iPhone 6s Distorted Sound

Thanks, this worked. My distortion applied only to Messages, Ring tones and Viber messages but oddly not to WhatsApp messages.

Good news mgp1910 - but have you tested piano content? Agnes Obel etc

So far, all my previous complaints about viber messages and ring tones are gone, however when playing Chord Left, there was minor static on some notes. If not for this thread I might have thought it was just a bad recording. All in all it seems to have repaired itself. Good luck to all.

Erm...... Chord Left still sounds absolutely shocking to me, even using latest public beta release of iOS 9.3.1 - definitely not fixed yet. Probably because it's a hardware fault with the speaker 🙂

Just installed iOS 9.3 Public Beta 2 - absolutely no change in respect of distorted piano content.

Clearly a speaker fault, as I have always maintained.

Hi there ! About the distortion, Agnes Obel´s " chords left" song sounds bad @full volume on iPhone 5s, 6 and 6s.

The song has obviously a bad recording quality or sampling.

I´m not sure that the speakers are faulty, cause ringtones have been fixed between iOS versions.

iphon's 6s speaker has the deepest bass so far and the output volume level is very high. (versus Lg and Samsung's flagships)

Apple or 3rd apps can reduce / correct this sampling issue by software fix. See my previous answer about the 48khz sampling.

i´m on 9.2 - iPhone 6s

Maybe they use 2 sorts of speakers. Each with specificities. More bass -> more distortion ?

Like Tmsc and Samsung for the A9 chip.

one thing is certain : Apple won't communicate on this...

Interesting point lewis2b, regarding potential different speakers in phones with different A9 chips - who knows.

What is certain, is that some members on this forum clearly state that they have a phone without any problems whatsoever .... which is why it appears not every phone is affected - therefore, there are definitely some faulty speaker batches out there.

I can assure you that the Agnes Obel track is NOT a bad recording. I have the original CD, which when 'ripped' to iTunes, also plays distorted and crackles on the iPhone above 75% volume, BUT plays perfectly (from iTunes) on my studio recording equipment. The recording is absolutely fine.

Other totally different music with piano content is also affected and these are not poor recordings.

The 48khz sampling is actually irrelevant with regard to the Music playback and this has been confirmed by Apple (see earlier forum responses). It is only an issue for developers - but music on iTunes will play perfectly regardless of the 48khz sampling.

To summarise: the piano music is perfectly recorded but the iPhone speaker is definitely faulty on SOME phones (not all)

Hope this helps 🙂

To all who needs to know whether speaker issue is really present. Goto Settings>Sounds

Drag the ball to and fro under "Ringer and alerts" mainly at the max and less than max position, and put the speaker near your ear. You will hear a burst. Try it several times if unable to figure out in one go. I have checked for the same even for new phones kept in display in Apple Stores. Apple needs to look into it. Let me know if anyone is able to figure out the burst the way I have mentioned.

Hi Gue,

I forgot to specify bad recording / sampling for Iphones, may i say that the recording doesn't match the iphone's speaker architecture.

Agnes Obel's tracks have no distortion with headphones for example, you're right.

For me, a faulty speaker must be defective even on low volume.

We can hear distortion on some tracks not all ( Tracks with piano, classic guitar)

I think the speaker can't support those frequencies at full volume.

- As i said, the ringtones don't have distortion anymore on my iphone 6s since IOS 9.2

- Agnes Obel's track sounds bad even on other devices at full volume (small speakers 😉 )

- Tracks with piano or classic guitar have distortion on youtube on iphones at full volume

Those who read this thread, if you have distortion on the ringtones "Slow rise" and "opening" at 100% volume on ios 9.2, then

you probably have a bad speaker.

95% of people here (and above) have distortion on tracks with piano or classic guitar.

- Depending on :

*The quality of the audio source (youtube, spotify, apple music, 128 kbps, 64kbps, 44kHZ,48Hz ...)

*The volume

*The ios version

*The quality of the speaker

--> You will (or won't) encounter issues during playback on iphone's speaker.

Best regards

I own the iPhone 5s 64gb upgraded to the iPhone 6s Plus 128gb just a few days ago & noticed the speaker issue so I did some testing I played "Agnes Obel - Chord Left" on iPhone 5s & iPhone 6s Plus one after another the first 10 seconds of the song & they both distort exactly the same way they both sound the same max volume maybe the iPhone 6s Plus was slightly louder could have something more to do with speaker positioning how it sits inside the tunnelling of the phone etc the iPhone 5s sounds brighter than the iPhone 6s Plus which again could have something to do with speaker positioning does anyone know if they have the same speaker?

