How to get rid of EU volume limit?

Question

Level 1

95 points

How to get rid of EU volume limit?

I'm currently resiziding in France, and I want to purchase an iPhone 4S here. But I went to the Apple Store and checked the max volume, which is considerably lower than my USA iPod Nano due to EU volume limits.

Now my question is this

Are there any legitimate ways to get rid of EU volume limit? For example would it get rid of it if I restored the phone's firmware when I'm in USA or any non-EU country due to IP check? Or is the firmware the same all over the world and just checks for the devices serial number to see if it's a EU model so it wouldn't matter?

Jailbreaking does get rid of the volume limit through some SSH trick, but I don't want to jailbreak my iPhone simply to remove the volume cap.

And before someone starts with the entire "Why do you need to remove the cap? Do you want to get deaf?" argument, I'd recommend to try to listen to classical music, especially quiet passages, on a subway, with a EU capped iDevice.

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 3:19 AM

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Answer 1

wjosten

Level 10

95,369 points

Oct 14, 2011 3:26 AM in response to iBug

The only way I know of to get rid of the limit, without jailbreaking, is to restore your phone using a VPN that shows a US IP address.

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Answer 2

iBug Author

Level 1

95 points

Oct 14, 2011 3:32 AM in response to wjosten

I can do that, but are you certain that it does get rid of the cap for iPhones? I know it does for Nano's but did you try with iPhones?

I am going to buy the phone here if this trick actually does it and if not, I'll just wait for the US unlocked versions to be released in November.

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Answer 3

wjosten

Level 10

95,369 points

Oct 14, 2011 3:34 AM in response to iBug

iBug wrote:

I can do that, but are you certain that it does get rid of the cap for iPhones?

Well, I'm not in a position to test with the iPhone 4S, thus I cannot offer a guarantee. However, you have a 14 day return period.

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Answer 4

Dave Hutch

Level 4

1,497 points

Oct 14, 2011 3:37 AM in response to iBug

I won't try to pursuade you to lower the volume, but I would suggest that if you haven't already got some, get hold of some good quality in-ear earphones such as the Shure 530 or the Klipsch x10i etc

Less "pure" but very effective are the full-sized active noise cancellation types, but I find the in-ears to be excellent.

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Answer 5

iBug Author

Level 1

95 points

Oct 14, 2011 3:37 AM in response to wjosten

Have you tested with any iPhone though? And yes I have the return guarantee, but I'd rather wait and buy the US version instead of going into trouble of returning an item if one can't be sure about the trick. (You know how it always gives a headache to return stuff)

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Answer 6

iBug Author

Level 1

95 points

Oct 14, 2011 3:39 AM in response to Dave Hutch

Dave Hutch wrote:

I won't try to pursuade you to lower the volume, but I would suggest that if you haven't already got some, get hold of some good quality in-ear earphones such as the Shure 530 or the Klipsch x10i etc

Less "pure" but very effective are the full-sized active noise cancellation types, but I find the in-ears to be excellent.

I already own Shure SE535's. And there are still certain tracks that require around 90% volume on my USA iPod Nano to give a satisfying sound. And I listen to pop/rock at 50% at Nano. So I actually need 90% volume on certain really quiet music to sound as loud as pop/rock at 50% volume.

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Answer 7

Oct 20, 2011 11:57 AM in response to iBug

I recently took delivery of a new 160GB iPod Classic, and was shocked at how low the volume is. Impossible to even hear the music above London traffic, it was ridiculous (and my hearing is fine). I was on the verge of returning the thing to Apple as useless, when I discovered a little gadget called the FiiO E1 headphone amplifier. It only costs just over a tenner from Amazon, and it works very well. It plugs into the dock socket, and you then plug your headphones into the FiiO gismo. Bingo! Music that you can actually hear. Strange that the EU is trying to ban musical enjoyment, eh? And annoying, after having forked out a lot of money for the iPod itself, that I then had to buy a peripheral device to make it work properly. And even odder, a 6th Generation iPod Nano that I bought only a year ago had no such problems.

As a footnote, I use Grado headphones, and there seems to be no distortion or degradation of sound using the FiiO device. My advice would be to try one out, as it's so cheap. It has a couple of design irritations, in that you can't lock' the controls, but it's working for me, certainly as an interim solution.

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Answer 8

BonusB

Level 1

0 points

Dec 1, 2011 2:13 PM in response to iBug

If someone can tell me how to get around the EU limit on a 6g Nano I would appreciate it, I bought one in the UK when my old one gave up, but I live in Canada, if I had known at the time I would have waited.

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Answer 9

Danr95

Level 1

123 points

Jun 2, 2017 8:02 AM in response to iBug

Settings > Music > Volume Limit

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