The AirPods Pro 3 are a lovely pair of the best earbuds — or at least they would be, if they didn't spit horrible static and "whistling" noises at you. That's what some users of the Macrumors forums are reporting — when you've got some form of noise canceling or transparency on, the earbuds emit a strange (and perhaps most importantly, annoying) static sound.
There are plenty of users at MacRumors who are experiencing the issue, and some have even taken their earbuds back to Apple for a successful return. So, what might be happening, and have we been able to reproduce the issue here at Tom's Guide?
The TG seal of... maybe
There are plenty of users of AirPods Pro 3 at Tom's Guide, so I checked in with the team to see how they're getting on with their earbuds. My experience, after sitting down for 10 minutes with the buds in, ANC on, and no music playing, was about what you'd expect. You can hear the ANC doing its work on the world around you, but I'm not getting any kind of static sounds.
Erin and Nikita at the Tom's Guide Reviews center for excellence had slightly different reports with the same earbuds. Erin couldn't hear any kind of static sound, while Nikita was able to detect a faint crackling. It's more than likely that Nikita wasn't picking up a specific issue with the buds, instead hearing the ANC use white noise to block out the noise of their busy office.
Our fitness team also turned their attention to finding static — and both Nick and Jane couldn't find any kind of static being emitted by the buds. This is not to say, of course, that the issue isn't happening at all, only that we were unable to replicate the issues reported. Perhaps we'll be complaining of ANC static soon enough after even more wear and use.
What could be happening?
ANC uses a certain amount of white noise (or static) combined with your music to counteract the noises of the world. With any pair of noise-canceling earbuds or headphones, when you stop playing music with the ANC on, you'll hear the ANC trying to compensate with white noise. That much is expected.
Users are reporting more than that, however. One user says that the "ANC is quieting down the lower frequencies," continuing that "higher frequencies seem to actually get LOUDER." That's more than just the ANC doing its work, given that it seems to be amplifying sounds you really don't want it to.
It sounds like an issue with the noise-canceling engine that Apple is using, although given that it's not affecting everyone, it could be some kind of manufacturing defect or a software bug. Let's hope it's the latter — that's going to be easier for Apple to fix.
Can you fix it?
Unfortunately, it looks like the possibility of an easy fix is out of the question. Users reporting the issue haven't been able to fix it with a restart or reset, instead having to go to Apple and get the buds replaced. There's even a user who got their buds replaced and experienced the same problem again with the new pair of buds — that's not fantastic.
No matter how you look at it, Apple now seems to have some form of issue on it's hands. We'll be sure to let you know if we start to experience the issue, but in the meantime, have you experienced the AirPods Pro 3 static sound?
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