AirPods Sounds Shuttered and Jittering on Old MacBook Pro

[waigx]

Hi guys, I just received my AirPods today. These little things are really impressive. For me, it resolved the biggest issue of all bluetooth headsets: switching between devices. It is super convenience.

However, the sound is shuttered and jittering on my MacBook Pro (Classic, Mid 2012, bluetooth 4.0LE). Especially when playing high bitrate audio file. It works perfectly on my iPhone 7, iPad Air 2 (had occasionally disconnections though).

I think it is related to the old hardware, not the AirPods itself... Does anyone have the same issue?

Edit: I just realized that I also paired with a external Magic Trackpad, I unpaired it -- no jitter anymore.

 

[Analog Kid]

Yeah, on occasion. Usually right after connecting or starting an audio stream, and then it seems to sort itself out. I also don't have a problem with my iOS devices, only my Macs. One is a 2013 MBP, the other a MP sitting under my desk.

At first I thought it was a signal strength issue but now I'm leaning toward a driver issue. I got them in a state listening to YouTube where they'd blip and blurp for a few seconds and then go silent, but when I disconnected them they'd suddenly stream a few seconds of buffered audio. Can't reproduce that though...

I'm hoping this gets improved in a software update at some point.

 

[waigx]

Yeah, on occasion. Usually right after connecting or starting an audio stream, and then it seems to sort itself out. I also don't have a problem with my iOS devices, only my Macs. One is a 2013 MBP, the other a MP sitting under my desk.

At first I thought it was a signal strength issue but now I'm leaning toward a driver issue. I got them in a state listening to YouTube where they'd blip and blurp for a few seconds and then go silent, but when I disconnected them they'd suddenly stream a few seconds of buffered audio. Can't reproduce that though...

I'm hoping this gets improved in a software update at some point.

Thanks for reply, I realized that I also connected to the Magic Trackpad and a USB 3.0 hub. I remember that the frequency of USB 3.0 data transfer will interfere with Bluetooth transmission. I just unpaired my Magic Trackpad, unplugged all USB 3.0 devices, then reconnected all.

The AirPods worked fine on my cMBP since that -- no jitters no shuttered sound. I will still keep an eye on it though.

 

[Analog Kid]

Thanks for reply, I realized that I also connected to the Magic Trackpad and a USB 3.0 hub. I remember that the frequency of USB 3.0 data transfer will interfere with Bluetooth transmission. I just unpaired my Magic Trackpad, unplugged all USB 3.0 devices, then reconnected all.

The AirPods worked fine on my cMBP since that -- no jitters no shuttered sound. I will still keep an eye on it though.

Interesting!

That's not the source of my problem (it happens with the MBP, no BT peripherals or USB connections). It does seem sensitive to WiFi transfers, for some reason, but it would be pretty disappointing if it was self-jamming. I still think it's a timing issue in the driver. We'll see if it goes away with an update.