Hi guys, I remember when I first put in the AirPods Pro it was awesome! It was Christmas 2019 with my family and everything was so quiet. A few days later I bought my own APP. They got replaced last year because of not charging anymore. I got the new batch with the recessed „grill“ but idk currently not happy with the Noise Cancelling! Some kind of noise I can hear clearly through my APP and sometimes there is nearly no difference between transparency and Nc. Anyone else with this issue?
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ANC worse over time? AirPods Pro
- Thread starter xxBlack
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Clean the vents/grills out with blue tack. They might be clogged with wax/sweat. I had the same issue and the NC works great now.
Not sure about the AirPod implementation specifically but many ANC allow some voice frequencies through in case of emergency announcements
Hummmm…same here. I bought my first pro pair in 2019 and awed how much it could cancel the noise everywhere in cities, in planes, etc.… Just last week, I finally went to an apple store and exchanged the pair with a new pair through the repair program. I tried a couple times outside and ANC is so much weaker. I could still hear moms talking to kids in a bus, hear cars passing by…. My guesstimate is the new pair has only about 20-50% of ANC power of the old one. tomorrow, if I can make my appointment time, I would go to an apple store and talk to them. I will post if I can share any news.
Wow I can't believe I stumbled across this post... Just the other day I turned on ANC for the first time in months on my AirPods Pro (because I usually listen to music on my AirPods Max and I need to usually hear my surroundings when using the APP).
I was completely dismayed by how much weaker the ANC was. I chalked it up to having only been using it recently on my AirPods Max. Maybe that is still true, I don't know (I mean, it does cover your whole ear), but I could've sworn the ANC on the APP was better.
It is good to see that others have this issue too (not that you have the issue, but you know what I mean). Makes me wonder if a recent firmware update has caused this issue. Unfortunately, I didn't use the ANC on the APP recently on iOS 14, so I don't know if the jump to 15 did it.
Looking forward to hearing more about this.
Oh, and my APP are very clean--I know some people above said it might be dirtiness, but, at least for me, it is not.
I was completely dismayed by how much weaker the ANC was. I chalked it up to having only been using it recently on my AirPods Max. Maybe that is still true, I don't know (I mean, it does cover your whole ear), but I could've sworn the ANC on the APP was better.
It is good to see that others have this issue too (not that you have the issue, but you know what I mean). Makes me wonder if a recent firmware update has caused this issue. Unfortunately, I didn't use the ANC on the APP recently on iOS 14, so I don't know if the jump to 15 did it.
Looking forward to hearing more about this.
Oh, and my APP are very clean--I know some people above said it might be dirtiness, but, at least for me, it is not.
I recently started to suffer from this issue as well, I contacted Apple and they mailed me a box to send it in for a free repair, ANC is working as should now. Hopefully, I don't have to send them in again lol.. The first repair was the crackling sound issue.
Today, I could not make it to an Apple store, but somewhere in this macrumour site, i read OS8 creates this ANC issue and they are working on 8.1 to fix it. Because I am in Tokyo, even if I go to a store, the customer rep probably can do nothing about it because it is usually slower compared to US reps and sometimes these geniuses have different levels of knowledge, and especially after 8.1 update news(rumour) that is out already. Let’s hope the update to come to us soon. I am surprised though that not too many people are complaining…but living in a big city, ANC is so importatnt!!!
You may think they are but the dirt is in the vents and too small to see. Do a fit test where it plays the music into your ears and see if one of them doesn't have a proper seal anymore. If not use the blue tack trick (google it there's loads about it) and it will fix it. I was sceptical too but it does work.
Just sharing my update…I paid a visit to the apple store today. They did exchange the pair for me without much debate. Not sure if they were told to take care of customers this way who have ANC issues. I was surprised how quick that was and excited to try the new pair. ANC still doe not work. It’s a bit frustrating - ANC is so weak, now you hear people’s footsteps, page turning sounds of anyone who is reading a book, etc… I am very disappointed (normally, I would go crazy if I weren’t working at home but regularly going to the office), but this is what it is. I am waiting for Apple to make an update in OS. Soon. They gotta fix this.
I too am wondering this. I work in a machine shop where there is a LOT of noise (pneumatic tools, hammering, etc) and wear my AirPods throughout the day (not as protection) and ache noticed that more sound is getting through. I had my original pair replaced in May under the service program and immediately noticed that they were blocking a lot more noise but in the past week or so Ive noticed that its been getting worse. I keep the grills and sensors clean so I dont think anything is blocked. in my case im wondering if the noises from work are actually hurting the ANC microphones or something and its not getting a good reading on what to block.
When i bought them i was amazed with noise canceling..after some time , anc got much worse , I notice that because I always travel to work with subway
Just did that now. Worked a lot actually quite impressed thanks
You may have unrealistic expectations of ANC. Works best for constant droning sounds-engine, buzzing, fans. Not good for voices, music, talking.
I recently got Airpods Pro as a gift from my employee so I did not have the luck to try ANC in 2019/2020. ANC is not perfect for those in-ear buds. I do experience better ANC with my over the head Sony XM3 but still is not super bad either. I have to wonder if you chose the best eartips. The tips themselves should provide some noise isolation - enough to not hear someone turning pages while reading. This is something that you would get with any regular earbuds, it would be super weird if Airpods Pro cannot cancel that. I can confirm that they won't cancel out mid and high frequency noises like people talking and music though. Unless you listen to music that cancels out the additional background noise.
Thanks for your comment, but it is not about my expectation…my old pair of airpod pro I got in Sept. 2019 did a fantastic job with ANC capability and worked much more than these two replaced pairs - the first pair from two weeks ago and the second pair last week. Having exchanged twice now really finding out both have weak ANC, make be believe they did something to weaken ANC in newer ones.
Also, I believe my eartip size is fine. I tested with my iPhone and came out fine - also I tried different sizes, despite, in order to hear different ambience to make sure the fit is right. I come from Etymotic Research earphones, so I am quite conscious about sounds more than most of the folks…however the weakened ANC would be apparent to anybody who would could have tried my old and new pairs…!
I am still quietly waiting for iOS or Watch OS updates…might not do any, but that is all what I can do. I also still have around two months to go back again to Apple Store and ask for hardware exchange….but this probably does not help.
Love to hear more from you or anybody who have tips or similar experiences!
I have heard this from other people too. Can't tell if it is just rumors or not but you are not the first one saying this. If true (I cannot compare unfortunately) this sucks. Out of curiosity - what was the difference? Was it in the way it blocks the noise or about the silence level it achieves? One thing I can say is that my over the head Sony brings me pure silence, with the Airpods Pro I hear some slight noise - it is not pure silence. It is OK for listening to music, but they are not enjoyable for me when it comes to listening to podcasts or say youtube videos. It is OK for phone calls though.
To be honest at least for me Apple test is not very reliable. It tells me good fit with all 3 type of eartips. However I had issues with the right one, it would pop out a bit out of my ear 5 minutes after putting in and it would diminish both the noise isolation and the acoustic. I ended up settling with the large tips.
Fingers crossed that they would improve the ANC with some future update (if indeed it used to be better in the past, they should be able to go back to that level).
If you're having problems with noise reduction, it's probably a bad seal or something blocking the microphone (ear wax, dirt, sweat, etc.) Nothing has been changed with the noise reduction that I know of. I recently had my AirPods Pro replaced and it's the same as my previous set.