Active noise control

AirPods 5 came out.

Improved audio quality, noise cancellation, and active noise cancellation finally is now a standard as opposed to being a feature reserved for the higher priced AirPods Pro 3.

The product split moves the upsell towards the charging case and the wireless charging rather than the ANC itself with the audio quality.

Okay.

Whereas the AirPods Pro make that nice benefit when you have the ear cups that you can interchange and and even put 30 party ones in if they're still none of them work you know so that's one of the i think when the challenges are but apple is just knocked out of the park with airpods i mean i think they're just one of the hottest selling uh audio devices that they have uh compared to a lot of a lot of others that are on the market so i don't i'm not uh overly uh surprised that they're continuing on with this anybody have any uh name anybody thoughts with airpods I'm very

tempted.

Yeah, I mean, for the price, I picked up a set just to see if I can compare the active noise cancellation, particularly becomes important when I'm wearing my Vision Pro on a plane or just on a plane, and whether this active noise cancellation that they claim is higher will be able to drown out the kind of stuff that happens on planes for me.

Um, yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm also worried that Apple has kind of strung its product line too thin.

and will cost $179 Canadian.

Same as the AirPods 4, which they succeed, but now they not only include ANC, automatic noise cancellation, at no extra cost, but it's a new, noticeably better automatic noise cancellation, which includes auto-transparency, which lets you hear what's being said if someone starts talking to you, even if they're trying to get your attention from behind you, or if there's an in-flight announcement or an approaching siren.

That is

quite cool.

Definitely.

The new AirPods 5 will come in two flavors.

The basic model with ANC, which come in a cable charge case for $179, or for $40 more at $209.

You will get the AirPods 5 with ANC with a wireless charging case, which includes on-stem volume swipe and longer battery life.

So they claim it's up to 50% more noise reduction compared to AirPods 4.

Uh, they call it the industry best ANC in an open ear design.

And I think the performance of AirPods 4 active noise cancellation varies a bit based on the person and just, like, the particular ear shape, and depending on how well they sit on your ear, whether the microphones can hear you properly.

For me, I've...

I was impressed with the active noise cancellation at the time.

So I...

It's been a while since I've tried them, but I will say that when I put these AirPods 5 in my ears this morning at, like, the briefing center area at, in Cupertino, where it was very loud, lots of people talking, I was blown away at how well the ANC worked on these things.

Again, li- just like you said, because they're just resting on your ear.

[laughs] Go ahead.

Um, ANC is now universal across the board.

You don't get upsold on that anymore.

So the fact is you can now get AirPods with ANC, um, for $129, which is I think a fantastic price.

And considering that these things are so often discounted, you know, on things like Prime Day, um, I think really the standard AirPods are looking better than ever.

The thing I do find a little bit strange is there are still two different model tiers.

Yeah.

[laughs]

Perhaps the biggest news here is that active noise cancellation is available on both AirPods five models.

You'll remember that with AirPods four, there was an entry-level model that didn't have ANC alongside a higher end version that did.

This time around, there are still two versions of AirPods five.

There's a base model version for a hundred and twenty-nine dollars that offers ANC support.

Then there's also a higher end version that also offers ANC, as well as on stem volume controls similar to AirPods Pro, one extra hour of battery life for the buds themselves, and a wireless charging case.

Apple says that the new AirPods five offer the industry best ANC and an open ear design.

There's also richer sound across a wider range of ear geometries.

The overall design of AirPods five hasn't changed, though.

It brings together the difference between the AirPods Pro and the regular AirPods, mostly through active noise cancellation.

ANC is how they refer to it.

ANC was proprietary to the Pro models because they have the in-ear buds that actually stick inside your ear and create a seal.

They've somehow managed to make that work with the open earbuds as well.

So there is some level of active noise cancellation.

And even without them...

It's really good ANC.

It's not quite pro, but it is really good ANC.

50% more, which isn't...

It's 0.5 times...

These are amazing headphones, even with those new Audio-Technica headphones that I kind of like looking at because that silver looks great on the side.

They're really good-looking headphones.

But for wireless headphones, my favorite headphones by far are the Q45s because they have great ANC.