I’ve spent over a week with the AirPods Pro 3, and I think it’s safe to say Apple didn’t simply iterate its popular noise-cancelling earbuds. From pretty much the first time I put them in my ears, it was clear these had all-around improvements, but especially stronger ANC power.
Apple has been tinkering with ANC since 2019, but according to Matthew Costello, VP of Hardware and Audio Engineering for Apple, the new AirPods Pro 3 design and geometry, “for the first time, really help us direct audio directly into the ear canal” establishing one of the “fundamental changes” for this generation of earbuds.
This surprised me, assuming that making each bud smaller for AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2 could pose problems. But the smaller design is actually only one part of the story. Apple has been rethinking how ANC interacts with fit, transparency and even the social side of wearing earbuds.
Redefining ANC for AirPods Pro 3
“We’ve been working on this so diligently, and getting to this third generation of AirPods it’s not just about blocking noise,” said Eric Treski, Director of Home and Audio Product Marketing for Apple.
We take our internal resources and we put these devices in testing, like hell, inside our organization, and then we do it in different environments as well. We take things a step further in a number of ways, than I think many do.
Matthew Costello, Apple
ANC takes a couple of different forms, from limiting the low rumbles of planes to intelligently tuning out distracting background chatter in a café. But it also impacts transparency mode and Adaptive Audio, or the set of features intelligently designed to keep you connected to the world around you.
“Headphones over the years have been a very personal and really isolating experience,” Treski said. “When ANC came about, it just furthered that experience of isolation. It’s great sometimes, but we also wanted to look at the other side of it and how do we actually make it more social? Can we invite people in for communication and talk to people just as though we’re not wearing headphones at all?”
Testing & ear canal scanning: The science of the AirPods Pro 3 fit
Naturally, the folks at Apple aren’t just guessing how to make ANC and transparency frictionless. Ear scans, audiologist consultations, internal labs, and real-world testing all feed into the H2 chip’s algorithms. (Think of the H2 chip like the AirPods Pro 3's brain.)
“We take our internal resources and we put these devices in testing, like hell, inside our organization, and then we do it in different environments as well,” Costello explained. “We use the resources we have from a lab perspective as well as real-world testing and we make that as robust as we can. We take things a step further in a number of ways, than I think many do.”
I actually got a close-up look at how some of this internal testing takes place during a special tour of Apple’s audio labs, including the spaces designed to test for proper tuning across all kinds of ears.
“We’ve really fundamentally architected a lot of the algorithms that are supporting this device,” Costello said. “The self-tuning algorithm we developed specifically for this product is really the thing that’s helping to compensate and correct for the internal geometry of the ear and the variations of the ear canal itself.”
What this means is, AirPods Pro 3 were designed to adjust to your ears, not the other way around. Because it fires more directly into the ear canal, frequencies don’t bounce around as much, giving the engineers and sound experts in Apple’s labs more control over refining the listener’s experience.
What's with the new foam ear tips?
AirPods Pro 3 also introduces foam-infused ear tips. As Costello put it, “this gives us the best seal of anything we’ve ever had, which contributes to ANC and really gives us a big lift.”
In other words, it’s not just for comfort. Those foam tips improve both mid and high frequencies and make human voices sound more natural in transparency mode.
Apple even added an extra-extra-small tip with AirPods Pro 3, which might sound niche, but it further demonstrates dedication to make AirPods suitable for even more ears out there.
“Fit is so fundamental now to everything we’re doing within the product, that adding the extra ear tip just feels natural,” Costello said. “Sometimes you even have to mix and match, because ears are unique.”
ANC: Best-in-class, and perhaps even better for transparency
“We really feel good about it being best in class,” Costello said. “You hear the difference now when you put the AirPods Pro 3 in your ears. Base response and overall across all frequencies is so much more profound. ANC is when you want it, and when you need it, ANC is there and it is fantastic.”
“It’s been great to hear from people about how ANC has drastically improved their lives."
Eric Treski, Apple
If I have one takeaway from this conversation, it’s that the balance between immersion and awareness was really key to innovating AirPods Pro 3. Apple says it finally hit a “beautiful sweet spot,” with stronger noise cancellation when you want to tune out, but also a new level of personalized transparency when you need to stay present.
There are some noteworthy health benefits to these improvements, too.
“The adaptive EQ (essentially, AirPods adjusting playback settings on the fly automatically) really helps you not only to correct when you need to in certain environments, but from a protection perspective when you’re in loud environments.” Costello said. “We’re intelligently switching between the two, which is a big step forward. It also contributes to better hearing aid feature sets, we’re correcting for higher levels of hearing loss now as well.”
In the time I’ve had AirPods Pro 3, I’ve worn them pretty much all day, daily in large part due to how they’ve ambiently adapted to whatever situation I’m facing on the commute, at work, at home, during workouts and more. For me, it’s redefining Active Noise Cancellation into more than just a buzzword, and apparently I’m not alone in appreciating the role AirPods Pro play in my life.
“It’s been great to hear from people about how ANC has drastically improved their lives,” said Treski. “We’re so excited about how this has evolved into all these other uses so far and just really brought so much more capabilities to our users.”
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