AirPods sound quality issue

** Some good news and action for all of you here **

So I have created another Support-Case wth my 5th pair of AirPods and I have got some really interesting News!

This issue is a known issue and is in a "known-issues" database which is covered by Engineering, but Support can "vote" on that issue if he occurred the same one with a customer. Right now, there are only some votes, so everybody who still has the issue, please call Support, tell them that they should take a look into the internal known issues database (I really don't know the name / also no chance to get an ID-Nr.) and vote for it. It seems that engineering is not working actively - which makes me very disappointed - on a known issue, because it affects to less people.

Apple, if you read this, I have got my 5th pair with same issue and you know it, please fix that one as I just want to use your products, thanks!!

For two-way audio you cannot use the A2DP profile with the AAC codec. To use the microphone of the AirPods at the same time, the SCO-method needs to be used. Unfortunately SCO is not a fixed codec but a transfer method - Synchronous Connection Oriented. SCO just specifies a minimum codec which should be available for all HFP (Hands Free Profile) capable devices: CVSD. Depending on the bluetooth controller in your Mac, SCO can also be used to transport a wideband speech codec. Here the mandatory codec is mSBC.

Unfortunately macOS doesn't tell you which codec is actually used and only states "Active codec: SCO". As far as I understood this, the availability of the mSBC codec depends heavily on the bluetooth hardware. If the bluetooth chipset in your Mac doesn't support mSBC, macOS can not support it - ever. The AirPods however seem to support it from day one. At least mine do and iOS says that I have AirPods hardware version 1.0.

Btw, mSBC is also not as good as A2DP with AAC codec. mSBC can only support sample rates up to 16 kHz which is still double the rate of the CVSD codec.

It looks like the program that the AirPods are interacting with may be the determining factor of whether you get SCO or AAC in your connection. I just connected to a BlueJeans video conference from my 2017 iMac and was happy to see that my AirPods were connected to the conference through AAC. So when I had a chance, I put myself on mute in that videoconference and brought up Skype. On Skype I called Test Call (which allows you to record your own voice to check your microphones and sound quality) and saw that my AirPods were now using SCO. So I quit Skype and went back to BlueJeans and once again my AirPods were connected using AAC!

My issues appear to be resolved with replacement AirPods. The local store replaced the left one first and had to order the second one that arrived the next day.

It may have been the case that only the left one was defective because I immediately had fewer problems when using the replacement left AirPod.

They care - as a beta tester, there are times when only one pod works after updating to the latest iOS or os release.

The solution: Go to bluetooth and select "forget this device" wait a minute or two and reconnect to the phone. Works every time. You can also try reseting by hold the button down for a few seconds.

Found an article on Gear Patrol:

AirPods Malfunctioning? Here’s How to Fix Them

1. Go to Bluetooth settings on your device. Forget your AirPods.

2. Make sure both AirPods are in their case. Open the lid so you can see the indicator light.

3. Hold the button on the back of the case until the light starts flashing amber. (Some Apple forum threads say this should take 3–5 seconds, but on my AirPods it took about 15 seconds.)

4. After the amber light blinks three times, release the button and close the lid.

5. Place your AirPods adjacent to your iPhone and hold the button on the back of the case again. A pairing screen should appear on your iPhone. Press “Connect” and you should be good, with both AirPods should work properly together again.

I double-checked the output of iOS logs and indeed my iPhone 7 is also using the mSBC audio codec. From the logs:

"Setting SCO audio codec to mSBC at sample rate of 16000 for device <private>"

This is exactly what my 2016 MacBook Pro is doing. But as I mentioned above, this can only work if the built-in Bluetooth adapter is able to stream mSBC. Otherwise you are stuck with CVSD which sounds more or less like the plain old telephone service (8 kHz sample rate).

Sorry, but apparently I am missing some cues.

Is there hope that a future FW will resolve this issue or must one try and get a replacement from an Apple Store?

I travel a lot like China, LA, etc., and only 2 months in started to query why calls were so distorted when using AirPods with my iP7 or my Apple Watch cellular series 3.

I did an online chat using the Apple support app and was told to reinstall iOS 11 on my iP7. I do not see that as a solution but I appreciate the contents of this thread.

Since you have now tested this on all iPod and MacBooks (does this include the MacBook Pros and Airs?) you should provide Apple with your research and tell them: Feedback - macOS - Apple

Is this something that's fixed by High Sierra?

I had wondered if this was a software limitation in the Bluetooth stack, or if a Mac would need different radio hardware to avoid low quality SCO audio when the mic is live.

Yup just bought some and the audio quality when on Mac is horrendous. Sounds like the sound is coming through a paper cup, then through a cell phone.
I believe it's mostly because Apple did create the software and user interface but a third party company actually produced them and that could be a possible cause but still unsure what to do.

Doing a quicktime screen recording using the AirPods mic records the voice like it's an am radio. I'm hoping this is not the quality everyone hears through this mic as I often use it for FaceTime audio calls. And if not it would be nice if screen recordings sounded better.

Bit of helpful information when looking at this issue.

If you hold down Option while clicking the bluetooth menu bar icon, you'll get more details about your bluetooth connection.

When the sound is terrible, it's using the codec SCO. With good audio playback, you'll find it is ACC.

The iPhone doesn't seem to drop down the codec. I'm not sure if there is a way to force ACC. I find sometimes, closing out other applications using audio clears the issue, without re-connecting the AirPods. I've also experienced this same problem with other bluetooth headphones with microphones.