“A recent firmware update to AirPods Pro was was meant to improve the audio quality overall, but seems to have reduced the ability to block some ambient noise at lower frequencies,” Wesley Hilliard writes for AppleInsider:
Apple released the affected firmware update on December 16, 2019, which may have reduced audio isolation performance. Audio review site Rtings performed a new round of tests to evaluate the AirPods Pro ANC while running the 2C54 update, and found that user complaints were accurate.
“After updating to Firmware [2C54], we retested the headphones and our results showed a fairly significant drop in isolation performance, primarily in the bass-range,” discovered Rtings.
The reduction in isolation has been directly attributed in Apple’s attempt to increase audio quality, and more specifically bass accuracy. Rtings also reflected this change saying that the result “showed a fairly significant improvement to bass accuracy.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has pulled this firmware update (2C54) and we expect the company will release an improved firmware update in fairly short order to restore AirPods Pro ANC to previous capabilities for those who’ve applied the 2C54 firmware.