Make sure you’re making the most of your AirPods‘ sound – there are ways to improve quality, and to make it more your flavor.
Apple’s AirPods have been the dominant force in headphones since they first arrived on the scene in 2016. They’re massively popular, they took the then-niche true wireless earbuds tech and made it the norm almost overnight, and there are now four different versions available, for different needs. You’ve got the regular AirPods (2nd Gen), which are the most affordable option and have the same design as the originals – and you have the AirPods (3rd Gen), which are a lot like the 2nd Gen, but with better audio quality and Spatial Audio support. The AirPods Pro add ANC and even better sound, and still rank among the best noise-cancelling earbuds. And you have AirPods Max, which were (and remain) the first over-ear AirPods, and are some of the best wireless headphones around for sheer audio quality. Whichever of these you’ve bought, you may not realise how many little hidden tricks there are for AirPods, many of which can help improve the sound for you. Here, we run through six key ones that might help your AirPods feel as fresh and exciting as the day you bought them. We all know that AirPods use Bluetooth to receive music wirelessly from your phone. What you might not know is that the way the AirPods use Bluetooth means that different music file types are treated in different ways, and this can affect audio quality. For the best results from AirPods, you want your music to be in the AAC file format, and this is used by many streaming services, including Apple Music and Tidal, but also Google Play Music. Spotify only uses AAC on the desktop – in the apps, it’s a different file type called Ogg Vorbis. Deezer uses MP3. The reason you want AAC music is because AirPods are able to stream these files over Bluetooth without any conversion – what you hear is what your phone downloaded. Other music file types have to be converted live when you play them in order to be streamed over Bluetooth (into a format called SBC), and this process means that the already compressed music files get digitally chopped and compressed again, which means the edges of the detail are often sanded off. If you listen in AAC, you’re more likely to keep the little details that give music real personality. Unlike something like the Sony LinkBuds S, AirPods don’t have a control app where you can change their overall EQ settings to tailor the sound to you. The best you can do is go into the settings for Apple Music (or whatever music app you use) and adjusting the app’s EQ instead, although annoyingly this will keep those settings even if you switch to a different set of headphones, or a Bluetooth speaker.
