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How good is the ANC supposed to be on AirPods Pro?

H

helloapple1

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 20, 2020
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I picked up a pair of AirPods Pro a week ago and have mostly been using the ANC feature when wearing them, but I can still hear a faint amount of sound from the outside (ex: tv on, people talking in the other room, fan near me). It made me wonder if I got a defective unit since I don't have another pair of Pro's to compare to.

The ear fit test gave me a green for both ears on the medium tips and overall the Pro's fit my ears perfectly.

I'm just wondering if it's normal that I can still hear some sound from the outside with ANC on or if the ANC feature of the AirPods Pro is supposed to be better than this? What are everyone's experiences?
 
I have rarely gotten the "ear fit test" to work on my Pros on both the medium and large tips. (Small just kept getting loose in my ears.)
To me the ANC works at muffling sounds - but never gets rid of them. We just flew (first time since Covid) and while some of airplane noise was blocked, but general motor exhaust sounds came through but muffled.
Some people here suggested getting foam tips to replace the Apple silicone ones to improve the ANC. I tried one company but to me they were less comfortable and I heard no difference in the quality of the noise cancellation and the general sound.
 
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Noise cancellation works fine for me with my AirPods Pro but I don't expect perfect silence or all sounds 100% eliminated. A small amount still gets through, which I"m ok with.

I would expect that over-ear headphones such as AirPods Max would be quite a bit more effective, given that your ears are fully enclosed and the sound isolation will be accomplished by not just noise cancellation but also the headphones themselves. If I wanted 100% elimination of noises, or very close to that, I would be trying out AirPods Max and similar competitors.
 
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Thank you everyone for sharing your experience. Seems like my pair is fine then. I didn’t know what I was expecting with ANC so I’m glad everyone is experiencing the same sort of thing as me.
 
Is it normal to be able to hear myself typing on the M1 MacBook Air with ANC turned on on the AirPods Pro? Could anyone test themselves typing and see if they hear it too?
 
helloapple1 said:
Is it normal to be able to hear myself typing on the M1 MacBook Air with ANC turned on on the AirPods Pro? Could anyone test themselves typing and see if they hear it too?
Click to expand...
ANC can't do anything about typing noises, so yes it's normal. (I do hear my typing)
 
helloapple1 said:
I picked up a pair of AirPods Pro a week ago and have mostly been using the ANC feature when wearing them, but I can still hear a faint amount of sound from the outside (ex: tv on, people talking in the other room, fan near me). It made me wonder if I got a defective unit since I don't have another pair of Pro's to compare to.

The ear fit test gave me a green for both ears on the medium tips and overall the Pro's fit my ears perfectly.

I'm just wondering if it's normal that I can still hear some sound from the outside with ANC on or if the ANC feature of the AirPods Pro is supposed to be better than this? What are everyone's experiences?
Click to expand...
It’s like that with all brands.

Noise cancellation is kind of a misnomer. It’s like shutting a window. You can still hear the guy mowing his lawn next door, but it’s much, much quieter.
 
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The ANC on AirPods Pro is merely okay IMO. Decent for the size and convenience, nothing more nothing less.

On a flight or in a noisy environment, Sony XM4’s/Bose/AirPods Max etc are vastly superior (as they ought to be). I’m only saying this as sometimes I’ve read people saying the APP are as good as over ears, which leaves me absolutely mystified.
 
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yegon said:
On a flight or in a noisy environment, Sony XM4’s/Bose/AirPods Max etc are vastly superior (as they ought to be).
Click to expand...
For the noise that cannot be actively removed, the passive noise reduction of over the ear headphones can be much better than in the ear headphones. That's the difference. But you pay a penalty in weight and portability. It's a trade-off.
 
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I felt like my ANC wasn’t working as well as it should since there was little difference between having ANC on/off so I contacted Apple and they’re sending me a replacement as soon as I send them these ones back.
 
perezr10 said:
It’s like that with all brands.

Noise cancellation is kind of a misnomer. It’s like shutting a window. You can still hear the guy mowing his lawn next door, but it’s much, much quieter.
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Well put! I've used noise canceling headphones exclusively for the past few years, (Sony WH-1000XM3, WF-1000XM3, AirPods Pro, and now the WF-1000XM4) and used custom-molded IEMs (Sensaphonics 2X-S; -26db attenuation of background noise) before that, and I'm still waiting for complete and utter silence. I have a feeling I'm going to be waiting for a very long time. 😭

Edit - that said, as someone who "suffers" from misophonia, any amount of ANC is better than nothing. Lol
 
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It has been pretty good for me, I will get to test even more since I am doing some travel on a plane, train and automobile in the middle of August.

I cannot hear myself type on either my 2013 MBP or my BT Apple Keyboard.

Caveat, I do not use the standard silicon tips, I own a set of dekoni bulletz which give me a much better fit, any size silicon tip would fall out.

Also, for putting the pros in my ears, I put them in with the stalk facing straight down, then as I insert I twist to have them aim towards my chin.
 
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It was dead silence back in the days when Apple released them.
Then they start to get worse by every firmware.
 
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