AirPods Pro (1st gen) Noise Cancellation is not working as it used to.

[sparky672]

Not sure if others have somehow not had a change or never noticed it but I'm quite sensitive to audio changes and it is clear as day in my APP.

Agree. I don't use mine enough to pinpoint the timeline. I just know that now there is effectively very little to no noise cancellation on equipment that's been used very lightly and infrequently. This was first noticed prior to the last FW update and prior to the last iOS update.

 

[Heiner030]

I've had my first gen AirPods Pro for almost two years so I am pretty familiar with how they've been working and how they normally sound. However, I use them somewhat sproratically.

About a week or so ago, while using them for a call or listening to a podcast, I noticed they didn't sound normal. I was still hearing all kinds of background sounds coming through despite Noise Cancellation. It was so unusual that I had to go into my settings to verify that "Noise Cancellation" was still enabled; and it was...

View attachment 2261269 View attachment 2261272​

When I used to enable Noise Cancellation, it made the world sound like it was completely blotted out. I'd say something like 90% of sound was blocked. Even the noise of my window air conditioner was almost fully blocked out.

Now today, Noise Cancellation simply sounds like the world is a little muffled. I can clearly hear my dog's nails when he walks on the hardwood floors as one example - maybe more so since other sounds are muffled. When outside, I can hear wind noise, running water, and cars approaching from way down the road. These sounds used to be completely blocked.

I cannot blame the latest firmware update, since I only updated to 6A300 today and I noticed this issue about a week or so ago while on 5E135. It's possible this started a way more than a week ago, but I don't use them often enough to pinpoint exactly.

Is anyone else experiencing anything like this?

I have exactly the same issue, noticed it during flight, not sure if it started since ios 17 update, which I installed during my vacay. But at my returning flight I noticed a weak weird AC, could hear a lot through it

 

[Donka]

I have exactly the same issue, noticed it during flight, not sure if it started since ios 17 update, which I installed during my vacay. But at my returning flight I noticed a weak weird AC, could hear a lot through it

I'm glad you mentioned that as I installed iOS17 and used the AirPods the following morning and noticed the difference straight away.

 

[sparky672]

I'm glad you mentioned that as I installed iOS17 and used the AirPods the following morning and noticed the difference straight away.

As was discussed previously, if iOS 17 had anything to do with this, then you should be able to connect your APP to a iOS 16 device, or an Apple TV, etc. and they would sound better or different. Do they?

I am not making a claim either way. But I have experienced this problem under both iOS 16 and 17, Apple TV, and latest APP FW as well as the older FW. Noise cancellation sounds broken the same under all of those.

 

[Donka]

As was discussed previously, if iOS 17 had anything to do with this, then you should be able to connect your APP to a iOS 16 device, or an Apple TV, etc. and they would sound better or different. Do they?

I am not making a claim either way. But I have experienced this problem under both iOS 16 and 17, Apple TV, and latest APP FW as well as the older FW. Noise cancellation sounds broken the same under all of those.

So I can only test with my Mac but that has also had an update and I didn't really use the AirPods with my Mac before so can't compare before or after.

 

[den1s_p]

I've had my first gen AirPods Pro for almost two years so I am pretty familiar with how they've been working and how they normally sound. However, I use them somewhat sproratically.

About a week or so ago, while using them for a call or listening to a podcast, I noticed they didn't sound normal. I was still hearing all kinds of background sounds coming through despite Noise Cancellation. It was so unusual that I had to go into my settings to verify that "Noise Cancellation" was still enabled; and it was...

View attachment 2261269 View attachment 2261272​

When I used to enable Noise Cancellation, it made the world sound like it was completely blotted out. I'd say something like 90% of sound was blocked. Even the noise of my window air conditioner was almost fully blocked out.

Now today, Noise Cancellation simply sounds like the world is a little muffled. I can clearly hear my dog's nails when he walks on the hardwood floors as one example - maybe more so since other sounds are muffled. When outside, I can hear wind noise, running water, and cars approaching from way down the road. These sounds used to be completely blocked.

I cannot blame the latest firmware update, since I only updated to 6A300 today and I noticed this issue about a week or so ago while on 5E135. It's possible this started a way more than a week ago, but I don't use them often enough to pinpoint exactly.

Is anyone else experiencing anything like this?

I have the same issue. Noise cancellation stopped working properly overnight and almost every time when I put my left airpod in my ear I hear a sort of static noise for 10 to 20 seconds.

 

[Heiner030]

OK, so 3 weeks ago I noticed my APP 1 ANC was not as good as it used to be. I ran the fit test and could´t manage to pass it once.

I send em to Apple which they replaced both earpieces to brand new (Case still old one). The replaced APP 1 had firmware Vers. 4C165. I paired an used them. And it was AWESOME, the ANC was like 200% better then before and fittest passed.

I remembered that during firmware Updates the APP 1 and even 2nd gen got worse in ANC. So what to do, I read that you can really block firmware updates, so I forced it and got the current 6A300 fw. And what shall I say even with the new 6A300 fw, my ANC is awesome and fittest also.

Long story short, the firmware updates wont harm the ANC its more like the wear and tear which blocks the ANC mesh due to time

 

[Donka]

OK, so 3 weeks ago I noticed my APP 1 ANC was not as good as it used to be. I ran the fit test and could´t manage to pass it once.

I send em to Apple which they replaced both earpieces to brand new (Case still old one). The replaced APP 1 had firmware Vers. 4C165. I paired an used them. And it was AWESOME, the ANC was like 200% better then before and fittest passed.

I remembered that during firmware Updates the APP 1 and even 2nd gen got worse in ANC. So what to do, I read that you can really block firmware updates, so I forced it and got the current 6A300 fw. And what shall I say even with the new 6A300 fw, my ANC is awesome and fittest also.

Long story short, the firmware updates wont harm the ANC its more like the wear and tear which blocks the ANC mesh due to time

Not doubting that there may be other contributing factors. That wouldn't explain why some users experienced a notable drop off in ANC performance literally overnight around the same time as a new update dropped. My APP pass the fit test without issue but the ANC for me is still deprecated. It's not wholesale changes though, certain sounds that would have been better suppressed previously are now much easier to hear whereas other sounds appear to be just as effectively subdued. This points to an ANC profile change imho, but of course the end user has no control over that.