The new tips (that’s my guess, at least) also transmit vibrations into your ears much more than the old tips or third party memory foam tips. This results in a popping noise when walking or moving around, and a horrible thumping sound when running with them in. I think the latter is partially caused by the “reduce loud noises” feature incorrectly identifying vibrations from heel strikes as loud noise.
I’m glad I’m apparently not the only one experiencing these issues. I hope they’re software fixable. I filed a bug report, but radio silence on that, of course. I would sing the praises of the second gen AirPods Pro to anyone who would listen, but the 3rd gen have been a huge disappointment. I had to buy a different set of headphones for running, whereas the second gen were my daily drivers. And I’ve been through three pair of the third gen, so it’s not a one-off issue.
However, unlike a lot of other commenters in this thread, I feel like the APP3 are a huge leap forward from the APP2 and have had zero regrets with the upgrade (other than the forced iOS 26 upgrade, but I feel like that's inevitable anyway.) They stay in much better, the fit is more comfortable, the battery life is better, the ANC probably drops background noise another 10db subjectively, and most of all, the sound quality is absolutely stellar. I have owned several midrange headphones and a portable DAC and I find myself preferring the AirPods over them. I haven't worn my Sennheisers since I got the APP3.
I have over-the-ear Momentum 3 and love it, but if APP3 provides better sound quality and better ANC I might consider switching as Momentum 3, while I love it, is bulky, heavy, and started to wear off and break down.
I'm using my Airpods Pro 3 with iOS 26 yes, but I stayed on macOS 15 (THANK GOD!) and I saw nothing unusual about using the new Airpods there except for the missing artwork.
It’s not ideal, I’ll grant you that.
While we may have some overlap in issues, I would say that the Airpods Pro 3 are incredible. I’ve ditched my Airpods Max entirely. The noise cancellation works too well, the sleep detection is a godsend, and the battery life is so good. I use my airpods to sleep. before, i’d always wake up to dead airpods. now, they have like 70% batteries when i wake up, because the sleep detection kicks in.
I’ll grant you that the ANC in the third gen is fantastic. I just felt like the second gen fit themselves into my routine, whereas I have to fiddle and futz with the third gen to get them just-so so that they don’t inhibit my routine.
You should be thankful you get a free reminder to stop heel striking
/uj figured a little running BS hear could be fun
I can’t recall now at this point, but I do recall the feeling that the different ways I played with and tested to understand the cause and symptoms of the noise, left me with a feeling that it was not a physical/hardware issue.
I suspect Apple even knows, with as many problems they’ve had with the AirPod pros; but that’s another story… when they had to replace mine one bud at a time, about 6 complete sets, i.e., over about 10 replacements or so… during the pandemic nonsense.
It's some kind of feedback. For some reason though I don't remember the first model having the issue.
I still love my APP3, and still have my APP2, but have not made a change back to them. I think they feel so much better in my hear with the new tips, and sound way better.
With the APP3, they are largely the same except with the louder tools (circular saw, cordless grinder) they produce a horrific feedback instead of canceling the noise. So much so that I switched back to my APP2 (which do not have this issue in back-to-back testing).
This REALLY irks me, as the APP3 are what forced the upgrade to iOS 26 (which is terribly misguided and under-baked), so I'm stuck with all of Apple's foibles and none of their wins.
Feel like I got punched in the gut and my lunch money stolen. Not a good feeling Apple.
I resisted, did not upgrade, and I have to suffer through Apple's spiteful treatment of my AirPods as "just another Bluetooth device". You can't even see the battery status, the battery widget will show three headphones (!). I find their attitude annoying and disturbing. There was no reason to degrade the experience.
In case anyone says "but new iOS is required to make use of the fancy new features/protocols/whatever" — that is not true for functionality that existed in AirPods 2. I know, because they didn't have the time to break things on the Mac, so my Airpods 3 work exactly the same on the Mac as Airpods 2 did: they show battery status as expected.
Of course you don’t get any speech boost to enable conversation with this setup. But no one else around me has passthrough either so I turn off my tools to talk the old fashioned way. :)
And as I wear glasses all hearing protection in the earmuff style block less noise than the APP3 - though I normally wear both.
I know about destructive interference in theory, but was always curious about the perceptual vs real SPL.
Whenever I’ve tried ANC (Bose) it’s always hurt my ears, even when quiet.
