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Comment by seemaze | Hacker News Reader

I frequently use my AirPods Pro when working in my shop. Previously the APP2 did a great job of reducing loud tool noise and I could mostly still listen to music or podcasts at reasonable levels.

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.

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> the APP3 are what forced the upgrade to iOS 26

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.

Are you saying they REMOVED functionality that was previously in place? That is indeed spiteful if so.

I'll say, I recommend my Honeywell sync earmuffs for the workshop. They block more noise, have a physical volume knob and accessible buttons, and best of all, the microphone is also noise cancelling directly, meaning you can usually have a conversation with someone while using a power tool or mowing the lawn without much issue. APP2 or 3 for me has never been able to displace these.

Thanks for the recommendation, you're probably correct that I should be using a product specifically designed for the environment. I'll check them out.

Fwiw sometimes I wear my APP2 inside my cheap passive 3M earmuffs haha. For an hour or two of use it’s been comfortable enough that I can listen and also attenuate loud tool noise e.g. a weed trimmer.

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. :)

Interestingly, I have yet to find I have the horrible feedback problem people are talking about in this thread with my APP3, but I do in my Honeywell syncs, about 1 day in 3.

And as I wear glasses all hearing protection in the earmuff style block less noise than the APP3 - though I normally wear both.

Are you sure that the perceived reduction in noise corresponds to a reduction in damaging sound pressure levels?

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.

My personal rule is that the sound level should be comfortable without ANC. So, if the sound is physically dampened sufficiently by the earbuds or headphones even when ANC is disabled, I'm happy.

ANC is more for comfort than safety from what I understand.

I can't say that the feedback causes damaging levels of noise, and its possible that my hearing is still protected, but the feedback that is produced is so uncomfortable that I involuntarily pulled them out of my ears.. which is not a great reaction with power tools in hand.

Apple does market 'Hearing Protection' as a feature of the AirPods Pro. https://support.apple.com/en-us/120850

Looking at the ANSI Datasheet, it seems like it's not really suited to the sounds coming from all power tools since they can reach or exceed 110 dBA:

> The Hearing Protection feature is not suitable for protection against extremely loud impulse sounds, such as gunfire, fireworks, or jackhammers, or against sustained sounds louder than 110 dBA.

I suppose if you know your tools operate at 110 dBA or lower levels, you're good to go. The feedback is bizarre though... Hopefully Apple resolves that with a firmware update!

Edit: It looks like it can safely attenuate sound at 110 dBA for 16 to 63 hours. That's impressive!

I'm not, and should probably get a more specific product as recommended by abakker.

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'.

Active noise cancellation does not provide noise reduction and active noise cancellation headphones generally don't have official NRRs.

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.

> foam ear plugs

I tried them for several weeks, everyday and ended up with annoying ear infections. Also they are quite uncomfortable to wear when sleeping.

Apple provides SNR values for ANC on the APP3 https://regulatoryinfo.apple.com/hearingprotection/details/6...

I feel a bit the same. I rushed out to upgrade for the better noise cancelling, apparently better mic quality and live translation feature.

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.

Apple has done some really shady marketing about live translation because it's also supported on the AirPods Pro 2. It's clear they don't want people to know that to drive the upgrade to the 3s.

Which shady marketing? Because I found out about the APPro 2 support from Apple.

Seems like you should try and get a replacement

100% agree with the required update to 26, I was hugely bummed when I discovered I had to update my devices to pair them.

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.

Huh, that's a good counter point. Perhaps something has changed between APP2 and APP3 that make them more susceptible to EMF, or maybe I have a bad pair. I'll attempt a replacement and see where we land.

i own app3 and have not updated it asks you and warns you some ai features won't work but they pair and function fine after that.

For myself, the two features (which are not iOS 26 related) are being able to see them in FindMy, and having access to case sound and battery notification volume options.

> 100% agree with the required update to 26, I was hugely bummed when I discovered I had to update my devices to pair them.

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...

When I tried to pair mine out of the box it initiated an "Update to iOS 26!" workflow and wouldn't let me pair until I did. Also, after I updated my iPhone and paired them to my iPad Pro, still on iPadOS 18, they just showed up as generic bluetooth headphones with none of the ANC or Hearing Assist features available.

Apple always releases a point release for the last version at the same time as a new major release. It's possible you had to install either 26 or the new point release for 18, but the UI doesn't explain you have that option.

Having to jump to iOS 26 just to use the new hardware, only to find out it's not up to par, makes it feel like a double hit

Anecdotally, my APP3 have worked much better then expected when I worked with a drill and jigsaw this weekend. No weird noises and much more NC than the 2 had.

Might be worth trying different ear tips or asking for a replacement if software updates don’t improve it.

hearing aids, in general, have the some problems and they operate on similar principles - sound is isolated physically, and the outside world is transmitted digitally to the ear/ANC when needed.

you need to stay up to date to protect against 0 click hacks in the wild

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