iPhone 6s Distorted Sound

The ringer switch on the left side of my iPhone 6s Plus broke. It's apparently not a fixable item and since I was still under warranty, they replaced it. Restored my phone but all the sounds were REALLY loud. My wife could hear me typing while I was upstairs (she was downstairs with the tv on). Couldn't resolve it. Then it started acting wonky (got the white "Hello" screen, then 3 minutes later it was fine, amongst other ghosts in the machine). So I had them replace it again. After restoring it from my iCloud back-up, SAME thing ... super loud. But following the advice here, I reset it (General / Settings / Reset All Settings), it's a normal sounding iPhone again ! Thanks to all for their input !

I know the question has long since been resolved. But I had a something kinda similar happen with not being able to hear when making and receiving phone calls unless I put the phone on speaker with my iPhone 6s Plus. And tried to fix the problem myself and ended up voiding the warranty because I damaged the ports on the bottom and it cost me $150 via my phone insurance with Asurion. So if anyone has any issue I'd highly recommend calling your phone carrier and see if it can be replaced under warranty instead of trying to fix yourself.

i've had real problems with music sounding distorted but only on some tracks...was driving me nuts. Tried all the suggestions around disabling/enabling EQ and sound check....however I noticed in accessibility under 'hearing' I had MONO enabled. Changing this to OFF has totally fixed my problems, I've also been able to mess up others iphones to give them the same symptoms by enabling MONO - this gives me 100% confidence this has been causing the problem. .....i realise yours is an old issue but adding to this site incase it helps others !!

thanks

Matt

Hey Craig,

This is also happening to me on my new 6s (not the plus). I did reproduce the exact same distortion using your method of playing the ringtone "Opening". I have noticed the distortion to be the most pronounced on certain notes in music that I play (on loud) through the speaker instead of ear phones. It is very noticeable, and it would be nice to know if I should return the phone while I still can (and swap it for another 6s or 6s Plus). Any thoughts on if this is a hardware issue or maybe software (IOS 9.0.1)? Maybe it is just a 6s issue and not with the 6S Plus since that phone has a different speaker arrangement? I would appreciate any advice!

Thanks,

Jeff

iPhone 6s, IOS 9.0.1

Hey Craig, I am not too sure that going to the Genius Bar will help because I decided to check another family member's new iPhone 6s using the same criteria - sound all the way to loud, ringtone, "Opening" - and got exactly the same result = distortion in exactly the same places. I believe that "maybe" it is just the iPhone speaker is not high quality. Did you actually listen to other peoples iPhone 6s to be sure you are comparing apples to apples? Either I am correct, or we as a family just happened to buy 2 lemons that have exactly the same problem. Your thoughts? Jeff

This issue happened to me when I restored my iPhone 6s Plus from a back up I did from my iPhone 6 Plus. My message sent sound was super loud and it sounded like my speaker was blown. I reset my phone and set it up as new and everything sounded perfectly fine. Restored it again from a back up and it sounded crappy again. So I left it at set up as a new phone and just loaded my pictures and other data from my iCloud account. All I had to do is redone load my apps again. Pictures, Notes, Contacts and other important files came back like nothing was wrong. I'll just leave the phone as it is now.

My new 6S also has distortion, which I originally noticed when receiving a phone call with the Opening ringtone. Mine will also give distortion on the text message sending sound. I plan to book a genius bar appointment to hopefully get it resolved. I'm trying for Monday, so Craig, please report back with what happens at your appointment on Friday!

Craig (and anyone else having this problem),

I have tried several different ways to recreate the distortion I am experiencing on my iPhone 6s. I want to see if what I am hearing is the exact same distortion as yourself. The best way to illustrate it is to make sure your volume is on loud, go to Sounds, then go to Ringtone, but try the "Slow Rise" ringtone. That particular ringtone consistently hits a particular note or sound that causes the distortion over and over throughout the ringtone as it hits that particular note. It is like the distorted sound I have heard from an inexpensive speaker when music is hitting certain low notes that causes vibration, and therefore distorts the sound. Please try that ringtone "Slow Rise" and see if you get the same results as myself. Let me know your results, and I will probably make a Genius Bar reservation and see what Apple can do to fix the problem. By the way, the problem does not exist when using the ear phones - just the speaker.

Thanks!

Jeff

iPhone 6s, IOS 9.0.1

I first noticed this when sending an iMessage however after some testing I have found a solution that fixed it for me.

In Settings>Music>EQ

I had 'late night' selected and it was distorting. I turned off and it now works fine.

I can replicate it on my friends 6s Plus and the message sound gets distorted with the EQ setting on 'late night' too.

maybe that ring tone has distortion?

@Slayer, unfortunately that did not work for me.

@Jeff I also got distortion with that ringtone but it is much more noticeable with "Opening."

My closest apple store has no appointments for a week, completely booked solid, so I am going to try to see if my carrier (Verizon) will swap it. If not I'm going to try walking in to the store and seeing if they can help.