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Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: The best AirPods yet
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I toured Apple’s secret audio lab to see how it built and perfected the AirPods Pro 3
Kate Kozuch
16 September 2025
Reminder, Apple’s always been an audio company
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(Image credit: Future)
I’ve reviewed the AirPods Pro 3, and I gave them a near-perfect 4.5 out of 5 stars. For the sake of this story, I must establish that I found virtually zero flaws when it comes to audio performance. These $249 wireless earbuds are impressively detailed, spatially accurate, and immersive in a way that makes music come alive.
As a consumer electronics enthusiast, there’s little more thrilling than actually getting to look behind the curtain at how a product like AirPods Pro 3 is made. I had the opportunity to do just that by visiting one of Apple’s audio labs, a place where industry-recognized engineers scrutinize every aspect of sound to ensure audio coming from any Apple device lives up to standards.
Some spaces in the lab, like the room for audiologist-style hearing exams that inform the AirPods Pro hearing aid feature, looked exactly like the kind of soundproofed rooms you’d expect in any professional audio setting.
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But others, like Apple’s anechoic chamber, are unlike anything I’ve seen before. An anechoic chamber is basically a space designed to absorb every sound that hits it and thus eliminate all echo.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Future)
Inside Apple’s soundproof, echo-free anechoic chamber used for testing devices like the AirPods Pro 3.
(Image credit: Future)
This establishes an extreme silence that is both relaxing and revealing. There’s nothing to hide in a space like this; even the tiniest quirks, clicks or unintended noises stand out. For engineers measuring audio and analyzing performance of a product like AirPods Pro 3, that’s the point.
One thing that continues to set AirPods Pro apart from the competition is spatial audio. In a different room, I encountered a spherical array of speakers used to test 360-degree sound. Sitting in the middle of this system, everything from sporting events to stadium concerts to nature’s symphonies can be recreated and placed with precise detail.
The colored lights add a playful touch for testers, but the purpose for this contraption is precision. Engineers can locate where individual sounds are coming from and even isolate them within the larger environment. This is how Apple ensures that the AirPods Pro 3 don’t just play sound, but that the earbuds can place it accurately around you.
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Apple also achieves this by mapping how sound interacts with the human ear and head. Every vertical and horizontal angle creates unique auditory cues, and your brain interprets them to figure out where a sound is coming from. Because everyone’s ears are different, Apple collects data from many people to refine both its algorithms and the actual hardware changes that materialized with AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2.
In addition to spatial audio, transparency mode, adaptive active noise cancellation, and signal stability are all tested rigorously in these labs to ensure anomalies never make it to our ears.
Walking out of the lab (that was, honestly, my version of Disneyland,) I was reminded about Apple’s long-standing investment in sound. From the original iPod that’s still sitting in my drawer and the EarPods that remain a staple to many today, to the first wireless AirPods in 2016 to the latest AirPods Pro 3, Apple has always been taking audio seriously.
Seeing the lab firsthand gave me a new appreciation for the invisible engineering that turns a pair of tiny earbuds into something truly immersive and alive. And while my favorite thing might be the battery life that’s finally long enough to last a cross-country flight, it’s really the audio performance of AirPods Pro 3 that sets the standard.
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Kate Kozuch
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Kate Kozuch is the managing editor of social and video at Tom’s Guide. She writes about smartwatches, TVs, audio devices, and some cooking appliances, too. Kate appears on Fox News to talk tech trends and runs the Tom’s Guide TikTok account, which you should be following if you don’t already. When she’s not filming tech videos, you can find her taking up a new sport, mastering the NYT Crossword or channeling her inner celebrity chef.
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Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: The best AirPods yet
I review smartwatches for a living — but here’s why I’m more excited about the AirPods Pro 3 than the Apple Watch 11
There’s only one thing I want from the AirPods Pro 3 — and it’s not a heart rate monitor
AirPods Pro 3 — what Apple has to do to impress me
I tried a pair of $99 earbuds and they sound almost identical to my AirPods — I’m blown away
Best AirPods 2025: Top Apple models tested and rated
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