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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

#311

Post by presentation »

ivanjermakov wrote: post #272
ClassyJacket wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Bluetooth so bad? This, plus the literal second of latency to my car's speakers. All these problems are solved by headphones with proprietary wireless dongles and they work great, so why can't Bluetooth incorporate those improvements so we can get them on other devices than desktop PCs?

> Why is Bluetooth so bad? From what I read online, Bluetooth standart is bloated with outdated profiles and not free for manufacturers to implement. Because of that, manufacturers strap own proprietary extensions on it that only their devices support (e.g. AirPods audio qulity with mic is only good on Apple devices)[1]. Others mention that bluetooth was initially designed for less capble devices, thus suffering from…

Given how much Apple and other manufacturers depend on Bluetooth for their wireless earphones I wonder why no alternative to Bluetooth ever seems to show up.

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

#312

Post by [deleted] »

ncr100 wrote: post #290
xyst wrote: post #287

A subscription for an app that fixes what is considered a minor annoyance? It’s a menu bar app at best. This should be a one time payment. If maintenance is required for future macOS versions, then publish new app and charge one time fee. Many app devs use this same model with success (rogue amoeba comes to mind). Don’t be greedy

> This should be a one time payment. > Don’t be greedy Pot meet kettle. The dev says they need ongoing cash for ongoing updates, and this message here instructs them to charge less.

[deleted]

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

#313

Post by meeech »

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.

Are you the one doing the coaching? Wouldn't this be part of coaching them?

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

#314

Post by LeifCarrotson »

Osiris wrote: post #75

This is really a Bluetooth issue. The same happens with any headphones that have a mic on any OS. When Bluetooth mode is switched from Headphones to Headset (with mic), only much lower quality audio codes are used. Does anyone know if Bluetooth 6 adds support for higher quality codes for Headset? It's a big issue, in my opinion.

I've always thought that my 3.5mm corded earbuds, with a mic pill that hangs near my throat, have great mic quality and even better ambient rejection compared to the distant mic buried in the speaker grille of my laptop. Importantly, it's not incredibly disruptive to type notes or use the laptop while in the meeting.

Is this specifically a Bluetooth headphone thing, or an "any headphones with a mic on any OS" thing?

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

#315

Post by hansvm »

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #215
1oooqooq wrote: post #71

it's funny how lonux just show you the codec in a drop-down next to the volume control. kde users living in the future as always.

Linux fanboys can't wait to talk about the one use case it's better than MacOS for

I've had to use the Mx-pro MacBooks at work for the last few years, and I'm curious what features you actually prefer on MacOS?

I've had no end of unstable wireless stacks, ungrounded computers causing a physical buzzing as you touch the case, the GPU crashing when viewing Google Sheets, LCD panels failing from the arduous task of letting the laptop sit on the desk for a weekend, automatic updates wiping manual setting changes, switching to any available WiFi network if the one I want has a blip in service and never switching back, needing to reboot into recovery mode for something as simple as enabling dtrace, ....

They just feel shoddy, and combined with a non-discoverable UI and default behaviors I don't like, about the only thing I've really cared for is the battery life. Even if they were free I don't know that I'd use one at home instead of some flavor of Linux.

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

#316

Post by BigJ1211 »

appendix-rock wrote: post #292
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…

“Do you have any empirical evidence…” Ask yourself, “how easy would it be to test this myself?” Now ask yourself, “how hard would it be for someone else to prove this and give me something that convinces me?” Even people working in academia don’t say “show me empirical evidence!” This just feels standoffish.

The Macbook Pro's have good in-built mics, probably the same for higher end windows laptops.

But I imagine the average cheap windows laptop has quite poor quality mics. It would be hard to test though as there are so many models out there.

