Q: Sound failure on iPad Air 2?

I noticed something similar.  When I first used the new audio message feature in iMessage i heard a crackling sound from the speakers.   Playing a song in the music app I heard it crackle a bit at the beginning as well.  And finally while viewing a website with no videos or sound clips, I did hear a pop in the speakers that concerned me.  However, that was the first day.  On the second day I streamed radio for about 4 hours and no pops or crackling sounds.

I will probably still exchange it within the 14 day window just as a precaution and hope the new one is free of the problems.

Yes indeed. I was thinking I was the only guy in the world that was having intermittent sound problems on the new iPad Air 2. It has happened two times now where I get a screeching through my blue tooth head set. Also, the system sounds go funky. The first time it happened, i just blew it off as a watch item. Took a couple hard restarts to fix it. It happened again this morning. Started up my music and only had mono going on my headset. Did a hard restart and when it came back up, the screeching came back again. Yuck!!  Went to another sound app, and this seemed to resolve it. A hard reset does not guarantee a solution. I had an iPad Air that took my backup and applied it to my new iPad Air 2. I was on iOS 8.1. I never had any problem with sound on my iPad Air. I have a Genious Appt later this morning. Will likely get a trade out.  Within 14 days no questions asked.

I have just Returned iPad Air 2 because of sound problem when I played music/ TV The screen would Vibrate played a music track onAir 2 then the same track on iPad mini The track on the mini sounded a lot better. My opinion is that the Air 2 is a bit flimsy So I got a full refund If I get another ipad it will be the 1st iPad Air not the new one We have the first iPad Air it has no problems Also the Wifi on Air 2 was a bit hit & miss no problems whith other iPads / iphone all on iOS 8.1 Cheers Brian

Just got back from the local Apple Store with my new replacement iPad Air 2 (Apple is the best around with taking care of the customer, no questions asked).  Will give the new sound system a go after my restore tonight, and wIll report if any further issues. Fingers crossed.

Simply swipe up from the bottom  of the screen… There you will see that a new mute button

is checked… just click to uncheck and problem solved

I'd be curious to see if a second unit, with the same stuff installed, still has the problem. It could be something every has installed in common.

The new software mute bottom, toggle on and off, was attempted and had absolutely no effect on my specific problem. I believe my issue was hardware related.

i'm glad you were able to swap your iPad at the store.  I  will keep an eye on mone in case some other things go wrong… These things aren't cheap.., lol

I'm getting this periodically as well. Isn't easily reproducible so that's a little bothersome. It seems like if my iPad is sitting idle for a while the first sound that plays causes this pop, but after that everything works fine.

Just a brief report. New replacement iPad Air 2 has no issues thus far with any sound functionality. Sounds awesome.

I hope it works out for you, but I have my doubts. Too many now are reporting the exact same issue for it to be this much bad harware, unless they had a bad batch get into the assembly pool. I'm still leaning towards software, like a buggy driver.

I hope you're right and that it is software, and that it gets fixed soon

my first iPad did this popping sound as well, I had it replaced with a new one for a different problem and my replacement does the same sound.

Report update. I am now on a solid 2 days with replaced iPad Air 2. Sound interfaces and music listening is still perfect. Note that on this new iPad Air 2, I restored the same backup from my iPad Air that was restored on my original problematic iPad Air 2. Therefore, I believe my issues were purely hardware related. Also, I did not have 'pop' related issues. Mine were sound disruption, screeching, and system sound deficiencies. May be different than others issues. Also, the issues being reported regarding a significant vibration of the internal speakers when playing music is not any noticeable issue on my new unit. Native sound is very good. Hope others can get this resolved soon. May be a couple things going on under the hood.