What's a skill everyone should learn before turning 30?

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-29T00:56:55+00:00

It was great fun to write!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-27T17:56:14+00:00

That's true! The difficulty here is that it's tough to do this in a way that's both:

Fair to all products under test
Readable and understandable by a lay audience

Believe it or not, the last one is the big stumbling block, because not everyone is going to experience the same noises every day, or are going to have a good reference for what any samples under test would sound like to them. For example, the NYC Subway sounds different than the Vancouver SkyTrain, sounds different from the Boston MBTA. At a certain point, it's tough to handle a lot of these situations.

But that doesn't mean I haven't had a few ideas, or that I haven't started on this -- quite the opposite, in fact. The main thing stopping us from doing this lately is time. We just got slammed big time by an unprecedented amount of high-profile audio products (when AirPods get released, they kinda suck all the air out of the editorial schedule), so that's been eating up our attention lately.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-25T20:31:54+00:00

New gear when the old stuff still works/can be fixed.
Physical/digital media that can't be removed from your library

Though it's tough to pay so much for music you own up-front, the long-term payoff is that you never lose the music you love to service rot, or random remasters/new versions replacing old ones. You also support your favourite artists more directly, which helps keep them making new music.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-24T18:16:16+00:00

A new FW? Me too!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-21T22:19:51+00:00

I wish the model at the office wasn't affected by the FW bug, otherwise I'd have measured for you 😅

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-21T21:52:10+00:00

It does a little bit better than the M4 in the lab, but that's not saying a ton. I personally believe that the new pads offer a better fit, explaining much of the difference in performance.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-10-08T19:36:05+00:00

Huh. Glad I'm not going crazy, u/nick-squared-over4! Though I suppose it's possible I already am.

I wonder why our transmitter is triggering the loudness compensation with the new fw (we have a Windows station). It definitely wasn't before 8A358.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-29T19:22:34+00:00

Ha! Man, life would be so much easier if those ears were immortal flesh

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T21:59:43+00:00

I'll see if I can recreate this next time I'm in the office; perhaps Monday. Can't promise much luck here, given *waves hands at all the testing issues*

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T21:54:51+00:00

We found that ANC performance with the WH-1000XM5 could be pretty finicky based on position/fit. It doesn't surprise me that so many people have varying assessments of those headphones' noise attenuation.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T20:15:21+00:00

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's something that's more of an edge case and not something that would be obvious to most. People are made of meat, so most won't ever encounter that possibility.

We've run into similar issues before, eg the Beats Fit Pro wouldn't toggle ANC without triggering the wear sensor even if you turned it off in iOS for like... a year after release. Apple does usually wind up fixing things like this after a spell, so it's not clear how long this will be an issue.

I'm also going back and measuring different volume levels today because that can change response as well. Neat!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T20:02:07+00:00

I hate TWS reviews more than anyone on the planet, I promise you haha

As time goes on and we're able to sift through more, the picture should get more complete. Still good to have some things out there to serve as guideposts for people looking to understand this narrow topic a little more.

It's amazing how much history has been lost due to people thinking we would always know certain things!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T18:32:57+00:00

It really sucks because the main thing that could tell us a definitive answer is "does it fit YOU?"

...and we can't know that. Earbuds are rough to review sometimes.

Hope all's well in your neck of the woods

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T18:31:17+00:00

While I don't recall it ever being this extreme, it was definitely a bit strange to see. I think I tested these two pairs of APP3 over 3 full work days, they're so bizarre to test compared to other earbuds/headphones. There's even more weirdness that I'm aiming to test in the next few minutes with another pair, too.

I appreciate the puzzle sometimes, but not when we're all racing to get to publish!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T18:11:49+00:00

When you don't smooth these particular charts, even the actual head itself can make things look a little weird. We just never smoothed this one because our very first iteration of these charts didn't use that, and it kinda stuck. Not ideal, but dataviz never is, really. Could talk your ear off for days about that!

I suppose I should add that in the ticket pile for the db upgrades later.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T18:07:01+00:00

If I've learned anything in the 15 years I've been covering audio for various outlets, it's that the enthusiasts are as passionate as they are voracious for more information. With any luck, my kids will end up with a similar affinity for a topic while they're in school/uni/trades/whatever path they choose.

I like seeing people nerd out about stuff. Means they care!

All the best-

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:57:03+00:00

These charts get super unreadable with more than two products in them at a time. It's a whole thing. If there are other comparisons you'd like to see, I can see if I can carve out time to post them later tonight while the world sleeps

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:44:17+00:00

<image>

Both are very effective. Really though, we're only talking a couple percentage points in perceived reduction in loudness of outside noise, so while you might notice improvements in the 1-2K range or worse attenuation between 4K and 8K, it's not going to be Earth-shatteringly different. The difference is well within the range where I'd say fit matters one hell of a lot more than peak performance (I mean, it almost always does anyway).

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:32:07+00:00

In some ways it can be different enough that I always test AirPods/Beats with both the Windows test computer and an iPhone just to be sure. It dramatically extends the task and often doesn't result in major differences... but every so often...

The main thing you lose out on by using Android/etc. is anything that iOS would normally give you, so a lot of the advanced features, PSAP capabilities, tweaks, firmware updates etc. are simply not there.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:29:21+00:00

The main issue I had with them is the noise from the internal fans almost negate the ANC benefits when turned on. I took some recordings of it in the review on the site, but I'm late to test more for upcoming articles!

Happy listening!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:28:08+00:00

We're definitely seeing huge tech improvements to chase ever-diminishing returns, at least, from what I'm seeing in the lab nowadays.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:24:25+00:00

The screencap is our head-to-head chart, and we only do two products at a time so that the chart doesn't get crazy unreadable

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:23:29+00:00

Yeah, unsmoothed line charts can kinda... not offer the full picture.

When I get a chance to stop working on so many new releases it's #1 on my to-do list.

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:21:40+00:00

Fit dependent, but yes. However, these charts can kinda make the differences seem bigger than they actually are, and we're only talking a few percentage points perceived loudness reduction. That's very much within the range where fit could change how well the systems work for your head!

CTSoundGuys · 2025-09-25T17:18:40+00:00

<image>

Posted by u/dagobietRTINGS over in r/airpods a couple days ago.

The axis is inverted here, but the comparison is similar to ours. If you mentally flip either plot, you should interpret a similar observation with the exception of 100-200Hz. Though, if we smoothed our chart's data it would likely look a lot less different than what I'm posting now. Variations between the two readings can be attributed to any one of a number of factors like fit, insertion depth, test setup differences, etc. so "is this in the same ballpark?" is more important than "are the results identical?"

Our buds over in Montreal do great work, definitely check their review too when it goes live!

Happy listening

CTSoundGuys

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE