This was recorded in a room with no ambient noise. This makes the buds unusable in calls. Do i have a dud or is this expected?
I think I’m experiencing the same issue and decided to troubleshoot a bit after getting comments on the “poor” (cutting out) microphone quality during my first test call.
I think the noise suppression is perhaps too aggressive or the microphone sensitivity is a bit too low by default. The “cutting out” of the microphone like you demonstrated happened also when recording locally without being in a call. Speaking a bit louder and projecting my voice made a big difference here and this stopped my voice from cutting out, but its obviously not an ideal solution.
I also tried speaking loudly while starting the recording and this seems to change the loudness of the recording. The recording app also seemed to support this by showing a lower volume and less peaky waveform of my voice even though I was speaking loudly even before starting the recording. This is partly why I think the issue may be related to an overly aggressive noise suppression algorithm. Maybe it misjudges what is noise when its “too quiet” at the start and it has no data to go on?
When reading The Guardians review they also seem to reference this behavior though maybe something about their voice made it less of a constant problem?
Call quality is pretty good, sounding clear and natural in quiet environments and doing a great job of blocking unwanted noise on busy streets while remaining clear. You have to talk up a bit for the earbuds to pick up your voice, however.
I also tried a full factory reset of the Fairbuds (put them in the case, hold the button for 10~ seconds until the case LED starts blinking white, close the case for at least 5 seconds) and completed wiped the app and Bluetooth settings for the buds from my phone and restarted my phone for good measure. After re-pairing them the issue remains so I don’t think its Bluetooth related.
For reference I did my testing with the open source You Apps “Record You” app. This app lets you record just the Bluetooth microphone so you don’t have to worry about getting any unnecessary video added or fiddling with phone-call-recording which may have its own issues. It then saves the recordings locally in a list so you can easily A/B test and iterate on your tests. The app can either be downloaded from F-Droid or their GitHub page. They don’t host their apps on Google Play so be suspicious about anything there claiming to be them.
I’ve performed the update to Firmware V56 using the Fairbuds app 2.0 released/updated 2024-04-15.
It would be great if we could get some more testing for this issue. I’m particularly interested in hearing the results of these tests:
- Do you experience this issue at all?
- Does speaking louder help?
- Is it different if you’re in a quiet or louder ambient noise environment? For example if you play city noise on speakers or walk around outside.
- Does the issue seem better/worse when you start the recording in a quiet room vs starting it while there is noise around you?
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Yep, seems like it’s the noise cancelling algorithm being wonky.
- The issue seems exactly the same
- Speaking louder helps, but if I’m being “unnecessarily” loud
3 and 4. Can’t test this right now, unfortunately. But being in a quiet room with zero noise is already too much for the noise cancelling to handle.
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Thanks for testing. 
Also to clarify when I say “noise suppression” I mean the microphones ability to filter out your voice from other noise around you such as wind noise or cars. I don’t mean the Active Noise Canceling feature. Perhaps you already got this but figured I’d clarify since you mentioned “noise cancelling”.
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No worries, we’re on the same page here
Same here. The microphone has very poor quality and cancels out all the time.
I did the update to V56, but its still the same.
Is there any improvement worked on or do I need to return them?
Thanks, Daniel
The headphones sound good but the microphones are not usable. After 5 minutes of Teams meeting, I had to switch back to my old headphones because the other participants were complaining about tinny and overmodulated sound. Test was on windows 11. Hope the next update will fix it
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I have exactly the same issue as you. When I am alone in the office, the users can hardly understand me.
Is there any reply from Fairphone?
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Same problem here, microphones are not usable. I cannot use my fairbuds for calling.
Is there any update on whether this issue is being worked on? Having a functioning microphone is pretty essential in a work environment and currently I had to switch back to my old headphones which have their own annoying problems, so it would be good to know if there is a solution in sight.
Thanks!
@all please dont rely on other peoples tickets, open your own with support.
Fantastic. I got my fairbuds replaced and the replacement devices have exactly the same issue. Useless microphone…
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Hello!
The microphone is practically unusable, I have done various tests and the voice is incomprehensible in audio recordings or even in a simple telegram call.
The non-functioning of the microphone part makes these headphones completely unusable in my opinion.
Do you have any news about this? will there be an update soon? Otherwise, having need of a pair of headphones for work, I will be forced to return them. Thank you
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Hi have the same issue.
I contacted the support, sent the earbuds in and they were replaced. But the new ones have the same issue.
Really disappointing that since 2 month nothing is happening about that issue.
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Yeah, I am in contact with the support for over a month now and have also sent them in. The microphone calling problem and the low connectivity should be reason enough to stop selling them and fix the issue via software- and if necessary hardware fix. I hope that now that the Android 14 update is done, Fairphone has the capacity to fix the problems. They should not sell unfinished products.
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The support said it will be fixed in a software update. No specific date though.
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Still having this issue as well. What’s interesting is it seems to be very slightly present when I use the fairbuds with my laptop, but when I connect them to my FP3+ the effect is way more aggressive to the point I’m not really understandable.
I hope this can be sorted out soon!
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I have the voice canceling issue too and stopped to use it for telephone, but I made the experience, that sometimes - i dont know why- my partner hears my voice clear in good quality.
Also a voice recording test once worked well. Did anyone make this experience too?
I have the bluetooth conection issue as well. I can move only very littlt far away from the phone and even when the phone is in my pocket I am experiencing interruptions
4 months and not fix yet? Do you have some news?
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I also get the feedback that they are working on a solution. I also asked for a milestoneplan for the next Sw releases and the planed improvements.
During phone calls my impression is also that the voice quality changes from time to time. The feedback that some times the quality is good and sometime hard to understand.
The ability of the software of canceling out unwanted noise is indeed good! A running water tap or a grinding coffee machine is not hearable!
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