- Choosing your mic per app in iOS 26
- AirPods Pro 3 mic tests & live translation
- Adaptive noise reduction that actually works
- Using iPhones for auditions (and why it’s fine in a pinch)
- iFixit teardown & the repairability debate
- Chaotica Eyeball + iPhone = quick VO setup
Andrew Peters, George ‘The Tech’ Whittam, Robert Marshall, and Darren ‘Robbo’ Robertson 🎧 Sponsors:
- TriBooth — use code TRIPAP200 for $200 off
- Austrian Audio — Making passion heard
Facebook Group: The Pro Audio Suite Podcast Group
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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?
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Get started.
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Welcome.
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Hi.
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Hi.
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Hi.
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Hello everyone.
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To the Pro Audio Suite.
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These guys are professional.
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They're motivated.
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With Tech the VO stars.
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George Witten.
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Founder of Source Elements.
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Robert Marshall.
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International Audio Engineer.
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Darren Robbo Robertson.
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And Global Voice.
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Andrew Peters.
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Thanks to Triboo.
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Austrian Audio.
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Making passion heard.
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Source Elements.
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George the Tech Witten.
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And Robbo and AP's international demos.
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To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite
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.com.
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And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.
00:00:34
Thanks to Tribooth.
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Don't forget the code.
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That will get you 200 US dollars off
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And Austrian Audio.
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Making passion heard.
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Talking about hearing, I think iOS have added
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some new functions that allows your iOS device
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to hear different sources.
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Is that correct?
00:00:55
Yeah, so I always drag my feet on
00:00:57
new iOS versions, just like I do with
00:01:00
macOS.
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But I didn't drag my feet on the
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AirPod Pro 3, and that got me –
00:01:07
they sucked me in on that one.
00:01:08
It's very rare I buy a product on
00:01:10
launch day, and this was pretty close to
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that for me.
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There was just so much innovation in the
00:01:15
product.
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And the reason I brought up the AirPods
00:01:17
is there are features that you can't do
00:01:20
with the new AirPods unless you upgrade your
00:01:22
phone.
00:01:23
And so I started researching deeper, and there
00:01:26
was a YouTuber that did this crazy long
00:01:28
video, 18 things that you didn't know about
00:01:30
your AirPod Pro 3.
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This is like a really long video, and
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he's showing all these features, and I'm like,
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I can't – wait, what's that?
00:01:38
I'm not able to do that.
00:01:39
Then I finally realized later in the video,
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he eventually mentioned you need to be on
00:01:43
iOS 26.
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So all new OSs from Apple have the
00:01:49
year as the model number now.
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So they're all iOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS
00:01:55
26.
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Everything's just on the year.
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And so iOS 26 is the new one,
00:02:00
and it's got features that are beyond just
00:02:02
window dressing because I was not excited about
00:02:05
the new translucent liquid metal, whatever they call
00:02:09
it, glass.
00:02:11
I don't care about all the window dressing
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stuff.
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I really don't.
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But it was cool to see that a
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new feature is that you can choose your
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microphone per app.
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So if you're doing video, for example, using
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the video app, you can now from the
00:02:26
command center, it'll show what microphones you have.
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So for example, if you have your iPhone
00:02:32
with AirPods, Bluetooth in, and you've got a
00:02:35
Passport Pro VO plugged in, and you have
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all these devices connected, you can tell the
00:02:41
app that's open which microphone it's going to
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use.
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At long last.
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It looks like you can't get iOS 26
00:02:49
yet.
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It just says see what's coming, but I
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can't update.
00:02:52
That's interesting.
00:02:53
Yeah, no, it's definitely.
00:02:54
My girlfriend put it on her iPhone 13
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like a week or two ago.
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I have an iPhone 11, and it's telling
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me like.
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Oh, it's possible that that one's just generation
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old, too old.
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I don't know.
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No, it says see what's coming.
00:03:08
It says see what's coming in iOS 26.
00:03:10
You still have an iPhone 6, Robbo?
00:03:12
Well, interestingly, funny you should say that because
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I'm actually patiently waiting for the postman to
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turn up today because my new iPhone is
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on its way to be delivered today.
00:03:21
So I'm kind of hanging it up.
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You're going to have iOS 26 before all
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of us.
