Has anyone noticed a background hiss when their Fairbuds XL have noise cancelling switched on?
These are the first noise cancelling headphones I’ve used so I’m not sure what to expect. I guess a little noise is inevitable, but sometimes the hiss seems really noticeable and other times I don’t notice it at all. I first noticed a new hiss about a week after receiving the headphones. I was able to remove the speaker cover and found a tiny thread/hair sitting over the microphone: removing it seemed to solve the hiss. Today, several months later, I again heard an intrusive hiss. I didn’t find any threads this time, but somehow removing the speaker covers and replacing them a few times seems to have reduced the annoyance, though I’m not sure whether that’s because the hiss has reduced or if I’ve just convinced myself I was being over-sensitive!
I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed a hiss. Does the intensity seem to change from day to day? How does it compare to other noise cancelling headphones you’ve used?
I just tried mine again and they are absolutely silent in NC mode. There might be the faintest (white) background noise, but I’m not even sure if I’m just imagining that. The ambient mode on the other hand has quite a high level of white noise in comparison.
Do you hear this sound only in specific situations or also when you’re playing no sound and just have NC mode on?
That’s good to hear. I too don’t trust my own judgement when I actively go listening for a noise while playing no audio.
The times it has bothered me have been while playing music and it’s been prominent enough to make me wonder if there’s a hiss on the recording. It was quite bad the first time it happened and I was considering returning the headphones, but was able to satisfy myself that the thread/hair had been the problem. Since then it hasn’t been as bad: I’d occasionally notice it, but not so much that I felt the need to do anything. Today seemed worse (though not as bad as that first time) so I went looking for another hair, but, with nothing found, the ‘fix’ was much less satisfying.
Thanks Michael, I may well do that. (And will report back if I do.)
At the moment I’m trying to remember to switch on the headphones before putting them on my head. That way I don’t start out by hearing the noise cancelling start up, which might prime me to be oversensitive, and can hopefully be more objective.
If any other owners have comments I’d be interested to hear them.
Sorry if you find it a stupid suggestion, but I’ll speculate anyway:
I found that when I run my thumb (or another finger) over the small hole in the outer speaker covers, a really nasty hiss is created (obviously the hole is the entry for sound to the microphones). Maybe the same happened/happens to you? After all the hole isn’t that far away from the ANC and the joystick buttons.
It is certainly true that touching or rubbing the covers while in NC or ambient mode creates really nasty noises. Same for (stronger) wind.
We should certainly exclude that it is something that obvious before venturing into more exotic troubleshooting - even if it looks unlikely to me in this particular case.
If the noise caused by rubbing on the covers, it could also be caused accidentally by the collar of a shirt, hair or something similar close to the headphones while using them.
I too quickly learned the same thing about rubbing those holes, but this hiss is something different: a steady hiss lasting for a long time, all with nothing near to the outer speaker covers.
Good thought, but I’m usually indoors in still air.
Unsure if this is the same situation, my XL headset has developed a hiss/crackle too. Only in the left ear and only when ANC is enabled, not the ambient mode or ANC off.
It doesmt obvious at first but it builds and sounds quite obvious like a waterfall or tv static but not as loud.
Unsure what the cause may be. Any hints? I’ve contacted support too but that could take a while.
Did you try removing the left speaker cover and checking around the microphone for dust or similar? I’m afraid that’s the only real suggestion I have. (When I convinced myself I’d fixed the issue by removing a tiny thread I didn’t check whether the noise was present in ambient mode: if the thread really was responsible I’d guess the noise would be present in both “active” modes, so maybe that doesn’t match your situation.)
Please let us know what you hear back from support.
Unfortunately I can create a wind noise effect simply by walking indoors. And that’s with ANC. I don’t want to be that guy all the time, but this is really not great, especially for this price. I would even rate this headset higher if it didn’t have ANC and ambient mode. Because switching is annoying with the delay. And having a headset on already cancels out noise. I hope they won’t take these quality shortcuts with the FP5. But likely it will have the same issues at launch as the FP4 (noise cancellation issues among them).
Since one week I have the same issue you are describing. When turning on the Fairbuds a hiss builds up in the left speaker reaching a constant hiss volume around 10 seconds. The hiss is only there in the normal ANC mode. I checked the microphone hole by removing the cover, but that didn’t help. I also updated to the latest firmware, but no luck.
Will contact support for the same.
