Over the last several days, I’ve been able to preview Apple’s hearing health features. At times, the experience has been emotionally intense. I’m someone who grew up with a Discman and iPod basically attached to my hip, and I’ve been to countless concerts over the decades. I also haven’t seen an audiologist since 2018 or so. That’s anything but unusual; Apple says 80 percent of adults in the US haven’t had their hearing checked in at least five years. Putting a test right on your iPhone is a great way to improve that trend.
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Did you know there are people who’ve already been replacing earplugs with the AirPods Pro at concerts? Until this fall, Apple had never endorsed such a use case or advertised its earbuds as hearing protection devices. The company knew people were doing it but kept quiet on the subject.
That’s now changed. With iOS 18.1 and the soon-to-be-released AirPods firmware update, the AirPods Pro 2 will offer hearing protection at all times across noise cancellation, transparency, and adaptive audio modes. There’s no “concert mode” or a specific setting to toggle. You can think of this as an expansion of the loud sound reduction option that was already in place. Hearing protection is on by default, and Apple says “an all-new multiband high dynamic range algorithm” helps to preserve the natural sound of concerts and other live events.
I've been using my AirPods Pro as fallback hearing protection for a couple of years now. I wear concert earplugs when I go to concerts of course, but sometimes you encounter an unexpectedly loud...
I've been using my AirPods Pro as fallback hearing protection for a couple of years now. I wear concert earplugs when I go to concerts of course, but sometimes you encounter an unexpectedly loud environment and...well, the best hearing protection is the one you have with you.
They pair nicely with the Apple Watch, which has a built in decibel meter, passive monitoring that will alert you of dangerous sound levels and will report trends over time and warnings of repeated exposure.
They feel like they attenuate quite a bit, not far off concert earbuds, though they might not be quite as consistent since they depend on generated antinoise instead of passive suppression. It sometimes sounds like I can hear a compressor/limiter engaging and stomping the signal, with a little bit of metallic/humming sounding distortion underneath. Curious about the improvements.
Side question, is there an equally good android/non-apple alternative? I use pixel buds and they work great as headphones, especially since with their form factor they actually stay in my ears*,...
Side question, is there an equally good android/non-apple alternative? I use pixel buds and they work great as headphones, especially since with their form factor they actually stay in my ears*, but I'd like something with comparable features to airpods. Noise canceling, transparency, adaptive audio, and also something akin to basic hearing aids. I have some significant hearing loss but I'm broke as a joke and can't afford however many thousands of dollars to get tested, fitted for, and then buying actual hearing aids.
*I've never been able to successfully keep iPod style headphones in my ears, and need the ones that go into the ear canal.
I've found the Beats Fit Pro to fit much better in my ear compared to Airpods. I'm always nervous that Airpods are going to go flying out of my ear and they don't sit well.
I've found the Beats Fit Pro to fit much better in my ear compared to Airpods. I'm always nervous that Airpods are going to go flying out of my ear and they don't sit well.
I didn't see any mention of this in the article, but did Apple have to jump through any hoops to be able to officially announce/support this "medical" use case? I'd have expected players in the...
I didn't see any mention of this in the article, but did Apple have to jump through any hoops to be able to officially announce/support this "medical" use case? I'd have expected players in the existing hearing aid industry to push back against something like this. My understanding is that higher end hearing aid models can cost several thousand dollars per pair--I'm curious how Apple's pods would compare to something in that category.
The FDA did have to approve the feature afaik. Here's an article about it. Presumably it wouldn't have worked if the FDA hadn't ruled to allow OTC hearing aids in 2022.
The FDA did have to approve the feature afaik. Here's an article about it. Presumably it wouldn't have worked if the FDA hadn't ruled to allow OTC hearing aids in 2022.
Looks like the FDA were involved but under ”a regulatory pathway for some low- to moderate-risk devices that are novel and for which there is no prior legally marketed device”. I’ve got no...
Looks like the FDA were involved but under ”a regulatory pathway for some low- to moderate-risk devices that are novel and for which there is no prior legally marketed device”. I’ve got no particular domain knowledge on this one, but at least on the surface it seems like a nice example of systems working as they should!
From the article:
...
I've been using my AirPods Pro as fallback hearing protection for a couple of years now. I wear concert earplugs when I go to concerts of course, but sometimes you encounter an unexpectedly loud environment and...well, the best hearing protection is the one you have with you.
They pair nicely with the Apple Watch, which has a built in decibel meter, passive monitoring that will alert you of dangerous sound levels and will report trends over time and warnings of repeated exposure.
They feel like they attenuate quite a bit, not far off concert earbuds, though they might not be quite as consistent since they depend on generated antinoise instead of passive suppression. It sometimes sounds like I can hear a compressor/limiter engaging and stomping the signal, with a little bit of metallic/humming sounding distortion underneath. Curious about the improvements.
Side question, is there an equally good android/non-apple alternative? I use pixel buds and they work great as headphones, especially since with their form factor they actually stay in my ears*, but I'd like something with comparable features to airpods. Noise canceling, transparency, adaptive audio, and also something akin to basic hearing aids. I have some significant hearing loss but I'm broke as a joke and can't afford however many thousands of dollars to get tested, fitted for, and then buying actual hearing aids.
*I've never been able to successfully keep iPod style headphones in my ears, and need the ones that go into the ear canal.
I've found the Beats Fit Pro to fit much better in my ear compared to Airpods. I'm always nervous that Airpods are going to go flying out of my ear and they don't sit well.
The pixel buds pro have all of that. Are you using the -A?
...wait, do the pixel buds actually have hearing aids functionality? I wasn't aware of that
I didn't see any mention of this in the article, but did Apple have to jump through any hoops to be able to officially announce/support this "medical" use case? I'd have expected players in the existing hearing aid industry to push back against something like this. My understanding is that higher end hearing aid models can cost several thousand dollars per pair--I'm curious how Apple's pods would compare to something in that category.
The FDA did have to approve the feature afaik. Here's an article about it. Presumably it wouldn't have worked if the FDA hadn't ruled to allow OTC hearing aids in 2022.
Looks like the FDA were involved but under ”a regulatory pathway for some low- to moderate-risk devices that are novel and for which there is no prior legally marketed device”. I’ve got no particular domain knowledge on this one, but at least on the surface it seems like a nice example of systems working as they should!