iPhone 6s Distorted Sound

Hello All,

I got my new iPhone 6s and i am facing the same issue. For me reload fixed it momentarily but problem resumes again in a while.

Is apple replacing the phones? Is this a software bug?

I have two and I am on my fourth replacement with one and second with the other.

They can never find an issue with the testing so you need to either bring it in while it's happening or take a short video with another device showing the distortion. Always include a shot of the "about" page to verify its your device in the video. They do not hesitate to replace the first couple- especially when you blast the video at full distorted volume in the busy store.

At the last replacement they told me that they had no clue what is going on and that I should wait for an iOS update to see if that fixes it. I just about lost my mind on the guy and finally got him to read the case notes from apple care and walked out with the new unit. It's day 6 and no distortion so far.

Hi redbuttonone ....... have you tried playing the Agnes Obel track from iTunes (Chord Left) - I think you will find that it definitely does distort on your iPhone, since they all appear to have faulty speakers that cannot deal with simple piano content at certain frequencies. Give it a try and look forward to your findings

Hi GUE Diver,

After reviewing all 23 pages here, I am seeing two different complaints involving the audio on the iPhone 6s.

1. Audio quality in general. E.g. Agnes Obie's Chord Left does indeed cause major distortion to both of my replacements even at half volume. It also distorts on my iPad mini, iPad 3rd gen., laptop and iPhone 4. This song will throw a major beating to any small speaker device and is certainly a good test.

2. Heavily distorted audio from ringtones, message alerts, video audio. This is a link to a short video on YouTube with this issue:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Jco7QxAEE

This is my primary concern. A typical tell for this is that I'll start to see missed calls. The phone will not ring at all. I'll go into sound settings and test individual ringtones and get heavy distortion like n the linked video.

I will be posting a collage video of all my replacements doing this in the next day or so.

Here is a link to my video showing major distortion in multiple units.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOoJOxnCUs&feature=youtu.be

This is happening to me.I am using iphone 6s for a month but i notice this issue recently.I went to the genius bar and there is no problem with their test but don't sound good for genius workers and me.She gave me new iphone 6s but this phone is the same.I still have distorted sound.I dont know what can i do, this is very disappointing.İ have restored my iphone 6s on recovery mode and dfu mode.Anything happens still same.This is very expensive phone in Turkey and all countries and this phone is my first iphone.I am very disappointed Apple, so this problem shouldn't be such an expensive phone.To tell the truth i really loved this software but i don't know this problem sourced from software or hardware.If this problem source from software it is really bad for Apple because they only trust their software.Briefly, i am waiting for new update 9.3.If they don't fix this problem i will never buy Apple products again.This issue seeing most sounds.Like Gary Jules Mad World, John Lennon İmagine or garageband's piano sounds.

iOS 9.3 Public Beta 7 - recently released and installed on my 6S ..... unfortunately, no sound improvement (same with previous Beta 6) - so can't possibly be software. 😝

Update 9.3.Nothing happens.No sound improvement.Still distorted sound...

me too...

Apple does not care about us...

I wonder whether the newly released iPhone SE now has a better speaker fitted .......

As for me it was very helpfull to go switch ON the MONO-sound in the universal access settings. Distortion didn't dissappeared totally but really decreased.

Unfortunately, this 'tweak' really makes no difference at all - just try the aforementioned Agnes Obel track (Chord Left).

To be perfectly honest, no amount of messing around and changing various settings is going to make any significant difference whatsoever - because this is clearly a HARDWARE fault with the speaker itself.

Just installed iOS 9.3.2 Public Beta 1 and the newest software makes no difference either ....... as expected 😉

I would be extremely surprised if the iOS software itself ever resolved the issue and if it did, would be interested to know why it took so long and wasn't addressed by Apple in earlier software updates.

i have an idea about what could be the problem. this is my 3rd iPhone 6s Plus with the distorted sound issue. Seems to me that the speaker is possibly wired incorrectly. Speaker drivers use a positive and negative connection. If the connection is backwards then it will still produce sound but the drivers will fire in the opposite direction. The speaker is not designed to fire in the opposite direction and can cause distortion. I've wired speakers backwards before and have witnessed the same issue no matter the size of the driver.

Also it is a fact that there is a smaller speaker in the 6s and 6s plus models To make room for the haptic engine....but apple claims that its a better speaker then any other gen iPhone.

I Just replaced my iPhone 6s Plus for the 4th time. Still the issue remains. while at the Genius Bar we tested Agnes obel-chord left on multiple devices. every single device had the distortion. Including the 6s, 6, 6p, 5s, and 5. Also tested on a galaxy s6 and a blackberry priv. We also tested it on the iPhone SE. All had the same distortion to some level. The blackberry sounded the best but still had noticeable distortion. Fact of the matter is the iPhones have a very small speaker that is being pushed beyond its limit. As iPhones keep getting thinner, so do their components. when it comes to loudspeakers, smaller is NOT better.