AirPods: Sound quality best with...Apple TV?

[hooptyuber]

I've tried my AirPods Pro 2 with the following: iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad Air (4th gen), 2022 Mac mini, 2015 iMac, 2016 MacBook Pro, and an Apple TV 4K. Of all of those, they seem to sound markedly better with the Apple TV. I can't understand why that would be the case especially since the Apple TV is a few years old. Anyone else have a similar experience?

 

[chabig]

There is no reason for them to have different sound from any of your devices unless you've made equalizer adjustments.

 

[AL2TEACH]

sound markedly better with the Apple TV.

Are you looking at movies/shows with Dolby Atmos, head tracking and spatial audio?
If you are then that's why

 

[hooptyuber]

There is no reason for them to have different sound from any of your devices unless you've made equalizer adjustments.

No. No EQ's applied.

 

[hooptyuber]

Are you looking at movies/shows with Dolby Atmos, head tracking and spatial audio?
If you are then that's why

No, I have all that turned off on all devices. It's just plain stereo.

 

[evertjr]

There was an interview with Craig where he explained the AirPods and Spatial Audio have different tuning depending on the device to make the sound more realistic, on Apple TV the sound signature is supposed to be more home theater like with wider sound stage.

 

[hooptyuber]

There was an interview with Craig where he explained the AirPods and Spatial Audio have different tuning depending on the device to make the sound more realistic, on Apple TV the sound signature is supposed to be more home theater like with wider sound stage.

Interesting. That must be it.

But, who is Craig? Do you happen to have a link to the interview?

 

[evertjr]

Interesting. That must be it.

But, who is Craig? Do you happen to have a link to the interview?

Craig Federighi is the VP of Software Engineering at Apple. Unfortunately I don't remember which interview I heard that, if I eventually find it I'll update this comment.

 

[AL2TEACH]

No, I have all that turned off on all devices. It's just plain stereo.

When you are looking at a movie via Netflix/Prime/Apple TV, you will want to make sure those setting are set to what sounds best to you. For me, the EarPods sound best when looking at movies because of the spatial audio.

 

[Citizen45]

MacBooks don’t enable AAC over Bluetooth (unless you do some tinkering) so that would explain why they don’t sound as good as opposed to the iPhone or the Apple TV.

AAC is the codec you want when using AirPods.

 

[hooptyuber]

MacBooks don’t enable AAC over Bluetooth (unless you do some tinkering) so that would explain why they don’t sound as good as opposed to the iPhone or the Apple TV.

AAC is the codec you want when using AirPods.

Ahh, very interesting. What do Macs use if they're not using AAC? What would I need to do to make them use AAC?

 

[Ralfi]

I've never used mine with the Apple TV 4K (that I can remember), but does it use AirPlay instead of Bluetooth?

If so, AirPlay uses higher bandwidth for audio transmission right?

 

[hooptyuber]

I've never used mine with the Apple TV 4K (that I can remember), but does it use AirPlay instead of Bluetooth?

If so, AirPlay uses higher bandwidth for audio transmission right?

Good point. I don't know. Yes, if it's using Airplay with the Apple TV, that might account for the better sound quality.