I thought my Sony earbuds were broken – until I adjusted this feature

I finally did it. After eyeing up the Sony WF-C710N for months, I decided a few weeks ago that it was time I owned a pair of Award-winning earbuds for myself. Of course it helped that the price had fallen to a then low of £75 (though they have since fallen to £69, not that I'm bitter).

And I've been getting on very well with them, now that I know they're not broken. See, I did have a slight issue – the earbuds seemed to be adjusting their listening mode without my say so.

But it turns out it's part of the feature set. Here's what it is, what it does, and how you can turn it off should you want to.

A fitting issue

As you probably know, the C710N have three listening modes – noise cancellation, ambient sound (which lets in some outside sound to keep you aware of your surroundings), and off (which just plays music with no processing or modes applied).

The issue I had was that the earbuds seemed to be switching between these modes without me telling them to.

At first, I thought this was a problem with the fit – my colleague Andy Madden has written extensively about how Sony earbuds don't fit as snugly as rivals like the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), and my left ear seems to sit somewhere between the small and medium sizes of the C710N's eartips.

I assumed the tip was working loose as I walked or ran, causing that sudden injection of environmental noise (a passing double-decker bus sounded like a jumbo jet). But when I twisted the eartip deeper into my shell-like, and the issue persisted, I knew it wasn't the fit.

That's when I assumed the earbuds were faulty and were switching modes seemingly on a whim. Turns out it's actually a feature, and quite a useful one at that.

Adapt to survive

The feature is Ambient Sound Control, and here's how it works. It detects what activity you're doing – staying still, walking, running or riding in a vehicle – and picks the optimum sound mode.

By default, noise cancellation is on when you're staying still or riding in a vehicle. But once you start moving on your own accord, Ambient Sound mode kicks in. Crucially, this is set to level 12 by default when you're walking, but once you start running, it goes to the maximum of 20. And herein lay my confusion.

Because it turns out there's quite a difference between level 12 and level 20. While I wouldn't normally go for a run with active noise cancellation activated (it's helpful to be aware of your surroundings), I was in the early days of using my Sony buds and was experimenting with all modes during different use cases.

Hence, the passing double decker sounding like a jumbo jet.

Once you know how it works and expect the changes in sound modes, it's a handy feature, as it means you can block out the outside world while waiting for and riding the bus, then become more aware of your surroundings once you're out for a walk or a run, without having to tinker with the settings.

Of course, you can tweak the feature if you want, or turn it off entirely.

To adjust it, open the Sound Connect mobile app, tap Adaptive Sound Control, and tap the settings cog next to Detect Actions. This will let you adjust which mode kicks in during which action, and tweak the level of ambient noise the earbuds allow in during different activities.

Want to turn the mode off altogether? In Sound Connect, tap Adaptive Sound Control and then adjust the toggle at the top of the screen from On to Off. Simple.

But if you have switched the mode off, I would urge you to give it another whirl. Either way, stay safe while out running – you don't want to get run over by any passing jumbo jets.

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