Apple Airpods Pro 2 - useful in conversation?

Yeah - as I suspected, and in the UK it’s a lot harder to return stuff to the shop just because you don’t like it.

In some environments and with some speakers they’ve saved the day for me. Other times I get nothing. I like them because of the hearing accommodations that make music sound a bit more like music again. And if I need to interrupt the music and talk to someone, I’m in with some sort of chance of understanding them. I wouldn’t buy them if improving conversation was my sole goal.

Apple has a 14 day full refund policy in the UK, the same as in Australia so far as I am aware.

I actually purchased both the Airpod Pro 2 plus an iPhone (as I am an Android user) to try it out and then returned them both 3 days later. No problem at all.

Also, the Airpod Pro 2 needs recharging every 5 or 6 hours which is not much good if you are looking for an all day solution.

5-6 hours is not very impressive. The new Starkey Genesis rechargeables are boasting 50 hours plus. I am having problems with the battery life of my KS10’s even on days when I’m not actively BT streaming.

I wouldn’t be looking at them as a replacement for my hearing aids only interested to know whether they can be tweaked to be better than the average earbud like the ones I own and also if I am interrupted by someone while using them if they are helpful in speech comprehension, even if only a bit.

I use them when I want to stream audio and can get by with them pretty well in conversation (much better than without), with or without Conversation Boost. My HL is mild/moderate, so I find them to be a reasonably effective alternative to HAs in that use case. For 200ish USD I manage my expectations.

The upcoming iOS 17 “adaptive audio” is yet another step towards HA-like functionality, where the APP2 can automatically switch to Conversation Boost when needed. It does help.

Another iOS 16+ feature that HA and APP2 users should take note of: Voice Isolation mic mode for phone calls. Apple brought this Facetime Audio feature to phone calling sometime last year, and it is very effective, such that I’ve abandoned my built-in hands-free mic in my car and the APP2 mics for phone calls. People on the other end can’t tell I’m in the car, even with 65 dB+ road noise at 70 mph, with my phone mounted to the dashboard close to face level. Look it up.

I am the profound owner of a pair of Pro 2, and I can tell you, in my particular case, it is not an option. Running many tests, the Pro 2 was not helpful when driving to the gym and conversing with my wife.

I think there are a couple of misplaced function concepts here. For example, we got so amazed when we got to know about the audiogram in the Apple AirPods, and immediately we speculated that Airpods are cheap HAIDs. It doesn’t work that way. The audiogram in Airpods, I think, is intended to produce a better experience while listening to music, Apple music, more specifically. That is it, not to create a better experience in conversation.

The adaptive feature, for me, points to an interaction between my listening to music and when any external sound in my environment. To me, it appears as if Apple AirPods is working hard to improve the interaction for music.

However, I use them a lot. At the gym, my HAIDs cannot compete with the gym environment’s music, which is too loud. But my Apple AirPods 2 keeps that rebellious music system at bay.

Noise cancelation at the gym. That is the only time Pro 2 replaces my HAIDs.

I would like to echo 100% of what @Adrian just said above, as a person with severe to profound hearing loss myself who owns the AirPods Pro 2 as well. I’m not sure what the Adaptive feature @Adrian is talking about, though. It sounded like maybe he meant the current Transparent mode that allows you to hear the surround sound in parallel to hearing streamed audio.

The Adaptive Audio in the upcoming iOS 17 that @mikehoopes mentioned is something different. Currently you can turn on the Conversation Boost feature, but it must be turned on and off manually and there is no smart in there to know when to turn on and off automatically based on something it senses about the environment. But to folks with severe and profound hearing loss in the highs like myself and @Adrian , like the Transparent mode, the Conversation Boost is also really useless for us.

Don’t get me wrong, because I still have some moderate low frequency hearing left, the Transparent Mode helps make things less occluded when I have it on, because I can hear the low frequency sounds OK through the Transparent mode.

Note that the audiogram accommodation in the AIrPods seems to work more effectively when streaming compared to in the Transparent mode. But even so, when streaming, the audiogram accommodation is BARELY enough, but at least adequate for me to notice some highs to make the audio more lively, enough as a compromise to use it for music listening to gain the phenomenal low frequency response (compared to hearing aids).

