One solution, wear them under a pair of earmuffs. (Wikipedia article) The pods would need no modification and your ears would stay toasty warm.
There are several brands out there that fit snugly on the ears so they would hold the earbuds in place. It may even improve sound quality.
I solved this choppy audio issue with just one simple trick.
(This might not work for everyone, but I solved it this way)
Short answer
If your hardware uses Bluetooth 4.0 instead of 4.2 or above, this solution is highly likely to work for you.
Open System Preferences
> Sound
> Input
Change sound input
from Airpods
to Internal Microphone
Long answer (+ Possible explanation)
(This is just my hypothesis based on my observation)
First of all, to clarify my symptoms,
I am using a MacBook Pro 15 inch (Late 2013) which has Bluetooth 4.0 hardware.
The choppy audio issue only happened in my MacBook Pro, and it did not happen in my other Apple devices such as my iPhone 7 Plus (which btw, has Bluetooth 4.2), nor my iPad Pro (also Bluetooth 4.2).
Based on these observations, my hypothesis is that Bluetooth 4.0 devices have too low bandwidth to handle both input/output (microphone & speaker) at a high quality. However, if I just change the audio input to the internal microphone, the Bluetooth connection only delivers sound output, so I think it can handle higher quality audio. On the other hand, if I use both microphone & speaker on a Bluetooth 4.0 device, I think the connection degrades and sacrifices audio output bandwidth in order to make room for delivering audio input.
Indeed, according to some sources, Bluetooth 4.2 is 250% faster and has 10x more capacity
Reference:
- https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-differences-between-Bluetooth-4-0-4-1-and-4-2-in-the-Layers-Baseband-LMP-L2CAP-app-Layer
- https://www.semiconductorstore.com/blog/2015/BLE-4-2-vs-BLE-4-1/1548/
Best Answer
UPDATE: Before using Putty, I recommend using a Q-Tip/tissue to clean the surface (while being careful not to push anything into the mesh).
Wall/Mounting Putty works wonders!
Any brand is fine (likely available in your local drugstore), here’s an example:
Push your AirPods/EarPods (1 at a time) into the putty as much as you can, and then pull them out and you’ll see a bunch of dirt left over on the putty! So satisfying and they’re good as new.