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Apple AirPods Pro in the short test: Apple is now rest

2019-10-29T12:49:43.733Z


Apple's new AirPods are designed to provide good sound and peace at the same time, without losing contact with its environment. We have already tried it.



Just three months after its launch, Apple's AirPods were the best-selling wireless headset in the world. After a year they were the best-selling headphones ever - and have remained so ever since. With AirPods Pro, Apple is launching a completely redesigned version for the first time on Wednesday, with a new design and active noise cancellation.

And with earmolds. For the AirPods Pro, the design no longer follows the "one size fits all" rule for the first time. Instead, Apple delivers three differently sized earmolds made of soft silicone. The serve on the one hand to adjust the size of the earphones to the ear canals of the user. It's not as if the Californian corporation has reinvented this technology. Rather, other manufacturers - even and especially those of cheap headsets - such silicone attachments for decades with.

Apart from customization, the essays also have three other benefits:

  • The AirPods Pro sit tighter in the ears than normal AirPods with their smooth plastic surface.
  • By sealing the ears, they passively shield outside sounds a bit.
  • They provide a balanced sound with powerful bass.

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AirPods Pro: These are Apple's new headphones

Whether the pieces fit properly and shield well, you can check a "fit test for ear inserts" in the settings. For a short piece of music is recorded and measured with the internal microphone, if the seal is good. If this is not the case, you will be asked to try another earmold.

How quiet will it be?

The noise cancellation works similar to other headphones. One microphone on the outside of the headphone and one inside measure the ambient noise that reaches your ear. Based on this data, the AirPods Pro generate a counter-noise that ideally extinguishes the outside noise, making it inaudible. This process is repeated 200 times a second.

The test in Apple's Munich headquarters worked impressively well, conversations in the environment were nothing more to hear. To simulate a realistic application, we played street noise - yes, something like this happens at Apple Music - via a HomePod. It could not be heard of with the AirPods Pro. However, a pair of comparative Bose QC35 shielded slightly better with noisy noises than Apple's new in-ear headset. It remains to be seen how the AirPods Pro beat themselves on the return flight to Hamburg when it comes to hiding the roar of the engines. I deliver this review.

The sound is adjusted

Already due to their design with the ear canal occluding Ohrpassstücken the new AirPods should sound better than their predecessors. Unlike conventional AirPods, however, the Pro models also actively intervene in the sound design: a so-called adaptive equalizer adjusts the reproduction of the middle and basses to the ear shape of the user. Apple uses the same microphone inside the earphones, which is also used for noise suppression.

The result is a warm, well-balanced sound with powerful, but not over-emphasized basses that go down exceptionally far. Apple speaks of a bass response within the range of 20 hertz. In Quincy Jones' "Summer in the City" you can hear the bass very soft and fat. The deep bass solo in "Giorgio Moroder" by Daft Punk, where many headphones fail, you can note note by note.

Similarly, it looks good with the mids, which are rendered warm. That sounds nice, but sometimes too nice: The distorted Telecaster in Radiohead's "Creep", for example, gets less harsh and scratchy to the ear than you're used to.

Entertainments with headphones in the ears

If you want to talk to someone despite noise suppression or, for example, when cycling, you can hear the traffic, you turn on the so-called transparency mode. The ensures that one hears his environment acoustically despite AirPods. For Samsung's Galaxy Buds, the corresponding function is simply called "ambient noise".

The transparency mode is switched on either by a long finger pressure on the AirPod Pro, on the iPhone or on the Apple Watch. The effect is very pleasant, so you can actually talk while listening to music with noise cancellation. Strange, of course, it seems the counterpart of course, if you talk with headphones in the ears.

In everyday life it is more important that the AirPods provide a pressure equalization between the ear and the outside world despite acoustic shielding. Compared with other in-ear headphones, this means that when walking or running, you no longer hear your steps in your ear. According to Apple, the AirPods Pro are also resistant to sweat and water. They are not waterproof, so they are not good for listening to music while swimming. A running training in the rain, they should, however, tolerate.

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Apple AirPods Pro

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Conclusion

The AirPods Pro are a successful upgrade. Due to the silicone fittings and the active sound shaping, they sound better than other AirPods. Even with Sony's current model, they can record it sonically. Noise suppression can be heard, especially for in-ear headphones. However, she can not quite match that of, say, Bose's over-ear headphones. They are much bigger and more expensive. The AirPods Pro cost 279 euros.

Background: Product tests in the network world department

Which products are reported in the network world section?

Which products we report in the network world and which we test or not, we decide ourselves. For any of the reviews we get money or other consideration from the manufacturer. For various reasons, we may not report on products even though we have appropriate test products.

Where do the test products come from?

We usually get test equipment and review copies of games for free for a certain period provided by the manufacturer, sometimes even before the official release. So our reviews can appear in time or in time for the release of the product.

Pre-release versions or devices from pre-series productions are only tested in special cases. As a rule, we wait until we can get test devices or game versions that are identical to the retail versions. In some cases, we also buy products at our own expense if they are already available on the market or online.

Are networld editors allowed to keep the products?

Typically, test equipment will be returned to the manufacturer after the test has ended. The exception are review copies of games and so-called permanent loans: For example, we have game consoles and smartphones in the editorial office, which we are allowed to use for a long time. For example, we can report on software updates, new accessories and new games or make long-term judgments.

Can the network world editors invite companies to travel?

The costs for travel to events, regardless of whether they take place in Germany or abroad, are always covered by SPIEGEL ONLINE. This also applies if, for example, a company undertakes travel planning due to short-term appointments.

Events at which we travel at our own expense include the Ifa, CES, E3 and Gamescom events as well as events from companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft or Nintendo. At conferences such as the Chaos Communication Congress or the re: publica, we, like other members of the press, are usually given free press tickets because we report on the conference and are not classical participants.

What's up with the Amazon ads in some articles?

As of December 2016, there are Amazon ads in some web-world articles containing so-called affiliate links. If a user visits Amazon via such a link and purchases online there, SPIEGEL ONLINE participates in the sales in the form of a commission. The ads appear in articles regardless of whether a product test is positive or negative.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2019-10-29

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