Here is what is going on with the speaker:

Firstly & most important the speaker is not powerful enough to handle the iPhone's max volume the distortion has nothing to do with sound quality of a recording where it is played from etc more to do with the overall EQ of the recording that lacks high frequencies,the reason you are hearing the distortion so clear on "Agnes Obel - Chord Left" it is a recording with no hi frequencies it is just a pure piano which does not contain hi frequencies,the distortion sound coming from the speaker contains higher frequencies that's why it is so clear to hear & pulls through aggressive,the actual sound of the distortion coming from the speaker is around 3500Hz to 8000Hz somewhere around there maybe lower just talking ruffly to give a better understanding,the cause of the speaker distortion is coming from around 200Hz to 400Hz which is the woody area of EQ just a ruff guess again, the speaker does not handle that woody area,if you listen to some other music on the iPhone with hi frequencies like a dance tune with bright hi hats bright synths etc if any distortion is happening the higher frequencies from the music will disguise the high distorting frequencies off the speaker unless its a louder distortion & can do with the listener how well they hear music.

Another important thing:

With "Agnes Obel - Chord Left" as I mentioned somewhere around 200Hz to 400Hz being woody a pure piano with no hi frequencies what you are doing is turning that frequency up louder than you could if you was playing a dance tune with hi frequencies with bright hi hats bright synths etc the frequency of 200Hz to 400Hz in that dance tune would be lower in the mix so you are unable to have that frequency as loud as "Agnes Obel - Chord Left" the distortion is going to happen if you are playing any recordings that has no higher frequencies same as this tune I posted below as I turn this tune up I can hear the woody kick drum getting more distorted turning into a kicked drum with higher frequencies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5kFlttDgM&index=1&list=FL3V6ZaS-fzMr16htSaQSdQ w

All in all the iPhone speaker hates somewhere around 200Hz to 400Hz woody area of sound its just not powerful enough to handle it.

Its such a shame Apple does not have any sound engineers working for them the iPhone should have a left & right front speaker & a sub bass speaker instead of trying to make it thinner it is thin enough.

PS:The reason I quickly noticed the distorting on the iPhone 6s Plus compared to the distortion on the iPhone 5s the iPhone 5s is brighter sounding.

montydj .... nice explanation, although you admit to it being a 'ruff guess'

unfortunately, I'm not entirely convinced.

Apple would hardly put the aforementioned track on iTunes if they were aware that it would cause crackling noises on their devices. Self defeating.

Ive heard it play perfectly on a 5S, so perhaps there may also have been a batch fault with your particular 5S speaker (just as we now experience with the 6S)

Furthermore, some people have swapped their 6S and been fortunate to find a unit which does NOT distort.

It is clearly a faulty batch of speakers and pot luck to get a good one

Well its clear for me what the problem is,when I said ruffly I am not going to spend time to work out the exact frequency what the speaker can not handle & is causing the distortion my iPhone 6s Plus is going back I will just use my iPhone 5s until it stops functioning I will not buy another iPhone again you can rely on hope that some phones are ok. I have a iPhone 5s here with me & its the same distortion! APPLE have gone down hill the quality is poor best thing for everyone to do is to stop buying APPLE & then & only then they will start do something about there poor quality.

This morning I woke up with the distorted message and Viber tones, exactly like before. And just like last time, this hack WORKED AGAIN. Did not even need to charge to 100%.

It worked immediately after restarting my phone and toggling the Music>Soundcheck button.

Thanks lews2b. It is not acceptable to have these phantom things happening to our expensive iPhones but am just glad there is a solution. Hoping you all find yours too.

I Hope apple acknowledges and fixes this problem. Either recall and repair. Apology. or refund

that is all.

Hi there,

Videos of the issue ... at different levels : iphone 6s and 6s plus

Agnes Obel's song :

https://youtu.be/D3_SXRH5E6s

Ringtones :

https://youtu.be/KCtrWDkdlbw

Crap LEVEL MAX (THE CHAMPION):

https://youtu.be/H1Jco7QxAEE

Siri's demo :

https://youtu.be/X4wvxMzbgtA

Mix Music and ringtones distortion

https://youtu.be/bUaU2tcpJC8

ENJOY 😉

21 PAGES on this thread so far !!! and still no message from Apple.