AirPods Pro microphone scandal - edit: PROOF

[Maclife80]

Hope the following info would help to understand why wind noise poses a problem for ANC ear buds and it is a challenge to eliminate it.

According to http://en.rode.com/blog/all/ways-to-reduce-wind-noise-when-recording-outside, wind noise is a problem for film making when recording outside (the audio system does not have ANC).
According to this article , the frequency range of the wind noise falls within 20-250Hz and creates a rambling sound in the microphone. There are ways to effectively reduce the wind noise: unidirectional mic and/or surrounding the mic with foam and fur. These items reduce the wind signal more than the voice signal.

The wind noise sometimes generates a large signal which saturate the preamplifier. An analog high pass filter placed at the electronic front end to attenuate signal lower than 250 Hz would greatly help( or low cut equalization).
http://www.michaelgallagher.co.uk/how-to/how-to-reduce-wind-noise-in-field-recordings. The author also found that noise reduction program did not help.

Note that the ideal frequency range for music is 10-20,000Hz. Thus attenuating or cutting off signal below 250Hz will make music sounds bad, but may be OK for voice over telephone which is 300-3,400Hz. I suspect that most ANC earbuds have a low end cutoff frequency way lower than 250Hz, otherwise music will not sound good. This unfortunately would allow a lot of wind noise frequencies to get through.

Also note that when listening to music, the music is sent from the phone to the earbuds at Bluetooth frequency. Thus the desired music and noise are physically separated. This allows the noise to be more effectively cancelled by creating a negative signal of the noise and then mix the positive and negative noise signals together. In the wind noise case, however, the voice and wind noise are physically mixed together and are not separated.

If the Airpods Pro design has the similar problems mentioned above, then replacing the AirPods will not make the wind noise problem go away.

It is not a wind noise problem. It is picking up EVERY background noise available. Wether car, birds, wind, cooking noise, water running everything and amplifies it x 100. literally not usable as a mic. Only if u in lockdown with no background noise

 

[dai-leung]

When earbuds with active noise cancellation are used in a windy outdoor conversation, some users reported that the listener could not hear what the caller said as the wind noise corrupted the caller’s voice, either the ANC did not sufficient cancel out the wind noise or both the wind noise and caller’s voice were cancelled together(see posts above). Since the users could not change the earbuds design, the only way left is to try to block the wind noise. Below is a method that used by some external microphones to reduce the wind noise. Hopefully, the materials they used will let voice and bluethooth wireless signal through but will attenuate the wind noise.

Foam and fur have been used on external microphones on camcorder and video equipment when used outdoor to reduce wind noise. Fur is much more effective than foam as the individual fiber absorbs wind noise , a lot of fibers absorbs a lot of wind noise noise. One example is given by the following video: youtu.be/OZrXjkiGhl8
(Fiber dust cleaner could also be used: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqo0GIry3ec)

This method had been applied to a pair of earpods with a wired microphone: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvYgBZx2dpY

For the AirPods Pro, a foam or fur jacket is hard to implement, but perhaps a pair of foam or faux fur ear caps covering the ears and the APPs could reduce the wind noise substantially to allow the listener on the call to hear the voice of the talker. Obviously, the foam or fur could not be too thick which could attenuate the voice as well. Perhaps something like this is a good start to experiment with:
www.walmart.com/ip/Bandless-Ear-Warmers-Earmuffs-Winter-Faux-Fur-Ear-Muffs-Covers-with-Fleece-Lining-for-Men-Women-Child-3-Sizes/535179325?selected=true , or
https://sprigs.com/product/original-camel-earbags/?attribute_pa_size=large&utm_source=Google Shopping&utm_campaign=2020 Google Product Feed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=21356&gclid=Cj0KCQjwp86EBhD7ARIsAFkgakgLuEUsBjHNCZg0wIUnIVkCN5h5GhQNxg_iHRDH43mS6oMPWQIagGAaAiZoEALw_wcB.