ANC is more for comfort than safety from what I understand.
Closed headphones or foam ear plugs would be better than earbuds with ANC. People have tried to create informal amateur NRR ratings for many consumer headphones, but since it's your only pair of ears in my opinion it makes sense to go for officially rated hearing protection.
If you have sensitive ears you can tell ANC works by playing audio and that it's far from perfect. In very loud environments there's also the risk that a damaged earbud will squeal or feedback, disabling noise protection and exposing your ear to the full brunt of the loud noise.
I can say I've used ANC in-ear and over-ear of various implementations for years without experiencing discomfort typically associated with ANC 'pressure'.
All three have been a miss. Noise cancelling is much the same and seems to leak higher pitch noises more. Mic is more or less still bad and the live translation only works in doors in a quiet room.
And I resent the upgrade to 26 and all of the bugs like phantom notifications.
They’re still good ear buds and the noise cancelling is valuable but I shouldn’t have made the upgrade from the 2 pros.
Ahh lastly, it seems the case battery depletes much faster now too.
I've had the opposite experience with noise cancelling though, the APP3 feel like magic when I'm working with power tools - better than any other (passive) ear protection I've tried in Noise Cancellation mode, and still enough protection in Transparency mode that I can use my circular saw without any discomfort. I did experience a little of what you're mentioning the other day, but only when my Airpods (and head) were close to the tool. I thought it might be back EMF.
I have no complaints with my APP3 other than the forced iOS upgrade. I feel like they fit much better than the APP2, I have had far fewer incidences of them working their way out. And sound quality is a huge leap forward IMO. Best IEMs I have ever heard.
Interesting, I had no issue pairing despite not being on iOS 26. The only things I noticed was that they didn't show up in the Find My app (which is pretty bad) and that I didn't get the shortcut to the airpods settings on the main setting page and had to go through the bluetooth menu instead, otherwise I could pair and do everything I normally did. Tbh, I didn't even notice an issue until I read online about the two things I mentioned...
Might be worth trying different ear tips or asking for a replacement if software updates don’t improve it.
The noise cancellation also feels a bit more variable - when it's good it's significantly better, but sometimes I get cycles or loops where the algo doesn't seem to be working right.
I was mulling over getting custom tips, but it's a good reminder it might just be easier to downgrade.
But yes, odd to hear that other people also have issues with the left ear fit, because they must be identical shapes. I wonder if human physiology averages to the left ear being smaller or something. Although I feel like the right ear falls out more easily if I switch to the small tips...
[0] https://store.azla.co.kr/collections/sednaearfit-series/prod...
[1] https://store.azla.co.kr/collections/airpod-pro-ear-tips/pro...
Edit: I didn't know the Crystal ones existed until posting this, so ordering some now to see if they're the best of both worlds. If I remember, I'll report back.
I buy Comply 600 Core Series (size medium), tear the comply foam off the plastic tube, then place the foam around the Apple silicone tips (size large).
None of the Apple tips on their own seal correctly, nor do any of the numerous third-party tips that I've tried, including hybrid silicone/foam tips.
I get about 6 months out of the foam and they fit in the charging case modified like this.
Concurring with sibling, AZLA does make good aftermarket tips. I have my Airpods Pro 2 in my work bag and still use their "crystal" tips.
Doesn't that get exhausting? I used to have a job where I'd be on a plane every week and I couldn't hack it. It's supposed to be liberating to travel but basically just seeing the inside of a plane, taxi, meeting room and hotel room every day it was more like a moving prison. Sometimes I'd sneak out to walk through these strange places. But often I'd be forced to attend boring business dinners.
My last business flight was in 2018 and I don't miss it at all :) I even cancelled my corporate amex since I never use it anymore. And these guys keep asking for copies of ID and stuff for tax records or something (completely stupid because yes I'm still the same person duhhh) so in the end I just rolled my eyes and told them to stuff it where the sun don't shine :P
That slight difference in agency and relational availability turns into a giant gap in feelings though, I agree. I’ve done the kind of travel you describe in my younger days and found it a mix of masochistically engaging and depression inducing.
Edit: Or an exaggeration I hope! The guy looks to be in private equity.
In feedback systems, the gain is a function of frequency, and typically decreases when going from low frequency to high frequency. This is often accompanied by a phase delay.
So if the overall gain of the system is high enough, there will be some high frequency where the gain is 1, and the phase is 180 degrees. This would result in positive feedback, amplifying noise at that frequency.
