I agree with this. I was actually shocked at how poor the quality sounded with the last firmware update. The sound was muddy and you couldn’t pick apart the individual instruments as easily. To me it sounded like 96kbps stuff at times even with some “Apple Digitial Masters”. This firmware update has separated the instruments better and the vocals are clearer too. It’s closer to CD quality to me but still room for improvement.
It’s a bit annoying that Apple can release a firmware update that we get no choice in upgrading to and we have to sit for months listening to bad quality sound because they messed up. I actually switched to using my PowerBeats Pro for a while because of it.
Ah, I meant to reply to this, yes, thought I was the only one.
3A283 was the worst update. 2D27 was okay, at least the NC was decent and instrument separation was tight. However, bass was garbage and sound felt too tinny/plugged. Narrow. And then 3A283 was bloated, muddy garbage and the NC took the largest check since the first Apple Knows Best update in 2019. So new update with decent sound staging + separation IMO makes them at least somewhat enjoyable because of the sound quality.
With respect to the whole update debacles more broadly, what's worse about updates is they don't really make any of these notable (IMO the mic gunk can't account for this because I've had multiple pairs I bought new with 2D27 that updated to new versions - immediate reduction in NC etc as reported by countless others!) or even remotely salient. It's like ****ing pissing in the wind.
Apple, either ****ing make it 95% of the way to perfect or give me 80% and a slider or 2 for the other 15%. This proposal isn't e.g. editing the goddamn kernel on iOS, it's a noise cancelling slider for earbuds. There's room for *something*, be it NC customization or a real equalizer, and right now, it just feels like they only nail convenience when they could nail more. It's not like AirPods Max, they've a real engineering advantage here, it seems - they're still by and far the most discrete earbuds I've ever used, they charge absurdly fast, and frankly the value is great in context, up and until recently had I been (hypothetical) asked + forced to pick between keeping my Watch Series 6 or AirPods Pro, then I'd be wearing a field watch right now, haha. IDK.
Really, I'm a bit confused by the inconsistency. This is all low-hanging fruit for the world's largest company. Luckily earbuds have some solid competition and I have no brand "loyalty" per se, but it's almost painful seeing good tech go to waste.