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I am still on a 6S for everybody
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else out there.
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Yes, indeed.
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There you go.
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That is impressive.
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As of this moment, I am still on
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a 6S.
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All hail Robbo.
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I am not worthy.
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He took the iPhone 6 farther than I
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took the iPhone 5.
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Yeah, right.
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I'll be honest with you.
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I'm the kind of person that doesn't upgrade
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unless I need to, and because I work
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from home, I use my phone to make
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calls, and that's about it.
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I've got an iPad that I do everything
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else in, and I've got a Mac in
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the studio.
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I didn't know that.
00:03:53
I didn't know the phone was for making
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phone calls.
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We abandoned that a long time ago.
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That's right.
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Yeah, well, that's one of the few things
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that, you know, that's one of the few
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things.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, exactly.
00:04:02
I mean, phone.
00:04:03
What does this phone word mean?
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What is this phone call thing you speak
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of?
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Well, ironically, most of the calls these days
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are, you know, WhatsApp, too, or something like
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that, too, from overseas, you know, like from
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the U.K. or the U.S. or
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whatever.
00:04:15
So the phone function is barely even necessary
00:04:18
either, let's be honest.
00:04:19
Most of my phone calls are AI trying
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to call, like.
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Oh, no.
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I know.
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Yeah, my girlfriend gets AI Tony Robbins calls.
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Really?
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This is AI Tony Robbins, and it literally
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says AI Tony Robbins.
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Yeah.
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She's like, I'm like, oh, no.
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She is.
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Get off that mailing list as soon as
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you can.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:40
Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to it.
00:04:43
Now, since I have AirPod Pro 3, I
00:04:45
want to be able to try some of
00:04:46
the new features, another one being live translation.
00:04:50
So now, sadly, and not a big surprise,
00:04:53
but sadly, Persian or Farsi is not one
00:04:56
of those languages.
00:04:57
We'll have to see.
00:04:58
Well, that would be illegal, right?
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The Trump administration said not to.
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Yeah, probably.
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Well, it's kind of funny.
00:05:03
Like, ChatGPT speaks fluent Farsi.
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Perfect.
00:05:09
Pretty good.
00:05:09
I mean, my girlfriend talks at her phone
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in Farsi all the time.
00:05:12
It's amazing.
00:05:14
So they're way ahead of the curve.
00:05:16
Apple has not added that.
00:05:18
But I'm looking forward to it.
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You have no idea how excited I'm going
00:05:21
to be to eavesdrop in on all my
00:05:23
girlfriend's conversations with her family because it drives
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me crazy.
00:05:30
Imagine the look on their face the first
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time you go, but didn't you say to
00:05:34
your mom on the phone the other day
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that, you know, blah, blah, blah.
00:05:36
Yeah, exactly.
00:05:37
How do you know?
00:05:38
I mean, you know, I feel like a
00:05:40
dog where, you know, dogs sit there and
00:05:42
they look at their master, and the master's
00:05:43
like, Rex.
00:05:47
Yeah, exactly.
00:05:48
You just hear your name.
00:05:49
Yeah, you just keep hearing, like, George, George.
00:05:53
I'm like, huh?
00:05:54
What?
00:05:55
What are you saying?
00:05:57
Exactly.
00:05:57
What did you say about me on the
00:05:58
phone?
00:05:59
I wasn't even talking about you, George.
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Oh, nothing.
00:06:01
That's right.
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That's right.
00:06:03
No, I mean, from the early reviews I've
00:06:06
seen, it does not work well at, like,
00:06:07
the nail salon, which is apparently one of
00:06:09
the most popular possible ways to use this.
00:06:11
So you can eavesdrop in on the conversation
00:06:13
at the nail salon.
00:06:14
The Vietnamese or Thai ladies in there, they're
00:06:16
probably.
00:06:17
Have you seen that YouTube, that stand-up
00:06:18
comedian?
00:06:19
She does the whole thing about the Vietnamese,
00:06:21
a nail salon.
00:06:22
Oh, yeah, like, oh, only $5 more.
00:06:23
Yeah, that one.
00:06:25
Everything is like, oh, $5.
00:06:27
I watched that yesterday.
00:06:28
I was like, you look so cute.
