Confirmed: Latest AirPods Max Firmware Update‌ Degrades Active Noise Cancellation

AirPods Max firmware labeled “4E71″has reduced the strength of active noise cancellation, blocking out less noise between mid and high bass.

• What is happening? Testing has confirmed that in the latest AirPods Max firmware, noise cancellation is less effective than before.
• Why care? Software updates usually fix broken things, not reduce functionality.
• What to do? Hope the next update will improve the performance of this feature.

Why has Active Noise Cancellation gone soft on AirPods Max?

RTings.com recently updated its $550 Apple Over-Ear Wireless Test, which measures things like noise isolation, leakage performance, recording quality, noise cancellation, and more. The site found that in the latest AirPods firmware, active noise cancellation is a little worse than before.

As MacRumors points out, it’s not entirely clear why Apple adjusted the performance of active noise cancellation in the latest update. Does the company plan to restore the effectiveness of the feature in a future update?

We don’t know yet. However, we do know that it’s not uncommon for AirPods software updates to adjust the amount of blocked noise as Apple continues to refine its sound calculation algorithm.

It doesn’t sound right at all

The Verge identified a decrease in the effectiveness of active noise cancellation in AirPods Max in September 2022, when writer Omar Shakir noted that the active noise cancellation feature “became soft”after installing the firmware.

My wife and I often work from home, and for several days my AirPods Max were excellent at making her business calls inaudible to me, banishing corgi barks coming from under my desk to hell, and audibly shutting off a high-rise construction site from the outside. window of my apartment.

Yes, it looks like Apple’s noise canceling feature.

But now active noise cancellation is like what I would call a librarian’s transparency mode: it lets me hear the world around me clearly, but lowers the volume for everything. Now I hear everything I don’t want and I’m convinced it’s because of that firmware update.

Well, that doesn’t sound right at all.

The next firmware may improve noise reduction

Before The Verge drew attention to this issue, Reddit had been talking about it for months, with one user complaining that he could hear himself typing and other outside noises he couldn’t hear before the update.

Apple released AirPods firmware version 4E71 on May 10, 2022.

Apple is currently testing a new AirPods firmware. When it is launched publicly, we will have the opportunity to check if there are any changes in the performance of active noise cancellation.