iPhone 15 bad sound quality

I had a iPhone XS for four years and plugged it into my car via an AUX cable and the sound was great. Recently I upgraded to an iPhone 15 Pro and now all of a sudden my sound is significantly softer and worse quality through the same AUX cable. How is this possible? This is a very expensive phone and my friends mid range Samsung sounds better than my brand new iPhone.

Some things to note:

Yes I have played around with all settings on the phone and my car. The settings are identical from my previous phone
And I tested it with my fiance’s 15 pro as well and a normal iPhone 15. They all sound bad.
I am using a third party aux to usb-c adapter. But that does not explain why my friend’s phone still sounds better

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Oct 17, 2023 8:56 AM

Best reply

VR880

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Nov 19, 2023 9:39 PM

Hi, I have the same audio quality issues on headphones.

I have recently bought Iphone 15 Plus and there is a marked difference in audio quality between this phone and my previous phones, and even when compared to an old ipad Air 2. The audio on this iphone sounds dull and lacks richness even though it is loud, similar to when you hear it through cheap headphones .

I have tried Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety and increased it to all the way to one less than max. This does not seem to make much of a difference.

Such a disappointment on getting the latest iphone with this issue. Hope this is just the software and apple fixes it through updates.

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27 replies

Eckie77

Level 1

8 points

Apr 11, 2024 2:36 PM in response to iiTs_Dee

I had the same when transferring from my iPhone 13 to iPhone 15 pro. I checked all settings including (i) headphone safety off and (ii) sound check off. This didn’t help. Somehow it seemed my installation was corrupted, because putting headphone safety one and off did not change much. The overall lower volume level had big impact on dynamics. Wiping clear and reinstalling did not work. I than tried only resetting the general settings. Bingo, that worked for me. Full volume and dynamics back again. I did notice that the sound signature is a bit different from my iPhone 13 still, a bit “brighter” and maybe a bit more detailed sound. I guess this has to do with a different sound chip in the iPhone 15 pro.

Apr 16, 2024 8:53 AM in response to iiTs_Dee

iphone recognizes anything that isint connected through bluetooth as a pair of headphones and when it does it turns the mono audio option off go into settings accesibility down to hearing and turn mono audio on!,speakers arent always setup like headphones for a number of reasons this helped me.

May 2, 2024 5:45 PM in response to Carolina1580

I'm extremely disappointed in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, I was using my previous iPhone XR and had beautiful sound quality using my Rode 2 mic system. I cannot get the same quality from this new phone and the only reason I invested in it was the supposed recording quality as I use it for my business.

I have to use my old phone for my recordings now and would never have purchased this if I had known.

Thank you for sharing your experience as it seems to be a problem with this model.

May 7, 2024 3:30 AM in response to TheLittles

Yes my SE 2020 used to sound so fabulous with a wired connection to my 2017 Corolla but all of a sudden around April 2024 it got bad. My cars sound system screen now keeps on saying connection issue and the sound actually hurts my ears. But when I disconnect my wired connection and use bluetooth it sounds fabulous again. C'mon Apple, this needs to be repaired.

Iank69

Level 1

8 points

May 31, 2024 6:35 AM in response to iiTs_Dee

I have an iPhone 15 like many others when phone connected to car via Bluetooth all the person on other end gets is garbled rubbish but I can hear them clearly. It’s definitely an iPhone problem not Bluetooth. Stop the bull **** and get sorted

Jun 15, 2024 1:54 PM in response to iiTs_Dee

Sound quality on headphones is awful. I have to use my phone from work to workout. Not sure why its so bad with apple usbC headset. Ok in bose bluetooth headphone or bluetooth. I just bought my iphone 15 plus and it might be better to return it.