Loving AirPods Pro for Music

ON the contrary, i find my AirPod Pro 3s sound natural and I can actually have a conversation in a noisy restaurant. They also work great with all my Apple devices, switching seamlessly between them. On the downside, they keep falling out and are just marginally adequate in volume for my hearing loss. To be fair, I am comparing them to my Jabra Pro 10 hearing aids which I absolutely hate as they have poor sound quality and are useless in noisy environments.

I don’t know anything about the Jabra’s, but I can readily believe that the AirPod Pro 3 are as good as or better than many OTC hearing aids. I was comparing them to my Phonak Audeo 70’s and my previous Oticon Opn aids.

Just an update: I spoke with my audiologist and she concurred that it was most likely eustachean tube disfunction. She recommended being more diligent in the use of humidity with my CPAP, which I am now doing. I will monitor and report back.

VERY interesting thread. I'm definitely NOT a musician, but I love classical music. Mahler's 2nd and 8th symphonies and the Adagietto from his 5th (famously performed by the strings of the NY Philharmonic in St. Patrick's cathedral during Bobby Kennedy's 1968 Requiem Mass) can bring me to tears. I have mostly high frequency hearing loss, and just last night learned that an excellent live performance of Beethoven's 5th (Emperor) concerto was MUCH better with my HAs (Costco KS10s from Sonova) in than not.

I'm a fully outfitted Apple FanBoy, and I do have AirPods Pro 3 buds. I'm now wondering if I should be taking them to symphony concerts and listening through them in transparency mode, AND whether I should attempt to adjust them to function as HAs. My totally uninformed understanding was that transparency mode and using them as HAs were almost mutually exclusive

I have eustachean tube disfunction and use cpap im waiting on grommets in my right ear does cpap affect hearing

I think that for live music you’re going to be much more satisfied with the performance of your hearing aids than of AirPods Pro. If you have an open fitting, you’ll be getting all of the low frequencies naturallly and just the supplemented highs. I use the AirPods Pro for recorded music because my hearing aids can’t provide adequate bass and even mids for good music appreciation. The added benefit of the AirPods Pro for this purpose is that with media support they up the high frequencies based on my audiogram. I find the AirpodsPro just passable as hearing aids in a pinch; they don’t compare at all to my Phonaks.

That is not correct. Hearing aid mode is enabled separately from Transparency mode, is based on your audiogram (transparency mode is not), and it provides a very different experience from that provided in transparency mode.

Hearing Health > Hearing Assistance > Hearing Aid. There is also an Adjustments tab right below it. Transparency mode is a feature that is available whether you are using the Hearing Aid Feature or not.

@The_Latinist said:

Hearing aid mode is enabled separately from Transparency mode, is based on your audiogram (transparency mode is not), and it provides a very different experience from that provided in transparency mode.

So, is it possible that the greater FIDELITY provided by AirPods Pro, after setting them up as HAs, would provide a BETTER listening experience for live classical music in transparency mode than would even premium HAs?

I don't think so. It certainly has not been my experience. The AirPods Pro are, in my experience, pretty mediocre as hearing aids. They are very good ear buds, their Active Noise Cancelation is exceptional, and I enjoy MediaAssist's ability to adjust the sound automatically for listening to music privately. But I don't think AirPods would outperform well-fitted prescription hearing aids in literally any listening environment. And importantly, I think your assumption that AirPods have better fidelity than prescription hearing aids is fundamentally flawed.

Not great, but a whole lot of mild mod dz are well served , and at a price point ans simple usability factor that can work well.

They are a compromise, for sure, but at 10x to 45X times the price are devices designed to do a different job that much better? Better, but not what many can and will use.

Worse come to worst, they are great earbuds, a decent trial to see what's out there, and make a great gift if you don't find them the choice best suited.