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AirPods Pro 3 vs AirPods Pro 2

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Who has experience with the AirPods Pro 3 vs the AirPods Pro 2—or simply with the AirPods 3?

I would use them mostly for streaming music, and possibly for streaming phone calls, if I can’t get a better streaming of phone calls with my Jabra 30’s. I could wait on them, but they are sale now, so I may pull the trigger. Plus, they would help with plane flights with the noise cancelling.

In reviews, a number of people like the 2’s better in terms sound for music, but the 3’s have other features, ie, better noise cancellation, longer battery life, etc. Plus, the 2’s are only available from 3rd party sellers in the mail. And Apple products often get stolen in the mail with no recourse from anyone!

Of course, I could return them if I don’t like them, but there is only a 14 day return policy.

Also, is there any reason to have AppleCare on them, if they even have it??

Thank you.

13 people in this conversation13 min readJump to latest

AirPods do not include Applecare when you buy them (it’s a separate purchase) , they only come with a 1yr warranty (which only covers manufacturing defects).

AppleCare extends the warranty , it includes loss coverage and priority support. For me , the loss coverage is the reason I have it

I’ve got the 3s, never tried the 2s, had them for about 3 weeks and use them daily but swap them out with my Phonak Lumity. They are much better for music and equal for streaming and phone calls. They are ok 1 to 1 in quiet but not as good when things get busy or noisy. I really got them for backups but they do work for me and my hearing is much worse then yours. YMMV but $250 vs $5000!!

In reply to @OcramSagev

@OcramSagev said:

“AppleCare extends the warranty , it includes loss coverage and priority support. For me , the loss coverage is the reason I have it”

That makes sense, especially because they could easily fall out and get lost. Deaf metal also has a thingy to prevent their loss. I may already have the device from what I already bought from them.

Hi there, i bought the “airpods 3” about three weeks ago, using them for music streaming, to have siri on call when i ride my scooter(pratically i live riding my scooter) and as hearing aids. Before i purchased the airpods 3 i had a pair of signia Active pro IX that i sold last week (@OcramSagev i did it) and i can tell you that buying the airpods pro 3, for their features and my hearing loss was a life changer. i find they work really well as a backup for your hearing aids and streams music way way way way way better than any existing hearing aid. So my advice is….what are you waiting for…buy the airpods pro right now!!! XDXDXD

PS: joke apart…airpods pro 2/3 helps for mild to mild/moderate hearing loss, try them and decide in 14 days. for my loss they work really well, don’t know for yours.

I got the Pro 2 for my wife last year. I played with them for a day or so to check out their hearing aid function. I didn’t use them long enough to give them a fair test. A buddy of mine really, really liked the way the Pro 2 would apply hearing correction to whatever music he was streaming. He said that was worth the price by itself.

I just ordered the Pro 3 for myself, I’m looking forward to using them.

re: loss prevention and possible need for AppleCare

They are pretty reliable, so covering loss may be the main reason most people might need to pay extra for AppleCare for them.

But there is another way to go. You can get retention clips and straps for them. I have one like this:

https://www.amazon.com/GOGOSODU-Compatible-Silicone-Anti-Lost-Connector/dp/B075N1J6FS/77

and it works very well. AirPods do NOT stay in my ears very well at all, so if I’m wearing them outside the house, (or even in bed) where they can get lost in the sheets at night, I’m using the strap.

I pay $1.49 per month for my AirPods 2 PRO AppleCare. Those dollars cannot buy a coffee these days.

In the past, I got one pair of AirPods wet, and Apple refused to fix them. That’s when I decided to get AppleCare for my new ones. $1.49/month is very little for the peace of mind that I get.

I got 3s about a month or so ago; never tried Airpods before. In fact I’m an Android user, but for this I got an iPad to tune them (& needed a decent new tablet anyway). For my use case they are ground breakingly brilliant. I wanted something that could stream “with” ANC & compensate for my loss at the same time. I use them for train travel & office work to avoid annoyances or just chill with some music. I just swap them with my phonak marvel R30s < yes on the verge of an update there.

I have had Sony WH XM3 headphones for quite some time (first ANC anything) & like them quite a bit in the past but they sure are dull vs the Pods, as I can’t wear the aids under them. I tried Sony WF XM5 with Wavelet but returned them as the ANC is virtually non existent. So poor they should be selling them as just passive buds for $30.

The Airpod pro 3s are just astounding for my case.

Just a cautionary note: I spotted some reviewers that reckon they can scream on flights. Don’t know if it is only certain users or aircraft or software flaw that has since been fixed. Don’t know as I haven’t yet had a chance to try that.

PS: I wouldn’t be using them in place of aids. They are very high freq tappy for me (& that’s where my loss is) but could be used in a pinch. I sometime leave them if I don’t get a chance to swap back to my leaving the train to walk to work or similar. If tuned properly maybe it would solve it but can’t be bothered for my usage.

Thanks for this review- very good to read they stream with an adapted sound from Android devices, very important. In order to better understand your comments on their use as , could you post (or describe) your ?

Edited

I used Pro 2 and now Pro 3 and I wear Phonak Spheres as main hearing aids. Of course they cost 10x more, they are also far more suitable as actual hearing aids. The AirPods never sounded natural in transparency mode. In terms of performance, don’t feel a big step up from the 2s, maybe the whistling reduced slightly for me. . The AirPods Pro 3 are my backup solution when I can’t wear the Spheres (I use custom titanium tips and they are not always comfortable after consecutive long days). The only exception is streaming music. As you can use your to adjust any media playback, they are simply phenomenal for listening to music. Shame they still can’t do lossless (except their new alternative implementation with iPhone 17s). I do think Apple will eventually catch up, though. At least they could if they really wanted to. So I am watching closely and hope my Sphere’s are my first and last pure HAs.

