Might have been unclear; I listen basically exclusively to spoken word stuff. Podcasts, audobooks, "raido" plays, etc.

The Airpods actually sound remarkably good and clear (and ANC helps a lot with ensuring clarity anywhere even slightly noisy) with voices, so for my uses, they sound perfectly fine.

I have a pile of Chi-Fi earbuds that absolutely destroy them in sound quality for music, but it's very much a 99.9% of the time it's not music situation.