Using AirPods Pro for Hearing Protection

Hearing Loss Among Musicians

Many of the professional orchestra musicians that I know, and a few of the amateur musicians as well, suffer from some degree of hearing loss. For some, the hearing loss is modest, but others experience pain and discomfort, and I know of a couple of cases of almost complete loss in one ear.

There are many types of ear plugs that are marketed for musicians. The difficulty with ear plugs is that musicians need to hear themselves and their colleagues very clearly, and ear plugs can interfere. That’s why some ear plugs for musicians can be highly customized and expensive. Some musicians think certain models can be help, but others hate them all.

As far as I know, I do not have hearing loss (yet), although I can’t be sure since I haven’t been tested. My Apple Watch usually cautions me at some point during an orchestra rehearsal that I’ve been experiencing sustained sound levels at 95 dB or above. Sometimes I get this message during home practice, too. But I haven’t taken any steps to mitigate the risk.

Hazel’s Post About AirPods Pro

With that context, I wanted to pass along a note from Hazel Dean Davis, a Boston and Broadway pro whom I have studied with for many years. She recently made this public Facebook post, and she gave me permission to quote from it.

Public Service Announcement for Musicians:
Wear AirPods (Pro 2 or 3) as earplugs! 🎶👂
I’ve never been able to play horn with earplugs. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on custom, electronic, and specialized musician plugs—every one made me feel like I was in a fishbowl. Accuracy was hard, blending was impossible, and I basically resigned myself to hearing loss as the price of doing what I love.
Then one day, my phone warned me I was in “dangerous noise” (no kidding 🙃) and suggested wearing my AirPods. A quick Google later, I learned the newer AirPods actually have built-in hearing protection with adaptive transparency.
Today I wore them through an entire concert. I could hear my colleagues clearly, the percussion didn’t make my head hurt, my accuracy and blend felt solid at every volume, and I even forgot I was wearing them.
I feel like I just won the lottery.
(And yes I realize the airpods probably offer less protection than wearing earplugs, but they offer waaayyy more protection than my fancy shmancy earplugs that I rarely if ever wear)

I encourage everyone to go read the various comments that were made, as well as Hazel’s replies.

Note: I am not a medical expert, and this is not medical advice. Consult your own physician or audiologist.

Sound Attenuation Numbers

One person wanted to know how much sound attenuation was provided by the AirPods Pro. I looked up the information at apple.com, where I found hearing protection data sheets for the AirPods Pro 2 and 3.

From the data sheets, I found that the amount of attenuation varies with the overall noise level. Here are the values for AirPods Pro 2, assuming a good fit and the latest firmware version.

And here are the values for the AirPods Pro 3.

The data sheets cautioned that that the provided hearing protection is “not suitable for protection against extremely loud impulse noises, such as gunfire, fireworks, or jackhammers, or against sustained sounds louder than 110 dBA.” (Like the canons in the 1812 Overture, maybe?)

My Experiment

I own a pair of AirPods Pro 2, and I use them occasionally for listening to music or watching videos when other people are around, or for listening to music on a plane. (The noise cancellation on a plane is excellent!) I wasn’t completely happy with the fit for any of the three provided silicone ear tips, so lately I’ve been using a set of Comply memory foam tips.

Last week, as a test, I wore them through two complete orchestra rehearsals, and I wore them several times while practicing at home. When I first put them on in rehearsal, during the general hubbub just before rehearsal began, I thought at first that they weren’t working. The orchestra noise sounded the same with and without them. Then, I realized that this was probably because of the variable attenuation of the hearing protection design. At lower environmental noise levels, there was no attenuation.

Once rehearsal began for real, I could hear the difference. Mainly, I felt that I could hear myself much more clearly. In particular, it was easier for me to assess my own intonation with respect to the rest of the orchestra. My horn tone sounded a bit different, but I felt that it was something I could get used to. During fortissimo tutti sections, I could definitely tell that the orchestra sound was reduced, but it was a modest change, which I assumed was just enough to reduce the sound to safe levels.

I did notice one undesirable effect. For a couple of pitches, at around written C₄ (middle C), a sustained series of fast, repeated, articulated notes was strangely distorted. I assume that this was some kind of signal processing artifact.

Battery Life

I’ve never before paid much attention to the battery life of my AirPods Pro 2, because I don’t use them very often or for very long. But I did check it out last week. Before rehearsal, I charged up the AirPods and the case to 100%. After a 2.5-hour rehearsal, the AirPods batteries were at 75%. After using the case to charge them back to 100%, the battery level of the case had only dropped to 95%. Based on this simple experiment, I think that battery life will be fine for this kind of use.

AirPods Pro 3

The AirPods Pro 3 version was announced just last month, and you can order them now. The reviews that I have read in the tech press have been quite positive. According to Apple, benefits include a better fit and improved noise cancellation. From the hearing protection tables above, you can see that generation 3 also offers increased sound attenuation. I speculate that the faster and more efficient chips might lead to improved signal processing capabilities, but that is just my guess. I plan to order a set and give them a try. I am hoping not only for improvements in rehearsal settings, but also for a more comfortable and secure fit.

Summary

Based on Hazel’s experience, and other recommendations from the comments on her post, and my own experiments, I think that using AirPods Pro 2 or 3 is very promising for hearing protection for orchestral musicians. Just remember — I’m not giving medical advice. 🙂