Sony WH-1000X M3 noise cancelling glitches in train tunnels

[rob_levine]

Hi,

I recently bought Sony WH-1000X M3 headphones; they're great and the noise cancelling is excellent almost all the time, except in train tunnels.

Here, the noise cancelling often cuts out (or otherwise changes) intermittently as the train goes through a tunnel.

I returned the first pair due to this, but the replacement pair exhibits exactly the same behaviour. 

I suspect this is air pressure change related.

A huge part of my usage is likely to be on trains, in particular underground trains, and they are just no good in this situation. The background rumble just switches in and out as the train travels through the tunnel.

Does anyone else have this problem, or has anyone found a solution? 

By the way, Adaptive Sound Control is definitely disabled, and I have tried multiple optimiser runs.

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[Pascale_F]

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the community.

I'll see if I can find anything out for you. Maybe someone else in the community can help in the meantime.

Thanks,

Pascale

[tanistlin]

YES IT DOES!

I'm grateful that somebody else has put it to words. Bought mine a week ago. It was perfect until i gave it a try in underground. I don't know if it can't handle the noise or is it a problem about changes in air pressure. Below are my cases (in all cases ANC is full on);

The audible glitch effect for me is the tune & sound level of the song that is played begins changing like it's playing from a very old gramaphone or magnetic tape, gets better for a few seconds and happens again. 

1) In underground trains, this effect amplifies while arriving and leaving stations. (this might also point that sth related with air pressure change)

2) In vans or cars, if only one of the windows is half open, above a speed of 30 mph, the glitch begins. (I'm not driving while using the pair, both of the cases were happened while i was the passenger)

- The effect was not audible while windows are closed and in heavy traffic. This needs to be tested with a vehicle windows closed and in higher speeds.

Somebody please tell me that it's sth related with software etc. and fixable because I loved the product and I definetely want to use it in daily commutes. Besides, I do wonder about the cases in airplanes!

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi Rob_levine,

I've read about this online.  The noise cancellation function is only effective in low frequency band. Although the noise is reduced, it won't be cancelled completely.

I'd recommend having a look here: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00203389

Cheers,
The_Black_Rose

[rob_levine]

[apologies if you see a multiple post - the system keeps telling me my reply is being deleted as it is spam]

Hi @The_Black_Rose ,

Thanks for your reply.

You are right in that noise cancellation is less effective in the higher band, but that isn't the issue I'm describing. In fact, even though not quite as good in the high band it is still pretty remarkable on the train. The background rumble of the train is reduced considerably.

The issue I'm experiencing is as @tanistlin describes. Basically, when the train goes into a tunnel (or if you are travelling on an underground train), then the noise cancellation seems to get confused. It'll be absolutely fine (and doing a great job) for a while - maybe 10 or 20 seconds, and then it'll pulse as if someone just turned up the volume (of the music and the background noise). This lasts about a second, and then it jumps back to being well behaved. This pulsing effect continues (somewhat aperiodically) until the train leaves the tunnel. It makes it very hard to listen to music as you are constantly distracted by this pulsing volume behaviour.

I had already suspected it was air pressure related, and @tanistlin 's experiments seem to support this.

It definitely ins't the intended behaviour, but I'm wondering if it a faulty unit (second one for me, if so), a software glitch, or genuinely a design issue on the headphones. The fact that 500 people have viewed the issue but only one has replied that they have the same problem makes me feel it is probably a faulty unit; using noise cancelling headphones in a train tunnel is pretty common use case).

Thanks again for your time,

Rob

[tanistlin]

Hi @The_Black_Rose thanks for your time, however no offense intended but i really don't get the point in misdirecting topics with totally unrelated references.

It's clear as day what we've been through along with the topic owner and it's not about that units are unable to cancel the noise enough but they simply spoil the sound to the level of being unlistenable. I'm totally ok with listening with some extra unhandled background noise but it's impossible to listen to a content with all the pulses and glitching, be it a song or podcast or audiobook.

Please do share your specialist opinion on whether this could be due to a faulty unit or a known issue with firmware updates but it's obvious that this device could not be intended to work this way, especially when you think about a use case as common as this. Thanks.

[tanistlin]

@rob_levine 

Any opinion as to this might be related to the all time trending topic of cracking/popping sound? https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/portable-audio/wh-1000xm3-cracking-popping-noise/m-p/2523380#M5247

Symptoms being told there seems related to me in terms of external affections like walking outside, windy air, in a car windows open, on a bus, train etc. 

Would it be that we're experiencing the same issue with different symptoms? Are you experiencing cracking/popping issue outside of this topic? 

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi,

The part I was referring to is " When you use the headset in a train or a car, noise may occur depending on environmental conditions".

Also, it's mentioned by Sony that in tunnels and other environments in which air pressure changes easily, noise (creaking, clicking, static, etc.) may be heard.

Cheers,
The_Black_Rose

[randomvariable]

Hi,

This problem is reproducible on the latest firmware.

This is definitely related to the pressure-related parts of the noise cancelling system. Please note that it doesn't make the noise cancelling less effective, it actually seriously distorts the sound that it is almost unlistenable.

The effect is most pronounced on trains when in tunnels - e.g. much of the London Underground system, and all of its deep tunnel lines, or when passing another train at speed (at least above 110km/h).

I am fortunate not to have to commute to work, but if I did I would not be able to use these headphones.

Other headphones with not quite as good overall noise cancelling don't suffer these effects, such as Plantronics, Sennheiser and older, lower-end Sony products. Would it be possible to add an option to disable the pressure-related parts of the noise cancelling system, preferably detected automatically as a subset of the transportation mode?

[tanistlin]

@randomvariable  Exactly what i've been through.

I also note that my firmware is 4.1.1 (out of the box) and was not upgraded to 4.2.2