Apple’s Conversation Boost Works, but It Makes Things Awkward

In the lateaughts, someone shut a metal door in my office, and in my head it made more noise than it should have. After a month of bouncing between doctors, I was told that I had lost half my hearing in my right ear.

Even a custom-fit hearing aid did not help because of the destruction caused by the nerve-eating virus. A lot of things I still hear are fine, and people often don't notice that I'm half blind on one side. Thankfully, and kind of amazingly, when I have headphones on, the music still sounds like it is coming straight down the pike.

Loud spaces can be a challenge. I will ask to sit at one of the corners of the table to keep everyone in front of and to the left of me. I have to pay attention to each speaker. It can be tiring in a loud space.

As a result, I was excited to hear about the Conversation boost feature built into the AirPods Pro headphones, which uses computational smarts and a microphone to help you hear more clearly by focusing the sound on the person directly in front of you.

Thanks to the Omicron surge, there was a lot of waiting for good opportunities to be around other people to put them to the test, but I called a pair in as soon as I heard about them. My well-loved headphones, which I used for running, walking, and phone calls, were bumped out by the AirPods Pro, which became my daily driver for months.

I will take advantage of having had these longer than anticipated for some more general long-term testing notes. These headphones are pretty good. Playing downloaded tunes on my Apple Music app, they sound crisp and clear, deep and complex, rewarding my attention and occasionally revealing parts of my favorite songs that I had never heard before. As someone who always has music on and loves to pay attention to sound, I appreciate Apple focusing on sound quality.

A built-in test to make sure you have them snugged in right is one of the factors contributing to this. It is easy to forget the Pros are in my ears after an hour or two. I was able to stay connected as I walked through dead zones for other devices.