Bikers also found cat-ear placed in front of the ears could substantially reduce wind noise:www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/1107421-wind-noise.html
The wind noise with and without are given on www.wind-blox.com/ and www.cat-ears.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7diEBhB-EiwAskVi14yQzruAOIlv-cHsTScC91w929K_FFA-GnMSs_UMYgq_77H7CQGmbRoC_igQAvD_BwE

To see how high pass filtering could reduce the wind noise, below is an illustrative video: youtu.be/n4FHoi1cs_s
But this method will degrade the quality of music transmitted through Bluetooth from the phone to the earbuds.

 

[Phwoar]

When earbuds with active noise cancellation are used in a windy outdoor conversation, some users reported that the listener could not hear what the caller said as the wind noise corrupted the caller’s voice, either the ANC did not sufficient cancel out the wind noise or both the wind noise and caller’s voice were cancelled together(see posts above). Since the users could not change the earbuds design, the only way left is to try to block the wind noise. Below is a method that used by some external microphones to reduce the wind noise. Hopefully, the materials they used will let voice and bluethooth wireless signal through but will attenuate the wind noise.

Foam and fur have been used on external microphones on camcorder and video equipment when used outdoor to reduce wind noise. Fur is much more effective than foam as the individual fiber absorbs wind noise , a lot of fibers absorbs a lot of wind noise noise. One example is given by the following video: youtu.be/OZrXjkiGhl8
(Fiber dust cleaner could also be used: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqo0GIry3ec)

This method had been applied to a pair of earpods with a wired microphone: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvYgBZx2dpY

For the AirPods Pro, a foam or fur jacket is hard to implement, but perhaps a pair of foam or faux fur ear caps covering the ears and the APPs could reduce the wind noise substantially to allow the listener on the call to hear the voice of the talker. Obviously, the foam or fur could not be too thick which could attenuate the voice as well. Perhaps something like this is a good start to experiment with:
www.walmart.com/ip/Bandless-Ear-Warmers-Earmuffs-Winter-Faux-Fur-Ear-Muffs-Covers-with-Fleece-Lining-for-Men-Women-Child-3-Sizes/535179325?selected=true , or
https://sprigs.com/product/original-camel-earbags/?attribute_pa_size=large&utm_source=Google Shopping&utm_campaign=2020 Google Product Feed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=21356&gclid=Cj0KCQjwp86EBhD7ARIsAFkgakgLuEUsBjHNCZg0wIUnIVkCN5h5GhQNxg_iHRDH43mS6oMPWQIagGAaAiZoEALw_wcB.

Bikers also found cat-ear placed in front of the ears could substantially reduce wind noise:www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/1107421-wind-noise.html
The wind noise with and without are given on www.wind-blox.com/ and www.cat-ears.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7diEBhB-EiwAskVi14yQzruAOIlv-cHsTScC91w929K_FFA-GnMSs_UMYgq_77H7CQGmbRoC_igQAvD_BwE

To see how high pass filtering could reduce the wind noise, below is an illustrative video: youtu.be/n4FHoi1cs_s
But this method will degrade the quality of music transmitted through Bluetooth from the phone to the earbuds.

Thanks @dai-leung for such a thoughtful and kind post, very interesting.

However, the microphone problem persists even with ANC turned off.

 

[dai-leung]

Hello @Phwoar,

Thank you for spending so much time to create this thread so that AirPods Pro users know that their APP may not work well or not work at all when use in outdoor windy environment as given by all the posts above.

I am not surprised that “the microphone problem persists even with ANC turned off”. Someone calls me often using AirPods which does not have ANC. When it was windy, I could only hear large cracking noise, but not his voice. AirPods Pro with ANC turned off works just like the airpods.

It seems that one way to resolve this wind noise issue is to block or reduce the wind noise before it reaches the AirPods Pro. If one searches YouTube or Google, he would find the faux fur or cat ears method of blocking wind noise that got into an external mic has been well documented. Many users had shown that the faux fur blocks(reduces) the wind noise but let the voice through and I am somewhat certain that it would also let the Bluetooth 2.4GHz signal through.

While having a piece of faux fur covering the AirPods Pro may not be desirable, but if a user has to talk outdoor and windy, his option is limited.

 

[robfoll]

On a call, today and the person I was calling complained about massive background noise, had this a few times recently. Unless I am in a very quiet environment, background noise drowns out my voice. So this is a very real and annoying problem.

