I love passthrough in headphones, because it lets me hear what's going on around me without taking them off or pausing my audio. However, I can't leave this mode on for most of the headphones I've tried with this feature. It just sounds tinny and unnatural, so it's best to turn it on when you want to check what's going on around you and then switch it off again.

With my AirPods Max or even AirPods Pro (which aren't quite as good in this department) the "transparency" mode is good enough that you can forget you're using headphones at all. This means I can be a part of what's going on around me, but my family don't have to be subjected to the sounds of explosions or heavy metal music as they go about their business. It's really like having your own audio bubble.

Spatial Audio Is a Killer Feature for TV

I use my AirPods combined with an Apple TV, which enables the use of Apple's spatial audio feature. This either gives you virtualized surround sound or spatialized stereo, depending on the source audio. It works way better than it has any right to, and sounds quite a lot better than virtualized surround on a stereo soundbar. I really enjoy the spatialized stereo as well, since this makes it sound like the audio is still coming from the TV, rather than regular headphone audio. This is much less tiring, and offers a comfortable sound stage. In fact, the closest thing I can compare the experience to is listening to sound in a large cinema.

I Can Actually Hear Everything Now

Modern sound mixes are notoriously bad if you actually want to hear what characters are saying, which is a source of endless frustration for me. However, using my AirPods Max to watch TV instead, this issue all but goes away. I can even make out about 50% of the dialogue in Tenet.

It's not just dialogue either. Fine details in the audio, that would require far too much volume from my soundbar than my neighbors could tolerate to reproduce, are now laid bare to my ears. The level of immersion, the dynamics, and the vibrancy of it all is "chef's kiss" as the children are wont to say these days. I'm actually discovering new elements to the soundtracks of films that I've watched in many different formats over the years, and it's a source of pure joy for me.

Noise Cancelation Elevates the Experience

Though I love the flexibility of transparency mode, when I'm alone, and I don't need to hear what's going on around me, my preferred way to watch is with active noise cancelation activated. This seriously enhances the experience over a soundbar in a number of ways.

First, it offers total immersion. I can only hear what the film's creators intended for me to hear. There's no noise pollution at all. This is one of the reasons the soundscape of a film or show becomes so detailed, because irrelevant sound is removed using those magical anti-sound algorithms.

Second, it prevents distractions, and I've even found that I hardly ever reach for my phone to see what a notification ding was about while watching a movie with my AirPods on. Barking dogs, yelling children, or my neighbors' own TV audio coming through the wall all go away with the press of a button. It's all the benefit of an empty cinema, with none of the sticky floors and stale popcorn.

At least not at the start of the weekend.