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We need to talk about AirPods Pro
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#22I'm personally a fan of the conspiracy theory that because multiple ANC products have had their abilities reduced in firmware updates over the past couple years, research teams have been independently finding out that user's hearing are being damaged by highly effective ANC and have had to turn them down without admitting fault. Although I'm not even sure if that's how sound waves work, and recently there was Bose's…
why would people's hearing be damaged by highly effective ANC? it's more plausible that they would be harmed by a bad implementation where the second signal isn't perfectly out of phase.
Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? People treat ANC like hearing protection in office situations and often turn up the volume to drown out nearby conversations. I don’t think it’s “ANC damages hearing” as much as “ANC encourages people to damage their hearing”.
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
why would people's hearing be damaged by highly effective ANC? it's more plausible that they would be harmed by a bad implementation where the second signal isn't perfectly out of phase.
Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? People treat ANC like hearing protection in office situations and often turn up the volume to drown out nearby conversations. I don’t think it’s “ANC damages hearing” as much as “ANC encourages people to damage their hearing”.
> Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves?
ideally no, just the opposite. the idea of ANC is that you detect the frequency and amplitude of incoming waves, then generate a second wave with the same amplitude, but 180 degrees out of phase (so that the trough of the second wave aligns with the peak of the first). a perfect implementation would totally "cancel" the original sound with destructive interference.
I'm not very familiar with consumer ANC headphones (I prefer passive attenuation), but I would expect the cancellation effect does not increase when you turn up the volume, as this would just be perceived as noise if it exceeds the amplitude of the ambient sounds. I guess ANC might encourage people to expose themselves to very loud noises that the device can't compensate for, but that's more user error than an inherent flaw in the technology. people routinely listen to music way too loud in quiet settings anyway.
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#24Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? People treat ANC like hearing protection in office situations and often turn up the volume to drown out nearby conversations. I don’t think it’s “ANC damages hearing” as much as “ANC encourages people to damage their hearing”.
> Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? ideally no, just the opposite. the idea of ANC is that you detect the frequency and amplitude of incoming waves, then generate a second wave with the same amplitude, but 180 degrees out of phase (so that the trough of the second wave aligns with the peak of the first). a perfect implementation would totally "cancel" the original sound with destructive interference. I'm n…
Yes but perfect destructive interference isn’t possible unless everything remains fixed in place which is difficult on a living human head. Its quite possible to get temporary constructive interference for short periods, and also plausible the brain would filter the spurious noise out.
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? People treat ANC like hearing protection in office situations and often turn up the volume to drown out nearby conversations. I don’t think it’s “ANC damages hearing” as much as “ANC encourages people to damage their hearing”.
> Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? ideally no, just the opposite. the idea of ANC is that you detect the frequency and amplitude of incoming waves, then generate a second wave with the same amplitude, but 180 degrees out of phase (so that the trough of the second wave aligns with the peak of the first). a perfect implementation would totally "cancel" the original sound with destructive interference. I'm n…
That sounds like twice the sound to me due to the additional canceling wave. I don’t trust it to not damage the little delicate bits in my ear just because my brain is able to sum the two waves and perceive silence.
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#27Maybe litigation about the earbuds being too quiet might happen if someone doesn’t hear something behind them like a car horn or oncoming something. I used to wear noise cancelling headphones while walking to work in downtown SF. It was too much cancellation that bothered me because I couldn’t hear anything approaching me from behind. I can easily see the opposite happen if someone was killed with the OG firmware. “Are AirPods too quiet? Do they put you at risk?”
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
why would people's hearing be damaged by highly effective ANC? it's more plausible that they would be harmed by a bad implementation where the second signal isn't perfectly out of phase.
Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? People treat ANC like hearing protection in office situations and often turn up the volume to drown out nearby conversations. I don’t think it’s “ANC damages hearing” as much as “ANC encourages people to damage their hearing”.
You could imagine a case though where if you took noise cancelling away then people would turn up the volume to drown out the background noise.
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Isn’t ANC effectively twice the sound waves? ideally no, just the opposite. the idea of ANC is that you detect the frequency and amplitude of incoming waves, then generate a second wave with the same amplitude, but 180 degrees out of phase (so that the trough of the second wave aligns with the peak of the first). a perfect implementation would totally "cancel" the original sound with destructive interference. I'm n…
That sounds like twice the sound to me due to the additional canceling wave. I don’t trust it to not damage the little delicate bits in my ear just because my brain is able to sum the two waves and perceive silence.
ANC works on the level of physics, not just perception -- it attenuates the actual sound waves.
Re: We need to talk about AirPods Pro
#30Mine are on 2B588 and I think I bought them late enough that I never even had the original firmware to compare. I do know that when I first put them in I thought the power went out in my house (due the sudden lack of noise). I would like to know if I'm crazy or if these don't stay in ears well at all. Kind of the opposite of what you would expect from an earpod like this but I can get them to fall out in And before I…
I have the same problem, although perhaps not as severe. I feel like they’re falling off and have to adjust them. Also tried all tip sizes and they all test as good fit as well, which is odd. All my previous in-ear felt like they fit better and also seal the noise out better naturally (without any noise cancellation)
But my biggest disappointment is the mic quality with my MacBook. Apparently some limitation in Bluetooth or something? No idea but mic sounds like crap. Works great on the phone but I hardly talk on my phone ...