Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I was doing a screen recording with quicktime the other day and noticed the audio quality of the mic was very bad, like an AM radio. Does anyone know if this is just a limitation of the hardware or is this something Apple plans on fixing? I know you guys aren't apple. Just wondering if anyone has any insight into this issue?
Under Audio Midi Setup/Audio it shows the AirPods mic at 8 Hz
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Explanation
Apple claims that the poor Mono 8kHz quality which affects recording and indeed simultaneously playback on Mac when the AirPod microphones are activated is because the SCO codec then gets employed over the entire Mac audio system. This is supposedly "expected behavior" when trying to use the AirPods and other Bluetooth headsets together with a computer, according to Apple.
The AAC codec is normally used when just listening to playback on the AirPods. It's just very unfortunate that SCO – low-quality as it may be – upon AirPod microphone activation is not only limited to recording but also displaces AAC and audio playback.
Apple Support claims that Apple is looking at this issue and that improvements might be coming in future firmware updates, but I did not interpret that as a promise, to be honest. But for the time being, I'd say that the benefits of making calls and so forth with AirPods on Macs are quite limited.
Current best practice
Current best practice is to use the Internal Microphone for Recording, and the AirPods for playback when conducting calls. Input and Output devices can be selected in System Settings > Sound or by ⌥-clicking the Volume icon in the macOS Menu Bar, and selecting devices there.
Explanation
Apple claims that the poor Mono 8kHz quality which affects recording and indeed simultaneously playback on Mac when the AirPod microphones are activated is because the SCO codec then gets employed over the entire Mac audio system. This is supposedly "expected behavior" when trying to use the AirPods and other Bluetooth headsets together with a computer, according to Apple.
The AAC codec is normally used when just listening to playback on the AirPods. It's just very unfortunate that SCO – low-quality as it may be – upon AirPod microphone activation is not only limited to recording but also displaces AAC and audio playback.
Apple Support claims that Apple is looking at this issue and that improvements might be coming in future firmware updates, but I did not interpret that as a promise, to be honest. But for the time being, I'd say that the benefits of making calls and so forth with AirPods on Macs are quite limited.
Current best practice
Current best practice is to use the Internal Microphone for Recording, and the AirPods for playback when conducting calls. Input and Output devices can be selected in System Settings > Sound or by ⌥-clicking the Volume icon in the macOS Menu Bar, and selecting devices there.
Hello Daetsmah. Thanks for the reply. Nice to know there are still knowledgeable people around instead of the often dismissive responses giving links to general Apple how to use your device links assuming it’s user error.
Looks like the most recent MacOS update addressed the issue of switching playback to 8 kHz when AirPods Mic is selected. Now you can select the AirPod mic on Mac and have playback on Mac to the AirPods remain at 44 khz. So that’s good.
Now I wish there was a way to use the mic at a higher samplerate also. Perhaps the AirPod mic is not even designed for higher sample rates anyways due to the Bluetooth limitation. If not hopefully Apple updates sample rate for the mic also.
For me 10.13.3 appeared to fix the issue of low-fidelity playback when they connected to my Macbook Air 13" -- but that lasted only a couple days before the output started falling back down to the 8 kHz codec of the mic.
The weird thing about Apple's response was that this was not an issue until after the Meltdown/Spectre MacOS update, which I think was 10.13.2. The Airpods performed brilliantly with my Macs on High Sierra up to that point: decently quick connections as soon as I inserted them into my ear, with high-quality sound quality and solid performance when making Facetime calls.
It's just been sideways after 10.13.2, and still inconsistent after 10.13.3.
Ah. Good to know at least it can work smooth. I didn’t get AirPods until January. I’ve had mixed experience with AirPods connections across apple products. Playing music directly from the watch has been the most flaky. Sometimes it works and sometimes I can’t get them to connect and give up. Sometimes a restart will fix the issue and sometimes not. But it definitely hasn’t been as smooth as I expected from Apple. Especially since they removed the headphone jack from the phone. The idea of an adapter seems like a pain in the rear.
Don't get me wrong: the Airpods are still inconsistent enough in their overall connection behavior as to make some people pull their hair out. Right now, the most robust behavior is directly with an iPhone which makes sense given the lack of headphone jack on recent models. So that's how I use the Airpods for music and phone calls: connected directly to my iPhone 6S and control the volume using the Apple Watch (and answer/hangup phone calls by tapping the Airpods themselves).
Given the varying behavior of the Airpods through recent MacOS updates, it does appear that Apple is doing something in regards to the Airpod/MacOS relationship. But it's definitely far from ideal, and weirdly worse than it was with 10.13.1 (two dot versions ago, before the scramble for Meltdown/Spectre patches).
How do you identify what frequency (8 kHz or 44 kHz) is being used? I know how to use the alt-click on the bluetooth icon to tell whether the codec in use is SCO or AAC, but I don't see a frequency indictor.
You can see what frequency your audio interface is using, in this case the AirPods, in the Audio Midi Setup found in Launchpad. If the audio window is not showing you can show it using the Window menu at the top. Then select the AirPods. Format shows frequency.
But looks like Apple fixed the output issue in a recent update. But, input still remains locked at 8000 Hz, or 8 kHz. This means anyone on the receiving end of the audio such as FaceTime will think you sound bad.
Not sure why Apple didn’t make 48 kHz available for output since a lot of programs need. For instance video/audio editing programs. Apple has the AirPods working with FCPX and LPX though so that’s good. But I know my older version of Adobe Audition will not work when my project is 48 kHz. Maybe this is a limitation of the AirPods. I hope not.
It's more that we know when it's extremely low bitrate than knowing exactly what the sample frequency exactly is. It just sounds dull, underwater-y, and just plain bad.
Ah fair enough. It's only ever sounded terrible for me when using the Airpods mic. Unfortunately I just tried switching the input to built-in mic and that didn't switch the audio back to AAC 😟
Airpods mic sound quality is bad on Mac?
