Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

apps.apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 356 posts

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

#321

Post by bradjohnson »

mrtksn wrote: post #318
bradjohnson wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

> What is the source of this claim?

Me, I guess. I've released MacOS apps for free and never felt any expectation to provide indefinite support. They do what they are supposed to do and people still use them.

> why I'm working on bugfix now?

Idk that's on you brother.

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

#322

Post by sjnair96 »

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.

Usually, if I feel this, it means I have to get my AirPods cleaned (do it at the store, it's worth it). I have, subjectively, always felt that clean AirPods blow the Mac mic out of the water.

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

#323

Post by sjnair96 »

tomduncalf wrote: post #52
djxfade wrote: post #4

Couldn't I just make an aggregate audio device which uses the mic on my MacBook Pro, and speakers of the AirPods?

You don’t even need it to be as complex as that, I just have an aggregate device which only has the MacBook microphone input enabled and no outputs, then you set this as your _input_ device in Sound preferences, but leave the output device as is. It’s easy to create the aggregate input device, go to the Audio MIDI Setup app, in the audio window click the plus in the bottom right and choose “new aggregate device”, the…

Option + Sound menubar icon = choose individual input output devices. Solution I use for the occasion the OP's app was built for.

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

#325

Post by sflefties »

sjnair96 wrote: post #322
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.

Usually, if I feel this, it means I have to get my AirPods cleaned (do it at the store, it's worth it). I have, subjectively, always felt that clean AirPods blow the Mac mic out of the water.

[dead]

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

#326

Post by KingOfCoders »

meeech wrote: post #313
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?

Yes. It is a minor part of coaching, like sending out good microphones, headphones and cameras if needed to all devs to minimize zoom fatigue.

(I once nearly was fired as CTO when I bought QC headphones for everyone in an open-plan office because of the money, which compared to our other IT expenses in my budget was a blip)

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

#327

Post by Miraste »

superhuzza wrote: post #299
viraptor wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a Bluetooth issue years ago. Now it's only an Apple issue where it can't use a more decent codec. On Linux you can choose the mSBC codec and get decent two-way quality on a modern headset.

No, I've had this happen multiple times using various bluetooth headphones with my Google Pixel 8. So it's definitely happening on Android as well.

It happens on Windows too. In fact it's probably worst there, because the Windows Bluetooth stack is so awful.

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

#328

Post by eek2121 »

jshier wrote: post #116
viraptor wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a Bluetooth issue years ago. Now it's only an Apple issue where it can't use a more decent codec. On Linux you can choose the mSBC codec and get decent two-way quality on a modern headset.

Regardless of codecs, don't all Bluetooth headsets switch to mono I/O when the microphone connects? I find that to be a much bigger quality hit than the encoding.

Not on Windows to my knowledge.

Using the same headset on both Windows and Linux leads to a very different experience. Windows works fine. Linux has the issue macOS has mentioned here.

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

#329

Post by Miraste »

shiroiushi wrote: post #198
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?

Also, wireless subwoofers (that come on many consumer TV speaker systems these days) don't have this latency problem either. You just plug them in and they sync to the system and work transparently. They can't have any noticeable latency, or else the bass would be out-of-sync with either the rest of the audio, or if they slowed down the audio to account for latency, then all the sound would be out-of-sync with the vi…

Those generally uses a custom 2.4GHz RF protocol, like gaming headsets and mice with dongles.

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

#330

Post by Nullabillity »

tecleandor wrote: post #320
adastra22 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 diff…

> 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.

Just get a cheap gaming headset.

Pretty much all wireless gaming headsets also have perfectly fine quality for two-way communication, and you can get completely reasonable ones for ~$50-$100.

Remember, the primary use case for these is to mix gameplay, music, and voice calls while also keeping the latency very low. Bluetooth would never fly in that world, and it's bizarre that it's tolerated elsewhere.

Post reply on HN