I’ve googled this expensively, and could not for the life of me get a clear answer. Audiograms. Being able to apply them to your AirPod pro max 2’s like you could with media assist on the pro 2’s. More often than not, I was reading that they simply couldn’t do any of it, you were stuck with the stock tuning. But then there’s a few of those in this sub that say otherwise. Finally, I said fuck it and bought a pair to try and see for myself. I essentially wanted a “bigger” and more bombastic version of what I was getting out of my pro 2’s.
Let me just clear the air right now. The max 2’s absolutely can and will use audiograms. BUT here’s the catch. In order to take a hearing test, you HAVE to do them with the pro 2’s or 3’sThere’s no other way around it, unless you have an audiogram already and input the values yourself or take a picture of an audiogram done by your ENT. But using the hardware itself to get it done is impossible, unless I’m missing an option. So either find an ENT or grab yourself a pair of pro 2’s/3’s for a day and do the test yourself.
There isn’t an option to turn this on or off. It just works, it sticks, once the test is done and audiogram is set up. You go to the Health app, then click on the search button on the bottom right, then type in “hearing”, click on hearing, there should then be a tab for “hearing test results”. Click on this, then click on the add button on the top right. This will allow you to manually add a result by including all the values for every frequency, or taking a picture. Once the results show up, it should “just work”.
Honestly, by themselves, the AirPod pro max 2’s are just like any ordinary ANC headphone that just so happen to work amazingly with the Apple ecosystem. But audiograms transform them into the best one available, bar none. Far exceeding many other headphones on the market, just with this one feature.
It almost completely bypasses the biggest quandary that many headphone users face, the arbitrary nature of how everyone’s ear/head shape is so different, especially how they perceive audio. Making it almost impossible to create the perfect headphone. Well, because it probably is and DSP is the only tangible way to get the finishing touches.
Right now, unless I’m missing something here, Apple is on top of the food chain with audio for this simply existing. Perfect sound is now possible, as these AirPods take your hearing deficiencies and strengths and incorporates it into a frequency response that’s catered to you. This is a game changer, revolutionary. If there’s any artifacts or compression going on, I sure as shit can’t hear it. As a matter of fact, the max 2’s open the fuck up immediately, as it nearly eliminates all peaks and dips your ears may perceive.
If other manufacturers are doing this in the headphone space, then I’m certainly mistaken about any of these claims. But it automatically should make it a must buy for those chasing both accuracy, excellent imaging/staging for a closed back, and convenience.
This is coming from an audiophile that owns high end gear, including the hd800s and Arya, and I’m finding these are more satisfying to listen to because of how “correct” they are. That should speak volumes. I feel the same way with the pro 2’s.