 

[Phwoar]

On a call, today and the person I was calling complained about massive background noise, had this a few times recently. Unless I am in a very quiet environment, background noise drowns out my voice. So this is a very real and annoying problem.

If you pardon the pun: I hear you @robfoll !!! It truly is the most annoying thing!!

Apple have likely effectively “bricked” their device so it’s just headphones, no stable functioning microphone - AirPods Pro microphones do not appear to work with any background noise no matter how slight, a running tap, a passing car and so on (see YouTube video above rather than attempt to argue with us that there isn’t a problem).

And due to their design and UX, these devices then ergonomically block a user from switching to another microphone source without considerable “unprofessional” hassle (see ergonomic professional user double bind described below).

It is hugely disappointing, but in a very personal way. It automatically makes any professional user risk sounding unprofessional and disorganised. It’s also dangerous. This is not “pro” at all.

This unprofessional device makes its user also unprofessional.

This sounds weird to write it down so hopefully I articulate this properly:

• When the RECEIVER of a professional call from an AirPods Pro USER (owner) gets irritated enough with the loud overwhelming background sounds, the USER (owner) of the AirPods Pro gets caught in a social bind having to rapidly remove the AirPods Pro as fast as possible to stop the receiver hearing these loud offputting background sounds. It reflects poorly on the user (owner) of AirPods Pro: “Thanks for calling, sorry I’m going to have to make you wait 30 seconds while I pull off the road and switch my headphones around so you can hear me over the car road noise, sorry…can you hear me? I’m so sorry no I can’t turn it down from this side sorry just bear with me”.
• In this regard it is dangerous. The nature of AirPods Pro is that it is “hands free”, so you put your phone away as a distraction driving/ riding/ walking on busy streets, while having the devices in your ears. But users are having to suddenly change the devices out because the recipient is overwhelmed by noise and can’t hear the user’s voice against greatly amplified minor background noise such as road noise (or else, you lose the client call or have to call them back, looking even more unprofessional!). Client thinks: what you can’t get professional gear that works? Are you unable to have a work phone that works, given what we as a client pay you?)
• You also can’t hold the phone to your head and slip the AirPods Pro away with one hand while taking your AirPods Pro out of your ears and put them into their case, because this is necessarily a two handed job. You cannot hold your phone to take a professional call AND put your AirPods Pro away at the same time.
• This means ergonomically the user (owner) of the AirPods Pro is in a double bind - to change the microphone while also trying to pull the AirPods Pro out of the ears so you can use your ears with the iPhone speaker and microphone (or plug in a wired pair of headphones - you’re still in the bind).
• Is speakerphone mode on iPhone the best option while you wrestle your AirPods Pro back into their case? No, because you still have to hold your iPhone in front of your face with one hand, leaving you with one hand.

Consider a courier cyclist in New York City, with their AirPods Pro in their ears and phone in their lap satchel. They can’t be safe fiddling around trying to switch over AirPods Pro - we have to imagine they likely couldn’t use this product.

Neither can any professional on the road hope to confidently take calls handsfree on AirPods Pro while driving a vehicle with road noise going on in the background, as they must also safely drive the vehicle without distraction. To switch the device away, you would have to pull over to take the call with no external noise, or pull over to swap the microphone for the iPhone speaker or another pair of headphones.

AirPods “Pro”, for people who like to risk exposing their clients to unprofessional annoying choppy phone calls.

A “premium” priced product that possibly hundreds of thousands of consumers have been let down by due to this likely fixable microphone issue.

Two final AirPods Pro major likely malfunctions that I haven’t yet mentioned, please try this out and report back:

1. Try on a MacBook connecting your AirPods Pro then conducting a FaceTime video call with someone. Guess what: your AirPods Pro will not play the incoming audio through the AirPods Pro, but instead port it through your MacBook speakers. BUT the AirPods Pro microphones WILL carry your voice to the other person on the FaceTime call. So only one out of the two AirPod Pro functions (the microphone) appears to be enabled by Apple to work at any one time.
2. NOW: Try connecting your AirPods Pro to your iPhone, now record an ordinary video on your iPhone while leaving your iPhone in place and walking backwards away from your iPhone speaking the whole time. Guess what: the AirPods Pro microphone isn’t activated, the iPhone will only “listen” through the iPhone microphones while it records the video. In this scenario, Apple has only enabled one out of two AirPod Pro functions (the headphones), leaving the microphone disabled.
3. Glad to be proved wrong, try it out!!

