You can customize your AirPods Pro 2 sound through iPhone settings by using Headphone Accommodations for frequency adjustments (balance, vocal, brightness) and boosting softer sounds, or by using in-app EQs (like Apple Music or Spotify); you can also change Noise Cancellation/Transparency modes via Control Center or force sensor, and even set up a Custom Audio Setup in Accessibility for personalized hearing profiles, notes CNET and PCMag Australia.
Set up Personalized Spatial Audio
With your AirPods or Beats connected to your iPhone, go to Settings > [your Spatial Audio enabled device] > Personalized Spatial Audio > Personalize Spatial Audio. On your Vision Pro, go to Settings > Sounds, then turn on Personalized Spatial Audio.
Personalised Volume will adjust the media volume on your AirPods based on environmental conditions and your volume preferences. It learns your listening preferences over time to fine-tune your media volume in response to your surrounding environment.
About Personalised Volume
Personalised Volume adjusts the media volume on your AirPods based on environmental conditions and your volume preferences.
With Adaptive Noise Cancelling, you have more flexibility without having to change settings yourself, while ANC is perfect if you're looking for a consistent noise cancelling experience.
Balanced Tone provides a boost over a wide range of frequencies. Vocal Range boosts middle frequencies to help hear human voices more clearly. Brightness boosts high frequencies, so vocal sibilance like “ess” and “shh” sounds are emphasized.
The headphones transparent mode is an upgrade to the Active Noise Canceling (ANC) feature in earbuds. When compared to Active Noise Cancellation vs Transparency Mode, rather than blocking out background noise, the latter filters such sounds alongside the audio you are currently playing.
Whether you're using spatial audio or Dolby Atmos, you're going to experience excellent sound quality. Spatial audio can enhance stereo content, while Dolby Atmos is a special mix format for content.
AirPods 3 controls
Play and pause audio: Press the stem. To resume playback, press it again. Play the next track: Double-press the stem. Play the previous track: Triple-press the stem.
Enabling ANC on your headphones will consume more battery power. So if you don't care too much about noise when on a long journey, you can turn ANC off to save battery life.
The "60/60 rule" for headphones is a hearing safety guideline: listen at no more than 60% of the maximum volume for no longer than 60 minutes at a time, then take a break to let your ears rest and recover, helping prevent noise-induced hearing loss. This simple habit protects hearing by managing sound intensity and duration, with noise-cancelling headphones helping by reducing the need to turn up the volume in noisy environments.
Immersive Experience: Fixed spatial audio still offers a more immersive experience compared to traditional stereo sound. It can make listeners feel like they are in the middle of the action, whether that's in a movie, a game, or listening to a music track.
For the best EQ settings for footsteps, boost the mid-range (1kHz - 4kHz) to make them clearer and slightly cut low bass (60Hz - 200Hz) to reduce masking from explosions, but remember settings are game/headset dependent; try boosting around 2kHz-4kHz for clarity and cutting bass for general improvement, adjusting in-game audio to "Flat" or similar for a clean base.
The Best Equalizer Settings: The 5 Step Magic EQ Settings that work on Everything!
The question “Is noise cancelling bad for your ears?” can be answered with a resounding no, provided that noise-cancelling headphones are used responsibly.
Active noise cancellation is typically the superior form of noise cancellation. This is because of its use of technology to reduce the unwanted sound, whereas passive noise cancellation merely muffles it.
Use Conversation Awareness or Personalized Volume
iPhone or iPad: Go to the Settings app , tap the name of your AirPods near the top of the screen, then turn on Conversation Awareness (AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Pro 2, or AirPods Pro 3 only) or Personalized Volume.