00:06:30
That was a Seinfeld episode, too.
00:06:32
Oh.
00:06:33
They did it way back in the day.
00:06:34
Yeah.
00:06:35
And they had no idea that it was
00:06:37
Jerry's father, I think, that turned out he
00:06:41
could speak the language because he was in
00:06:43
Vietnam in the war.
00:06:45
And he learned Farp and he learned Vietnamese.
00:06:47
So he was listening in and got really
00:06:49
angry about what they were saying about his
00:06:51
wife or something.
00:06:52
I don't remember.
00:06:52
It was a whole thing, you know.
00:06:55
That's hilarious.
00:06:55
Yeah.
00:06:56
Apparently, you do have to, like, you know,
00:06:58
you have to be facing the person because
00:07:00
they use noise canceling and beamforming and all
00:07:03
this crap to focus their pickup, you know,
00:07:06
on who you're talking to.
00:07:07
But the reason I was excited about the
00:07:09
AirPod Pro 3 for microphone is that apparently
00:07:12
it is a quality enough microphone that you
00:07:15
can use it for content creation now.
00:07:18
So, like, you could shoot a video, put
00:07:20
an AirPod in, use that mic, and it
00:07:22
sounds fairly good.
00:07:24
Like, I heard some samples and it's still
00:07:26
nowhere near as good as a proper mic.
00:07:29
But, I mean, it's a far cry from
00:07:31
a microphone being three feet away on a
00:07:34
phone because they've had the ability to do
00:07:36
this for a long time.
00:07:37
But the quality was pretty crap.
00:07:39
It was pretty not great, not good fidelity,
00:07:42
kind of really compressed sounding.
00:07:44
And now it sounds pretty freaking good.
00:07:46
But by their very design, they're never going
00:07:48
to sound fantastic.
00:07:49
I mean, would you point a 416 at
00:07:51
your ear?
00:07:51
No, no.
00:07:52
You know what I mean?
00:07:53
They have more than one microphone inside those.
00:07:56
Those things are insane.
00:07:58
Have you ever heard of iFixit.com?
00:08:00
iFixit is a website that all they do
00:08:02
is tear down every new product and tell
00:08:05
you how to fix it, right?
00:08:06
And then they give you a score from
00:08:08
0 to 10 for repairability.
00:08:10
How much you can repair it at home.
00:08:13
Good luck.
00:08:14
Because iFixit sells, they sell tools, they sell
00:08:17
parts, and then they give away all the
00:08:18
how-to for free.
00:08:20
It's a really nice resource.
00:08:21
And I watched the guy tear down the
00:08:23
AirPod Pro 3 and he said, yep, they're
00:08:24
just as bad as ever.
00:08:25
Zero out of 10.
00:08:27
Because he said by the time he had
00:08:28
it apart, it was destroyed.
00:08:30
You will never get it back together.
00:08:33
Yeah, exactly.
00:08:34
That's the problem with these things.
00:08:35
That's what happened with the old iPod.
00:08:38
Yeah.
00:08:38
The amount of tech packed into those things
00:08:40
is mind-blowing.
00:08:42
It is incredible.
00:08:43
And the ones that I have now, I
00:08:45
mean, again, they have a V-shape EQ,
00:08:47
so not great with music, not great for
00:08:49
mixing.
00:08:51
But the bass response is insane.
00:08:54
Like, I can hear 20, even 15 hertz
00:08:56
on my AirPods.
00:08:58
And the ear tips are a foam silicone
00:09:02
blend or something, so they make a really
00:09:05
good seal in your ear.
00:09:07
They don't fall out.
00:09:09
And that's a big part of it.
00:09:10
You want good low response with earbuds, you
00:09:12
have to have a really, really tight ear
00:09:14
seal.
00:09:15
Yeah, that's kind of why I like my
00:09:17
in-ears for my headphones.
00:09:20
The adaptive noise reduction mode is really cool,
00:09:23
because you can go from being outside where
00:09:27
it's noisy to being inside, like in a
00:09:29
cafe or a coffee shop.
00:09:30
You can just sort of move from space
00:09:32
to space, and it adapts the noise control.
00:09:35
So if it gets really loud, it pulls
00:09:37
it in, protecting your hearing.