And the reason for this? Ask yourselves why they would use EITHER the microphone inputs OR headphone outputs in the above use-cases, but never at the same time?

THE LIKELY ANSWER:
Apple have appeared to sell a device that cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. But Apple appear to claim it can do both at the same time!!

In other words, the device doesn’t appear (on user evidence) to be able to retain stable complex audio INPUT via the microphones in the device, while at the same time carrying stable OUTPUT noise through its headphones.

The hypothesis from all of this thread and user feedback is:
AirPods Pro cannot seem to handle complex sound IN (microphones) and stable sound OUT (headphones) at the same time.

If this hypothesis is true, then:

• It could be likely Apple chose to disable AirPods Pro microphone data being written onto iPhone video recordings, because the likely unstable choppy quality might not be what users would expect compared to the microphone quality via the iPhone or wired Apple EarPods.
• It could also be likely that Apple chose to not have AirPods Pro transmit audio to the headphones during a MacBook FaceTime call, because in order to obtain full microphone audio quality from the AirPods Pro, the headphones may need to be switched off.

Something appears to be very wrong here.

This doesn’t appear to be what is being advertised to consumers.

 

[helloapple1]

^ This is why I'm holding off for AirPods Pro version 2, hopefully coming out this year and hopefully fixing this issue.

 

[dai-leung]

My pair of AirPods Pro has no problem in making calls in windy outdoor environment, the listener on the receiving end has no problem in hearing what I said. According to ACCU weather, the wind gust was about 27mph. But I have no way to measure the actual wind gust velocity. All I knew was the wind was so strong that I felt was strong pushing against my body while walking into it.

I just bought a pair of APP from Costco($200), model A2084, version 3E751. Together with an iPhone, it was used in the following experiments to ascertain the corruption of the caller’s voice when calls was made in windy outdoor situation.

Before the experiments, I made sure that the APP’s seal was perfect by performing the best fit test. I also have a pair of winter ear muffler, which I used to put over the ears to cover the APP, trying to block out the wind noise. I found that voice and Bluetooth signal could go through it without any problem. With and without the muffler was one of the test conditions. To make sure that the iphone was communicating with the APP thru Bluetooth, the iPhone was placed in my pocket or placed at a distance away from me while making the call was also one of the test conditions.

During each test in windy outdoor situation, I used my iPhone to call another number and left an voice mail until the voice mail was full and asked me if I would like to listen to the voice mail before it was sent, I then selected “yes”. This allowed me to listen to the voice mail and examine its quality. The voice mail represented what the listener of the other phone would have heard.

So using the APP and Iphone, I made calls in the wind and in outdoor, with either ANC on, off, or on transparent mode. In each case, I made calls with or without the winter mufflers, with the phone in my pocket or located at a distance, walking into the wind or the opposite direction.

I found that the recorded voice messages were clearly intelligible. With the muffler, the quality was better but not by much, likewise ANC on was a bit better than with ANC off. The transparent mode has the poorest quality but the voice was still intelligible.

I am not sure how the APP would perform when the wind gust is stronger than 27 mph.

I could not explain why there are so many other users are having big problems why making calls in outdoor windy environment. Perhaps, 27mph gust is not strong enough.

 

[Phwoar]

My pair of AirPods Pro has no problem in making calls in windy outdoor environment, the listener on the receiving end has no problem in hearing what I said. According to ACCU weather, the wind gust was about 27mph. But I have no way to measure the actual wind gust velocity. All I knew was the wind was so strong that I felt was strong pushing against my body while walking into it.

I just bought a pair of APP from Costco($200), model A2084, version 3E751. Together with an iPhone, it was used in the following experiments to ascertain the corruption of the caller’s voice when calls was made in windy outdoor situation.