However, in the Transparency mode, the audiogram accommodation is almost non-existent. In the beginning, I thought that there is no audiogram accommodation available in the Transparency Mode due to the stark difference between Streaming and Transparency. I called Apple technical support TWICE, speaking with 2 different Tier 2 (because Tier 1 support isn’t knowledgeable enough to answer my question) support people who seemed knowledgeable, and who confirmed positively to me that there is NO audiogram accommodation in the Transparency mode.

However, in watching a few YouTube videos done by audiologists using REM, and also reading a thread from our own @AbramBaileyAuD here on this forum, they all seem to confirm through REM that there seems to be audiogram accommodation going on in the Transparency Mode through the REM tests they conducted. HOWEVER, all of them concluded that any audiogram accommodation existed (via observing their REM results) is very weak and lacking, to the point that even for a moderate hearing loss subject that they used for the test, it’s is not up to target at all. Even when they tried to tweak things (only via very very crude parameters available to them as options on the AirPods Pro 2) to the best of their ability, they still could never match the AirPods Transparency audiogram accommodation to the REM target curve.

At least the REM results done by the few audis who did the tests on the AirPods confirmed that the Apple Tier 2 support techs were wrong in telling me that the AirPods do not support audiogram accommodation. It goes to show how confusing these things are. Even their own Apple Tier 2 support people don’t know what they’re talking about and spread incorrect information to users who inquired (namely me).

The lingering question I still have, but is still unanswered to this day, is why Apple was able to provide somewhat barely acceptable audiogram accommodation for people with severe to profound high frequency loss like me in the Streaming mode, but not in the Transparent Mode. My guess is that the audiogram accommodation is probably more effective in the mid frequencies where my loss is still moderate to severe, but not profound yet, so it gives me a feeling of (bare) adequacy in audiogram accommodation when streaming. But perhaps in Transparent mode, the content is not as “full” as in the Streaming mode (especially when listening to music which has a very full spectrum of sounds), so the feeling of adequacy is gone due to a much sparser content of sound in the Transparent mode.

Just the iPhone. However, when you’re in the car or in a noisy environment, it’s a good idea.

@Majnu said:

I am thinking of trying out Denon Perl Pro ( rebranded nurabuds)

I’ve got the Nuratrue Pro (forgot to return them when I got the Airpod Pro 2). Pretty good for music I thought. Transparency mode (they call it something else) was good for not getting hit by the oncoming bus maybe. No more than that.

@Majnu said:

Hi, I have asymmetrically moderate -severe hearing loss. Airpods Pro Gen 2 just doesn’t work for me.

From apple: “If you have a nearly symmetric audiogram, Headphone Accommodations will take the average of the two ears and fit the left and right audio channels with that profile. If you have an asymmetric audiogram, it will fit the left and right audio channels for your better ear”

So they put everything in my good ear. If I take my right airpods off, cant hear anything left until I crank the volume to 50%. I am thinking of trying out Denon Perl Pro ( rebranded nurabuds)

Excellent point here by @Majnu that’s often overlooked and not mentioned much anywhere at all about how the audiogram accommodation is limited to 1 correction of the better ear only.

I’ve been a long time HA user with moderate hearing loss and currently wearing KS10’s. Our vacation flights drove me insane and I bought AirPods for the noise cancellation feature and to listen to music and videos in flight. They are excellent at noise cancellation in flight, and also while cutting my lawn and working in the shop. I use them for hiking and can hear my spouse easily when turning cancellation off. I entered my audiogram and can now easily hear most lyrics clearly, certainly better than with my old iPod or watch.

The KS10 battery drain after a walk would cause me to recharge late evening. Although the Pods do have limited battery life, it does extend the use of my HAs to the entire day. I wish Apple would allow the Mac, pad and watch to accept an audiogram as well.

Can you post your audiogram in your profile? I just want to see how moderate your hearing loss is, such that the AirPods seem to work out well for you in the Transparent mode. Thanks!