What Are All the Holes in Your Airpods?

The design of the latest Apple Airpods is one of the most compact and convenient around. It’s light, stays tight in your ears, and the sound quality is impeccable.

But there’s something in the construction that raises questions – small ports (holes) on both headphones, with a seemingly mysterious purpose. However, if you’ve used Apple’s headphones before, you’ll know that the hole design lasts for some time, with only minor changes.

If you want to know more about these holes, keep reading this article. But to know what these holes are for you have to get familiar with the structure of the popular headphones themselves.

Components of the Apple Airpods

You’d be amazed at how many things can fit into these compact wireless headphones. All of its components, including the construction weighs just 0.28oz (or 8g), while the charger case (that you usually leave at home) weighs only 1.34 oz (38g). Each AirPod consists of:

1. Apple’s W1 chip and Bluetooth technology that allows it to connect to your iOS device without an audio jack.
2. A built-in microphone at the bottom and rear end of the Airpod.
3. Optical sensors including motion accelerometer, so it can register when the headphones are in your ears. Another accelerometer is also placed near the microphone to cancels static and background noise, absorbing only your voice.
4. A battery and the antenna integrated into the shaft.
5. A hard-plastic construction featuring various multi-purpose holes. .

The following section will give you an in-depth description of the purpose of these holes.

What Are All the Holes in Airpods?

Now that you understand the structure of your Airpods, you can focus solely on the holes. Although they look quite similar, not all of them have the same purpose. If you exclude the hole for the speaker itself, there are three other holes on Each Airpod.

1. The first hole is at the very bottom of the headphones, in the place where you’d otherwise find the wire. This hole lets the air flow into the pod, and it’s also one of the two places where the microphone absorbs the sound.
   
2. The second hole at the side of the Airpod is there to improve the vibration of the speaker.
3. The third hole is at the back of the speaker, and it’s where the other microphone is placed. In the previous, wired version of Apple’s headphones (Earpads), the microphone was built-in to the wire. Due to the wireless nature of the device, the microphone had to find another place.
   

Each of these holes has an important function in the Airpods system. The following section will explain how they work.

How Do These Holes Work?

To understand how the Airpod holes work, you first need to understand how the speakers work. Each headphone speaker vibrates a cone thanks to the electromagnetic force. This force pushes the sound waves into the air, thus creating noise (or sound).

However, a problem may occur during the process, as the vibration can accumulate a lot of pressure. When there’s too much pressure, the speakers won’t vibrate very well (or stop vibrating at all), which significantly reduces the sound quality.

Thanks to these holes, the pressure doesn’t apply so much to the Airpods. The air flows in through the hole at the bottom, travels through the shaft, and exits through the side. The side holes are freeing up the pressure so the cone can vibrate seamlessly. So, first and foremost, these holes improve sound quality and clarity.

Additionally, two of the three holes are designated sound receptors for your microphone. Thanks to the complex structure of the Airpods, the microphone can easily register only the sound of your voice while neglecting the background noise. This allows people on the other side to hear you clearly, regardless of your environment, while you can communicate hands-free.

Keep the Holes Clean

Now that you know the importance of the Airpods holes, you should always keep them neat and tidy. As wax, debris, dust, and various other particles tend to collect in these holes due to the frequent (and even less frequent) use.

These things clog up the aforementioned ports. In addition, you may’ve noticed the poor sound quality, low bass frequency, and other irregular behavior. Therefore, make sure you use a dry soft brush to clean the ports and make sure no liquid enters inside.

Do you clean your Airpods often? If so, which method do you use? Share your experiences in the comments section.

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