I got a brand new pair of AirPods Pro 2 a few months ago and immediately as I wore them outside the wind would blow through the grill or speakers on the AirPods. No matter what mode I’m in it sounds horrible and it’s very hard to hear. I have reset them multiple times and I have even sent them to Apple and they said they could not replicate and sent them right back. I have the pro ones and they do not do this at all. Any help or solutions?
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Wind noise outside
- Thread starter bhigh8
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I think I understand what you're talking about. If you mean a windy like noise when in wind, then I do. I'd just learned to live with it, but with the latest firmware update and iOS update it seems a lot better on my Pro 2s. Still noticeable but far, far less so far. If you've already tried that then I suppose the only option is to turn off the modes. As in just earbuds when in windy conditions. I think this is a earbud problem in general though because my wired ones are the same way. If I misunderstood what you meant, then please explain more.
Wind is the enemy of noise cancellation. Remember that there is a microphone on the outside of your AirPods that listens for ambient sounds so it can produce an inverse sound wave to cancel that noise out. It can not reduce the sound of the wind.
I’ve been having the same problem but in a different situation. I take my cars to a local DIY car wash. I run the car thru then park in the drying/vaccuum area. I put in my AP Pro2s and get to drying. I use compressed air hose to blow water out of door trim, mirrors etc. When I do I get this horrific static sound in both ears. The ambient noise setting increases the volume but all I get is louder static. When i move the air hose and use it farther away and pointing away from me the static goes away. Today I took my Air Pod Pros and Air Pod Pro2s to test. When using the Air Pod Pros I had NO, ZERO static but did have it with the APP2. I was going to call Apple when I got home but read this forum first and believe I’d be wasting my time. I’ve done all the fit tests and setting changes but no difference. I still have 18 months of Apple Care+ so I might call tomorrow.
I just had a thought. I wear hearing aids on occasion. Very high end Phonaks. I don’t have a problem with the wind but they are very sensitive. I’m wondering if with the update to the APP2s that added the hearing test and hearing aid capability they have become too sensitive to outside noises, the wind being one of them?? I’m going to do some testing and see if I can figure anything out.
I just had a thought. I wear hearing aids on occasion. Very high end Phonaks. I don’t have a problem with the wind but they are very sensitive. I’m wondering if with the update to the APP2s that added the hearing test and hearing aid capability they have become too sensitive to outside noises, the wind being one of them?? I’m going to do some testing and see if I can figure anything out.
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I noticed the difference between the first generation and the 2s immediately. The reason, I think, is that the external microphone on the 1st gen faced inwards towards your ear (even though it was still outside the ear canal). This shielded it somewhat from wind.
On the 2nd gen this microphone is facing outwards where it faces directly into any wind and so picks up the noise which it is unable to cancel.
I think Apple changed the design because although the inner microphone did a better job with wind, the grilles would get blocked with ear gunk, resulting in the loss of audio quality. I constantly cleaned my 1st gen grilles with blu-tak to ensure they didn’t become blocked, so that audio quality didn’t degrade.
Clearly, Apple thought that increased wind noise was a trade off worth making to ensure that they didn’t have loads of people complaining about degraded audio quality when the microphone grilles got full of ear wax and skin cells. I think the placement of the microphones on the 2s is also part of the reason why the noise cancellation is so much better than the first generation. They’re facing outward, so they can pick up up more noise in order to then cancel it. The downside of that is that it also picks up the wind.