Maybe that’s what’s happening in the latest AirPods? If Apple is aggressive cranking up the gain of the noise cancellation system, there’s some high frequency where the noise gets amplified rather than suppressed.
The solution would be to either reduce the gain (which reduces the noise cancellation), or to add some differential gain in the system which pushes out the unity gain frequency to higher frequencies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound#Altitude_variat...
If they were calibrated assuming a certain distance from the microphone that "hears" what the wearer's ear is hearing and the ear itself, then it's possible a change in air density could position the area of highest constructive interference at the eardrum instead of the intended destructive interference for some frequencies.
Technically the speed of sound does vary with density, but as you change altitude there's also a change in pressure which exactly cancels that out. In the end only temperature and gas composition alter the speed of sound.
As long as you're inside the plane (and hopefully it's not 217 K or -70 °F, per the graph) then the speed of sound should be unchanged.
"if A is the gain of the amplifying element in the circuit and β(jω) is the transfer function of the feedback path, so βA is the loop gain around the feedback loop of the circuit, the circuit will sustain steady-state oscillations only at frequencies for which:
1: The loop gain is equal to unity in absolute magnitude, that is, |βA|=1, and 2: the phase shift around the loop is zero or an integer multiple of 2π: ∠βA=2πn,n∈{0,1,2,…}"
I just tested this myself and the two ways that I am able to get consistent squealing (stroking the upper body when in-ear and cupping them in the hand) both fail to replicate when ANC is off. So this does point to a feedback issue.
My other thought is that the APP3 may have microphones located next to the drivers in the ear canal, both for measuring fit, and for the new "own voice amplification" feature that appears in hearing control center if you enable Hearing Assistance. Maybe vibration is leaking through the body to the inner microphone.
I've never much got on with in-ear rubber tips, and these were no different to any I've tried, despite reviews stating they were super comfortable.
My left ear is also worse to get it fitting right than my right ear. I have tried every size provided, none seem right. A grimace in the gym is enough to unseat even the most secure fit/seal, in either ear.
My main gripes specifically with AirPods Pro 3, which I've not seen in any other review;
- Because the rubber tips vary in size, the case has to accommodate the largest. This means if you're using small tips, there's a lot of spare room, which means the AirPods can easily be mis-seated, breaking the charge connection.
- The case is substantially bigger than AirPods 4 with ANC. I would say ~40%.
- The volume swipe on the stalk action is very tricky to trigger.
- Any stalk action is a bad idea when it's so easy to unseat them. I skip songs with a double press regularly, and nearly every time I had to push in and rotate after.
That's a shame since it's literally impossible to get that deep sub bass or punchy mid bass without a seal. But if you're not into genres that sound better with that, then you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
I've used many headphones - probably upwards of 10 pairs cross 5 brands - in my day with rubber tips that can accommodate multiple sizes. This has never been a problem for me with any brand. I've switched to open ear headphones (over-ear for flights) since last year so my knowledge base is aging.
Is the magnetic action in Apple's case not strong enough, maybe?
Since it seems to be an ANC issue it should be fixable in software.
Glad to see I'm not the only one at least, and hopefully this will be possible to fix as a software update, rather than having to replace the AirPods.
I am surprised by the general negative sentiment for the 3s in this thread. They've felt like a straight and clear upgrade to me. Better fit, better ANC, and much improved battery life. I typically wear mine almost all day so comfort is hugely important to me.
It’s not just an apple problem, but expensive tech just doesn’t seem to work well. generally apple were kinda the gold standard, now they’re having issues like a lot of tech.
Just goes to show how negative opinions travel fast.
Of course, that doesn't mean it can't suffice for the average user.
I understand though that not everyone wins the ear hole lottery. For some the 2s may fit better than the 3's and vice versa. It's interesting to me that Apple made such a large fit change without considering 2's are simply better for some people fit wise.
I immediately ran out and bought aftermarket foam tips for my 2's since the silicone ones never stayed in. Apple is likely trying to fix that kind of problem (and may have done so on average entirely successfully) but now you're seeing the people that it doesn't work for show up in these comments. This comment section is going to be biased towards complaining about the 3's so you can't really judge if what they did was effective or not on average, only that clearly it wasn't perfect.
Apple doesn't deserve the share price it enjoys.
