I’ve used Comply foam headphone tips on a few of my headphones. I like them because they really isolate sound and feel comfortable in your ear for longer than standard silicone tips. I thought about getting some third party foam headphone tips for my AirPods Pro, as I always have difficulty getting a “good seal” on my left AirPod, and I like to wear them throughout the day. But, Comply didn’t have their tips out yet, so I waited for them. Wait to buy from the professionals, I thought.
I wasted my time.
These tips fail in every way but comfort and sound isolation. However, their flaws make them useless, even for that attribute. Here’s everything that went wrong with Comply’s foam AirPods Pro tips.
In This Article:
Sizing Woes
The first thing I read about these was that the size would match the Apple AirPods Pro sizes. Great. I found I used the large size to maximize the seal, so I’d go with that. Wrong. The large was a little larger and taller than the AirPods Large. I’m a medium. Comply sent me new ones, which was nice, and I had my mediums to test. These fit much better. So, if you find you’re in between sizes, these run large. Really large, actually.
Charging Woes
Our research determined that was a lie.
One of the issues with the slightly different sizing is the fact that the shape of the tip can actually hold your AirPods out of the case just enough to prevent charging. This was a problem I had even with the medium sized tips. I believe this is because the tops are slightly longer than Apple’s. If you press down the AirPod hard, you can engage charging, but when you remove your finger, it’ll stop. You can position the tip a little differently to get it in the case just right, but it’s not a good angle. It’s slightly off from the angle these should be at when on your AirPods. Basically? Your best bet is to take them off to charge.
Or, you know, just don’t buy them.
Blockage Woes
The other day I was standing up from my desk and decided to take my AirPods out. I pulled them out and put them in the charger, but something didn’t sound right in my left ear. The foam tip decided my ear was just too cozy to leave. Like me on the couch during a binge of the final season of a show I’ve watched twice already, it wasn’t budging. Carefully I was able to sort of twist it just right with my pinky to pick it out of my ear without pushing it in further. Ear nose and throat doctors reading this just cringed, but I did try to use my elbow first, doc, honest!
Are these ENT jokes doing it for you? No? Well, if you don’t want to go to your local ENT, I have a recommendation: don’t put things in your ears that could come loose, like Comply’s foam tips.
Sound Quality
I actually can’t say something bad about this. They are good enough for sound isolation that I couldn’t hear the box fan I had drying my clothes while watching Netflix. I feel like they offer a better seal than Apple’s tips, and this blocks out sound better. I really do believe that they’ve improved on the sound quality. It’s hard to appreciate that when you go to grab your AirPods and find they weren’t charging overnight.
Comfort
It’s also true that I can wear these until the battery is completely drained on my AirPods Pro. Towards the 5 hour mark, I did start to get irritation, but that’s still an incredible length of time. I can keep them in for long periods with minimal discomfort throughout the day. I will say that once they did become uncomfortable, they were very uncomfortable. It was as though my ears were ready to reject anything that was in them. However, take them out for a few minutes, and I was good to go again.
Overall Rating: 1 / 5
I recently got laid off due to COVID. Thanks, incompetent leaders! As a result, I have important phone calls to make. I went to make one of those phone calls before starting on this review, only to find my AirPods were only partially charged, and the right AirPod was completely dead. I took the tips off and topped them up just enough to last most of the way through my phone call. Not everyone will have such a dire situation every time they go to use their AirPods, but you’d certainly be frustrated if you’re going to listen to music or watch something, only to find your AirPods are dead. Furthermore, the fact that they come off in your ears just makes them unsafe.
There are often compromises you make when you use a third party accessory with an Apple product. Apple usually does things so well that they don’t benefit from third party accessories unless they’re exceptional at something. The Comply Foam Tips are fantastic for sound quality and comfort. However, they’re also so bad at keeping your AirPods charged that they’re not worth the effort. If you’re considering third party tips for your AirPods Pro, I recommend finding someone else. But if you want, you can still get these from Comply for $24.99.
Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yes, these tips that don’t work will cost you $25.