When your Pixel Buds A-Series start sounding thin, hollow, or like music is coming through a wall, it's usually not a hardware failure. These are budget-friendly earbuds that punch above their weight, but a few common settings and fit issues can make them sound way worse than they actually are. The good news is most of these fixes take under a minute.
Start here open the Pixel Buds app, tap your earbuds, and check the EQ section. If the sliders got nudged, reset them to neutral and play a song you know well. Accidental EQ changes account for more than half the sound quality complaints I see on these buds.
Check Your Ear Tip Fit
The Pixel Buds A-Series rely entirely on passive isolation for sound quality. No ANC here, so the seal between the tip and your ear canal determines everything about bass response and clarity. If you're using the silicone tips and hearing thin audio, try the included foam tips instead. Foam expands to fill the ear canal and creates a much tighter seal, which directly translates to fuller sound.
To test your current fit, play something with a steady bassline. If the low end sounds weak or distant, try a larger tip size. The Pixel Buds app also has a fit test try Device settings > Fit test and play the sample tone. If the test says poor seal, swap tips until it passes.
Is Adaptive Sound Working Against You?
Adaptive Sound is the feature that auto-adjusts volume based on your environment. It's designed for noisy spaces, but sometimes it misreads a quiet room as loud and raises volume in ways that make audio sound compressed or tinny. Open the Pixel Buds app, tap your buds, and toggle Adaptive Sound off. Listen to the same track you were struggling with.
If music sounds normal again, you can leave Adaptive Sound off entirely or only turn it on when you move between loud and quiet spaces. The feature works well in theory but the implementation on the A-Series can be overly sensitive.
Make Sure Your Android Phone Is Using AAC
Pixel Buds A-Series support AAC and SBC codecs. AAC is the higher quality option on Android. If your phone is stuck on SBC, audio quality drops noticeably, especially in the high end and stereo separation. Developer Options is where you check this.
Go to Settings > About phone > tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer Options. Then Settings > System > Developer Options > Bluetooth Audio Codec and select AAC. If it keeps reverting to SBC, forget the buds from Bluetooth settings and re-pair them. On iOS the codec is forced to AAC automatically so this isn't a concern there.
Clean the Speaker Grilles
Wax and debris building up on the mesh grilles is a common cause of muffled sound on in-ear buds. Pixel Buds A-Series have small grilles that clog easily. Take a look at each bud under bright light. If you see any gunk on the mesh, grab a dry soft-bristled toothbrush or a clean dry toothpick and gently brush the grille clean.
Don't use anything wet or sharp. A tiny bit of Blu Tack pressed gently onto the mesh and pulled off can also lift debris without damaging the grille. This fix alone restores normal audio more often than you'd think.
Forget and Re-Pair the Buds
Bluetooth profiles can get confused, especially if you've switched between multiple devices. Go to your phone's Bluetooth settings, find the Pixel Buds A-Series, and tap Forget. Then put the buds back in the case, close the lid, wait ten seconds, and open it again. Press and hold the button on the back of the case until the LED starts pulsing white, then pair them fresh.
This clears any corrupted connection data and forces a clean handshake. After re-pairing, test audio through the Pixel Buds app's media section before going back to your main music player.
Update the Firmware
Google pushes firmware updates through the Pixel Buds app that fix audio processing bugs and improve overall stability. Open the app, tap your buds, then tap More settings > Firmware update. If an update is available, keep the buds in the case with the lid open and the phone nearby. The update takes a few minutes and the buds need to stay connected the whole time.
Several updates in 2023 and 2024 specifically addressed bass response and codec stability. If your buds haven't been updated in a while, that's very likely the culprit.
Reset to Factory Defaults
If nothing else has worked, a full reset clears any corrupted state in the buds' internal audio processing. Put both buds in the case and leave the lid open. Press and hold the button on the back of the case for 30 seconds until the LED blinks white, then flashes amber. The buds power down and reset completely.
After the reset, remove the buds from your phone's Bluetooth device list, close the case, reopen it, and pair them like new. You'll need to set up EQ and Adaptive Sound again, but this is the nuclear option that wipes all software-based audio problems.
Test a Different Source App
Sometimes one music or video app sounds bad while everything else works fine. Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music all handle Bluetooth slightly differently, and some have had known compatibility quirks with Pixel Buds over the years. Play the same track in two different apps. If only one app sounds tinny, force-quit it, clear its cache in Settings > Apps, and reopen it.
App-side issues don't need any headphone-side fix. You can also check your streaming quality settings within the app, Spotify's setting is at Settings > Audio Quality, set it to Very High or Automatic for the best match with your buds.
If the Case Sensor Isn't Registering Correctly
A known issue on the A-Series is the case sensor sometimes failing to register when buds are in or out. If one bud sounds quiet or tinny while the other sounds fine, take that bud out of your ear and put it back in. The in-ear detection should re-trigger. You can also toggle in-ear detection off and on in the Pixel Buds app under Sound > In-ear detection.
If the sensor is consistently flaky, you can turn in-ear detection off entirely and control playback manually with the touch controls. It's a workaround but it keeps the audio path clean while you decide if hardware support is needed.
