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Posted by andrem 1 day ago

The AirPods Pro 3 flight problem(basicappleguy.com)
409 points | 232 commentspage 2
LetMeLogin 15 hours ago|
I have experienced this as well. However, I wasn't sure where I should report it. Warranty? Bug?

I'm fairly new to the Apple ecosystem, so it's quite confusing. I've tried raising an issue with warranty, but I could absolutely not find a place to do it(I had a few tries, installed some app, but I wasn't able to create anything that wouldn't be visited in the shop, just a support request)

larusso 15 hours ago||
I was temped to upgrade from my 2nd gen AirPodPros which I use since they launched. Still use the same set. But I wanted to wait for some real world reviews. I also have the Max and love them. But sound quality and ANC is not as great as in the In-Ears which is rather funny. I have no real need to switch yet. But I actually thought to give them a try at around Christmas. But I planned to use mine for running and air travel as well…
plandis 19 hours ago||
I can reproduce this by covering one of the exterior mics used for ANC when there is a decent amount of background noise in the environment. It results in feedback that causes a high pitch ringing.

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.

herval 1 day ago||
I bought the airpod pro 3 and returned it after a couple of days. It would make a loud crunching sound every time I move my mouth, probably due to the memory foam moving inside my ear canal. Never experienced anything similar on pro 1 or pro 2.

This entire cycle of Apple releases is riddled with puzzling defects - the super scratchable iPhone Pros, the condensation issues on the Air lenses, the Airpod fit and weird noise cancelling issues. I don't recall this level of weird basic defects since the first unibody macs or the butterfly keyboard debacle. Wonder what caused it...

a5c11 9 hours ago|
Pushing to release something every year. That's a really dumb strategy. Managers forgot about the golden triangle of: "good, cheap, fast", out of which you can pick only two, but they have decided to pick only "fast".

I'm using some Apple products, and I'm concerned about the drop in quality. Soon they won't differ much from yet another, Chinese company.

MrDrone 1 day ago||
I've been on ~4-5 flights since upgrading to the Airpods Pro 3 from the 2 and haven't experienced this, though I had occasionally experienced a similar whine on my Pro 2 that seemed to have been resolved in a software update sometime back.

I am surprised by the general negative sentiment for the 3s in this thread. They've felt like a straight and clear upgrade to me. Better fit, better ANC, and much improved battery life. I typically wear mine almost all day so comfort is hugely important to me.

acomjean 1 day ago||
I think the general neagtivity might be from a $250 set of headphones that aren’t great in all situations.

It’s not just an apple problem, but expensive tech just doesn’t seem to work well. generally apple were kinda the gold standard, now they’re having issues like a lot of tech.

jerlam 1 day ago|||
I'm surprised of the general positivity of the previous version, also $250. When the Airpods Pro 2 had been out, it seemed like there was non-stop complaining about how every firmware update made the ANC worse, the sound quality was worse than Sony, continual clicks and rattles, and how they were designed for battery failure.

Just goes to show how negative opinions travel fast.

Liftyee 1 day ago|||
Not every expensive device works well, but the tech products that typically work best tend to not be the cheapest ones. There is plenty of subpar expensive tech, but much less top-tier inexpensive stuff.

Of course, that doesn't mean it can't suffice for the average user.

matwood 1 day ago|||
Same. I've been on a number of long haul flights since getting my 3's and they have been great. They do fit very different than the 2's, and took me a few hours to get used to them.

I understand though that not everyone wins the ear hole lottery. For some the 2s may fit better than the 3's and vice versa. It's interesting to me that Apple made such a large fit change without considering 2's are simply better for some people fit wise.

lamontcg 1 day ago||
> It's interesting to me that Apple made such a large fit change without considering 2's are simply better for some people fit wise.

I immediately ran out and bought aftermarket foam tips for my 2's since the silicone ones never stayed in. Apple is likely trying to fix that kind of problem (and may have done so on average entirely successfully) but now you're seeing the people that it doesn't work for show up in these comments. This comment section is going to be biased towards complaining about the 3's so you can't really judge if what they did was effective or not on average, only that clearly it wasn't perfect.

EA-3167 1 day ago||
Same here, and I wonder if this is down to shifting pressure in the ear-nose-throat axis. The fact that yawning seems to remediate the issue, and also is a way to equalize pressure, makes me suspicious.
numpy-thagoras 1 day ago||
Is it the noise cancellation making a feedback sound, or is it the pressure differential in the ear canal pulling the ear drum back to produce a white noise?

He said that it goes away when he yawns, so I'm thinking it might be the pressure differential.

keepamovin 1 day ago|
Yawning alters the conformation of the external auditory canal by displacing the mandible, which articulates with the tympanic plate of the temporal bone adjacent to the canal.

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.

giraffe_lady 1 day ago||
> The seal might be so good that a small pressure differential happens as cabin pressure drops

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.

conductr 15 hours ago||
I’ve never understood the hype around AirPods noise cancellation. It’s been noticeably worse than Bose from the beginning and I just keep going back to Bose. I don’t know how others may rank, but it’s just that I was using Bose noise cancellation headphones since before Apple got into headphones and as much as I like the form factor of AirPods every time I use them on a flight or something I feel like I’m punishing myself for not using the Bose ones. Have always been curious if I’m alone in this as so many people sing praises for AirPod Pros, anyone else relate?
locusofself 15 hours ago||
are you comparing bose over-ear headphones to airpods or bose earbuds?
conductr 4 minutes ago|||
I have both. Over the ear is better but the earbuds that are 10+ years old are also better than recent APP2. I’ve not tried 3 and probably won’t.