00:09:39
And then as soon as you start to
00:09:40
speak, it opens it up again, so you
00:09:42
can have a conversation.
00:09:43
And it's as smooth as silk.
00:09:45
If you're listening to a podcast or music,
00:09:48
the music dims down and it pauses.
00:09:51
When you're done conversing, it starts to play.
00:09:53
It's really slick.
00:09:54
It's very well done.
00:09:55
And how much are they?
00:09:55
They're like $250 or $300?
00:09:57
$250, $250.
00:09:58
I mean, it's a lot for earbuds, but
00:10:01
for the technology that's in them, it's...
00:10:04
I mean, I had the AirPod Pro ones.
00:10:06
I still have them.
00:10:07
And, you know, I'll never use them again.
00:10:10
There's no reason to.
00:10:11
I mean, these just completely blow them away
00:10:14
in terms of just usability, functionality.
00:10:16
And, yeah.
00:10:17
Even in the car, I'll put them on
00:10:19
sometimes, just because the noise canceling is so
00:10:21
nice.
00:10:22
But you're not supposed to have noise-canceling
00:10:24
headphones in the car.
00:10:26
So I'll just use the adaptive mode.
00:10:28
And so if someone's like, there's a siren
00:10:30
or something, like a horn, you can hear
00:10:33
it.
00:10:33
It's not going to kill it.
00:10:35
In Chicago, that shit will make you go
00:10:37
deaf.
00:10:38
Yeah.
00:10:39
Do you guys have ambulances or emergency vehicles
00:10:43
that make that sound in Chicago?
00:10:46
Yeah.
00:10:46
Yeah.
00:10:46
The police cars are that like...
00:10:48
And they also...
00:10:50
But the fire trucks in Chicago are stupid
00:10:55
loud.
00:10:56
Like it is lawsuit loud, I think.
00:10:59
But they also send out a really low
00:11:01
frequency to make the car vibrate in front
00:11:03
of them.
00:11:03
They do that in New York.
00:11:04
Yeah.
00:11:04
I mean, I saw that in New York.
00:11:06
Yeah.
00:11:06
It's like really loud.
00:11:07
It's like tense.
00:11:08
How many times do you see idiots who
00:11:10
are just sitting in the middle lane and
00:11:12
don't let them by?
00:11:13
Is it any wonder?
00:11:14
Seriously.
00:11:15
Yeah.
00:11:16
They have to be aggressive.
00:11:17
So yeah, I mean, if I...
00:11:18
Having these things in my ears, like in
00:11:21
an urban environment, would make it tenable for
00:11:24
me.
00:11:24
It's the reason I could not live in
00:11:26
a major city and walk around.
00:11:27
I had a friend who would wear earplugs
00:11:29
in Chicago all the time.
00:11:32
He would just wear earplugs downtown.
00:11:34
Not me.
00:11:34
I didn't have a problem.
00:11:37
But...
00:11:37
Do you have to pay?
00:11:38
No, for me...
00:11:39
What?
00:11:41
Huh?
00:11:41
Well, for our Aussie listeners, they're $429 a
00:11:44
year.
00:11:44
There you go.
00:11:45
At JB Hi-Fi anyway.
00:11:46
Yeah.
00:11:47
Not cheap.
00:11:49
They do fill in the gaps.
00:11:51
Like Robert said earlier, his mom got them
00:11:54
as a stand-in for a hearing aid.
00:11:57
And it's rather effective because they have a
00:11:59
hearing test feature also.
00:12:01
So we'll do a proper hearing test.
00:12:03
Yeah.
00:12:04
I mean, the hardest thing about the hearing
00:12:05
test was finding a room quiet enough for
00:12:07
her to do it.
00:12:08
But she got caught up.
00:12:09
I'll tell this for the rest of the
00:12:11
community.
00:12:12
She got caught up with one of these
00:12:13
predatory hearing aid companies.
00:12:17
Had her in a loan.
00:12:18
She finally got out of it.
00:12:20
And granted, the hearing aids, they try to
00:12:22
be super tiny behind your ear and you
00:12:24
can't tell you're wearing a hearing aid.
00:12:25
Yeah, really discreet, yeah.
