Why does my music sound rubbish on my iPhone 3G?

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Hi all,



I haven't got a huge number of tracks on my iPhone 3G, and I have a half decent set of headphones, but even the smallest amount of bass in a song makes a crackling sound. In comparison, my partners Nokia 5800 has rich deep bass with no crackling. What's wrong with my iPhone, and how do I stop it doing this?



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    Stop talking rubbish mrochester iphone 3G has one of the best RMA results around. Will you stop creating endless topics on problems you are just fabricating in an attempt to justify your pro Nokia stance. It's boring.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bavlondon2 View Post


    Stop talking rubbish mrochester iphone 3G has one of the best RMA results around. Will you stop creating endless topics on problems you are just fabricating in an attempt to justify your pro Nokia stance. It's boring.



    Wow that's a useful reply. Anyone else like to chime in as to how to stop bass from craclking on the iPhone?



    EDIT - It seems to be the Bass Booster EQ causing the problem, but unfortunately without it I'm distinctly lacking bass.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mrochester View Post


    Wow that's a useful reply. Anyone else like to chime in as to how to stop bass from craclking on the iPhone?



    EDIT - It seems to be the Bass Booster EQ causing the problem, but unfortunately without it I'm distinctly lacking bass.



    http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5800_e...view-308p6.php



    http://www.gsmarena.com/latest_featu...view-171p2.php



    Read through those, take a look at the figures and the methods used to derive those figures, then maybe you will get some understanding of why people reach the conclusion that you are talking out of your arse.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5800_e...view-308p6.php



    http://www.gsmarena.com/latest_featu...view-171p2.php



    Read through those, take a look at the figures and the methods used to derive those figures, then maybe you will get some understanding of why people reach the conclusion that you are talking out of your arse.



    Frankly I can't see what bearing a load of numbers has on actually sitting and listening to the devices. Anyway, the problem has been solved, I have simply had to reduce the bass.



    EDIT - It's amazing how quickly people fall over themselves to tell me I am talking rubbish rather than helping me solve the problem. Get a 5800 and compare, and you will see what I'm talking about.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    It could be because I find the sound quality is excellent as it is and wanted to back up my subjective opinion with objective lab figures.



    Methonks you are on 
  • Reply 6 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    It could be because I find the sound quality is excellent as it is and wanted to back up my subjective opinion with objective lab figures.



    Methonks you are on 



    All I asked was how to stop the bass from crackling, not which sounded better.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    'Bass crackling' implies that it sounds worse, which is clearly not the case.



    I find that the bass is clear and rich through my Sennheiser CX300 II headphone's with no need for adjusting the equalizer, of course they are fairly low end headphone's and the sound quality from the headphone jack is slightly lower than that from the dock when plugged into my home theatre system.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    'Bass crackling' implies that it sounds worse, which is clearly not the case.



    I find that the bass is clear and rich through my Sennheiser CX300 II headphone's with no need for adjusting the equalizer, of course they are fairly low end headphone's and the sound quality from the headphone jack is slightly lower than that from the dock when plugged into my home theatre system.



    Bass crackling does sound worse because it's all distorted! Not quite sure why anyone would consider crackly music good quality!
  • Reply 9 of 18
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mrochester View Post


    Bass crackling does sound worse because it's all distorted! Not quite sure why anyone would consider crackly music good quality!



    Ummm, my iPhone doesn't have crackling or distorted bass, as I said it's clear and rich.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    Ummm, my iPhone doesn't have crackling or distorted bass, as I said it's clear and rich.



    Yes, and neither does mine now when I've switched off the bass booster, but obviously that's at the expense of bass!
  • Reply 11 of 18
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mrochester View Post


    Yes, and neither does mine now when I've switched off the bass booster, but obviously that's at the expense of bass!



    I tried to plug my Sennheiser HD600s into my 2G iphone, but a regular .25->.125 adapter does not go in all the way into the socket.



    Most likely the bass was clipping because your headphones were too hard for the iPhone to drive. If your headphones are low impedance or low sensitivity, then you will have problems - and those problems would show up in the bass first (because bass takes more energy per decibal to produce). Amplifier clipping is very dangerous, and can destroy your headphones, so watch out.



