You can of course listen to music with your AirPods, but you can also use them as hearing protection at concerts. That’s how you do that!
AirPods as hearing protection
Apple provides the AirPods with more and more useful functions. For example, last year the earphones received the adaptive mode, call detection and personalized volume. These functions have in common that they ensure that your AirPods respond better to your ambient noise. That is precisely one of the reasons to use your AirPods as hearing protection.
Read ook: AirPods Pro have new features in iOS 17: here they are
With the different listening modes, your AirPods can protect your ears against harmful noise. Very useful, especially now that more and more is becoming known about the hearing damage you can suffer in clubs or at concerts. The sound is often much too loud on such occasions, resulting in (permanent) damage to your hearing. Fortunately, your AirPods can function as hearing protection.
This is how your AirPods protect your ears
To use your AirPods as hearing protection, it is best to enable transparency mode. You do need AirPods Pro for this, because regular AirPods do not have this function. In transparency mode you can still hear the sound in your environment, but (too) loud noise is filtered out. This way, loud noise in a club or at a concert does not reach your ears unfiltered.
The silicone attachments of the AirPods help with hearing protection, because they absorb ambient noise that is too loud. In transparency mode, the ambient noise is captured via the microphones of the AirPods. You then hear the sound at a safe volume in the earphones. This means you don’t have to worry about deteriorating sound quality at concerts, for example, because you can continue to hear the music clearly.
This is how you set the transparency mode
Do you regularly go to concerts, clubs or other places with loud noise? Then it is advisable to use your AirPods as hearing protection. With the transparency mode you reduce the risk of hearing damage. You switch on that mode by simply squeezing the stems of your AirPods. Or you can turn on transparency mode via the control panel of your iPhone. It goes like this:
- Connect your AirPods to your iPhone;
- Open the control panel by swiping down at the top right of the screen;
- Briefly press and hold the volume bar;
- Tap ‘Noise Control’;
- Finally, choose ‘Transparency’.
AirPods Pro 2 offer the best hearing protection
So you can definitely use your AirPods Pro as hearing protection. Apple has improved the different listening modes of the AirPods Pro 2, so these earphones best protect you against loud sound. The first generation AirPods Pro and AirPods Max also offer protection, but to a lesser extent. View the best prices of the earphones in our price comparator, so you can be sure you are not paying too much!