A set of earbuds that sits loosely on the outside of your ear delivered Apple’s first active noise cancellation without a seal, and the 48,000-times-per-second loop hidden inside the chip that made it happen

That trade-off seemed permanent because active noise cancellation relies on generating a precise counter-wave of sound to cancel incoming noise, and you need to control the acoustic space around your eardrum to make that counter-wave line up accurately. Adaptive Audio blends Transparency and Active Noise Cancellation in real time, seamlessly tailoring noise control as the user’s environment changes, a continuous process rather than a static algorithm set at the factory. That said, multiple independent reviews confirm that the AirPods Pro 2 still delivers meaningfully stronger noise cancellation overall, particularly on aircraft and in loud environments. What the microphone system means for anyone who always chose comfort over quietThis was the first time Apple put active noise cancellation into earbuds with an open-ear design. Adaptive Audio blends Transparency and Active Noise Cancellation in real time, seamlessly tailoring noise control as the user’s environment changes.