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

#317

Post by sutra_on »

mrtksn wrote: post #226
sutra_on wrote: post #204

> I decided to go with a very cheap subscription model because I suspect further development might be needed as bugs emerge or API behavior changes Right, makes me wonder how did companies even exist before the subscription model. > I don't know what would the right price be for supporting an app for years to come and still have people willing to pay for it Not to sound too negative, but your app might not even exist…

>Right, makes me wonder how did companies even exist before the subscription model. They abandoned their products once the growth stopped and/or switch to subscription and gave their one time purchase makers a year of subscription to make it up. One time payment for lifetime support doesn't make sense whatsoever. If it is a large company they have to employ people for a product that doesn't bring in money and for ind…

You do realize you are on a tech forum?

>Having a live product is a full time job even if you change a single line of a code once in a while.

I have launched dozens of products and changing a single line of code once in a while is definitely not a full time job. Honestly, this makes no sense.

> They abandoned their products once the growth stopped

This is obviously false (take basically any popular app with a single license and look through their update log). Your stated reason -- fixing bugs or updating API usage for existing products -- should not require a subscription. Maybe it's an old school assumption, but I expect single line bug fixes to be included in the initial cost.

If this was an incredibly complex project that required years of research and development I could see some logic behind your argument. However, linking to a 50 line code snippet as your inspiration and explaining that you faced some challenges when building the production app does not look serious.

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

#318

Post by mrtksn »

bradjohnson wrote: post #310
mrtksn wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear the feedback but no way I'm doing get payed once support forever or give away for free support forever. I've done these mistakes it the past, I might re-consider if I get rich or something and start donating my time to passion projects. Even the simplest apps end up having problems, even the perfect one can break when something in the environment changes. Working on even the simplest app is always a full time…

>no way I'm doing get payed once support forever or give away for free support forever Why do you keep saying that "support forever" is the default here? Nobody would expect that except if you were releasing under a subscription model. Plus, this app doesn't need support. Come on.

> Nobody would expect that

What is the source of this claim?

> Plus, this app doesn't need support. Come on.

And this one? If that's right why I'm working on bugfix now? Is it because of the subscription model? If it was one time fee, am I going to just ignore the bugfix requests?

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

#319

Post by NLPaep »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #314
Osiris wrote: post #75

This is really a Bluetooth issue. The same happens with any headphones that have a mic on any OS. When Bluetooth mode is switched from Headphones to Headset (with mic), only much lower quality audio codes are used. Does anyone know if Bluetooth 6 adds support for higher quality codes for Headset? It's a big issue, in my opinion.

I've always thought that my 3.5mm corded earbuds, with a mic pill that hangs near my throat, have great mic quality and even better ambient rejection compared to the distant mic buried in the speaker grille of my laptop. Importantly, it's not incredibly disruptive to type notes or use the laptop while in the meeting. Is this specifically a Bluetooth headphone thing, or an "any headphones with a mic on any OS" thing?

MacOS excels at noise cancellation. Typing on my Windows PC sounds like an earthquake, but you could actually hammer nails during a video call on a Mac and it wouldn't be picked up (it also blocks your voice from coming through, but that’s temporary)

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

#320

Post by tecleandor »

adastra22 wrote: post #270
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.

Well "internal microphone" would be any other that's not the one of the Bluetooth headset you're using in the call.

You can use high quality codecs with Bluetooth to listen, but when you use Bluetooth headset as a microphone, it switches to the "headset profile", that has greatly reduced bandwidth and a simpler codec, hence reducing the quality of sound in both directions.

You can very clearly hear the bandwidth difference if you connect to a Zoom call using your Bluetooth headset both for listening and as a microphone, and then switching the microphone to the one in your laptop while someone is talking. I guess that any other software will work, but it's the one I use in the office.

I usually have a high quality microphone on my desk (an AT2020, but you don't need to go that far, I already had it) and use my headset just for listening. But it might not work if you have to talk away from your desk.

I've heard that some people use headsets that aren't bluetooth, like the Jabra or Plantronics that are made for call centers, where you connect the headset base directly to the laptop. They seem to have also an incredible connection range, but they are very pricey so I haven't bought one for testing.

Edit: The "non Bluetooth" headsets I was talking about use the DECT standard. But make sure you get one that has super-wideband support, or you'll have the same mic quality problem. Not the range problem, as it seems like you can even leave your house and keep talking. But they're typically expensive, like USD250-450

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