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Apple's AirPods Pro hearing health features

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282 points elsewhen | 9 comments | 22 Oct 24 00:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source | bottom
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an_d_rew ◴[22 Oct 24 02:35 UTC] No.41910659[source]▶
As a mid-50 year old who discovered two years ago that he has moderate hearing loss (50-55 dB HL), I will be forever grateful to Apple for doing this.

If anybody from the accessibility teams is reading this, please know that it is difficult for me to overstate my gratitude and my appreciation for the amount of work this must've taken.

Music sounds unbelievably better through my AirPod pros, and I didn't even know what I had lost until I heard it again.

I'm willing to bet that a lot of my middle aged compatriots don't even know how much their hearing has degraded… Get your hearing test tested, folks, while you still have it!

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DanielleMolloy ◴[22 Oct 24 07:52 UTC] No.41912148[source]▶
Did you try AppleMusic?

Not directly related to your case, but I thought I had some age-related hearing loss when listening to Spotify Premium only for a decade. I appreciate their recommendations (found me a whole bunch of new interesting bands, even new favourite ones), but didn't know how awful Spotify's quality is even in comparison to Apple's standard codec.

I didn't make the switch yet since for lossless since I don't have enough space on my phone, but am considering it, even for just showing support for the current music quality efforts over at Apple.

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gnatolf ◴[22 Oct 24 08:29 UTC] No.41912319[source]▶
Spotify high quality is usually 320kbps. If not, it's because only worse qualities are recorded/available. I have sincere doubts you're able to hear a difference to lossless qualities, especially if you're listening on the go or in non-hifi setups.

The Apple RDF seems strong here.

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1. threeseed ◴[22 Oct 24 09:30 UTC] No.41912636[source]▶
I can easily hear the difference between Lossless and AAC on my two IEMs (Blessing 2 Dusk + IE600) as well as my open-back Focal Clear. And even with Bluetooth via AptX HD.

With the quality of audio improving so much in recent years I would take a guess that almost anyone can appreciate the significant difference in sound quality for < $50.

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2. stavros ◴[22 Oct 24 09:47 UTC] No.41912720[source]▶
Have you done any blind listening tests? I'm having a hard time believing this, though it depends on the bitrate of the AAC.
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3. threeseed ◴[22 Oct 24 10:19 UTC] No.41912871[source]▶
I do blind tests multiple times a day.

On cellular on my iPad/iPhone I stream at AAC and then high-res lossless on WiFi.

When the stream switches the improvement in clarity and sound stage is very apparent.

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4. trissi1996 ◴[22 Oct 24 11:02 UTC] No.41913095{3}[source]▶
That's doesn't sound blind, if you don't have a very fancy setup that can switch to the lossless stream without any interruptions.
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5. positus ◴[22 Oct 24 13:54 UTC] No.41914305[source]▶
Same. There's a difference in texture, primarily in the trebles, but there's also a general muddiness and lack of separation. Everything feels like it's been smoothed over, but not in a good way, or too "crunchy". Transients don't have the right amount of bite and the stereo image doesn't feel as three-dimensional. It's harder to hear the "room". Currently using Sony IER-M9 with a Linum DualBax Zebra, which is a great cable, btw.
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6. FireBeyond ◴[22 Oct 24 17:11 UTC] No.41916390[source]▶
I feel like if I was playing Audiophile Bingo, I'd just have won.

I mean I can't claim complete 'ignorance', I have more audio toys than many (a "Schiit Stack" on my desk (DAC, mixer and amp) and a couple of "low end" headphones, Sennheiser and Hifiman planars), but by the time you are discussing cables... next thing it's whether wood volume knobs will eliminate unwanted resonances from your sound stage.

Favorite comment I heard on such things: Music lovers buy equipment to listen to their music. Audiophiles buy music to listen to their equipment.

7. threeseed ◴[22 Oct 24 17:35 UTC] No.41916639{4}[source]▶
I simply have to press stop and start (which you can do many different ways) and the stream will switch.

Pretty fancy I know.

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8. trissi1996 ◴[23 Oct 24 07:42 UTC] No.41922758{5}[source]▶
That's not blind.
9. talldayo ◴[23 Oct 24 17:23 UTC] No.41927224[source]▶
I can too, but only because AAC has such an unnatural stereo presence that I can pick it out in a lineup of codecs with my eyes closed. If it was a direct comparison between downsampled FLAC/WAV then I'm not sure I could tell the difference.