AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation: why is no one saying it’s an engineering miracle?

You’re probably reading this on a phone in your hand, or maybe on a laptop on your coffee table, and you have no idea – none – what blood, sweat and tears as engineers strive to deliver the buttery smooth product you are using right now.

Before you got your hands on it, engineers were probably hard at work, pulling their hair out and screaming obscenities, solving hardware problems that were driving them crazy. But there’s always a “Eureka!” moment when the brains realize that spark of a light bulb, bringing you the market-ready gadget you use effortlessly today.

For example, I spoke with engineers who faced the difficult task of balancing the heat production of powerful components with portability — a recurring problem in devices like headsets, gaming laptops, phones, and more.

This time around, I was able to speak with two of the leaders behind the new AirPods 4 to take a peek through the peephole at how the new earbuds were created, particularly the one with active noise cancellation.

First, some background on the AirPods 4

Apple recently unveiled the new AirPods 4 with two iterations: a without active noise cancellation ($129) and a with active noise cancellation ($179).

You may shrug your shoulders and think, “So what? What’s the problem?”

Well, before the AirPods 4 came out, if you wanted ANC, you had to get the more expensive AirPods Pro line. There’s also the entry-level, non-Pro AirPods line (the lineage the AirPods 4 descend from) that sounded great, but didn’t offer zero ANC.

After all, the entry-level AirPods lineup has an open-ear design, which makes ANC more complicated. Unlike the AirPods Pro, which have silicone tips that seal the ear canal to facilitate ANC, the non-Pro AirPods don’t. But somehow, Apple managed to achieve this with the AirPods 4.

And having tested these earbuds on a plane myself, I can say that they really do perform very well. So the question is, how did Apple manage to do this? I ended up asking the AirPods team myself.

ANC on AirPods 4 was a challenge

“It’s amazing all the elements that have to be balanced,” Eric Treski, Apple’s director of AirPods product marketing, told Mashable of the AirPods 4. “It’s the size of the battery versus its life, and the sound quality, which includes noise cancellation,” and more.

Not to mention that our ears are very sensitive, Treski added, which makes it difficult to include all of these internal components in a tiny form factor like the AirPods 4. without providing comfort to the average user.

But the real The challenge, Treski said, was to ensure that active noise cancellation doesn’t affect the music you’re listening to.

In other words, without going into too much detail, active noise cancellation works by the device “monitoring” external noise and emitting an inverted sound wave, or what Treski calls “antiphase,” to neutralize or cancel out the external cacophony.

Let’s say you’re listening to “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter. The challenge is to make sure the noise-canceling signal filters out background noise without disrupting the song or diminishing its sound quality.

However, the AirPods team managed to avoid this problem thanks to “algorithms and filtering,” Treski said, as well as the H2 chip – the processor that the new AirPods 4 earbuds adopted from the AirPods Pro line.

And that’s not the only thing the AirPods 4 borrowed from the Pro family.

“One of the ANC microphones (in the AirPods 4) is from the ‘Pro’ product,” said Kate Bergeron, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering, adding that it’s a high-quality microphone that’s ideal for the open-ear design of the fourth-generation earbuds.

Speed ​​of Light Mashable

Since the AirPods 4 form factor is, for lack of a better word, more “waterproof” than the AirPods Pro, the H2 chip has to work harder than inside the Pro model to run ANC — but it gets the job done.

“If you don’t have very good microphones, you’ll hear a slight hiss,” Treski added. “That’s why we have exceptional microphones.”

The noise-canceling microphone monitors what you hear 200 times per second. Through a process called “adaptive equalization,” it ensures that sound distortions caused by noise cancellation and other factors are corrected as soon as possible.

Having listened to “Espresso” on the ANC-enabled AirPods 4 many times, I can confirm that the H2 chip and microphones did their job. The sound quality is spot on and the ANC is impressive.

But the ANC wasn’t the only hurdle Apple had to overcome.

Transparency mode is not an easy task either

“Transparency seems so simple and easy,” Treski said. Unlike ANC, Transparency mode accentuates the ambient noise around you, so it can’t be that difficult to implement, isn’t it?

Fake!

“It’s a real challenge because you have to make sure it sounds natural,” Treski says. “Not just the ambient noise, but also your own voice when you’re speaking.”

Additionally, Transparency mode should perform this task flawlessly with “extremely low latency.” Otherwise, there would be too much lag between sounds and what you see.

Despite this challenge, Apple has managed to refine Transparency mode to seamlessly blend environmental sounds with what you hear through the AirPods. The result is a more natural experience, where voices and ambient noise flow smoothly, making it feel like you’re not wearing headphones at all.

How did Apple discover the best solution for “most”?

For some, AirPods fit perfectly, and for others, like me, not so much.

I think I’m one of those people who has “weird ears.” Bergeron assured me that’s not the case. “If you look at people’s ears, they’re totally different in every aspect of their physiology,” she said.

“People often tell us, ‘The Pro isn’t right for me,’ or ‘The AirPods 3 aren’t right for me,’” Bergeron added. “And we want to learn from the challenges people face.”

To find out, Apple did some extensive research to find a “one size fits all” shape on the AirPods 4.

As mentioned in Apple’s “Glowtime” keynote that introduced the AirPods 4, Apple analyzed thousands of ear shapes, relying on advanced technologies like 3D photogrammetry and laser topography, which accumulated more than 50 million data points to refine the earbuds’ design.

“We’ve developed a relatively efficient way to scan people’s ears using our own tools so that we can build this database (and continue to find the ‘best solution’) on an ongoing basis,” Bergeron said.

After putting the AirPods 4 in my ears, I was relieved to find that they didn’t come out of my ear canal or fall out. Even when I shook my head violently from side to side, they stayed in place as if they were holding on for dear life in a windstorm.

What’s next for AirPods?

Out of curiosity, I asked what Apple had planned for the next AirPods, like the AirPods 5 or AirPods Pro 3, for example. Apple representatives, as expected, declined to answer.

However, Treski concluded the interview with some food for thought.

“When you think about Apple Intelligence and Siri, and how it becomes ‘one,’” Treski said, “it’s just so natural, right?”

“So that’s kind of the journey that we’re on to really, you know, extend it further, which is why Siri Interactions is also a great time and a great opportunity to interact with Apple Intelligence today,” he said.

By the way, Siri Interactions lets you reject calls and texts, as well as accept them, simply by shaking your head to say “no” or nodding your head to say “yes.” This feature is available on AirPods 4 without ANC and with ANC.

The AirPods 4 lineup, starting at $129, is available for preorder now and will hit stores on September 20.

UPDATED: September 20, 2024, 2:34 p.m. EDT A quote from Eric Treski has been edited for clarity.