Before the experiments, I made sure that the APP’s seal was perfect by performing the best fit test. I also have a pair of winter ear muffler, which I used to put over the ears to cover the APP, trying to block out the wind noise. I found that voice and Bluetooth signal could go through it without any problem. With and without the muffler was one of the test conditions. To make sure that the iphone was communicating with the APP thru Bluetooth, the iPhone was placed in my pocket or placed at a distance away from me while making the call was also one of the test conditions.

During each test in windy outdoor situation, I used my iPhone to call another number and left an voice mail until the voice mail was full and asked me if I would like to listen to the voice mail before it was sent, I then selected “yes”. This allowed me to listen to the voice mail and examine its quality. The voice mail represented what the listener of the other phone would have heard.

So using the APP and Iphone, I made calls in the wind and in outdoor, with either ANC on, off, or on transparent mode. In each case, I made calls with or without the winter mufflers, with the phone in my pocket or located at a distance, walking into the wind or the opposite direction.

I found that the recorded voice messages were clearly intelligible. With the muffler, the quality was better but not by much, likewise ANC on was a bit better than with ANC off. The transparent mode has the poorest quality but the voice was still intelligible.

I am not sure how the APP would perform when the wind gust is stronger than 27 mph.

I could not explain why there are so many other users are having big problems why making calls in outdoor windy environment. Perhaps, 27mph gust is not strong enough.

Very good – really pleased to see that you are testing it out and seeing if you get the problem as well.

It’s a strange problem that so many people are having, I’m glad that you are getting good results from your pair, hold onto them!!

I also liked your idea of adding the ear mufflers, that could certainly be one option to at least try to shield the microphones from loud noises.

Have you tried using Voice Memos on your phone to record while you run water in the background, and stack cups on the metal of your kitchen sink? Do you find that loud noises (not just wind) reduces the gain on the microphones?

Thank again for contributing to the thread in a meaningful way, it is really refreshing that people are giving feedback and testing things out.

There are just so many people with this problem, it is crazy. I just checked out the Apple Support Forum topic (in my OP), it’s up to 6160 users with the problem.

I’ll paste a really cogent example of their user feedback from recent days here, it really resonates with the entire 400 posts of the Apple Support Forum.

4 May 2021
I love my AirPods. I recommended them to a friend, praising them. She bought them and instantly I felt something was wrong. She was muffled and all “warbly”. I told her I can barely understand her. So she returned them for being faulty. The next pair was the exact same. So I asked how I sounded. I went from AirPods to phone back and forth and she said it was like night and day in clarity. I sounded like that the whole time as well! I did always get a complaint from people that the background noise was way too loud but I ignored that, but it’s actually true. These pros are all defective. The background noise is super high and you sound muffled to the other person. I am stunned that Apple would release such a defective product especially one where the defect is the actual main purpose of it. Like great new boat, it just takes on water lol. I can’t believe they haven’t addressed this. Not to sound like a cliche but I am actually very disappointed.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250813242?page=29

My best guess is that there is this defect (likely firmware based) in the microphone gain of every single AirPods Pro ever made. I would say that Apple is likely relying on its previously successful global marketing campaigns that were linked with (then) quality products, to “jump the hiccups” in newer products. It is an extremely loyal consumer base, as many of Apple‘s devices are truly good. It is therefore surprising to Apple consumers when one of the products does not perform as expected.

AirPods Pro are clearly failing to meet the high quality standard Apple consumers have come to expect after years of high performance at prices that match this high performance.

Maybe they should think of a new name instead of “pro”?

How about:

“Apple AirPods Trainee”

“Apple AirPods Amateur”

“Apple AirPods iBudget”

Of course tongue in cheek, but it illustrates how grating it is for us all to think about the fact that we all expect this company to produce high-quality products at the premium price points Apple has set. It is unfortunate that they have called this product “Pro” and its microphones work worse than the ordinary AirPods!!

 

[dai-leung]

Have you tried using Voice Memos on your phone to record while you run water in the background, and stack cups on the metal of your kitchen sink? Do you find that loud noises (not just wind) reduces the gain on the microphones?

