Posted by andrem 10/28/2025
He said that it goes away when he yawns, so I'm thinking it might be the pressure differential.
The seal might be so good that a small pressure differential happens as cabin pressure drops, which causes some issue with the microphone or speaker. Yawning might break that seal, or otherwise cause pressure equalization. Why only the left one? Apple might put some kind of special signal diagnostics or sensors in that side that bugs out under those conditions, or maybe human anatomy on the left side is consistently subtley different in a set of people.
Because this doesn't happen to everybody it could be some kind of "instrument effect" where the particular shape of someone's ear canal, and the interaction with their ear drum and the speakers and sensors in the app creates this tone, likely assisted by the constant driving signal of air cabin white noise.
That's my guess. I'm very sensitive to pressure changes and I know that cabin pressure on most planes is not constant even when cruising. It's in a range that most people won't notice but it definitely fluctuates near constantly within that band.
The AirPods Pro 2 don’t have this same issue. I can’t reproduce the same behavior regardless of how I cover the exterior on the pro 2s.
Headphones are the cans that cup your ears and strap around or over the head. Hence their name.
Whereas earphones go inside your ear.
[1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Radio-Sha...
I actually think the AirPods naming helped this as it’s kind of a clunky product name that’s nearly a misnomer if you consider iPod is still a part of our vernacular. I don’t hear people saying “where are my AirPods?” Instead it’s “where are my headphones?” Had it been called AirBuds then maybe it would have stuck since ear buds was a thing.
As I think back, I feel like earbud is distinctly tied to the corded iPod accessory. As that died out, so has the term.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US454138A/en
This nipple is adapted for insertion into the ear, and is ordinarily covered with a rubber cover to lessen the friction against the orifice of the ear.
Earphones sounds antiquated. I could picture my father saying, "Let me connect my earphones to my gramophone so I don't disturb your grandmother."
I could replicate it immediately at will. ANC on, nothing playing, sat on the driver seat and closed my door with a little bit of force.
The problem is it comes through as an extremely loud rumble, usually in only one ear at a time.
Not a high pitched squeal, but a low pitched rumble. Goes away if I remove and reinsert, but immediately comes back in short order.
I can make it go away but only by using tips that don’t fit as well, and therefore don’t reduce noise as well (and also fall out of my ears while running).
So perhaps sealing your ears does not allow your ears to "pop" from the cabin pressure changes?