So, to combat this, the AirPods microphone shifts from AAC codec to SOC codec (System on Chip). Once it supports the AAC codec for audio output, it doesn’t have enough space to support another AAC codec for input (or microphone). With that said, Bluetooth’s bandwidth is rather limited.

Fortunately, Bluetooth can support the AAC codec and facilitate wireless transmission for sound output.

This ensures that the audio output of AirPods is as good as promised. They come with the AAC Codec (Advanced Audio Coding), an audio coding standard that delivers better quality sound than MP3 encoders at the same bit rate. ( The microphone has also been known to make your voice robotic at times, but that’s a topic for another article.)Īs we’ve mentioned, AirPods are not completely at fault for the muffled microphone. However, it is admittedly disappointing (and irritating) to spend a significant sum of your hard-earned money on expensive earbuds such as AirPods- in hopes of fabulous performance- only to be met with something less than average. Therefore, the poor thing is not to be blamed entirely! The mic ends up delivering below-par performance only because of the aforementioned Codec and Bluetooth’s incompatible bandwidth. After all, Apple is a company that’s been around the block a few times and knows what it is designing. To be clear, the AirPods microphone is not “bad”, per se. However, for input, they have to shift from AAC to SOC Codec due to Bluetooth’s inability to support high-quality input and output at the same time.Īs a result, the output becomes compromised, and your voice ends up sounding muffled or distorted through the microphone.

The SOC Codec deals with the microphone’s audio transmission and is a basic setting for Mac devices.ĪirPods themselves actually have an AAC codec, which delivers high-quality sound output. It turns out that the mic’s poor performance (and the reason why AirPods sound muffled) is due to them having to be converted to 8 to 16 kHz SOC Codec. The internet is full of users who have the same complaint:īeing that Apple AirPods are a highly-priced product, the subpar mic quality is a surprise that has many trying to discover the cause. However, if the masses are to be believed, it appears that the high-performance aspect may be limited solely to the sound output and not the input as well. AirPods and AirPods Pro are premium earbuds designed by Apple to provide high-quality sound delivery.

Airpods mac microphone not working