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Looking for someone to help diagnose a problem with my 3rd gen Pro
I mentioned a little of this briefly in another thread but think it's worth starting a separate thread.
The problem is this:
I had problems recently with my 3rd gen Pro with 2 things:
My ipad was not charging correctly. Sometimes it would charge, sometimes not. I replaced the cable (official apple USB C cable) and although it worked better, it still had problems charging at times. I then replaced the USB C port. It now charges properly all the time and I can feel the difference in the tightness of the port - the old one was definitely a bit loose.
Unsurprisingly, my headphones with in line mic were also not always connecting properly. But I also found that the in line mic quality has significantly deteriorated. Now, although the headset connects consistently, the mic quality is still subpar. There is nothing wrong with the dongle, it's new, bought from the apple store. There's nothing wrong with the mic because when I connect it to another ipad (2nd gen Pro) the sound quality is fine, and exactly as it used to be on my 3rd gen ipad before that started getting problems. The shop that replaced the 3rd gen port tried again with a new port today and still getting the same problems - low volume while recording and low quality.
So, port should be fine, dongle is fine, mic is fine. Anyone have any suggestions what could be causing this problem? The shop reckons that this would not be caused by problems with the motherboard. I have no idea but am tearing my hair out here lol.
Wondering if @uncledave might know, happy to get advice from anyone more acquainted with these kinds of technical issues than I am!
Comments
In case you're not too scared to keep the iPadOS up-to date that could be worth a shot as many under-the-hood things get fixed without any mention in the release notes as these often include fixes for various not so flattering charging and connectivity issues...
Latest iPadOS version is 16.3.1.
Already tried that yesterday as I thought that might be the case. Unfortunately it made no difference Samu!
Hope you've not 'accidentally' turned on the 'measurement mode' (ie. 'high quality') mode in AUM which on somewhat modern devices causes more head-aches than it solves...
I'll check that later when I'm by my ipad but this is not an aum problem - I tested the headphones on both devices with the voice memo app and the difference is huge. Any other ipad settings that might be involved?
There are some acccesibility settings that affect audio...
(Forced mono, sound-isolation etc. will check once my M1 iPad has charged as these settings are not present on the iPad Air 2).
The Voice Memos app also has a 'feature' that can make things sound better or worse (It's called 'Enhance Recording' and can be toggled on/off per recording).
Personally I've never been happy with the recording quality of the Apple Lightning headset (it has always sounded super thin) and always when recording software allows use the phone's built-in microphones while monitoring thru the headset.
If possible ask to check with another device at the shop and see if you/they can replicate the issue?
Only cases where I've head off sound degradation issues is when the dongle/connector fails to properly 'hand-shake' with the host-device. And it those cases the connection ports needed to be cleaned up from dust, pocket lint etc.
Last resort is a complete factory backup/reset/restore.
Hope you'll get it sorted out.
Could you try recording into AUM? There you can adjust input gain, and turn Measurement Mode off and on. If any of those adjustments helps, it might give a clue as to the problem.
It could be a limitation of iPadOS 16. Is your older iPad on 16?
It's on 15.6
I just tried a new dongle as well from the app store. Same, so the dongle was very unlikely to be faulty. Sure I can adjust input gain etc in aum but I can't get the same quality sound that I had before I started getting this problem. I'm really at a loss as to what is going on.
Measurement mode was off. I turned it on, tried it, turned it off again, still no banana
Also pretty sure it's not an ios 16 thing - after updating to 16 I made several vids using that mic and had no probs. Was just a thing of it suddenly not working one day!
I'm not 100% on the 'setup' you're using @Gavinski
Is it the standard Apple USB-C dongle with a 'split cable' for 3.5mm head-set with a 3.5mm microphone or a TRRS cable?
(Since I can't replicate the problem it's quite hard to diagnose).
Incidentally, I tried out the airpod Pro 2 today at the app store...bought and took out to a quiet place to check the voice recording quality, which I found very poor, no matter what noise reduction / transparency setting was used. Immediate refund. The inline mic on my Chinese triplebands, which I bought recently for about 40 or 50 bucks, is so much better
If it's a 3.5mm jack then rotating (rolling) the jack can sometimes help...
(you should hear audible feedback when rolling the contact in the connection, like crackling sounds).
If that's the case polish and clean the contacts with contact spray.
