I recently bought a pair of Pioneer Rayz in-ear speakers. They are wired rather than Bluetooth with Lightening bolt plug so no adaptors required and the pro version has a port to allow you to charge the iPhone while using the speakers. The sound is fantastic and the noise cancelling works pretty well with a "hear through" option at the touch of a button. There is an app on the App Store which adds functionality and considering they are cheaper than Apple's Airpods and in my mind sound better I can't see any reason why I would want to switch.
On the topic of competing products, here is a related mini-review of my Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless that I picked up last September at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (MSRP $299). They have great physical noise blocking, so ANC is not quite as important, while also having a decent transparency mode and they fit my ears better than AirPods Pro.
The AirPods Pro are harder for me to get a good fit, because the APP don't have long enough stems to put the tip deep enough into my ear canals. This is regardless of using medium tips or large tips, while I usually work with medium tips on other in-ear monitors. The Sennheiser with medium tips always seal deeply in my ear canals and stay put 99% of the time, but with my APP I might need large tips in the left ear and medium tips in the right. If I'm not too active the APP can stay in as long as the Sennheiser, but the Sennheiser are more secure with activity.
The Sennheiser transparency mode is a little more quiet than the AirPods Pro, and when you remove them from your ears the ambient sounds are louder than what you were hearing while they were in. That is something I wish we could adjust, because with AirPods Pro the ambient noise level with them in the ears is very similar to what you hear without them.
But the Sennheiser application has an EQ adjuster slider for manipulating the overall sound signature to suit the music that I am listening to. 95% of the time I don't ever need to use the EQ because they sound really awesome. The Sennheiser Momentum TW are one of the best sounding BT earphones I have tried, certainly my best True Wireless with no cables, strong bass, rich midrange, crisp detailed treble, and fairly open and transparent sound. My Westone W80 with BT V2 cable are better, but at a 4-figures cost - although they have the advantage of using them wired with an upgraded DAC/amp to get world class sound.
The main thing that I really wish that the Sennheiser had is the Apple W1 or H1 chip. Sure, ANC would be nice, but the passive noise isolation is good enough for flying (my custom molded Westone in-ear monitors do block more sound, enough to use as shooting protection). Basically, the Sennheiser sound better than my AirPods 2, AirPods Pro, and Powerbeats Pro. When I want the best sound from a true wireless BT ear bud, the Sennheiser is the one that I would grab.
I still use the Powerbeats Pro because with the ear hooks they won't fall off my ears when biking and hiking, so I don't have to worry about losing them. And they sound pretty good without an ear canal seal, letting me hear what's going on around me when I wear them (better than AirPods 2). I just hate the size of the charging case and how it's lacking Qi charging (how could they not include that in such a large case?).
I really wanted the AirPods Pro to be able to replace all the others, because they have the H1 chip, a small Qi case, passive isolation, ANC, and transparency mode - the best features of them all. I just hope they get the firmware fixed and that I can find the best fit (and Apple needs to fix the seal test). With a little fiddling I can get them to seal, but I have to adjust them in my ears fairly often to keep it.
I pretty much don't use my AirPods 2 much, once I got my Powerbeats Pro which serve the same purpose of being able to use them and hear things around me. There was a lot to like the AP2, but for the life of me I cannot get them to stay in my ears. They just weren't designed to fit on someone like me, and they fall out at the drop of a hat.
I have not tried any other in-ear monitors with active noise canceling, but I would like to. I'm always open to trying new headphones and earbuds, and have dozens of them here around the house that I have reviewed on other forums, hence my user name. That's why with everything I already had, I still made the AirPods Pro my most recent purchase. I just hope I don't regret it because Apple crushed them with a firmware update.
