be relegated to backup duty.

These are the first AirPods that I really felt were easily worth the money. There is no Apple tax here. You are not getting hosed. You are getting exactly what you are paying for, plus a little more than you expected.

You don’t need to favor one type of music or audio over another. Your podcast enjoyment will be equally improved as your head-banging. You don’t have to be a bass head to get the most out of them. You can enjoy country, instrumental, easy listening, or any other genre. My tastes are quite eclectic. Everything you normally enjoy will be improved in obvious ways.

Another observation is that you don’t need to worry about the lack of EQ customization. With most headphones, I feel the need to go into the presets and select something to sweeten the sound to my liking. These buds sound like a pro has already done that, and continues to do it as you listen. No, it is not the same thing as going in and boosting the bass to the max. But it is also not needed. At no point did I feel like any adjustments needed to be made. While it is true that other products allow you to make those adjustments, it is equally true that you need to. With AirPods Pro 2, you don’t.

Conclusion: Finally complete

This has been a long time coming. The first AirPods were groundbreaking but flawed. They were still good enough to launch a whole new market. But their promise was a long way from being fulfilled. Since then, we have had two more generations of the same plus a pro and max version. Every product was good, but with an asterisk or two.

The Max was very close. But it wasn’t an earbud replacement. Also, it cost more than double the Pro version. As a headset, it is big, bulky, heavy, and not a lot of fun to cary around. It got everything else right. But it was not the complete package.

To be sure, no one else nailed it either. I suspect the main reason products by Sony got so much praise is that most reviewers aren’t in the Apple ecosystem. So they and their fans can’t take full advantage of Apple’s offerings. And they have to find products that are compatible with Android and PC. That tends to skew things quite a bit.

I am a longtime Bose enthusiast and kept up with their products up to about a year ago when I gave up. I know enough to know that there are no perfect products, only imperfect enthusiasts and reviewers, even me. We love what we love and hate what we hate. It is hard to get around that fact. Talk of objectivity does not trump the reality of emotion. And to be clear, experiencing audio is highly emotional.

I am all in the Apple ecosystem even though it hasn’t always been that way. I pan their products when they need it and praise them when they deserve it. I try to include the bad with the good in every review. I have included nothing negative in this review because I can’t find anything about which to complain.

For the first time, Apple has released a product with AirPods in the name that is complete and without need to defend. It calls for no apologies from apologists and no apology is given. AirPods Pro 2nd Gen is about as complete a headphones package as you can get today. That includes all headphones from all price and style categories.

I have no doubt you can get better sound from the $1,000 and above price point. But those would not represent a complete package. They either wouldn’t be portable, or affordable, or comfortable, or useful without additional hardware, or equally good on spoken word, or, or, or… I could go on that way for a long time. But I think you get the point.

You don’t need to wait for my buying advice. Get them while you can still walk into a store and walk out with a pair. If backordered, get in the cue. If you are cross-shopping these with anything else, buy these and return them if you are not happy. FOMO is mostly stupid. But if there is anything you should have fear of missing out on, it is being an early adopter of the first AirPods that finally, finally get it right.

David Johnson