Just a headset with inline mic, plugged directly into the iPad USB C port using an official dongle. The only thing I can wonder now is whether the replacement ports were actually fake (they were not got from an apple store). Really regret I missed the deadline on renewing my apple care when it expired last year, and wonder how much the apple store would charge me to check whether it is in fact a genuine port 🤷♂️. This small issue has been turning into a real money pit
Will try that but don't think it could be the problem as it works flawlessly with my 2nd gen ipad 3.5mm jack
The reason I suggested rotating/rolling the contact is because I've bumped into gear where I have to rotate the jack to get good signal out of them. Might be a long-shot but flipping the USB-C connection 180° can sometimes do it..
There's a bunch of Accessbility settings for headsets. (Audio & Visual > Headphone accommodations).
When I was having problems with charging earlier, flipping the USB C connection DID sometimes help solve it. Though not consistently.
The plot thickens though.... I did just now try on a friend's 4th gen ipad Pro. Mic still sounds like shit, despite sounding fine on my 2nd gen ipad with headphone jack. Maybe @uncledave is right and it is some weird ios 16 issue
I haven't made a spoken walkthrough in over a month due to this problem lol, it's starting to really piss me off
Will try those accessibility settings Samu, thnx. I did actually try some earlier but may not have exhausted all possibilities
I know it's not a 'solution' but I personally like sound of the built-in mics on the M1 iPadPro while and the USB-C > 3.5mm dongle for TRS headphones (ie. ones with no microphone) for monitoring.
A dedicated USB-C headset might be the nest step...
No, the iPad internal mic for me makes everything sound too reverby. I like a more intimate sound. I don’t have a dedicated ‘studio’, but previous to this problem occurring, I was able to get a decent enough sound using my old setup, sitting on the bed in my heavily curtained bedroom, with the iPad on my lap. Due to back issues I much prefer this to sitting at a desk with a condenser mic etc. I have been playing with the AUM settings gain (not the gain fx module) as Dave suggested earlier, but it’s not quite cutting muster so far, despite using noise reduction, pro-g etc.
Most mystifying to me is why my previous set-up - which took a lot of tweaking to get semi decent, as god knows, in-line mics are never great, is not working. I really want to find out what happened to stop that from working. You mentioned accessibility settings, Samu, but seems there are few that would be relevant, no?
True and most of those settings only work with specific headsets.
I can't use them when using a 'regular' pair of headphones....
Last resort is to hook the USB-C dongle thru a hub and see if that makes any difference?
I don't have any dedicated USB-C headsets and the only 3.5mm headset I have are the old Apple 3.5mm Earpods.
What mic/headset combo are you using? (this was as far as I can see never mentioned in this thread).
Using these Samu: https://reviewed.usatoday.com/headphones/content/1more-triple-driver-in-ear-headphones-review#:~:text=Exceptional quality for the money,re getting significantly richer sound.
They’re actually cheaper now as they have been discontinued, as they introduced a quad model
One thing to consider is that the digital audio conversion (D/A, A/D) is performed inside the iPad. The dongle just connects the headset leads to the correct USB-C pins, as described here, under Audio Adapter Accessory Mode. So any problem connecting those pins of the jack to the circuit board could affect the audio input.
I knew you would be the man to ask bout this! Is this a difficult problem to fix?
Probably. This stuff is so tiny. I was surprised you found a shop to just pop on a new connector (twice). I couldn't tell from the description if the "SBU" pins used for the mic are used for anything else, like negotiating the Power Delivery, which would have to work properly. They might be just orphans, and maybe not well handled by your repairer.
This is what @krupa said to me when we discussed it earlier. He thought it would take someone highly skilled to fix. What does ‘orphans’ mean in this context?
At least the Apple USB-C Dongle has a built in DAC...
https://www.cabledo.com/apple-usb-c-digital-to-3-5-mm-headphone-adapter-teardown/
...not all do, I've tried a few 'AD/DA Free' dongles and they didn't work with my iPad...
OK then, it looks like I was wrong. The dongle is a 2-way digital adapter, presumably interfaced over the normal USB-C data connection. So it ought to work as well as any other device/hub connected to this iPad. Makes the problem harder to explain.
It's tricky indeed...
One 'last resort' for @Gavinski is to check the dongle using a USB-C hub and check if the iPad 'hand shakes' properly that way.
Not all USB-C hubs have an extra USB-C port for devices (a USB-C -> USB-A adapter should work) so that's another thing to keep in mind. If the USB-C dongle works properly with the headset connected to a HUB then it's time to write a bug report to Apple.
If I'm not mistaken the 3rd gen iPadPro in question is the the 12.9" with should mean its should be running the A12X chip.
So even if it would turn out to be a 'bug' the likelihood for a priority fix is quite low.
I'm out of ideas for now...
Some wireless microphones especially headsets seem to limit the bandwidth of frequency to human speech.
Tried on 4th gen Pro on iOS 16.2, same problem, not sure what chip that uses