This entire cycle of Apple releases is riddled with puzzling defects - the super scratchable iPhone Pros, the condensation issues on the Air lenses, the Airpod fit and weird noise cancelling issues. I don't recall this level of weird basic defects since the first unibody macs or the butterfly keyboard debacle. Wonder what caused it...
I'm using some Apple products, and I'm concerned about the drop in quality. Soon they won't differ much from yet another, Chinese company.
He said that it goes away when he yawns, so I'm thinking it might be the pressure differential.
The seal might be so good that a small pressure differential happens as cabin pressure drops, which causes some issue with the microphone or speaker. Yawning might break that seal, or otherwise cause pressure equalization. Why only the left one? Apple might put some kind of special signal diagnostics or sensors in that side that bugs out under those conditions, or maybe human anatomy on the left side is consistently subtley different in a set of people.
Because this doesn't happen to everybody it could be some kind of "instrument effect" where the particular shape of someone's ear canal, and the interaction with their ear drum and the speakers and sensors in the app creates this tone, likely assisted by the constant driving signal of air cabin white noise.
That's my guess. I'm very sensitive to pressure changes and I know that cabin pressure on most planes is not constant even when cruising. It's in a range that most people won't notice but it definitely fluctuates near constantly within that band.
The AirPods Pro 2 don’t have this same issue. I can’t reproduce the same behavior regardless of how I cover the exterior on the pro 2s.
Headphones are the cans that cup your ears and strap around or over the head. Hence their name.
Whereas earphones go inside your ear.
Earphones sounds antiquated. I could picture my father saying, "Let me connect my earphones to my gramophone so I don't disturb your grandmother."
I could replicate it immediately at will. ANC on, nothing playing, sat on the driver seat and closed my door with a little bit of force.
The problem is it comes through as an extremely loud rumble, usually in only one ear at a time.
Not a high pitched squeal, but a low pitched rumble. Goes away if I remove and reinsert, but immediately comes back in short order.
I can make it go away but only by using tips that don’t fit as well, and therefore don’t reduce noise as well (and also fall out of my ears while running).
So perhaps sealing your ears does not allow your ears to "pop" from the cabin pressure changes?
I'm fairly new to the Apple ecosystem, so it's quite confusing. I've tried raising an issue with warranty, but I could absolutely not find a place to do it(I had a few tries, installed some app, but I wasn't able to create anything that wouldn't be visited in the shop, just a support request)
And I am surprised that, if they did do the testing, they shipped anyway.
But I am becoming less and less surprised via-à-vis Apple problems, because they seem to be occurring with increasing frequency.
Apple, take note.
The seal also changes with any significant jaw movement (which I also do a lot in-flight normally) — noticeable degradation of noise cancellation, which then goes away (not sure if its the foam or anc adjusting).
Tried to use my AirPods Pro 2 earhooks, which partially solved it - although at the cost of that crispy sound. Found best to just wipe the AirPods dry/gently blow around the grills before adjusting (which makes them unusable for running unless you’re willing to stop all the time).
Such a shame every APP iteration has some noticeable flaw. And especially when they solved a similar problem between the first and the second gen.
A minority of users might encounter a flaw in a corner case, but if that's an important corner case, it's a defect: IE, Airpods might only be used on flights 1% of the time, but for the people who use them on flights, it's a very important (and hyper-critical) use case.
https://helpguide.sony.net/mdr/wh1000xm4/v1/en/contents/TP00...
Is the automatic connection and switching between devices equivalent?
- Certain type of noise, like strongly vibrating idioit cars and idiot motorbikes also create some very painful feedback noise that makes me take them out when I need them most.
- I too experienced this horrible screeching, but I wasn't doing anything specialy. Cupping them made it worse, taking the out and in again did not help. I put them back in the case and a few hours later this issue disappeared.
To me, the APP3 feel half broken and dangerous, I regret buying them, I wish I would have bought just another set of APP2.
It was one of the most anticipated Apple upgrades of all times and they dropped the ball.
Now I wonder, what could "cleverness-shaped ears" possibly look like? Also funny: my ears can't hold earphones, they just eject them every time I change my facial expression or talk or what-not.
Apple has a serious reality distortion field about it. For normal products this would have been a return. See recent "Apple allows icon opacity adjustment".
My main complaint is the onboarding process really pushes you to install their app. It is entirely unnecessary (can configure them by various tap codes) but still annoying they don't tell you that until you install the app...
