Updated to IOS 10 sound quality is poor through headphones

Did you check if Settings - General - Accessibility - Mono Audio is off?

Well, I was wrong. After more testing I've realized that even with a clean installation of ios10, it still sounds worse than with ios9.

It sounds metallic, distorted and unbalanced, and I end with headache each time I spend some time listening to music, and I'm talking about CDs ripped in Apple Lostless Audio format.

I bought an iPhone to listen to music with some decent quality, but with ios10 I can't...

Apple should fix this.

I agree with Layne75.

The issue appears to be when you upgrade from 9 to 10.

I have managed to improve mine, I don't think it is quite as good as before, and it is still not as good as the iPad.

But completely wiping the phone and installing from scratch seems to improve it.

You should firstly do a backup of your current ios 10 install to iTunes and iCloud.

Then reset your phone to factory settings.

You then have a choice: Restore from backup, or set up as New iPhone.

Restore from backup didn't work for me first time so I set up as New iPhone after following advice from Apple.

This seemed to improve things, but I had lost all my data and wanted it back so I restored the backup at this point to retrieve my contacts/photos/settings etc, everything but music files.

I then re-installed the music files and the sound seemed back to normal, through Bluetooth and headphones.

Please note; when setting up as new iPhone you will need to sign in to Apple on your phone and they will try to send you a code, but you wont be able to see the code because you cant access your texts yet and it didn't pop up on the screen.

So my advice is to bypass the sign in and say you will do it later, then sign in through the settings menu.

Another thing to note; when re-installing the music files there is a setting.

'Convert Higher Bit Rate Songs to _____kbps' and there is a list of options.

I had this option ticked so I un-ticked it before installing the music files, there is a chance that this setting was also a factor.

I believe that this option is used to compress the music files to save space at the expense of some quality, but it was fine before so I used this option to save space. Now I have a bigger capacity phone I don't need this option and transferring music files is much quicker with it disabled.

Hope this helps some of you restore your quality.

Today I just updated my iPhone 4s and bought a new iPhone SE. I downloaded the Pandora app and played some music for the ride home...What the? The music sounds compressed and distorted when the volume is up. I pulled over and checked the settings, making sure it was Pandora one. All set there. Making sure I wasn't hearing things, I plugged in my old iPod and it's lower quality recordings. No doubt about it. The selections on the iPod sounded much richer. That was never the case. My iPhone 4s had the previous IOS.

Apple what did you do! I just spent $449.00 on a new device and the software update is "defective".

Today I just updated my iPhone 4s and bought a new iPhone SE. I downloaded the Pandora app and played some music for the ride home...What the? The music sounds compressed and distorted when the volume is up. I pulled over and checked the settings, making sure it was Pandora one. All set there. Making sure I wasn't hearing things, I plugged in my old iPod and it's lower quality recordings. No doubt about it. The selections on the iPod sounded much richer. That was never the case. My iPhone 4s had the previous IOS.

Apple what did you do! I just spent $449.00 on a new device and it's a downgrade in audio quality?

UPDATE:

Did some research: New IOS upgrade aside, there's lot's of talk and testing-comparison of the iPhone 4s, 5s, and the new next gen 6's. The bottom line is the 4s has the best audio quality (music) and 5s a slight downgrade. The 6's are step below it's predecessors. It has something to do with the processor in the 6's.

I did an extensive side by with my new SE and the 4s. I used both my car stereo and my vintage high end stereo system for an A-B comparison. It wasn't even close. The SE (same driver as the 6s) sounded like there was a veil in from of the mid-higher ranges. The dynamic range was muffled. Even the music on my old IPod Nano sounded superior to the SE (apples to apples comparison - same music sources). My 4s is a notch above the Nano in overall sound quality. Everything from Pandora to personal recordings all sounded cleaner, brighter, and more "listenable" on the 4s.

I thought the SE would be an upgrade overall, or at least equal to what I had. While the function and speed of the SE is superior to the 4s, the audio is, well, crap. I mean CRAP. Since music is important to me and I'm not going to buy another streaming device, I'm keeping the 4s. It just needs a new battery. As for the new SE, it's being returned to Apple.

Sorry guys. I love your products. Love your service. You missed on this one. I'll just wait, and hope, that you are listening and your next upgrades include a product that's equal or better than what you produced earlier.

I noticed this particularly with phone calls... music was OK. Phone call sound quality seems to be better after turning off Phone Noise Cancellation (under Settings/Accessibility). Hope this helps someone!

I have definitely noticed that the sound quality has recently been very reduced. Music sounds crushed and very distorted - unlistenable to me. Apple Music has been a terrible experience (trashed iTunes library, endless patching up of its mismatched, misclassified mess - and now this.) Goodbye Apple Music (and probably Apple) and hello Spotify which is 320 kbps in its Extreme quality setting, doesn't compromise any existing files - and talks to Bose wirelessly (important for me.)

I actually suspect that this has been a deliberate ploy to frustrate customers prior to the introduction of a CD-quality stream - with a higher price tag! If that happens, I will definitely give up on Apple products altogether.

This thread is all over the place without any specifics as to what ios version posters are using.

Can anyone indicate whether updating to ios 10.1 improves sound quality over earlier versions of ios 10?

Hi,

I'm on 10.1.1. Have noticed the degradation since updating to this version.

Hi, so I fixed the issue with my itunes music being distorted. I am an audio video engineer and had to troubleshoot some speakers and finally started questioning the software when my phone played the same music back without distortion but the Macbook didn't. Still not sure why it happened but it's not distorted for the time being. I'm thinking there's an issue with the playback preferences causing the music to play out of phase.

I turned the EQ off. WHen into the playback settings in itunes preferences and turned everything off. Then restarted iTunes and voila. The sound is back to normal.

Switched off "Adjust volume" in Settings > Music. No crackling noise any more.

thanks worked a treat!! now back to normal , Airpods now sound brilliant!!!!!

Thank you so much! I was starting to get very frustrated. What a weird oversight

Worked for me, trebles especially became TERRIBLE! All good now

Thanks that fixed it for me