The Best Value Apple Product in 2023

So today I've got an unexpected video, well an unexpected product, not one I thought I'd be

featuring at this point right now, and one that I'm intrigued by because I think it might represent

the best value Apple product being sold in 2023. And that's based on a little bit of research I've

done some videos that I've watched. I'm talking about these right here. This is the USB-C earpods

I know what you're thinking. You're saying, how can that be exciting? Look, Lou, I also like the fact that they went to USB Type-C, but it's really not that exciting

Well, it kind of is, and the reason being is the price point. They came out with this headset, and I also wish it was included in the package, but it's not

They're selling it for $19. And it's got universal compatibility because of that USB-C

And it's got the capability of listening to lossless audio, which some really expensive AirPods are not capable of doing

Plus, in many ways, this wired headset is superior to a wireless one

The inline microphone sits near your mouth, and so many of us work on our computers and do tons of video conferencing

And I understand the convenience of having no wires, but actually, I think this one's going to sound a lot better as far as the microphone is concerned as well

All for 19 bucks. Could this be the ultimate backup to your AirPods

Could it sound even better? That's what we're going to find out today. The universal aspect is the other thing that I like about this

Windows, laptops, desktops, iPads that feature USB Type-C, and obviously MacBooks as well

So let's go ahead and unbox what might be Apple's best value product in 2023

Now, the reason it's capable of lossless audio delivery is because there's a built-in DAC

And that's the case on a number of USB-C headsets, but it's nice to see Apple embrace it as well

Honestly, the appearance of these things, not very special. They look like a pair of ear pods

And man, maybe many of you haven't even seen these in a while. We have some sets laying around here with the traditional 3.5 mil connector

And then obviously, we've had lightning at some point in there and a whole variety of adapters

But how clean is that? Just one singular type C connector with built-in DAC

Now, the actual units are a little bit smaller than what you're used to on your AirPods or certainly your AirPods Pro

This is a more traditional look. Fits into the ear like this

The nice thing is they're extremely lightweight and you'll never have to charge them

So even if you just got it as a backup on your desk when your AirPods are dead, slap these in

Enjoy that increased fidelity, possibly. I was talking to Will before we shot this video about the fact that sometimes I find myself on a video conference for an extended period like hours

and I'll have one AirPod die, and I'm charging one, replacing it with the other

And if I just slap this thing into the MacBook, it would be a lot easier, one singular cable

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Here's the iPad. Here's a MacBook Pro, but these will work just fine

with any MacBook featuring USB Type-C. I've got as well the iPhone 15 Pro over there

and then I'm also gonna bring into frame a Windows laptop from HP

because this should work just fine with that as well. But first, let's slap it into the MacBook Pro

I'll go ahead and unlock. Now, I have Apple Music queued up

which of course is capable of delivering lossless audio. I'll just click on this little icon here

You can see lossless 16-bit, 44.1 kilohertz. Now there are different audio quality settings and this setting is probably not enabled by default for good reason

You're probably not having a listening chain that's going to benefit from it. So high quality is the default and that's going to deliver 256 kilobits per second AAC

So there has been a lot of talk and chatter about an individual's ability to even discern the difference when it comes to lossless audio without a bunch of outboard equipment

We'll see if that's warranted, if I can even tell the difference on Apple Music here

but the setting is in there and it's no different, by the way, for your other variety of devices

So if I go into my settings on the iPad, lossless files preserve every detail of the original audio

Turning this on will consume significantly more data, as we'd expect. Another reason it's likely not enabled by default

Now, what happens if I take this out and plug it into an iPhone

Is it the exact same experience? It should be. We plug it in, EarPods comes up as our default selection

It's the same thing in the settings menu here. I head over to music, audio quality, lossless audio toggle

Cellular streaming has its own setting here on your phone. So depending on if you want to prioritize data consumption or audio quality, you have your options here

So I'm going to go ahead and stream lossless. And what if you have an Android device

$19 backup headset that will work with all of your different phones or gadgets. So I plug it in

the Android side. You can see it has brought up the headset immediately and I have my adjustment

for it. Now one thing people had stated was that the headset's a little bit louder on iOS than it

is on Android. Like a lot of benefit here is just having the wire. Like you're not dealing with

Bluetooth so you're just getting a clean signal here. Obviously Bluetooth has come a long way

but the clarity if you haven't listened on a wire in a while, which I'm pretty sure is a lot of people

it can kind of surprise you. And this is again on an Android device

YouTube music, unintended usage, and certainly not lossless. Totally satisfying on the Android device I think it gonna get stepped up a little bit as we move to our iOS devices here And it also just reminds me to celebrate the fact that Apple is so done with that lightning connector

Okay, let me plug into the MacBook now. But before I toggle the lossless setting, I'm going to listen first just in high quality AAC 256

Oh. Tons of volume here. It is important to know the AirPods Pro are still going to have the advantage in design and noise canceling