The form factor is ridiculous by APP2 standards. There’s a corded stick that I assume has all the components in it as back then they wouldn’t fit in earbuds themselves. That’s apples main innovation. But, honestly, when I’m on a flight I will take a 10% performance boost over a slicker design or smaller form factor. My guess is they’re at least 50% better and only slightly inferior to over the ear ones.
All said, I usually just take my over the ear bose on a flight. I got the APP2 specifically for that purpose but they are awful in my opinion. About once a year I make the mistake of trying them out again and immediately regret it before the plane even starts taxiing.
Without playing any music the ANC is stellar, but this bug means the buds are basically unusable as they require reseating in the ear, or toggling to transparency and back to ANC, after a few seconds of listening (if in an environment which has any sort of constant low freq noise)
Also, transparency mode felt more "natural" in APP1 in comparison to APP3. Currently it feels like a downgrade from APP1 (unfortunately my pair of APP1 broke recently), because I used transparency a lot and it feels worse
Anecdotally I’ve done four 11+ hour flights with them so far and they’ve been super solid on the plane - no issues there.
Edit: here’s what I mean - https://youtube.com/shorts/VvEjetlYwa8
But since then I've had two pairs of airpods pro 2 and bought the 3s on the first day, and I've had no such issues with any of them, including sleeping, and flying twice with the 3's so far. YMMV
The seal might have improved for me the more I used the same eartips
It amazes me what people are willing to suffer merely because Apple makes it. Flights are one of the core ANC competencies, it boggles the mind that this wasn't found during testing.
Respect the commitment to the craft!
Also useful / timely knowledge for me, thank you. I have a big international trip with multiple longhaul flights coming up and was debating if I should upgrade my airpods or consider something else (e.g. overear headphones). Do folks have overear recommendations?
Pro 3 is a step backwards, there are these ANC noise issues not only on flights but also during heal-strikes when running down a hill, a staticky thump rather than high-pitched.
I've also had other more rare feedback issues. The Pro2s basically never had feedback issues unless you actually rubbed the outside of them.
With the Apple XS tips, which otherwise fit well for me, any yawn means the APP3 fall out.
At the higher cabin altitude, the foam is going to expand slightly, messing up the fit?
I have Airpods Max for that. ;)
You screwed up by trying so hard to make fundamentally anti-ear designs with the pros.
AirPods Pro 2 was already perfect. I don't know why Apple chose to "upgrade" it whereas AirPods Max, AirTags, and the Studio Display are all over due for an upgrade.
Of course you do. If they do not constantly upgrade, there are no new sales. Charts must go up, not stay flat. As an example, the venerable Technics 1200 turntable only had a few version releases for fairly minor cosmetic usability items. The core functionality did not change since it was designed. Those versions came with years in between. You buy a pair of those, and you only replaced them when they were stolen. If something broke, you repaired it. Apple's share holders will not be happy with buy once keep forever items.
The 3s have been an improvement on the 2s for me, especially in fit and feel in ear.
I use them mainly for running, and after I accidentally put my Pro 2s through a washer/dryer cycle, I ordered the Pro 3s, but I've noticed they feel heavier in the ears and make this annoying loud thumping sound every time my foot hits the ground, making them almost unusable for my primary purpose
Also sometimes I fall asleep in bed with them while listening to a podcast, and have experienced the same painfully loud screeching as described by the article when the microphones brush against the pillow
I'm always reminded of dystopian stories by Doctorow et al. when the frequency of brand name usage exceeds a certain threshold, and this article certainly did that.
One mitigation strategy we found effective was implementing dynamic frequency hopping with adaptive channel selection. By monitoring RSSI levels and packet loss rates across different channels (typically seeing -85 to -95 dBm on crowded channels vs -65 to -75 dBm on clear ones), we could proactively switch to less congested frequencies. This reduced dropout rates by about 70% in high-interference environments.
The real challenge is balancing frequency agility with audio latency - each hop adds ~2-3ms of overhead. Has anyone experimented with using the 5GHz band for wireless audio? The higher frequency would mean more attenuation but potentially much less interference.
Also: battery life is VASTLY improved on the APP 3. Rated time is 8 hrs and I'm getting closer to 9.
I don't think "realize" is the right word here. "Realize" would require them to have been affected by this issue but unaware. Instead, they were not affected with their previous models, only with the new ones.
