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Music suddenly gets better quality on AirPods

G

goodquestionmma

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2014
34
3
No change to music source or quality but my AirPods have twice suddenly got better quality, as in the depth of the music goes from sounding quite flat to sounding incredibly good. Presumably the music slowly returns to flat. Does anyone know why this might be and how I can make sure I always hear the better quality? Seems to happen on Music app and Spotify App. (To clarify no changes have been made to settings of these apps). Was listening to a song earlier today and the quality suddenly improved ten fold mid song.

Using iPhone 11 Pro and latest airpods.
 
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I've looking for posts like this. Are you talking about the Gen 2?

I got these yesterday, replacing my almost dead Gen 1 Pods.
So far a few quirky things I have to figure out on these wireless versions. (BT did disconnect overnight, had to repair for some reason.)

BUT...like you mentioned, sound. I'll be listening to a song on Apple Music, a random album stored on my Mac on iTunes and suddenly in the middle of the song the sound quality completely changes - just out of nowhere. Almost like a deeper slight reverb effect. Not horrific, it may ever sound a little better I think.

It's just odd. I don't have an EQ on, no present sounds..the quality just changes out of the blue. Wierd.
 
Yes the second generation. The music still sounds 'fine' when the quality is poor, however when the quality becomes good its comparable to going from 92kbs to 320kbs song. I can hear far more depth and furthermore the music has atmosphere. However this is intermittent and 95% of the time the quality is worse. Another problem is that sometimes the airpods on phone calls disconnect without reason, very frustrating.

I contacted Apple last week and explained the problem, they have replaced them free of charge and the new headphones are working as hoped.
 
I’m convinced you’re just hearing a placebo. Some music is just better mixed than others.
 
shenfrey said:
I’m convinced you’re just hearing a placebo. Some music is just better mixed than others.
Click to expand...
Hi there, it’s definitely not a placebo and I entirely see why it might appear that I am just not noticing different quality songs. Today I was listening to a song and much like Bose nose cancelling being turned on from off, the quality or rather ‘depth’ went from 3 to 10. Sadly this improved quality (which applies to all songs for the period, even the iOS sound effects) only lasts for brief intermittent spells. True of Spotify and Apple Music (local library).

Apple sent new AirPods but problem remains. Using iPhone 11 Pro.
 
Maybe the Bluetooth connection switches data transfer back and forth... Never experienced this change in quality although I'm using 990 KB LDAC connection vs AptX HD 660KB...although not on APP HPs... But it seems like an Bluetooth thing...
 
Last edited:
Momentarily heard the better quality in a song today. Now using an iPhone 12 Pro. 95% of the time I get very flat music. However, sometimes it 'clicks' into the far superior quality where the depth of the music increased five fold. I know it is not to do with source as I listen to music on my local library most of the time and the songs are 256kbs+ and the switching happens mid song.
 
I have had moments where the sound is like through a telephone. That is usually when there is a bluetooth connection issue with my iMac. I switch to internal speakers then back to the APM and it pops into the correct sound. You might be having bluetooth problems. Try forgetting your APM's bluetooth connection and re associate it with your phone or comp. That should fix it.
 
bigshot said:
I have had moments where the sound is like through a telephone. That is usually when there is a bluetooth connection issue with my iMac. I switch to internal speakers then back to the APM and it pops into the correct sound. You might be having bluetooth problems. Try forgetting your APM's bluetooth connection and re associate it with your phone or comp. That should fix it.
Click to expand...
No, this is exclusively with my iPhone, albeit two models 11 and 12 pro. The quality is akin to 92kbs going to 320kbs. Have on multiple occasions reconnected and reset airpods. These are second airpods after apple replaced the first set after I cited this issue
 
I’ve also experienced what you are talking about, but mostly when listening to podcasts. I chalked it up to something to do with the podcasters’ studio. I’ll have to pay attention when I listen to downloaded music and see if I notice the same effect.
 
Try disconnecting from every device other than the AirPods the issue should be 'fixed'.

In reality you can't fix this bluetooth behaviour since is in the protocol itself (it works by slicing the time to transfer, less devices -> more time per device). Let's hope they switch to an airplay-like protocol in the future to have a better bandwidth.
 
jonobin said:
Try disconnecting from every device other than the AirPods the issue should be 'fixed'.

In reality you can't fix this bluetooth behaviour since is in the protocol itself (it works by slicing the time to transfer, less devices -> more time per device). Let's hope they switch to an airplay-like protocol in the future to have a better bandwidth.
Click to expand...
Only one device is ever connected by bluetooth, my airpods.
 
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