00:12:26
So if you forget that part of it
00:12:28
and you're like, I'm wearing an iPod and
00:12:29
now I'm in fashion because these things are
00:12:31
fashionable, then all the services and everything, you
00:12:35
just open up the app and you just
00:12:37
tap the phone when you hear the tones.
00:12:39
And it takes like probably 20 minutes to
00:12:41
go through the whole hearing aid test.
00:12:43
And then my mom starts wearing them and
00:12:45
she's like, oh my God, are our floors
00:12:47
that creaky?
00:12:48
And I'm like, yes, they are.
00:12:50
Not that your legs.
00:12:53
But they just pretty much worked.
00:12:56
And then it has an even better feature
00:12:57
where like, George, I don't know if you
00:12:59
know about this one, but you can basically
00:13:00
turn your phone into a microphone and then
00:13:02
chuck it in front of the TV.
00:13:03
So she doesn't have to make the TV
00:13:05
80 decibels.
00:13:07
That's right.
00:13:08
To hear.
00:13:08
It can also be used to eavesdrop too.
00:13:10
You can leave your phone in a room
00:13:11
and walk out of your room and keep
00:13:12
listening to the conversation.
00:13:15
And then that along with the Farsi translation
00:13:18
and there you go.
00:13:20
It's going to come together one of these
00:13:22
days.
00:13:23
Yeah, it's a concise product all brought together.
00:13:27
So to end your relationship.
00:13:30
End or enhance.
00:13:32
You know, we're going to go one way
00:13:33
or the other here.
00:13:36
The world would be in bloody trouble if
00:13:37
they put us in charge of Apple, wouldn't
00:13:39
they?
00:13:39
Let's be honest.
00:13:40
Yeah, that's true.
00:13:40
There'd be no such thing as privacy anymore.
00:13:42
Well, we changed the name of earpods to
00:13:46
eavesdrops, I think.
00:13:48
Eavesdrops.
00:13:51
Well, they look like drops.
00:13:52
They do.
00:13:53
Right, right, right, right.
00:13:54
Anyway, you know, not that Apple needs advertising
00:13:57
for me, but I have to give credit
00:13:59
where credit's due.
00:14:00
I just I'm looking forward to just being
00:14:02
able to tell someone that, yes, you can
00:14:04
use your iPhone to record something.
00:14:06
And yes, you can know what input you're
00:14:08
using.
00:14:08
It's no longer.
00:14:09
Okay.
00:14:10
Here's the question.
00:14:11
Can you use them well enough to record
00:14:13
an audition?
00:14:15
For sure.
00:14:15
Yeah.
00:14:16
Oh, you mean the earpods themselves?
00:14:18
The earpods.
00:14:19
Is the microphone good enough that you're like,
00:14:21
you know, who knows here or there or
00:14:23
the other place?
00:14:23
And you're like, oh, I got an audition.
00:14:25
Like, pop.
00:14:25
I think the mic in the phones themselves
00:14:28
are the best option for that, for sure.
00:14:30
Okay.
00:14:30
Like the mics in the phones are surprisingly
00:14:33
linear and accurate, you know, and just holding
00:14:38
it in the right place.
00:14:39
And I would use this any day.
00:14:41
Yeah.
00:14:41
Just to bring it back to another episode,
00:14:42
all you got to do is chuck your
00:14:43
iPhone into a Chaotica eyeball and you're done.
00:14:48
There you go.
00:14:50
There you go.
00:14:51
You know, there's companies that make those cases
00:14:53
and they look, I'm going to drop my
00:14:55
phone off this dam and watch it fall
00:14:57
700 feet.
00:14:58
You've seen those, you know.
00:15:00
Yes.
00:15:00
It still works.
00:15:01
Yeah.
00:15:01
Well, that could just be the Chaotica eyeball,
00:15:03
shoving your phone in there.
00:15:06
Maybe they should too, but it should be
00:15:07
just the I-B-A-L-L.
00:15:09
Yeah.
00:15:11
Well, that was fun.
00:15:12
Is it over?
00:15:13
The Pro Audio Suite.
00:15:16
And Austrian Audio.
00:15:18
Recorded using Source Connect.
00:15:20
Edited by Andrew Peters.
00:15:21
And mixed by Robbo.
00:15:23
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00:15:24
Just ask Robbo dot com.
00:15:28
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