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Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

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Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#261

Post by pewu »

radicality wrote: post #258

> Most of the time, you have much higher quality microphones built in, so in most use cases, you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone Is that true, have I been doing my google meets wrong this whole time? So you’re saying if I’m on my Mac and having a google Meet, and I’m using my AirPods, then I should have my mic input as MacBook and not as AirPods? Do you have any sources or yo…

Wireless earbuds microphones are famous for poor quality audio, even in the top of the line models. The microphone is indeed closer to your mouth, but the sound in the human speech range is quite directional, and does not travel to your ears as well as it does to a microphone in front of you.

Not to mention the quality of the parts itself is usually much lower than those in the external mics, or the MacBook ones for that matter.

There's a YouTuber called DankPods, reviewing all sorts of headphones lately, along with their mics. Can't recommend any particular video, as the microphone tests are only a tiny fraction of the content, but after watching a few tests this issue become very apparent. Easiest thing to do would be, as other commenter suggested, to test it out for yourself in the voice memo app.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#262

Post by ubercow13 »

radicality wrote: post #258

> Most of the time, you have much higher quality microphones built in, so in most use cases, you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone Is that true, have I been doing my google meets wrong this whole time? So you’re saying if I’m on my Mac and having a google Meet, and I’m using my AirPods, then I should have my mic input as MacBook and not as AirPods? Do you have any sources or yo…

I do a lot of zoom meetings with people with lots of different mics including mac ones and various business headsets and laptops and yes, Airpod mics are pretty much the worst of the bunch.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#263

Post by alfonsodev »

radicality wrote: post #258

> Most of the time, you have much higher quality microphones built in, so in most use cases, you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone Is that true, have I been doing my google meets wrong this whole time? So you’re saying if I’m on my Mac and having a google Meet, and I’m using my AirPods, then I should have my mic input as MacBook and not as AirPods? Do you have any sources or yo…

It depends if you sit for a long meeting or short but important, I’d definitively change the mic to use MacBook it’s not only your quality of mic for them, you’ll hear them much better too. Now if you want to be walking around while talking then obviously keep the default mic on the AirPods.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#264

Post by zeusk »

cfn wrote: post #253
nepthar wrote: post #241

Well, one thought about your pricing model - you’re thinking that it might need work in the future, but you’re charging each month without delivering any additional value to customers. How about charging additional money for each new major version, corresponding to either new feature development or support for new versions of the OS?

This is a big issue with the App Store. Either you charge a subscription or you charge a on-off and all upgrades are free forever.

That's definitely not the case, Apps can lock new features behind IAPs and keep charging for new features while sharing bug fixes.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#265

Post by zeusk »

solardev wrote: post #216
DidYaWipe wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds more like a shitty-software issue. The Shazam function should turn the Bluetooth mics off after the song is identified. Why does it just leave them on? Isn't that obvious, or is there some aspect to this I'm not aware of (I care about sound quality, so I don't use AirPods)?

It's not just Shazam but any app that uses the mic over Bluetooth. Like if you wanted to have background music playing during a Zoom call, or wanted to wear Bluetooth headphones while gaming and voice chat kicks in when you group up, etc. It's a very annoying problem because the Airpods actually sound fantastic, but as soon as the mic kicks in, it sounds like crap. Same thing happens with my Sony XM3s or any other Bl…

what you are describing is a universal Bluetooth issue. Windows suffers the same; some Android devices support proprietary codecs to slightly improve the situation but it's still sad we are still here.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#266

Post by NullifyNAN »

mrtksn wrote: post #243
nepthar wrote: post #241

Well, one thought about your pricing model - you’re thinking that it might need work in the future, but you’re charging each month without delivering any additional value to customers. How about charging additional money for each new major version, corresponding to either new feature development or support for new versions of the OS?

How do you implement that?

The Due app does something like this. Basically it’s 1 time fee + subscription. The day you buy the app, you get every new feature for the next year and every previous feature. If a new feature is added, you can subscribe for $5 a year. Upon subscribing, you get all new features since your subscription lapsed. Blog post here: https://www.dueapp.com/blog/future-of-paid-upgrades.html

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#268

Post by KingOfCoders »

"you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone"

I wish all people would know this, I have CTO coaching sessions and when people attend with AirPods microphones, 60minutes is such a drain because of the bad mic quality of AirPods - and people seem not to realize this.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#269

Post by dzhiurgis »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #268

"you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone" I wish all people would know this, I have CTO coaching sessions and when people attend with AirPods microphones, 60minutes is such a drain because of the bad mic quality of AirPods - and people seem not to realize this.

This.

It drains your airpods less too.

Re: Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods

#270

Post by adastra22 »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #268

"you want to hear from your AirPods but be heard from your internal microphone" I wish all people would know this, I have CTO coaching sessions and when people attend with AirPods microphones, 60minutes is such a drain because of the bad mic quality of AirPods - and people seem not to realize this.

Internal microphone being what? The laptop or the phone? These have absolute shit input when sitting relatively far away on the desk or pocket.

In my own experience, AirPods offer the absolute best microphones for zoom calls, other than professional-level equipment.

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