    You could solve the problem with an external headphone amp, like from www.headphone.com (or search for headphone amp on www.audiogon.com for used ones). What headphones are you using?
  • Reply 12 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by e1618978 View Post


    I tried to plug my Sennheiser HD600s into my 2G iphone, but a regular .25->.125 adapter does not go in all the way into the socket.



    Most likely the bass was clipping because your headphones were too hard for the iPhone to drive. If your headphones are low impedance or low sensitivity, then you will have problems - and those problems would show up in the bass first (because bass takes more energy per decibal to produce). Amplifier clipping is very dangerous, and can destroy your headphones, so watch out.



    You could solve the problem with an external headphone amp, like from www.headphone.com (or search for headphone amp on www.audiogon.com for used ones). What headphones are you using?



    My headphones are Sony MDR-EX85LP - the same bass distortion was exhibited by iPod headphones too though.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mrochester View Post


    My headphones are Sony MDR-EX85LP - the same bass distortion was exhibited by iPod headphones too though.



    Then forget what I said earlier, your iPhone is defective, hopefully Apple can repair it...
  • Reply 14 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by e1618978 View Post


    Then forget what I said earlier, your iPhone is defective, hopefully Apple can repair it...



    Well FYI to Mr Hill60 (whom I believe mrochester must be over the hill and over 60 and hadn't had his happy pills) I had this problem too. I can't believe he is so blind to assume that just because he didn't experience a problem that nobody else would! And he's going on at you, he should take a look at himself. In fact reading his rubbish wound me up so much I'l like to call him something a lot worse, but hey, people have bad days....



    Anyway, for me it turns out that my brand new iphone 3gs 32gb headphones were doing exactly the same as yours except I didn't have bass boost on. Turns out (thanks to another comment in here) that if I unplug them slightly it comes right. If I push them all the way into the socket the whole tonal quality turns flat, bass dissappears and a crackly clippy sound comes out whenver the song get's close to reaching -3db or so at a guess.



    Anyway, thought I'd post this incase anyone else get's it. I notice my headphones are 3.5mm but with 4 seperate contacts on them (obviously for a mic) which I'm sure I don't have. Might have to read up on that a bit more.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by marshalleq View Post


    Well FYI to Mr Hill60 (whom I believe mrochester must be over the hill and over 60 and hadn't had his happy pills) I had this problem too. I can't believe he is so blind to assume that just because he didn't experience a problem that nobody else would! And he's going on at you, he should take a look at himself. In fact reading his rubbish wound me up so much I'l like to call him something a lot worse, but hey, people have bad days....



    Anyway, for me it turns out that my brand new iphone 3gs 32gb headphones were doing exactly the same as yours except I didn't have bass boost on. Turns out (thanks to another comment in here) that if I unplug them slightly it comes right. If I push them all the way into the socket the whole tonal quality turns flat, bass dissappears and a crackly clippy sound comes out whenver the song get's close to reaching -3db or so at a guess.



    Anyway, thought I'd post this incase anyone else get's it. I notice my headphones are 3.5mm but with 4 seperate contacts on them (obviously for a mic) which I'm sure I don't have. Might have to read up on that a bit more.



    And in case theres any confusion in that I'm referring to Hill60 as being obnoxious obviously
  • Reply 16 of 18
    spotonspoton Posts: 645member
    You want good quality sound?, Toslink your Mac to a properly set up, quality surround sound system, one that enables surround from stereo and position your listening chair in the sweet spot.



    Use high quality files.



    Everything else quite frankly sucks.
  • Reply 17 of 18
    What sucks is to be cursed with an audiophile ear (or to have developed it through increasingly high standards).



    I'm damn glad my music sounds just fine on my iPod through my EX-300s.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    I completely agree that music sounds like garbage. I import all my music will Apple's losses quality, not MP3 or any other compressed quality and then purchased studio quality Sure headphones and it still sounds like garbage. This sucks. I hope the iPhone 4 doesn't have this problem like my 3G does. I can't listen to any music and enjoy it because it sounds horrible. John Mayer, Arturo Sanduval, Temper Trap, Sevendust... it all sounds like garbage from the iPhone 3G WTF!



    Anyone know of a solution?



    Neagloe
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