iPhone 5S Audio quality

Question

Level 1

4 points

iPhone 5S Audio quality

Hi

I've recently got hold of a refurbished iPhone 5S 32GB, running iOS 12.5.1.

It's in good shape and everything seems to be working fine, except the audio coming out of the 3.5mm headphone jack sounds awful! Vocals sound distant and are barely audible, and have a weird echo-y and muffled effect.

I've tried 3 different sets of wired headphones, which I know sound great when connected to my PC. But when listening to music on the iPhone, something is definitely wrong.

EQ is off, and I've tried both my iTunes purchased music and YouTube in the Safari browser, I get the same problem with both.

The weird thing is I've tried it with Bluetooth headphones and they sound fine, so I'm not sure what's going on with the headphone jack.

iPhone 5s

Posted on Feb 2, 2021 10:21 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 4, 2021 11:20 AM in response to T0t4lRu1n

Hello T0t4lRu1n,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!

We understand from your post that you have an iPhone 5s and the sound from the headphone port doesn't sound good, but Bluetooth headphones sound fine. As you have tested it with different headphones and the issue persists with each set, that would indicate a possible issue with the headphone port itself. The best option would be to have the iPhone physically examined by an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

iPhone Repair - Official Apple Support

Best Regards.

Reply

Answer 2

T0t4lRu1n Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 7, 2021 9:38 AM in response to T0t4lRu1n

Well this is strange.

I was playing around with the accessibility settings, and it seems that when I move the audio balance slider all the way to the left or right (makes no difference either way), the headphones sound normal again, with equal levels of sound in both ears and no longer distorted or muffled.

If I move the balance back to the middle it sounds distorted / muffled again.

Looks like this might be a bug in iOS rather than a problem with the jack itself.

Reply

Answer 3

T0t4lRu1n Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 7, 2021 9:55 AM in response to Johnathan Burger

That's ok, although I thought iOS 12 was still receiving updates?

Either way I'm not too bothered, I'm just glad it isn't a hardware fault. I can live with a non-functioning balance control as long as I can get normal sound through the headphone jack. I'll probably be using bluetooth headphones most of the time anyway, which don't seem to be affected by this bug.

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 7, 2021 9:44 AM in response to T0t4lRu1n

If it is an ios issue, you are out of luck.

Iphone 5s was discontinued in 2016.

It's not going to receive any updates.

Reply

Quick Links

iPhone 5S Audio quality

Similar questions