Help with EarPods.

OK AirPods 3 Pro. I can never remember their name. They sound great... also work well. I sent a pair through the washer and they sounded great after they dried out... they were also clean. Integrate seamlessly with phone. They can work as hearing aids and now do real time language translation. Automatically reduce volume if you speak. I use them at least three hours a day. I’ll often leave them in with noise cancellation on and not listen to anything... it just reduces the ambient noise no matter where I am. I ride my bike down a big hill every day hitting around 35 mph and never had them fall out. And they are comfortable. 

@kofibaffour Not all of them. For example AirPods Pro 3 do not use identifiable DAC chip, but rather integrate a conversion function into a H2 headphone chip. Apple does not publicly disclose the specific technical details of conversion design within the H2 chip. So it’s not separate audio dedicated DAC chip like some High Resolution audiophile earbuds use. 

Well, as usual “high end” is relative in all things audio.  For me, if I want true high-end earbuds for classical I want excellent soundstage capabilities, and for this I’d look to more elaborate, multi-driver wired designs.  In the $1500 range I’d point toward the ThieAudio Prestige LTD or the FiiO FX17 as some solid choices.  They’re above my budget, but in the sub-$500 level and as an example my FiiO FH5s, which uses two dynamic drivers for the bass and mids and dual balanced armatures for the treble, sound considerably more open and three dimensional than my single-driver TinHiFi T5 that, while still decent, sound relatively more congested and squashed (I believe the B&Ws you heard also use a single driver).  As always, it all depends on how deep you wanna dive in but suffice it to say there’s a lot more to be had performance wise as you up your budget.  Hope this helps, and best of luck.

@soix 

Thanks for the recommendations,  Very enlightening.

You’re so right.  High end is so relative, especially with ear phones.  
When I said the sound of the B&W was “wonderful,” I meant relative to earphones I have heard.  
 I was looking for a wireless, so your recommendation won’t work with me

One of the founding assumptions of high fidelity audio is that it is in a quiet space. It is great if you have a location with an ambient noise level is in the 20’s db. It profoundly makes a difference. Most of the time, it is probably likely most folks have listening areas in the 30s db. If you are into the 40s... it is a compromised area and you are just not going to be listening to high end sound because of the high noise floor covering details and nuance... and filling in the silence in between notes or sounds. For a reference, a plane at cruising altitude background noise is 78 - 84db. For automobiles is 70 - 85... similar in a supermarket. The world is loud. 

It took me decades to realize that trying to do high fidelity in those environments Is hopeless. While if you are in your home and there are some activities around and it is in the 50’s closed headphones can help. But if there is much noise the high fidelity is lost. 

I think lots of folks / reviewers go to a quiet room and evaluate earbuds and headphones. The problem is, if you are going to be using them in noisy areas, then this is not the right way to evaluate them. They need to have a completely different sonic balance to sound good. I finally realized this when I ditched my high end headphones, DAC, and battery powered headamp I used on airplanes while traveling and switched to Bose Quiet Comfort headphones where the sound is well balanced if somewhat cartoonish. It just sounds great... although not "audiophile".  I noticed that the system in my 4Runner is JBL and is punchy and actually sounds better than the Mark Levinson system in my Lexus (which, if you are sitting in the car in the garage sounds like a high end system). So car companies, headphone, and earbud companies are figuring this out. The sound needs to be crafted for the environment you are going to use them.