I've been using other brand TWS for a while, and went back to AirPods Pro today and noticed the crackling a few minutes ago. If I open my mouth the crackling goes away, but if I close my jaw it comes back, almost like when the pressure in my ear canal increases as I close my jaw so does the crackling.
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If I turn off transparency or ANC modes the crackling goes away.
But with those modes turned on I can just be sitting here not moving and a regularly irregular clicking sound in the left ear, until I open my mouth and it goes away. I don't have to move to hear it, but with my mouth slack jawed I can move my head around and I don't hear it. It only happens when my jaw is mostly closed or closed all the way shut.
EDIT - it's my heart beat? When I close my jaw I can hear my heart beat and the quiet clicks march along with my heart beat for the most part, sometimes inserting an extra click here and there.
EDIT 2 - if I sing or hum to my dog in a low voice I get a metallic rattling in the left earpiece.
1) It’s a known defect
2) Get it replaced
FYI this is most likely grime or dust getting stuck in the ANC microphone(s).
I took my APP to the Apple Store today because they got so bad that anytime I talked with transparency mode on both earpieces would feed my voice back into the earpiece with it sounding like I was a robot, or talking through a Kazoo or had a piece of tinfoil stretched over a comb in front of my mouth (I'm dating myself there). I called Apple and they sent me a link to get an appointment, but I could not make an AirPods Pro appointment via the support app, so I went in.
This was my first trip out of the house to go to a store in ages, armed N95 mask, Clorox wipes, and sanitizer - all that I've had for ages due to my lung disease. I know, stupid to leave the house. I waited 3 hours for my appointment, much of it outside with 95 degree heat and a non-functioning left lung, trying to suck air thru a mask; so I had to go to Best Buy and the grocery store to get out of the heat while trying to avoid getting CoVid-19.
Once I got in I explained everything and mentioned this thread and the other on macrumors.com, and demonstrated that the issue didn't happen with their demo set + my tips; when I got the robot voice hear-thru that triggered my ASMR reflex it made me shiver and yank them out of my ears in front of them.
The "Genius" admitted it sounded like both sides were bad, but tried to tell me that a single bad one could make both act up, and since the left was worse that I should try that first. He gave me a story about how they treat each ear earpiece plus the case as 3 separate pieces, and can only do one exchange at a time. They wanted to replace just the left earpiece. I wasn't having it. With the left earpiece out and the music paused the right one still acted up.
I told them I'm too high risk to do this all over again, that I live on the farthest other end of town, and I'm going out of state next week for my daughter's birthday (she is self isolating too), and that I simply could not return in the next day or two and go through all of this over again and be exposed more just to get the other earpiece replaced (I was happy to keep my battery pack). I kindly asked for the manager.
He went to get her but came back 5 minutes later with a new sealed AirPods and no manager, and he did a "late exchange" for the entire thing, including another 2 years of Apple Care. I had brought in my box, unused charge cable, and unused tips, of which they kept all but the tips that I had actually used, and have me a new sealed package with a new 2 yr apple care warranty.
I thanked them profusely and told everyone to stay safe and went home very happy.
So far they are acting fine, but they're still on firmware 2D15. I know that when I put them in the case and charge the case that it will likely update to 2D27, and hope that wont cause any new issues. But my old ones on 2D27 sounded a little warmer and fuller, more solid. I'm still worried that I didn't have the "clicking" and the "buzzing/rattle" until after 2D27 was applied.
EDIT - The clicking is totally gone with the new set, and so is the rattle. Also, they did update to 2D27 and I do think that the bass increased again, like it did when my first set updated recently (my first set was from Nov 2019). I also think that the ANC got quieter with 2D27.
I actually feel the ANC "suck" again, felt best after dropping from transparency mode to passive noise blocking and then down to ANC. I can tell I have a great seal and passive isolation with the active modes off, and then when I go to ANC mode from there and vacuum sensation is real, like it was when I received my first pair last November.
With 2D27 the sound is much better with the active modes off, where before it was more bland and basic sounding with just passive noise mode and now they seem more powerful and punchy without having to use transparency or ANC mode to get that EQ-like punch.
