Mavic Air vs P3P noise - Spectrum Analysis - The Truth!

[Talley]

Been flying my P3P for 2 years now. Been super happy. I've held off buying into the mavic pro or P4P just because of various reasons but when the Air was released I decided to pull the trigger. One fact for me is I needed portability. I didn't like the Spark at all... no interest because I'm a photographer and I require Raw and I also prefer shooting 4K video as well. The Mavic was interesting and I wanted it but it was still "too large" to fit in my camera bag where I travel with my 5D4 + lenses. So when I saw the size of the Air folded it was a perfect mix for me. The only downsides I have right now is the battery life (15min real life) vs my P3P is normally 17-18min and the noise doesn't match the new Mavic Platinum which REALLY interested me. But the mavic didn't fit in the spot I wanted to put the Air.

So either way my experience in the audiophile/recording studios led me to record the audio using a calibrated microphone and RTA software. Immediately I knew the Air was much quieter than the P3P and that made me happy. Obviously all you people will argue to no end about air vs mavic but thats whatever.

Here is the results:

Phantom 3 Professional


Mavic Air


As you can see the Air is missing the bottom 200hz spike. Our ears are most sensitive in the 2k-4k range and there is about a -3db reduction at that range. We are also prone in the 700-1K range and that is a significant impact in energy levels at the 700hz range. The P3P has it's highest spike at 75db at 700hz while the Air is only 68db...

So while it's important to say what is the loudness... our ears perceive loudness in a different manner than just a "SPL METER". It's important to know where this loudness is at in the frequency range.

Now to get ahold of a Mavic Pro Platinum to test it's low noise props

Disclaimer: Tests performed at 6' from calibrated microphone and performed at 90° angle. Test performed inside my home in a 14'x14' home. **I will retest using 0° angle to determine if there is any changes. I did the test at 90° to determine "overall loudness in frequency".

 

[Talley]

In addition to:

I got the Air for it's features, performance and portability. So far I'm super impressed with the tech, the size. I hate the remote. I hate the way it flys over the P3P. It's "curvy" turning and such is a different thing for me. I'm sure I will get use to it.

I think this thing will be a stepping stone. I'd have to give up a camera lens to fit the Mavic Pro but I'll use the Air for now and if the Pro 2 comes with 1" sensor AND low noise props then I'll more than likely be switching.

As far as distance... standing in my driveway in the same spot I can fly the P3P anywhere from 1200-2700'. The Air has matched that but with some frame drop outs. I get that a bit too with my P3P.

Overall I'd say it performs equally as the P3P maybe only about 90% of the range perhaps. Time will tell. I'm not too worried about battery life. Another battery and that would yield me most the video/photos I'd be looking for while traveling.

 

[Talley]

huh... figured this was interesting. I guess I should of just posted:

THE MAVIC AIR IS NOT AS LOUD BUT LOUDER THAN QUIET.

lol

 

[Talley]

Here is another look. I traced the P3P peaks with green. This RTA the red lines is a 5 second average of the peak values. The black lines was the instant at the screenshot time levels.

The mavic air 5 second average of peaks is the red lines. As you can see there is some reduced sound level energy above 2khz. Most of the reduced meet is in the 500hz-2khz range. There is a huge missing segment in the Air response below 350hz compared to what is there with the P3P.

So what this means is when people say it's "higher pitched". They are in fact right but also wrong. The sound of the Air is the same as the P3P but it is just missing the low end. Overall the Air is alot less noisy. Just in a different way. At 700hz the drop from 77db to 66db is huge.

I'm willing to bet if I had a MPP you would see everything louder down low and the upper end reduced only very little. it may very well have a huge loss at one frequency like at say 1khz it has a 5db drop so thats why it sounds so much quieter because we are more sensitive to those frequencies.

 

[mfc]

Excellent work ... many thanks!

 

[4wd]

It's rather marginal though, I would say it is similar to P3P and noticeably louder than the Mavic Pro

 

[mfc]

Musing about this ... it seems the Mavic Air is spinning its props about twice as fast as the P3P. This shifts the noise power spectrum up and makes it more annoying. I'm really curious, now, what speed the Mavic Pro spins its props.

Equally, larger and slower-spinning [preferably folding] props would be a good way to go for DJI on future Mavic models. Indeed, third-party larger props for the Mavic Pro could be interesting -- the firmware should spin them more slowly as they'd provide more lift. They could be 270mm across (as opposed to current 210mm) before there's a risk of collision with another prop (although there would be some slight interference in airflow between front and rear props).

 

[ICHOTT]

I'm really curious, now, what speed the Mavic Pro spins its props

At hover according to the controller something over 500rpm.

 

[Talley]

It's rather marginal though, I would say it is similar to P3P and noticeably louder than the Mavic Pro

It's not marginal. The 10db loss at 700hz means it's half as loud. I can tell you by owning both the P3P and the Air that the Air is significantly quieter.

Obviously I have no idea how the mavic sounds but you can't just look at the chart and say it's marginal. It's a big difference.