Airpods Pro 2 noise cancellation worse after firmware update 7A294

SAME!!! I have both AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Max and up until recently they were both incredible for noise cancellation - I’m autistic and I often need this for sensory issues, I was SO impressed before because noise cancellation felt like instant silence whether I used my pods or my max headphones. Now, I would definitely not recommend them and am actively looking for another brand that performs the way Apple used to…the “noise cancellation” is so bad now that I actually can’t even tell if it’s on because I can hear everything, even things that aren’t very loud. They are basically not much better than foam ear plugs, I have to run a white noise app to block ambient sound now and it still doesn’t really work. PLEASE FIX THIS APPLE, you had the BEST product and now it sucks :(

I recently noticed this as well after using them in a noisy server room. ANC was less comfortable than both adaptive and even off. It felt like ANC doesn't remove certain mid range frequencies anymore, so they felt loud with it enabled.

Tried it in other situations and noticed I can hear people speak relatively easily. Tried a running sink and it was only slightly quieter than adaptive (set to less noise). As I was testing them just now I heard my refrigerator turn on and I have no issues hearing it continue to run.

Same problem for months, it's tiring.

Apple has changed headphones several times, instead of acknowledging purely software changes (APP1 and APP2).

I love Apple's products (IPhone and AirPods Pro) but this culture of secrets is getting tiresome.

The new pair to come won't be AirPods Pro.

ANC is becoming essential in today's society. Without it, no matter how good the sound, headphones are worthless.

You’re right. The reversed polarity (in relation to natural sounds) signal of noise cancelling systems doesn’t do harm.

But the ear has muscles and they react to the environment to protect ones hearing. When you are exposed to loud sounds the muscles in your ear contracts to function as natural hearing protection. That’s why it’s more harmful to remove plugs from your ears in the middle of a loud concert than not wearing them in the first place. While wearing plugs, your ears ”thinks” this is the amplitude they are exposed to. And when you remove the plugs the sudden change in amplitude happens faster than your ears can adapt, leaving them more vulnerable to loud sounds.

Noise cancelling is a digital process and therefore it is impossible for it to react to sound instantly.

At a band rehersal setting there is always going to be transient material slipping through the noise cancellation. A transient from say a loudly hit snare drum at close proximity has great amplitude. Why I’m afraid this might be harmful is that since the tonal material you are hearing is significantly more quiet then its natural unfiltered version, your ear might adjust its natural protection to this level, still being exposed to almost full level transients.

Hope this helps!

Little addition: Someone posted a workaround with adaptive audio, which i have tried too. Shortly I think there has been a minor but not sustainable effect. But maybe somebody can make a fix out of it.

Another thing, what i realized: In pure desperate I made the audio aid test. Once I started this: The 'Compression' in my ear started again as I was used to it. There it was. For a brief moment ANC was in beast mode again. Sadly no sustainable effect. Anybody else can reproduce this?

Oh, I think I see the original confusion here. The Apple forum is quite bad at showing when someone replies to another comment here. My post about not using APP2s for protectioin was an answer to this post:

"Same here. It's so frustrating because I am a guitarist of a rock band, and I use my AirPods Pro as ear protection in loud shows. It used to have the perfect amount of noise reduction in adaptive mode. Now, even in noise reduction mode, I can hear much more noise than in adaptive mode. I was so happy to have found the perfect protection for my ears, and now Apple took this out of me."

Since noise cancellation is a digital process it cannot be instantaneous. There is an AD and DA conversion before the out of polarity (cancelling) signal hits your ear. An AD/DA conversion always takes time. At least a millisecond or two. With miniature consumer grade converters, probably a lot longer. That's why there is extremely loud transient material, like the attack of drums, that is not being cancelled.

My comment about using APPs for protection was not a comment on the OPs post about the development or worsening of the software. It was simply to warn the person using them as protection, so that they will not damage their hearing.

I already replied much earlier in this thread that I have same issue (still do) but now my wife updated her phone to iOS18 having held back since I told her of my Airpod issues and having gone to work on the tram yesterday she said the ANC is almost completely ineffective.

While she was on iOS 17 they remained effective. I'm presuming the Airpod firmware version available is linked to the version of iOS on the connected device?

I sent Apple a tweet with a link to this thread, but as always they remain totally aloof to our issues.

Maybe its a good idea to link this thread with some tech journalists?

This is NOT the product I bought, Apple! After the latest update, there is no audible difference between Transparency and ANC. I needed to double-check what settings were on my recent plane flight as it was sooo noisy. I used to listen to music on the motorcycle without a problem, it also helped with the wind noise. But now it's terrible, it is like wearing no or any cheap earphones you buy for 5Eur on the market near the vegetable kiosk.

I updated last night to ios 18.2 and I clearly realised the ANC got worse. There’s no difference anymore between „Adaptive“ and „noise cancelling „ modes.

i tested with my old and brand new AirPods Pro 2 (I had one extra from work).

I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and had AirPods Pro until losing them near start of the year. After ages and much deliberation and research of other models against the newly released AirPods Pro 2nd gen I finally decided to bite the bullet and budgeted to afford to replace my old ones, confident that they were going to be as good as my first AirPods Pro, and hopefully better form what reviews had been saying. Well. It’s Christmas. I opened and received my brand spanking new AirPods Pro directly delivered from Apple. It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure so at first the noise cancelling (muffling) seemed to work and I was impressed with the new modes. It’s now been a day - a bustling, busy British Christmas Day - and I am very confident that these AirPods are just downright worse at CANCELLING noise. I could hear talking, music, barking, pretty much every sound outside of background noise, just muffled to be less loud. That’s not what I want, and that’s not why these USED to be praised as the one of the top contenders for sleek and efficient ANC headphones. I use my headphones for chill quiet me-time and to block out convos so I can focus at work. I’m so sad to say after looking forward to them for so long (they were my main present to myself), that I’ll most likely be going back to Apple and returning them unless they sort this out.

As literally hundreds and countless people have pointed out (bear in mind there are thousands others who probs just haven’t bothered), the problem clearly wasn’t present before a specific firmware update. Is this a silly safety thing beoimg

forced? Evil marketing so it looks like the next AirPods have improved cancellation?? Idk. But please fix it. I’ll be looking elsewhere for now, probs Sony or Beats, and will be a lot more cautious trusting Apple in the future. My mother caught an awful cough over Christmas and is on the other side of the room fully audible spluttering away as I’m typing this.

Suffice to say I’m left feeling extremely bitter and frustrated. Merry Christmas 👍

Same issue here. First time I noticed this was when noticing that I suddenly could hear the peep when pressing a code to enter at work. Before I could never hear this. Then I started noticing a lot more noise when commuting. The final blow was when I went on a plane.

I would say my airpod pro 2 is now no better noise cancelling than my 2018 Sony WH-1000XM3. And of course these have a lot better sound than the airpods.

I also noticed that is awful.

On my MacBook Pro, I went to the Accessibility settings and made a lot of adjustments and assessments, mainly in the final sections.

It seems better than it was, besides far from what it used to be.

I have Airpod Pro 2 with firmware version 7B21 and the noise cancellation is almost nonexistent. I hear background from the HVAC system at the Library and to make matters worse it fades in and out, which makes it even worse then putting in airplugs.

I recently bought them to help correct for mild/moderate hearing loss, thinking they would be decent earphones with good ANC if the hearing aid feature was not great. Now I am disappointed in both cases.

Tested the new AirPods 4 with ANC. There was no differences in the ANC. So, somehow it seems, like the AirPods Pro 2 has been downgraded in ANC to the level of the AirPods 4. No, twice as good, as the marketing page says.

Exactly similar.