The Microsoft Surface Earbuds have only been on the market for a few weeks, but they are already the subject of much controversy One forum user is feeling the pain of being an early adopter, hearing "white hissing" and popping noises from the new $199 headphones

On May 14, Microsoft forum user VVaicys posted about the problem, saying, "There seems to be a noticeable problem, is it just my pair?" The noise lasts about 2-3 seconds and occurs even when the earphones are paired and no sound is playing

Three days later, a Microsoft agent named Janette_Z, who moderated the forum, informed people that Microsoft was addressing the issue: "We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the popping/hissing noise from the Surface Earbuds We have reported this issue to our internal team We will contact you as soon as we have an update on this issue"

The original poster is not the only one having this problem; Benkly wrote, "I am an electronic engineer and am having the exact same problem with my earphones and this hissing noise This sound should be coming from the amplifier built into the earphones As soon as I turn this amp on, I get this hissing noise It sounds like a poorly tuned amplifier"

There are many other disgruntled users in the forum thread; AC360 (assuming he is not Anderson Cooper, the silver fox) writes, "I will return these I can't stand the sound quality I stutter all the time when using airbuds headphones when watching videos or listening to music When I switch to headphones, the stuttering goes away, but the sound quality is terrible"