Bluetooth Headphones Volume too loud

[Themistokles]

Dear Forum,

when using my Major II Bluetooth Headphones with either my iPhone or my iPad, the volume, even on the lowest possible level, is obnoxiously loud. The problem must lie within iOS (14), as they used to work fine in the past and continue to do so on my MacBook.

Since neither moving the volume slider down, nor using the built-in volume control of my headphones could solve this issue, I tried the "reduce loud sounds"-function under Sounds > Headphone-Security. (I hope my translation is recognizable, I use a different language pack on iOS).
This option somewhat reduces the volume, though not enough. Curiously, when I move the slider to the left, so that noise above 75 dB should be cut, instead of noise above 85 dB, the volume goes up. This also works the other way around, moving the slider to the right, i.e. cutting noise above 100 dB turns the volume down. Either way, it couldn't solve my problem, just thought it might be an interesting side note.

Has anybody any ideas how to get my headphones volume down to a tolerable level?

PS: I'm aware that I'm not the first to report this issue, however I couldn't find a solution yet and did not want to necro any old thread.

 

[JasonHB]

Not any help to you, but I have several pairs of bluetooth headphones. Apple Airpods Max, Airpods Pro, Sony WH1000XM4’s, XM3’s and Klipsch McLaren Sports and none of them exhibit this behaviour, nor ever have done in the past.

I can turn them all down to nothing and all very smoothly down through the volume range. Is it worth you trying a different pair to see if it is something specific between the Majors and Apple?

Jason

 

[Themistokles]

Thanks for your input, I should have mentioned this in my OP. The issue occurs specifically when using the Majors with an iOS device. Other bluetooth headphones let me adjust the volume without any problems.

However I would very much like to make the Majors work too.

 

[retta283]

Hi, those Majors have the option to use with a 3.5mm jack right? If so (and you have the 3.5mm to Lightning adapter) maybe try using them that way and see if they're still too loud, could be an issue with the Bluetooth in that particular model. Seems like every iOS release breaks certain Bluetooth headphones/headsets. IIRC that pair doesn't have volume control on the headphones themselves.

 

[Themistokles]

I've just tried this and connecting them via the headphone jack + adapter works fine.

Well, they do have a button to control the volume, however this only affects the iPhone/Pad volume. So I guess it's not really a volume control itself.

I must say I find it quite difficult to understand, from a tech-naive point of view, how an iOS update can break such basic functionalites like controlling a headsets volume level.

Thanks for your help!