AirPods Pro adaptive EQ and high-frequency warble
The AirPods Pro are so far a bit hit-and-miss for me. Compared to the AirPods 2, I really like the silicone tips that now keep these earbuds in my ears—I had to use after-market add-ons to keep the AirPods 2 in place and sounding decent. I'd like to take advantage of both the Transparency and Noise-Reduction modes of the new AirPods Pro when I'm walking outside or in a noisy restaurant, but the Adaptive EQ screws things up. I'd love to use the features of the AirPods Pro, but just turn off the Adaptive EQ function or, as a compromise, freeze its settings after I've put the AirPods Pro in my ears. Here's the deal:
It seems the Adaptive EQ is doing it's best to figure out what EQ settings will be best for me by listening to the sound in my ear canal. Sure, it seems to work when sitting still, but the Adaptive EQ is always adapting—200 times per second according to Apple's promotional materials. I have to ask: Why? What is the point of changing the EQ up to 200 times per second? Doesn't it make more sense to just set the EQ when the AirPods Pro are inserted and then just leave it there? After all, my ears are my ears and don't really change much. It's not like these AirPods Pro are being swapped around between 200 different people with different ear profiles every second. It's just me wearing them without touching them.
The problem that happens is that, while walking, running, or even chewing food, these actions are causing small movements of either the AirPods Pro, the shape of my ear canal, or both. For example, with each footstep, the AirPods Pro might jiggle just a little bit. The super-sensitive Adaptive EQ seems to detect this as a change in my ear canal and attempts to quickly modify the EQ for that moment—a fleeting moment as the AirPods Pro go right back to their normal positions a faction of a second later.
When it comes to high frequency audio waves, 1/200th of a second is an eternity. While updating the EQ profile 200 times a second might be sufficient for transparently-adapting low frequencies, it's not good enough for adapting high frequencies. The result of this system is that there's this horribly-annoying warble or flutter in the high frequencies that's reminiscent of a worn-out cassette tape (remember those?) or MP3s encoded at really low bitrates with every step I take. If the music has exceptionally clear high-frequencies, like nice cymbals or very airy reverb, then this problem is extremely noticeable. The obvious test: just play back some white noise and try walking or chewing food with either the Transparency or Noise-Reduction modes on—you'll immediately hear the white noise start to flutter as the Adaptive EQ struggles to keep up with the tiny changes that are occurring in the ear canal.
But there's no point in the Adaptive EQ doing any of this. If you turn off the Noise-Reduction and Transparency modes, this also turns off the Adaptive EQ and then audio sounds absolutely fine! There's no weird warbling and audio sounds pretty darned good. I can walk and chew with no ill effects to the audio at all. So adapting the EQ in realtime isn't necessary at all for good sound and it would be a godsend to be able to turn that aspect of the AirPods Pro off—or at least isolate this feature to only the low-frequency ranges where the algorithm can keep up with changes in these longer waveforms.
For the time being, I can only use the Noise-Reduction mode when sitting at my desk in the office. This is a bit handy as it does reduce the ambient rumble in the place (though all high-frequency sounds—like the esses when people talk, for example—still come right through) but that's really the only place I can use it. Short of Apple allowing the option to disable this feature, I think I'm going to have to wait for some better third-party tips to come out, like the memory foam types that will fill more of the ear canal and hold the AirPods Pro more securely in place so they don't move when walking.
Anybody else hearing this problem?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
