Why does the ringtone sound worse AFTER I download it?

If the ringtones were free, that might be the problem. Sadly, the ones you purchase, often sound better than the free ones :/

Maybe you previewed them with your earphones on before you bought them and with them off after you bought them? The sound quality of my phone's speakers are much lower than my earphones, though I use a 3GS and don't know how 4S's speakers would compare.

I noticed that. Try to turn on your ringtone another way - I mean choose it as a main ringtone and make a call.

Buying ringtones? There are a LOT of apps and websites, that can help you creating them!:)

I have exactly the same problem, the best way of describing the problem is that the ringtones sound very tinny, possibly distorted like they've completely lost the bass and much of the lower midrange.

Like Sacha I've purchased 2 ring tones from the iTunes store within my iPhone 4S (Nicki Minay - Super Bass, and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra - Star Trek the Motion Picture), within the store they sound great but as soon as their assigned to ring tones they sound awful. At first I assumed that the downloads must have been poorly compressed or something but I've since confirmed they play great on my PC.

I've also noticed something even more odd, if I use the ringtone as a text message tone on the iPhone one of them sounds great as it should but the other ones won't even play, very strange! I've had a look at the tones on my PC and both are 30 seconds long, and both are compressed to 256kbps at 44.1khz so no obvious differences. I've recompressed them to alternative bit rates but nothing seems to make a difference to the sound quality as a ring tone.

I've since tried both ringtones on my Wifes iPhone 4 and her's exhibits the same problems so not a handset or iPhone 4s specific issue. It sounds to me like a software bug in iOS5?

I'm having the same problem and haven't found any way to fix it. Hoping that apple quickly fixes the problem.

having same issue. editing song myself. works fine as txt alert, but when used as ringtone significant quality loss. no fix as of yet.

Yes I also have the same problem, custom m4r ringtones sound terrible when select as ringtone but really nice when selected as text alert. please fix this apple!

Im having this issue too. My ringtone sounds terrible. Very embarrasing for a brand new top of the range phone when showing it off to people! Do Apple read these comments? (As in is there a Mod who passes problems on) If so any chance of a fix please.

regards

Scoop

I am also experiencing the same issue. Have found similar forums on other sites. I am sure this is an issue everyone is having. It sounds like a free prepaid phone when I get phone calls. Text tones sound fine. Almost purchased a tone from iTunes thinking maybe all the ones I added myself were the problem but looks like that won't work. Will call apple tomorrow and see if there is anything going on to fix the bug. If I find anything out I will post here.

Just got off the phone with Apple, the rep did some 'research' and said there were no articles about the issue, nor has he heard of it, but would mention it to the supervisor. He also said he is not aware of any updates to iOS 5 that'd be released soon. Most we can do is do a complete wipe/restore and see if it works.

My God ,,, just goes to show that even Apple with there superb reputation for customer service can get it so so so wrong.!😠

This problem is still bugging me and for a expensive bit of kit makes it even worse. I know its not as bad as the poor antennagate but surely they should know that people are talking about this on forums!

Regards

Scoop

I can confirm all suggestions by Apple do not fix the issue. It is definetly a software based problem that won't be resolved until an update is released - unless this is how Apple just wants out ringtones to sound. I deleted and re-added the ringtones to the phone, added new tones, and just completed a complete restore. I guess I'm just going to be sad for a while.