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Good Ive been unhappy with the reliability of the pro 3s. Randomly one ear wont work and I have to do this song and dance to get it to resync.
Used them all day since I travelled cross country ( bad idea since storm Claudia had her way with the trains in England )
But no problem at all.

Lucky 🍀 I suspect
 
time to nerf the ANC on the older pods i guess.

anyone else notice worse performance?
 
A certain amount of noise is normal with ANC – this is known as ‘ANC noise floors’. With very good active noise cancellation, it is difficult to create complete silence. The APP2 also produced noise, but it was very subtle – with the 3s, it is now slightly more noticeable... but still less than with many other ANC headphones. How noticeable the noise is certainly also depends on how well the user can still hear. It is well known that high frequencies are less easily perceived with age.

it make sense. The thing i do not understand is why the noise is also present in the transparency mode and not only in the ANC. It goes away in "off" mode.

@McNoise any feedback in this? 👆 is a certain amount of noise normal even in transparency mode?
 
Does the iPhone need to be also on a charger and/or does it need to be on? It has always been hit or miss with these updates landing on my AirPods.
Only the airpods need to be on charger and iphone on wifi. Once set its a quick 5 min update.
 
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When you look at a lot of what the H2 actually can do, your (and my) AirPods Max would NOT benefit from having a H2 chip.

The “extra stuff” in the H2 chip is all to do with processing sound to small drivers (i.e. speakers) and functionality that simply doesn’t apply to APM.
From what I understand, much of the H2 design is indeed for improving performance of the Airpod's small drivers, but the H1 chip doesn't have the H2's Adaptive Audio or Conversation Awareness functions, and it might deliver slightly better Active Noise Cancellation to Airpods Max (though it's already pretty good).
 
From what I understand, much of the H2 design is indeed for improving performance of the Airpod's small drivers, but the H1 chip doesn't have the H2's Adaptive Audio or Conversation Awareness functions, and it might deliver slightly better Active Noise Cancellation to Airpods Max (though it's already pretty good).
Yes.

Realistically Apple update chips to the current versions as much as they can, because it lowers their costs.

An iPad Air doesn’t really leverage the extra power of a M3 chip over an M2 chip, despite the marketing claims, because the software really doesn’t make use of it, except in a very few specific casters ( Eg FCP). The reason Apple shifted from M2 to M3 in the iPad Air is that they don’t want the extra cost of making M2 and M3 chips, and want to save costs by discontinuing M2 and only make larger quantities of M3. Economies of scale.

Going by that logic, it is very highly likely they tried using a H2 chip in AirPod max, but didn’t decide to totally discontinue the H1 chip, and make both the H1 and H2 chips, even though that has a higher production cost overall.

And the most obvious reason for that is that the H2 chip didn’t work as well with the APM internals. The H2 chip was only designed for driving earbud internals.

The argument that they’re only using H1 chips is because they have a huge stockpile of them also doesn’t make sense, as the “Cook makes Apple far more profitable” change came from introducing a very aggressive “Just in Time” production and logistics strategy - they don’t keep large stockpiles of components, especially chips.

So it’s not an accident or Apple being spiteful why the APM never got a chip update to H2, and the most obvious reason would be that the H2 chip does not work as well with the larger drivers or the other internals of the APM as the H1 does.

The H2 chip was specifically designed only for AirPod earbuds.
 
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Zero improvement.

I can have a full conversation with my wife with ANC on 😂
Your wife is like mine! She volunteers as pool/ beach guard and without any effort her voice can freeze a kid on the otherside of a fully occupied Olympic sized pool. 100m beach is easy peasy! 🤣
 
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Anybody with Pro 2's (usb-c) have their case update? My pods updated to 8B21 but my case is still on 8A358
Yeah. My AirPods and their case both updated, but I just always leave them plugged in via USB-C to my Mac and they seem to update much quicker that way.
 
Anybody with Pro 2's (usb-c) have their case update? My pods updated to 8B21 but my case is still on 8A358
I've been trying to make mine update, repaired a couple of times, etc. Listened to music, reseated them in plugged-in case. Nothing yet. Interestingly, I'm on beta 26.2 and airpod settings don't show an option for beta airpod pro 2 firmware :/
 
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I freaking hate the airpod firmware updates. Would it kill Apple to put an update button somewhere in iOS/macOS? No, you have to use the force and just hope that it updates. So as usual my pods (now Pro 3) and my phone are both plugged into power, sitting next to each other, BT and wifi on, and nothing happens for 2 hours or more until hopefully they randomly feel like updating, and I just keep checking and wasting my time. :rolleyes:
 
So we now have to live with this static noise that’s considered normal for headphones with such powerful ANC? Too bad it’s also noticeable in silent mode in quiet environments.

I’ve already tried 3 units without success.
 
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On days I go to the office I use my AirPods Pro 2 during meetings with my work laptop (Win 11). On the commute home, when I put the AirPods in and unlock my phone, the phone would tell me that they're connected to a different device and let me connect them to the phone instead.

Since the 8B21 update this no longer works. I still get the prompt to connect the AirPods to the iPhone, but this fails every time, after trying for 10 seconds or so.
 
I've tried the AirPods Pro 3, and even though the sound is a little better, the 2's are fine and measure up really well against the new ones. I wish the 3's had better noise cancelling, so I can use them in a noise gym. The only option there is my Sony XM5's which not only have a much superior sound but far, far better noise cancelling which actually adapts 'live'. Neither of the others do.

PS. I don't know if anyone else remembers, but the 2's, when they were first released, were much better than they are now, better quality sound and noise cancelling. The noise cancelling just got worse and worse over time, unfortunately. I think they released the 3's by mistake, and had to pull back on the features. Obviously, Apple is AT LEAST one iteration ahead in everything they make. Whilst saying this, I still would buy everything Apple (when funds allow).
 
I've tried the AirPods Pro 3, and even though the sound is a little better, the 2's are fine and measure up really well against the new ones. I wish the 3's had better noise cancelling, so I can use them in a noise gym. The only option there is my Sony XM5's which not only have a much superior sound but far, far better noise cancelling which actually adapts 'live'. Neither of the others do.

PS. I don't know if anyone else remembers, but the 2's, when they were first released, were much better than they are now, better quality sound and noise cancelling. The noise cancelling just got worse and worse over time, unfortunately. I think they released the 3's by mistake, and had to pull back on the features. Obviously, Apple is AT LEAST one iteration ahead in everything they make. Whilst saying this, I still would buy everything Apple (when funds allow).
Demonstrably not true. The APP2’s have been repeatedly shown to have no measureable change in sound or noise canceling performance.

If your 3’s aren’t basically at top-tier noise canceling level, you aren’t getting a good fit. I own at least 5 different sets of highly rated noise canceling headphones and the 3’s are among the best of all of them.
 
Has anyone had cutting out on AirPods Pro 2? It's the first time I've ever experienced it despite being in range, let alone on my person it surprised me.
 
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