iPhone 5 headphone volume too low

Dear Chris Moore2,

I wish I could tell you why Apple is being so infuriatingly quiet on this matter. Apple have I'm afraid cocked up on this issue quite badly and refuse to communicate on the subject. I raised it with them over a year ago when I went from IP4 to IP5 and my decent headphones became unenjoyable.

Where apple have gone wrong is that the EU makes stipulations on the sound output but out varies with the load impedance (the headphones) their own earbuds will sound nice and loud but even the new shape falls out of my ears and a lot of my friends ears. For standard headphones they are not bad but they don't compare to the experience of good circumaural headphones. Unfortunately these are more expensive and have a higher impedance. So Apple has set their phones audio restriction based on the idea that we always use the earpods or similar low impedance headphones. There are solutions that could be engineered if Apple could be bothered and I'm shocked that they seem so ambivalent in this area. After all it was the ipod that helped save Apple from the abyss.

The solutions are either to buy low impedance headphones. Buy a cheap headphone amp with inline controls like the Fiio Rocky. Spend a lot of money on an expensive headphone amp or buy a different phone but check it out first because Apple is not the only company cocking up in this way.

Hi Phredd,

The CD5 by JDS Labs costs £250 and is clearly a top class high end hi-fi product but whilst doing my research I couldn't find anywhere where I could turn up with my phone and headphones to plug in and have a test drive. Also, no-one was able to give me a clear yes or no as to whether they could use the lightning port to access the music signal in order to bypass the phone's DAC. It would be great to find this out once and for all.

The C5 costs £189 and doesn't have its own DAC but like the CD5 is a box which is bigger than the phone. Also, neither of these undoubtedly sonically wonderful solutions allows use of the iPhone's inline contols. This means that taking phone calls becomes a faff, especially if you have gloves on. Phredd, you are totally correct that the Fiio Rocky at £23 is not the highest hi-fi going but it is small and good enough for the majority of users on the move who need the inline controls. I must also say that for £23 the Fiio is surprisingly well made.

You may also be correct that a headphones' impedance may not equate exactly to an inverse of a headphones' sensitivity but I think in general terms the most expensive headphones have high impedance and low sensitivity. It would be great if we the users could compile a list of high sensitivity headphones that really work well with the newer iPhones . . . I haven't found one yet but I'd love to be guided by the experience of other informed users.

If you can't find one to try JDS accepts returns. With Apple's Camera Connection Kit, you can get digital audio out from your iPhone directly to the C5D. I use Canopener and can control crossfeed and equalization before it reaches the C5D.

A list would be good, but the Sennheiser HD598, for example, is a HiFi headphone with high sensitivity. I can connect it directly to my iPhone with plenty of volume.

Problem solved. The problem lies when restoring from iCloud to your new device. Connect to iTunes on your pc or Mac. Go to music and remove all audio content (music), apply. Once finished eject phone properly. Reconnect phone to iTunes and ad all music of choice again, apply and sync. Eject phone properly again. Sound quality is loud and clear again, if not better. Hope this helps, solved my soft audio issues. Enjoy!

I think i have fixed my issue..010714...clcik all the songs you want on your iphone device.. right click get info ...options.. and then increase the volume to 100% then sync then you have loud music again 🙂 good luck peeps this now works on my iphone5s

I think i have fixed my issue..010714...clcik all the songs you want on your iphone device.. right click get info ...options.. and then increase the volume to 100% then sync then you have loud music again 🙂 good luck peeps this now works on my iphone5s

Guys there is no such problem as low volume in the iphone 5 and 5s. Its the handset which is faulty. What i did is i mailed one song to myself and also my friend who also has an iphone 5s and i took my friend along with me to the service center. And i played the song on both the iphones to the guy at the service center on the earphones at full volume on both the handset. He was able to figure out the difference and replaced my handset. I would recommend u guys also to try listening to one particular song on 2 different iphone 5s's and check if there's a difference in the volume in both of them. If ur able to find the difference, then u r liable to get a replaced handset. I hope this helps and works for u all. It worked for me :) Thanks!!

I was also very eager to have my new iPhone 5s. But as soon as I started listening to music on Spotify, I realized something is not right. So I set the volume on max, remove the EU volume limit and turned up my apple headphones to highest possible. But the music volume is still disappointingly low. I listen to music while walking to work and back and music works as a perfect companion. It feels very uncomfortable when you know the volume does not go any higher than this. 😟

I really hope Apple does something about this in their next iOS update. And since 5s is the latest and best version of iPhone, I have high expectations from the product I've spent all this money on.

I think it's quite reasonable that the new version of every product should strengthen the previous versions and not weaken it. I don't want to see that my upgrade from 4 to 5s was a waste of money since my old iPhone was working fine. It was these advertisements than convinced me I should buy the new version.

Hi,

I just changed my Iphone 4 for the 5 version , and to my surprise I noted that I have bought an Iphone with an EU soundlimit restriction! IT´S TO LOW , IT KILLS MY MUSIC EXPERIENCE!!

Listening to music is a great part of my Iphone use, so is a huge disappointment! Sorry to say that I shall seek another phone as quickly as possible.

Regards!

Set EQ to OFF, Sound Limit to OFF just like above. Only... reboot after. In fact every time this happens, check the setting and reboot. Just a bug, yet to be worked out... After reboot, the sound is noticeably different. Trust me, I almost thought my Boss headphones sucked there for a minute 🙂

I just measured the headphone out of iPhone 4S and iPhone 5S. The comparison is devastating for the iPhone 5S, which plays a 5.8 dB quieter! My favorite headphones need a strong signal. 4S gave them appropriately enough, but 5S simply is too weak. It's a shame for Apple!!! I am deeply disappointed. If the newer iPhone also have such poor headphone output, do not buy the next one.

Level RMS @ 100Hz

iPhone 5S

Headphone out

507 mV @ 10 MΩ

505 mV @ 600 Ω

477 mV @ 32 Ω

Well done. that is the confirmation of what a lot of us were convinced about. Would be great to see how the new 6 compares.

Appalling for Apple!

Now I just checked the iPhone 6, 6+ and 5C. They all play as quietly as 5S. So it appears that it is not a momentary weakness, but a constant feature of the current and probably next iPhone models. Time to look for another smartphone.

then the only reason i can think of is that they were under pressure from some idiots that sued them or threatened to sue them for damaging their ears.

it's quite possible, however, the new iPad still playing as loud as the old ones. Is it logical?