I signed up for this forum just to say that I’m having the exact same poor ANC performance on the APP3 as you are. I would go as far as saying it might be the worst ANC I’ve ever experienced in the last 10 years of having nice noise cancelling headphones. I’ve had the AAP2 for a number of years and get a really comfortable and solid seal using the large tips. The noise cancelling when turned on reduces all background sounds to near silence. The window in my house is currently open and the car noise from the street is almost imperceptible. If I snap my fingers in front of me I can barely hear the snap. If I talk my voice sounds muffled.
However, when I put in the new APP3 using the medium tips and turn on ANC, it feels like the noise cancelling is maybe about 30% of what the APP2 is giving me. I can still hear cars driving by outside and if I talk I can hear my own voice relatively clearly. If I snap my fingers I hear a very clear transient “snap”. I should add that I have confirmed that ANC mode is on and that conversation awareness isn’t being triggered.
At this point I’ve tried all the tips and the results are the same. It is rather disappointing given the claims of vastly improved ANC that others are experiencing. I’ve tried turning off Personalized Spatial Audio and redoing the scan. No change.
I have some custom molded musician’s earplugs and have been comparing the shape of the molds to the geometry of the AAP3 tips. The only thing I can determine is that the shape of my ear canal is like a narrow and long ellipse compared to the APP3 tips which are wider and circular. On the APP2 tips you could squeeze the front of them to be very flat since the silicone is very compliant. However, the APP3 tips are much more rigid and structured due to the infused foam. It seems like they just don’t want to conform to the shape of my ear canal. It’s nearly impossible to squeeze them into the same narrow shape because the tip doesn’t protrude very far beyond the black protrusion on the main body. The APP2 formed a seal by the tips pressing up against the tissue around the ear canal. The APP3 seems to form its seal by the protruding tips going into the ear canal. My best assessment at this time is that if our ear canal doesn’t match what Apple has designed for us then we are going to get mediocre performance. I actually think these tips would perform better if they didn’t have foam infused in them. Then they would conform more.
If I have a faulty unit that would be an easy fix. But I think the reality is that I’m now in the 5-10% of customers whose ears don’t fit their design. My only hope is that there will be aftermarket tips that work better for my ears.