You have interchangeable ear tips that are going to sit further in your ear c

which are going to allow for a greater seal, which then increases the perception of that beige response

So they can't really compete on every characteristic. characteristic it would be interesting to see what would happen if apple put out a truly high-end

version of a wired headphone using usb type-c and a built-in DAC this is not what they're trying to

do here this is kind of like an under the radar hey we'll give you a decent headset for 19 bucks

if they tried to do a high-end headphone like kind of i think what people were hoping for with the

airpods max which by the way also doesn't support lossless even if you buy their expensive cable

That would be interesting to see with their level of integration and so forth

But this, this sounds really good. Honestly, like amazing what you can get for 19 bucks

It brings into question big time all this like extended expenditure on headphones

I get it. There's different styles and features. And if you're on an airplane, you got no noise cancellation

And like what is that kind of return on investment is kind of crazy in the headphone area

You're like, these sound pretty good for 19 bucks. but yet you can easily spend 250 bucks

But you get rid of this right here, this little nuisance known as the wire

So I'm gonna go ahead now and I'm gonna click lossless. Mmm

Yeah, like, okay, this is tough because I feel like there might be

some Apple Music magic going on here where they're like, ooh, they clicked lossless

Let's hit them with a slight little volume increase because sometimes that stuff can trick you

into believing you're hearing better quality, but you're just getting more of a boost

These are loud. They're hitting you. When you click that lossless button

all of a sudden those vocals come right to the forefront. Kind of incredible with this simple setup

Let's see if the phone is comparable. Am I gonna get the exact same experience

I'm gonna play the same song. Toggle lossless here. It sounds good

but the laptop is pumping differently. for sure. I'll take it. $19 wired headset on here. Let's see if the iPad plays any different

Best $19 you can spend at Apple. Best $19. Man, especially if you hook it up like this

I think the MacBook as well. I don't know what's up with the phone. The phone is lacking a little

bit at the moment. Could it be software just came out? iPhone 15. I don't know. Is it protecting my

hearing. Maybe it's protecting my hearing. Is that a setting? Scroll down to headphone safety and you

can reduce loud audio but that's not what was going on there. The iPad and the MacBook on this

software, this is updated to the most recent 17.1 at the moment but these two sound like on par and

then this one is like the step down and so is the S23 by the way So I just want to make sure that this works on Windows as well Just off YouTube no Apple Music Simple I didn have to toggle anything Just plug and go I am pretty satisfied with this

I think for $19, just real quick, I just want to do a quick A-B with the AirPods Pro

Far more expensive earbuds, obviously, but different technology. We're dealing with wireless

We're dealing with Bluetooth. We've got noise canceling. We've got transparency. We've got some much higher tech activity going on

but what we can't do is take advantage of that lossless setting on apple music there we go now

we have noise cancelling turned on so obviously i hear my surroundings a lot less plus i've got

the sealed off effect of having the in-ear style headphone and i have a much more expensive unit as

well i can describe the difference to you the the low end here is more punchy it's there's there's

There's more density there, but the clarity and kind of like intimacy of feeling like, whoa, that sound is right there is more prevalent on the wired earbuds with the lossless setting

For a certain listening preference, these might even be superior comparatively. If you're heavy into bass and you've heard what these sound like or you like over ear headphones that have tons of bass reproduction

And then if I do need to get some work done and utilize this microphone, it's sitting right here beside my mouth

This is an audio recording utilizing the wired microphone on the new $19 Apple USB-C EarPods

Yeah, so that sounds great. Now let's go ahead and do a similar recording using the AirPods Pro

This is a recording using the AirPods Pro built-in microphone. Should give you an idea of what to expect if you're doing a video conference

Utilizing the built-in microphone on the AirPods instead of the new USB-C earpods

This is a recording using the AirPods Pro built-in microphone. I mean, it's night and day. It's night and day

people are going to imagine what you're putting people through using your wireless

AirPods for your conferencing it's not something people talk about a lot

or test a lot totally worth having the wire there and not needing to worry about

any type of battery life at least at the bare minimum for those extended online meetings

where you're going to be talking a lot whether that happens to be into the iPad the MacBook or the iPhone

alright so there you have it you guys tell me what you think. Is this the best value Apple product? Or can you think of another

one that's worth mentioning in the comment section? I think for 19 bucks, it delivers on its promise

Maybe more affordable type C headsets out there, but I'm not sure that they sound this good

I'd probably have to do a lot of digging in order to uncover it. And besides, normally the reason

you would avoid the Apple version is because you want universal compatibility, but you don't have

to worry about that here because this guy works with Android. It works with Windows. And if you

use Apple Music and the lossless setting, then these might even deliver a better experience than

your far more expensive AirPods, obviously at the expense of having the wire. So that's that

Apple's latest ear pods for 2023 featuring my favorite connector of the moment, USB Type-C