I just did the water faucet test. I used two iPhones and one of the phone was connected to the AirPod pro with the ANC on, while the other phone used the iPhone internal mic. I turned on both phones’ voice memo and said something, then turned on the water faucet and put the APP very closed to the water stream and said the same thing. I listened to the recordings in each of the phone. For the recording recorded thru APP, I could clearly hear the water stream when it was first turned on, but then so,ost immediately the water noise was much reduced by the ANC and also the voice was very intelligeable, although some click sound was produced by the water stream and was not cancelled. If the gain for the voice was reduced, it must be very slight as I hardly noticed it. I also used the APP recording as a source and re-recorded to a new voice memo so that I could check the voice time pattern. But the pattern is complex and hard to interpret.

I don’t’ understand what is stack cups on the metal of kitchen sink, so could not do the experiment.

As far as the APP’s microphone is concerned, it is hard to tell what is noise and what is signal except when the signal is delivered thru Bluetooth. I am surprised that so far it could distinguish wind noise, noise from running water stream and able to deliver intelligible voice under such conditions I found it also able to cancelled very effectively lawn mower noise out side of the house.

Indeed, I used the APP to listen to music and did the running water test again, the ANC seemed to be slightly more effective and the gain level of the music did not change at all. This agrees with my understanding of how the ANC works. However, I won’t buy the APP just for listening to music as the music does not sound as good as one of my wired earbuds.

 

[dai-leung]

My pair of Apple airpods pro (A2084, 3E751) seems to have no problem for calls in windy outdoor situation. To compare performance, it is best to check model number, firmware version and to make sure the seals of both buds are perfect.

I suspect for the earlier model A2083, the microphone signal created by the turbulence of the wind noise is so large that it saturates the front end amplifier. I said this based on the fact that a biker has been calling me almost everyday using an airpods without ANC, when it was windy, the cracking wind noise would become very loud and his voice would become very weak and intermittent to a point that I could not hear what he said. When that happened, it was awful and my ears hurt.

It makes sense that from circuit design standpoint the circuit design of the airpods was used as the starting point for the design of the APP. Thus, in windy situation, the APP would behave the same way as the airpods because the frontend of the two circuits are almost the same. . But for the later model A2084, due to many complaints, the front end of the APP was redesigned and improved.

This is just a guess to explain why some users are having wind noise problem while others do not.

 

[Phwoar]

Thanks @dai-leung this is really appreciated - it does sound like you have a pair of AirPods Pro that don’t have this issue.

As you say, it could be your higher model number.

Your posts have convinced me that it may be worth it to exchange my AirPods Pro for the 5th time.

I will try to make time for a Benius Gar appointment, line up, and take the plunge.

I predict perhaps no change at all so I don’t get my hopes up - but it sounds like you may have a model number that is working.

I really hope that Apple have started manufacturing models of APP that don’t have this problem!!?

It could mean that we could exchange our way out of this mess!

Thank you again for putting so much effort in, and engaging with the topic!! Have a great evening!

 

[dai-leung]

@Phwoar, before you go to the Apple store, I hope that someone who has an APP with model number A2084 and firmware 3E751 could make outdoor calls when it is windy to make sure that the APP does work under such condition.
By the way, any idea what is the model # of ur APP?

 

[Phwoar]

@Phwoar, before you go to the Apple store, I hope that someone who has an APP with model number A2084 and firmware 3E751 could make outdoor calls when it is windy to make sure that the APP does work under such condition.
By the way, any idea what is the model # of ur APP?

Haha?maybe I am missing something, didn’t you say in your post above that your brand new pair of APP you just bought is A2084 and 3E751? I think everyone has these numbers (at least in the last 18 months?).

In any case, you have tested your new ones very thoroughly in the wind and succeeded, so I’m thinking maybe there is a small manufacturing change - it’s probably a good idea for me to try to swap to a 5th pair.

Worst case scenario we waste some materials and energy (eeek) and a little bit of my time. Plus, the Benius Gar is always interesting.

Anyone else swapped their AirPods Pro in the last 2 months?

 

[dai-leung]

Apple is an incredibly customer oriented company to allow you to swap 5 pairs of APP! Is it thru AppleCare?

Do u live in an windy area? If yes, u may want to repeat the tests that I had done (by calling another phone till the voice mail is full then press 2 to listen to the recorded voice mails.). This will make sure that I didn’t make any mistake.

If not, I hope some other readers could repeat what I did.

