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Hello,
I'm using the latest MacBook Pro with TouchBar together with my AirPods. Sometimes the sound quality switches to a bad, noisy sound as if I would listen to some 2$ headphone from Walmart. Sometimes it just takes a few moments and it switches back, sometimes it stays for hours even if I reconnect. Has anyone experienced similar issues and found a solution? Is it possible that my MacBook or AirPods are broken?
Thanks,
Max
So I just had a call with Apple regarding this and it seems to be that they are aware of the issues and a temporary workaround is to switch the mic from the AirPods mic to the internal microphone.
That workaround is working fine for me.
I experienced the issues in premiere pro and XCode who both seems to use the microphone all the time which causes the bandwith of the bluetooth connection to shrink (or whatever, this is what the guy told me 😁)
So I just had a call with Apple regarding this and it seems to be that they are aware of the issues and a temporary workaround is to switch the mic from the AirPods mic to the internal microphone.
That workaround is working fine for me.
I experienced the issues in premiere pro and XCode who both seems to use the microphone all the time which causes the bandwith of the bluetooth connection to shrink (or whatever, this is what the guy told me 😁)
Switch to the Internal Mic in Input Sound settings. It really does fix it. The problem as I understand it from Googling is that when the mic is in use, the AirPods (having to technically function as standard Bluetooth earbuds) switch to this weird industry-standard mode for both sound input and output to happen at once. Basically, it sounds like garbage, and it's weirdly inconsistent. There's no way Apple didn't notice this; they must have simply not found a workaround in time for launch, and any such workaround would involve a lot of work in software on macOS and iOS to fix it. When connected to Android phones and PCs, the AirPods would unavoidably still have this issue.
Tech problems.
That is what I did as a workaround too, but can't be the final solution.
Apple needs to fix this as soon as possible, and I wonder they didn't notice it in testing.
Didn't anybody at Apple think of trying a FaceTime call via Mac and AirPods?
Changed to the internal mic. Doesn’t fix the problem. Still sounds like crap. Airpods work great on Windows PC, iPhone, and iPad. Have no problems with those devices at all.
I'm having the same issue, quite irritating actually. Any fix in the pipeline for this?
Having the same issue, although on my late 2012 iMac (27") only.
NVRAM reset didn't help and neither did resetting the AirPods.
It seems to be related to mic usage, as it only occurs when the mic is activated by e.g. Siri or TeamSpeak. Then, the quality drops to a really muffled and crude sound.
However I have absolutely no issues using the AirPods with my late 2016 MacBook Pro (Touch Bar 13").
Have you updated MacOS recently? This issue was supposedly addressed in the 10.12.2 Update:
Improves audio quality when using Siri and FaceTime with Bluetooth headphones.
AirPods most definitely sound worse on the Mac than iOS, and it's not just the microphone, but everything. I was listening to some music from iTunes and noticed it sounded pretty bad. Connected to my iPhone, played same song, sounds beautiful. Even talking on the phone via my VoIP app on my Mac sounds worse than the iPhone.
I highly doubt NVRAM or the multitude of other resets people suggest will fix this, seems to be software related and will need to be resolved by Apple.
I have very similar issue, but Airpods suddenly started to sound disgusting when i'm listening music in Telegram messenger app on iOS, but in Telegram on Mac it sounds good. Soundcloud on iOS sounds good. So the problem is exactly now in Telegram on iOS. Restarting Airpods didn't help. This is BS. Why messing up with the quality? If Airpods can't handle the music, DON'T spoil the music — don't lie.
Try a NVRAM reset:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
If no success, make an appointment at an Apple store genius bar for a FREE evaluation.
Ciao.
This caused by Simulator.app when keyboard or other sounds enabled. So quit the Simulator and all will be fine. Cheers, Igor
i agree they need to focus on this and fix it immediately
your lucky i cant even get the mic to work on High Sieirra. Trying 10.13.2 beta 2 now
AirPods Bad Sound Quality on Mac
