Altered sound quality when one Airpod is active

Both of my Airpods need to be on and activated when connected to my iPhone 12 Pro in order to produce good sound quality when I play songs from my iTunes library. Obviously, I know that having both Airpods in both ears is going to give an overall better sound, however, if I just want to use one Airpod in a single ear, it is as though the frequency is altered and produces muffled and crackly audio quality as opposed to when both Airpods are on and active. Am I somehow overloading the single Airpod when I have it in my ear? Any solutions?

iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 14

Posted on Dec 10, 2020 9:56 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 15, 2020 8:53 AM

Hello, JesperKelley.


Welcome to Apple Support Communities.


From your post, we understand that when using only one of your AirPods, the sound is different and muffled. We'd like to help. Some things to consider:


Does it happen with certain apps?


Are you able to pair the AirPods to other devices? If so, same thing occurs?


Try adjusting the sound from stereo to mono: Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Mono Audio. You can also adjust sound from left or right to see if that makes any difference.


Check out these articles as well:


Control spatial audio on AirPods with iPhone


Change noise control modes on AirPods with iPhone


If none of these steps help, try this step: If your left or right AirPod isn't working


Keep us updated.


Cheers!


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 15, 2020 8:53 AM in response to JesperKelley

Hello, JesperKelley.


Welcome to Apple Support Communities.


From your post, we understand that when using only one of your AirPods, the sound is different and muffled. We'd like to help. Some things to consider:


Does it happen with certain apps?


Are you able to pair the AirPods to other devices? If so, same thing occurs?


Try adjusting the sound from stereo to mono: Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Mono Audio. You can also adjust sound from left or right to see if that makes any difference.


Check out these articles as well:


Control spatial audio on AirPods with iPhone


Change noise control modes on AirPods with iPhone


If none of these steps help, try this step: If your left or right AirPod isn't working


Keep us updated.


Cheers!


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Altered sound quality when one Airpod is active

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