Although it was not a real life test, today I used two fans blowing at me to run some tests. One of the fan was oscillating. I put on CNN on an iPad to simulate voice mixing with wind noise getting into the APP. I then selected either ANC or transparent mode. With the iPad Bluetooth off, I found that CNN was intelligible and ANC definitely attenuated the wind noise though not as effective as the lawn mower noise. With the iPad Bluetooth on, sound from CNN was very clear. I also found that the winter muffler helped to attenuate the wind noise but let the voice and Bluetooth through as reported in my previous post.

 

[Phwoar]

Apple is an incredibly customer oriented company to allow you to swap 5 pairs of APP! Is it thru AppleCare?

Not through AppleCare no, swaps are done through Apple’s own Service Program acknowledging the ongoing global malfunctioning of the AirPods Pro product.

It’s called “AirPods Pro Service Program for Sound Issues”:
https://support.apple.com/airpods-pro-service-program-sound-issues

Apple don’t fix the problems with the AirPods Pro design, instead they simply allow consumers to swap the AirPods Pro as many times as they like until the customer gives up.

This is likely because it’s easier for the company to throw away existing faulty stock, than redesign and re-release the same product. Apple seems to have tried that once with recessed mesh in the AirPods Pro, but problems have continued to be reported by users.

Apple are instead likely to be putting all their AirPods Pro design energy into a new version (like “AirPods ProPro”) that doesn’t malfunction, as they can then charge consumers a second time. Makes sense for a corporation to do this at the expense of consumers!

In any event, what you and I have to watch out for @dai-leung is some people on these boards who will say anything to protect the Apple brand. These people can make it seem like it’s the consumer at fault, against all the overwhelming evidence otherwise. You haven’t done this, instead you have sensibly done a huge amount of experimenting, with ear mufflers, spoken word, running taps, and we have confirmed your brand new pair of AirPods Pro are working perfectly well and do not chop up the call when fast winds and external noises intervene on the person speaking. This is really good news.

@dai-leung’s kind experiments suggest there is a small chance (we hope) that Apple have now fixed the issue, so it may be worth exchanging our AirPods Pro again under the Service Program, to see if the design has been tweaked as dai-leung has suggested.

I will definitely give this a try, as soon as I can get an appointment with the Benius Gar.

Has anyone else swapped their AirPods Pro in the last two months and had success?

Sadly many consumers are still buying the AirPods Pro brand-new off the shelf in recent weeks and reporting back to Apple with examples of the following bad news:

12 May 2021
“Both brand new pairs of Airpod Pros have been impossible to be on the phone outdoors. I've gone through the 3 different sound settings which do not make a difference. I've unpaired, repaired, trialled with different iPhones, no result. My boss uses his for calls when he goes out for a walk and nobody can hear him either!”
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250813242?page=29

 

[dai-leung]

Not through AppleCare no, swaps are done through Apple’s own Service Program acknowledging the ongoing global malfunctioning of the AirPods Pro product.

It’s called “AirPods Pro Service Program for Sound Issues”:
https://support.apple.com/airpods-pro-service-program-sound-issues

Apple don’t fix the problems with the AirPods Pro design,

@Phwoar, thanks for sharing with us the useful APP swap information. Perhaps, I may need to use it in the future.

For those APP owners who are concerned about voice quality when the call is made when it is windy, I suggest do the following simple test when it is windy to convince yourself the APP can work property under severe windy condition. It should take less than 10 min. The steps are given below.

1. turn on iPhone’s Bluetooth, APP’s ANC and perform the “ear fit tip test”, also open the voice memo——this step sets the APP’s Bluetooth transmitter output as the input to the voice memo. This also disable the iPhone’s microphone input to the voice memo;
2. With APP in ears, count from one to any number or just read a paragraph (under the most severe windy condition same as when the future phone calls would be made );

—— —
At this point, the voice from mouth plus wind noise enter the APP’s microphone and are immediately being digitally processed (including performing active noise cancellation). The processed resultant signal will then be sent to the APP’s Bluetooth transmitter. The iPhone receives the Bluetooth transmitter signal, decodes it and send it to the voice memo’s recording input.

