AirPods Pro firmware 2B588 reduce the noise cancelling capability

I find it interesting that in some threads people state that they have experience with ANC and thus declare there is no issue here. But they may have started 2B588 firmware or perhaps the current ANC is still good enough for them. Most of us on this thread have experienced a perceptible decline with the second firmware revision. Clearly the issue is not hardware and without the firmware release notes we cannot say definitively what is going on. Hoping and honestly expecting RTINGS.com re-test of the ANC will show us conclusively that there is data backing up what we are describing here.

well, to be honest I've been on 2b54 just for 2-3 days, because after a while it has been upgraded, so I can't remember the original ANC effectiveness.

I tried the Symbio mod and WOW, that's the ANC I expected to be.

BUT, we know that a mod is just a patch, so, if there's a more compliant way to restore the original ANC it would be definitely better.

I ask you a suggestion.

I've never had a problem with green good seal or microphone audio quality or battery uneven consumption or ANC, but after my test with the demo unit that shows a slightly better ANC i am pretty undecided if swap, return, purchase another unit from amazon to compare or simply keep mine and wait for an update.

What would you do?

To @TabsAZ: how much worse was your unit compared to your friends one?

Hi,

When you talk about newer pods and say it works better, please specify which hw version.

E.g. those I bought a couple of months ago.

model A2084, hw version 1.0.0

firmware 2C54 right now.

That might be a way to figure out if the problem is hw, firmware or both.

E.g. some firmware might work better with some hw.

We are getting a brand new back ordered pair coming in Monday so we will update on hardware and firmware out of box... and this is coming from Best Buy. Hopefully, orig firmware and same hardware so the wife and I can both test them and see where they update to and give a real word 2 person opinion from start to finish on ANC degradation within a hour or however long it takes to update to current broken firmware/hardware failure = )

So are you saying the anc contained in the initial firmware even filtered out the higher frequencies so you could not understand what people where talking about 2 meters away from you, not listening to music?

Since I have not heard back from my adviser and I'm still in the return window, I requested a replacement pair via Amazon that arrive next week. I'll be curious to see what FW is installed and if there is any difference.

I wish whoever this guy is and wherever he got this info from could communicate with the US Apple team and the rest of the countries where people are reporting this problem... (which would likely be just about anywhere it's sold)...

This is great. We can finally use hard data to counter the "perception" issue. Now, let's see how long it takes to get updated firmware to fix this problem. It's sad that a third party needs to run this test when the engineers at Apple should have validated the concern, ran their own test, and discovered there was indeed a change in ANC.

I think you should go in. What exactly did they say to you?

My rep called me today but I missed the call so he emailed me saying that he was waiting to hear back (from seniors/higher ups) about my issue and he heard some stuff today but is waiting for a "final follow up" as he wrote it for my issue. What that means... I have no idea... I have no idea what they intend to do with my AirPods.

Mine are on 2B588

they won’t update. Support confirmed my firmware as being considered “up to date”

so basically 2C54 must have been pulled.

mine were unboxed after 2C54 was pulled I think.

but the ANC on 2B588 I have to believe is poor.

If it is not then I’m gutted because the ANC makes almost no difference in the office whereas with the Sony you can basically feel like nobody else is there even with no music.

cant wait for Sony to release the M4’s

They’ll kick the APP out the door easily For audio and ANC. and I’ll second hand mine for half the cash to get something back.

Besides the decrease in actual noise canceling, you now don't get any NC with only one in. You need both in now to get severely decreased sound cancelation. I like having one side of my environment shut off.

The only thing I like is that they shut off before they drop out of my ear. The firmware update made them eh.

@Paulman! Actually, there is a way to get NC when using just one of them, but it's not immediately obvious. Rather than doing it from the Bluetooth settings, you need to do so from the Accessibility settings. Scroll down a bit, and you will find an option for turning NC on for just one of the buds.

Unfortunately, the NC will still be weak compared to how it was under the original firmware.

I returned my replacement Air Pods Pro to the Apple Store today because same deal...noise cancellation was still worse. I’m now using my old AirPods and I guess I’ll repurchase if / when this issue’s fixed😔

The slider/option is ultimately what they need to do - it’s the only way they can satisfy both people like us who want max ANC and people who have problems with ear suck or want slightly improved bass response from lowering the ANC. And it would

mean parity with their competitors - Sony and Bose both offer something like 10 levels of ANC in their config apps.

Agreed. But in the meantime, they need to undo the damage they did to their product to prevent further backlash and then they can throw in a slider in an iOS 13.3.1 or iOS 13.4 or wait until iOS 14 (wouldn't be a good idea though).