[KenV54]

While listening to some orchestral music DLed to iTunes from a commercial CD, I noted there was a kind of buzzing distortion coming from both AirPods during the louder and denser string instrument passages. I tried adjusting the volume, but no luck. I then used my EarPods, and the distortion was gone.

I was about to rush down to my local Apple Store, where I practically have a reserved seat, but I decided to Google the problem first. I found that this is a common problem, although not yet that well recognized because so few people actually have their AirPods yet.

The answer was found on an Apple Communities forum and it's simple.

Go to settings, music, and near the bottom of the screen, turn off Sound Check.

Result: you have to turn the volume control up from what it was to get the same volume, but there is no distortion.

Now I will have to find another excuse to go to the Apple Store.

[Tartarus]

Thanks for sharing. For what it's worth, I had soundcheck disabled a long time ago for unknown reasons. Now I know it was not for nothing.
Ps, my Apple Store is only 5 minutes cycling distance from me. It took me a while but I have learned to resist the urge to go without reason. Phantom reasons included

[thbthttt]

Thanks so much for this.

I don't listen to much orchestral music, but I had one favourite piece that was playing just fine on my stereo (remember those?) and playing fine on my desktop, and even playing fine through my old-timey corded earbuds. I re-ripped the CD every which way I could, but nothing worked . . . until I discovered this "tip."

I put "tip" in quotation marks, only because I also remember a time when Apple stuff just worked, and we didn't need tips to fix problems that shouldn't have existed in the first place.