In a normal phone call, the decoded signal would have been sent to the iPhone’s wireless transmitter to be transmitted to the receiving iPhone. Thus the voice quality recorded in the voice memo would be the same as the voice quality of the receiving iPhone.
———

3) when finish talking, stop the voice memo recording then listen to the recording and examine the voice quality.


I have refined my fan experiments by arranging two oscillating fans, such that sometimes the wind directions are aligned and at other times the wind directions are not aligned. This simulates the randomness of the wind. I then carried out The above steps under different conditions.

I found that:

1. when the wind directions were aligned and when the wind was the strongest, the level of the voice was lowered that is the voice level was modulated by the strength of the wind. This is similar to what @Phwoar mentioned when the APP is near running water, the level of the voice is lowered. (or for some APPs ceased to work.)
2. When I put on the winter mufflers, the modulation disappeared and the voice was clearer and steady;
3. Comparing the voice quality between transparent mode vs ANC, ANC was better.

For me, the winter muffler does resolve the wind noise problem. If your APP does not work well when it is windy, try put on a winter muffler and see if the problem goes away.

The winter muffler that I used is given in the next post.

 

[dai-leung]

The winter muffler that I used in my wind noise experiments is attached. It covers both ears and the APP, but it does not form a tight seal with the ears. It seems to have two layers of fleece. It blocks (or part of) the wind, but importantly allows voice and Bluetooth to go through; any mufflers that has these three properties would work.

This pair of ear mufflers that are in two separate pieces and made of faux fur may be easier to carry and more effective than mine:www.walmart.com/ip/Bandless-Ear-Warmers-Earmuffs-Winter-Faux-Fur-Ear-Muffs-Covers-with-Fleece-Lining-for-Men-Women-Child-3-Sizes/535179325?selected=true
However, a thin pair of ear covers may be sufficient to block out the wind noise.

 

[dai-leung]

Some users of APP said production date was important and Oct 2020 seemed to be a key date (Before is bad but after is good?).

I took a call today, outdoor slight breeze, and kept asking the caller if he could hear me loud and clear and he kept saying yes.

I called Apple and was told the production date was Dec 5th, 2020, location Monroe(not sure where).

I also put in APP serial # onto https://sndeep.info/en (be careful , your serial # could be stolen by someone on this website) and got:

• General information​

• Factory: H6Q
• Year: 2020
• Week: 49 (30.11 - 06.12)
• Age: 5 months

 

[Phuz01]

I went to the support site for people with sound issues. After a chat confirmed that I had already walked through all the troubleshooting steps, the rep scheduled a Genius Bar appointment. At the appointment, technicians tested the microphones on both the right and left earbuds, and both failed the test. So Apple swapped out both buds. Not only was the ANC better on both, but I walked along a heavily trafficked street and placed a phone call, and even though there was still background noise, it stayed in the background, and the party with whom I was speaking could hear me the entire time.

TL/DR: There IS faulty AirPod Pro hardware, and if you're experiencing microphone issues, you should definitely schedule to have Apple replace yours.

 

[dai-leung]

It is hard to explain why the previous 4 pairs all had failed.glad that u got a good pair and had ur problem finally resolved!

 

[Phuz01]

It is hard to explain why the previous 4 pairs all had failed.glad that u got a good pair and had ur problem finally resolved!

I think you're confusing me with the original poster. I've only swapped out my AirPods Pros this once. But it is a relief to have a pair of wireless earbuds that can be used for making phone calls outdoors.

 

[dai-leung]

Apologize, indeed , I was confused. Is there any chance u could check the production date? This may shed light on the issue of having bad APP hardware.

 

[FHoff]

Mine were manufactured in July of 2020 no issues.

 

[dai-leung]

.……I walked along a heavily trafficked street and placed a phone call, and even though there was still background noise, it stayed in the background, and the party with whom I was speaking could hear me the entire time.

TL/DR: There IS faulty AirPod Pro hardware, and if you're experiencing microphone issues, you should definitely schedule to have Apple replace yours.

Mine were manufactured in July of 2020 no issues.

Now we know that some APPs do not have problem making calls outdoor (including in windy situation?) . I suggest after swapping, check production date and also immediately walk outdoor and make a call in noisy environment to see if problem goes away.