Noise reduction alternative - AirPods Pro 2

[Coult45]

After doing a little reading about the improvements to AirPods (Pro), I decided to try them on the boat to reduce my noise exposure. Short answer...fantastic. Shouldn't have been so slow to pull the trigger. I'm no expert, so this is just my personal experience.

Our normal operation...when we're getting to the good spots for bird photography, I'm at the helm and the crew is up front where it's pretty quiet even at 6000 rpm's. Once we get to a good area, I'm up front with my camera and my first mate is at the helm, almost always at 3000 rpms or below. So I'm the one with the worst exposure, and I already have enough hearing loss from a few live-fire exercises during my time as a marine, many years ago.

For the second gen AirPods Pros, reports put the noise cancellation capability at 27dB, although it's significantly lower when using Transparency mode or Adaptive mode. Still experimenting with both of those. So, about as effective as foam plugs, and I can have a normal conversation with the crew without taking plugs out and putting them back in all the time. I can also safely listen to podcasts and books while doing mundane tasks like cutting the grass, running the snowblower, etc.

Pretty thrilled with them so far. A few articles with additional info...

Can the AirPods Pro Protect Your Hearing? We Put Them to the Test.

Can earbuds provide adequate hearing protection for loud concerts? We tested several popular earbuds, including the AirPods Pro, to find out.

www.nytimes.com

Evaluating Apple AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Protection and Listening

The active noise cancellation technology in the AirPods Pro 2 earbuds reduces ambient noise levels by an average 27 dB across frequencies.

hearingreview.com

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Great post @Coult45 !

I’ll have to read both articles more thoroughly later just did a quick scan.

 

[drewkaree]

I saw those in your ear when you posted a pic yesterday or the day before, and was gonna ask if the radio in the boat had gone belly up. I found that any of those types of ear buds work to lessen the noise, at least better than nothing at all, anyway. I have some Samsung Galaxy Buds that work the same way.

Is the transparency or adaptive mode something that allows pass-through, or at least some ambient noise? The Samsungs have something like that, but I have 2 other sets of ear buds that don't have that capability, and I find those are better for stuff like cutting the grass, but I can see the Samsung's giving similar results to your Air Pods if that's what those modes are for.

 

[Coult45]

I wonder if the radio still works...I haven't turned it on in almost three years. I'll have to add that to the maintenance checklist for next spring, since I don't think it's in the book.

And yes, those other modes are different levels of pass-through. One is full pass-through, so you hear everything. Another has pretty good noise cancelling, but then reduces the effectiveness dramatically when I talk. So it doesn't adapt to another person's voice, it seems to be triggered by my voice, and then lets in some other sounds for a few seconds so I can hear the other person's response. Pretty cool.