The form factor is ridiculous by APP2 standards. There’s a corded stick that I assume has all the components in it as back then they wouldn’t fit in earbuds themselves. That’s apples main innovation. But, honestly, when I’m on a flight I will take a 10% performance boost over a slicker design or smaller form factor. My guess is they’re at least 30% better.

osamagirl69 15 hours ago|||
Not OP but I have had a set of the bose noise canceling earbuds that I have worn 5 days a a week for over 5 years now and absolutely love them. Noise canceling is excellent, comparable to the over-the-ear-style.

My main complaint is the onboarding process really pushes you to install their app. It is entirely unnecessary (can configure them by various tap codes) but still annoying they don't tell you that until you install the app...

jojobas 13 hours ago||
Can you imagine a post on HN where someone says "when Bose announced QuiteComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen I was so excited!".

Apple has a serious reality distortion field about it. For normal products this would have been a return. See recent "Apple allows icon opacity adjustment".

Ostrogoth 16 hours ago||
I’ve experiencing this same issue on every flight now using APP3, and considering returning. Tried multiple different ear tip sizes. Reset and re-paired. It’s not just pressure changes, as it occurs at steady altitude in addition to ascending and descending. I’m very surprised Apple didn’t catch this issue by testing the ANC on aircraft more extensively during product testing, since that is an extremely common use case for ANC headphones. They also generate weird popping/thumping noises while running, or tinny echoes sometimes while scratching my head. Hopefully there is a software fix. AP1 ANC worked just fine (until case failed to charge left earbud).
elAhmo 1 day ago||
Anecdotal, one of my colleagues was sounding surprisingly clear on one of the calls, and I had to ask him what is he using. Turns out whose were AirPods Pro 3, so my first impression with their microphone is quite amazing. Comparable to "studio mics from MBP" from a generation or two ago. He shared noise cancellation is also great.
Tepix 1 day ago||
Probably Airpods Pro 3 then and not Airpods 3. The latter have no noise cancellation.
elAhmo 1 day ago||
yup, edited my comment, it was Pros
tecleandor 1 day ago|||
It might also be because newer Bluetooth codecs being used. I think Apple doesn't publish a lot of documentation about it (or it isn't obvious, at least...)
elAhmo 1 day ago||
Could be the case, but it is very obvious if someone is using Pros 1 or 2, the audio is really bad. This was honestly such a jump that I somehow wish my Pros 1 to break so I can get new ones :D Can't upgrade from a perfectly working set of headphones, although they are more than four years old and probably my 2nd most used device after the phone.
cactusplant7374 1 day ago||
At first I liked the noise cancellation on the AirPods 4 but after a while I started feeling weird. A weird, fullness in my head. Not very enjoyable.
hnlmorg 1 day ago|
Completely off topic, but when did people start calling earphones “headphones”?

Headphones are the cans that cup your ears and strap around or over the head. Hence their name.

Whereas earphones go inside your ear.

slg 1 day ago||
I'm not sure if this is a "when did people start" situation. I have never heard a layman use "earphones" in casual conversation.
hnlmorg 1 day ago||
People definitely used to. Or at least in the UK they did.
wk_end 1 day ago|||
Yeah, might be a UK thing. In Canada/the US I've only ever heard "headphones" and "earbuds" (a specific kind of headphone).
hnlmorg 1 day ago||
That would explain my surprise then. :)
slg 1 day ago|||
Another example of us being separated by a common language. I don't think this has ever been common in the US.
simmons 1 day ago||
I don't think it was ever common, since earphones weren't that popular until people started calling them "earbuds", but the term was historically used in at least some circles in the U.S. The 1988 Radio Shack catalog [1] seems to mention "earphone" 57 times, including two mono earphone products.

[1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Radio-Sha...

slg 1 day ago||
That’s interesting, although that seems to be a different usage than OP mentioned. It seems to be used interchangeably with headphones as it’s also being used to describe cables and jacks.
0xffff2 1 day ago|||
I'm reasonably certain that I am about as old if not slightly older than the invention of in-ear headphones. I'm also reasonably certain that I have always used "headphones" to refer to any small portable speaker designed to inject sound directly into the ears. I'm absolutely certain I have never used the term "earphones", although "ear buds" was/is a common synonym for in-ear headphones.
hnlmorg 1 day ago||
I’m probably around 2 decades older than the invention of earphones and people definitely did used to call them that here in the UK.
conductr 15 hours ago|||
Then the US English is winning out because we never said earphones over here. I’m much older so have a clear memory of when they hit the market. We said earbud for a while but that was a momentary distinction and it seems we’ve mostly reverted to our generic term of headphones (which lacks any distinction on form factor ) so we use it for pretty much any and all cases.

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.

userbinator 14 hours ago|||
You are... 150 years old?

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.

beala 1 day ago|||
I use them interchangeably. Webster appears to back me up here. However, I only say earbud when referring to the type that's inserted into the ear.
efficax 1 day ago|||
i've never heard anyone say "earphones"
iAMkenough 22 hours ago||
In my corner of the world, we call them "earbuds" as a subset of headphones.

Earphones sounds antiquated. I could picture my father saying, "Let me connect my earphones to my gramophone so I don't disturb your grandmother."

hnlmorg 21 hours ago||
Hahaha. To be fair, I do have a record table and my speakers are of the non-smart variety with copper wires connecting them to Cambridge Audio amplifiers. So you could easily be talking about me too.
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