Just got the APM2. They are my first pair of APM but I owned the APP 2 / 3 and multiple other earbuds / headphones from other brands.
This is not a review, this is just me sharing my experience and asking you guys/gals if I’m missing something to fix my issues or maybe you’ve had a similar experience.
The sound on these things is really good. Especially when you plug in with USB C it’s really great. I wish they had EQ but that’s another story.
Now the issue is ANC. I have two points to mention:
Frequency: With low frequency sounds it does a great job, almost completely blocking out sounds for air conditioning and low humming sounds (almost being the key word, discussed further in the next point). Unfortunately with higher frequencies the noice cancellation just sucks. It is really bad I would say. When I’m at gym I can clearly hear the sounds being played. When I’m at home with the AC working and the vacuum cleaner on and the tv on, the AC is almost completely silenced, the vacuum cleaner is noticeably reduced but the tv is still very clearly audible. I had the APP3 and still have the Bose QC ultra earbuds and they both do a WAY better job at canceling high frequency noises.
Fit: I believe there is a design imperfection on the APM, unless there’s something I’m missing. Due to design of the headband attachment point to the earcups the clamping force on the top of the earcups is significantly stronger than the clamping force at the bottom of the earcups. This create an imperfect seal around the bottom of the earcups. I tested this by applying a little pressure at the bottom of the earcups and noticed that low frequency noises and rumbles completely disappear! This means that the ANC IS capable of doing much better in terms of low frequency noises but is limited due to a hardware design shortcoming. Unfortunately this made no difference in terms of high frequencies which could only mean that this is as good as it gets for high frequency sounds unless they come up with a software upgrade to improve ANC.