AirPods 5 introduce a multiport acoustic architecture, a design Apple says was inspired by AirPods Pro 3, and Apple credits it, together with improved computational audio, for Active Noise Cancellation that removes up to 50 percent more noise than AirPods 4 with ANC. The earbuds cost $129, or $149 with the Wireless Charging Case.
Open-ear earbuds do not seal the ear canal, so noise cancellation has to work without the passive isolation an in-ear tip provides. That is the problem the new architecture is built to address, and Dave Pakula, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering, opened the release by saying Apple is thrilled to bring ANC to AirPods 5.
What a multiport acoustic architecture means
Apple has not published a technical breakdown. The name points to more than one acoustic opening in the earbud housing, but Apple has not said how many ports there are, where they sit, or what each one does.
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Apple says the idea came from AirPods Pro 3. It has not said whether AirPods 5 use the same design or an adaptation for the open-ear shape, and it has not compared the two products’ noise cancellation directly.
How the hardware works with computational audio
Apple pairs the new architecture with what it calls improved computational audio, and the 50 percent figure describes the combined system. Apple has not split the contribution between the hardware and the software.
The same foundation supports the rest of the listening modes Apple listed for AirPods 5:
- Active Noise Cancellation
- Transparency mode
- Adaptive Audio
- Conversation Awareness
- Next-generation Adaptive EQ
- Personalized Spatial Audio
Apple rates the earbuds at up to 5 hours of listening with ANC on, one hour more than AirPods 4 with ANC, and up to 22 hours with the case. The noise cancellation runs on both AirPods 5 models, not only the $149 version.
What Apple has not said about the noise cancellation
Apple has not published a decibel figure, a port count, a microphone count, or the method behind the 50 percent comparison. It also has not said how AirPods 5 noise cancellation compares with AirPods Pro 3, the product that inspired the design.
Pre-event leaks pointed to noise cancellation as the headline change, as our AirPods 5 rumor round-up recorded, but the multiport architecture was not part of that reporting. The Apple event live blog has the full keynote, including the iPhone 18 Pro.
Pre-orders opened today, September 9, and AirPods 5 reach stores on Friday, September 18 in the US and more than 65 countries. Apple has not said whether it will publish more detail on the acoustic design before then.
