Not sure whats going on, I open the case with the buds in hold down the button and put it in pairing. The Steam Deck sees it but won’t pair with it. Idk what’s going on. I have reset it, disconnected it from the iPhone, idk what else to try. Desktop mode and Game mode won’t pair :-/
That’s not true at all. You can get fantastic passive isolation from good sealing earbuds.
But active noise cancellation is still superior.
You’d be surprised how little additional isolation you get compared to a good set of well-fitting comply tips. I carry a “backup” set of Westone UM3X earbuds on travel and have swapped them in vs my Airpod Pro 2 buds and felt that the effect was nominally equivalent. The AP2s are more comfortable to wear for very long flights, though.
A couple of caveats - first, I “feel” the ANC when it gets out of sync and find that very disconcerting, so I’m pretty careful with the fit and positions of my AP2s. Second, I have tinnitus which is mostly in the C7/E7 range so I have not experienced “true” silence in over a decade. Also, I’m over 50 and my perceptual limit in isolation is down around 11-12kHz, but ANC is pretty poor that high, esp compared to simple isolation.