Another very welcome side effect of having the AirPods is that they form a calibrated hearing test setup. As I self-fit my Phonak’s this is brilliant because I can update my audiogram with the AirPods, enter it into the Phonak software and update the fitting easily.

In reply to @RobHooft

@Sneak said:

The only exception is streaming music

Agree totally with @Sneak ^^ & nothing I’ve tested or used comes close to their ANC.

Just uploaded ; it’s a bit dated but this is the one used for the Pro3 tuning. I’d expect too the testing being dated would make the Pods less tappy in high freq rather than more. This “only” applies to transparency mode too, I don’t get this at all in ANC streaming mode.

PS the only annoyance I’ve found being an android user is the daft lack of interoperability with Find Me - so my Pixel is always giving me Bluetooth Tracking alerts & it “appears” from research I’ve done so far nothing we can do about it unless Google & Apple decide to play nice or totally ignore each other HA The pros far outweigh the cons though so pffft to a minor annoyance.

I got mine today and played with them until the factory charge ran out.

I loaded in my latest . I tried scanning it using the camera but didn’t have good results, so I manually entered the data.

I was streaming music and enabled the audio assist. This applies your hearing adjustment to the audio. That made a huge difference. That feature might be worth the price for a lot of people

I played around with the ANC a bit. It’s quiet in the house today and the only place I could get a steady background noise was in the bathroom with the overhead exhaust fan turned on, In full noise canceling mode that sound disappeared, like the fan had turned off.

I did enable the hearing aid but the AirPods are charging now. I do like that they will lower the volume of whatever you are streaming when they recognize you are having a discussion.

So far I have not figured out how to use the heart rate sensors.

Edited

I’m playing with my APP3 for about a month now and i’ve found they work very very well form me but i noticed that sometime the hearing aid feature pauses for a second or two, it happens when a sound is too loud and when i vape my electronic cigarette, i don’t know why but when i push the fire button on my e-cig to vape the hearing feature pauses…do you think it’s normal? i also tried to disable loud sounds protection but it’s the same. Another question, do the hearing aid feature works only when you are in transparecy mod or work also when you are in adaptive, i can’ figure? And again, I connect the airpods to a bluetooth controller to watch/listen to tv but i’m not sure if the audio assist works when not connected to my iphone but connected to another device, do you know? The hearing aid features works always, also when your phone is powered off or left at home.

cheers

The media assist works with some other devices, I’ve not figured it out yet but I think it depends on the codec and bitrate. Doesn’t work with my 5 year old Samsung TV for example. Does work with an Alexa device (but the sound quailty is poor but definitely corrected.) Another problem is the AirPods give best sound quality when using AAC codec, but many devices don’t support this. The sound does cutout a bit when there are sounds it mistakes for feedback. The feature only works in transparency mode, and when conversation awareness interrupts the noise cancelling when you talk in adaptive/noise cancel modes.

Edited

I’ve got AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and recently Starkey Edge (under costco brand SoundGear). For me the Pro 3’s are so much better than the 2’s, all with same and both AirPods with same tone/amplification/ambient noise settings, my complaint with the 2’s is there’s a shortage of gain at some higher frequencies (and the tone control doesn’t do enough to fix this) compared to the 3’s and the Edge. On the 2’s I suspect the gain is limited by feedback management, the 3’s seal much better so more gain possible perhaps, and the adaptive eq (to compensate for canal differences) apparently works up to a much higher frequency in the 3’s due to the new location for the inward microphone, I notice a consistent difference with streamed music also. For me with my relatively tame audiogram the 3’s are a serious contender with the Edge with open domes for sound quality but more testing/adjustment needed yet. As headphones for music with audiogram, the 3’s are just stunning.

Based on what I read here, and my own experience: streaming music using the APPs and a hearing-test adapted equalizer works well with iOS devices and modest hearing loss, but only sometimes with other devices (depending on the Bluetooth codec?). This is an improvement, because it means you can finally get a de facto equalizer for ALL of your iOS device’s audio output (like podcasts), not just music. If you do not use these APPs you are stuck with the basic iOS equalizer that only works with the music player, nothing else for Apple.
But if you are a happy Android user you already have a wealth of equalizer options for all kind of music players plus all other audio output. Moreover there are non-Apple earbuds out there for half the price that adapt to your hearing loss with much better output volumes, even suitable for those with losses over 60 db (like me).
In summary, streamingwise, APPs are really only good if you use an iOS device, but even then, you get fewer options than Android users have enjoyed for years. Where APPs excel, ofc, is as affordable for those with up to modest hearing loss.

Got some more experience with the Pro 3 today.

I did a lot of yard work and used the sound canceling function while running the lawnmower.

I had all the features enabled and streamed a music station the whole time.

hearing aid function was enabled: with sound cancellation on, there was little outside sound to apply the corrections, but the music was still corrected.

Sound level adjustment was enabled: when outside sound levels were high, the music volume raised automatically and when the outside noise lowered, so did the music volume.

Auto mute in conversation: when I stopped the lawnmower to empty the bag, I started talking to myself. The pods switched from noise canceling to transparent, the hearing aid functions returned, and music streaming was muted. When I tried it with the lawnmower running, the auto mute didn’t seem to work.

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