iPhone 7 Plus secondary speaker busted?

[Jeff08Reb]

Hi everyone, I just got around to setting up an iPhone 7 Plus 32GB earlier today. During my initial testing, I immediately noticed that audio didn't quite sound as good as on my 6s Plus. Popping into the accessibility settings, I was able to shift the balance between the standard (bottom) and new (top / earpiece) speaker. The difference was pretty drastic.

The bottom speaker sounds normal with zero vibration but the earpiece speaker (at max volume with multiple audio sources) sounds borderline overpowered and is much more tinny sounding. Worse yet, at max and even a few ticks lower volume, it vibrates the heck out of the phone which I've already found to be very annoying.

My question is, do I have a defective secondary speaker? I'd really appreciate if someone / a few people could pop into the accessibility settings and toy with the speaker balance slider a bit to confirm or deny if my situation is unique. Do your two speakers sound identical? Does the secondary earpiece speaker vibrate the phone at all?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Jal217]

Tried it, mine seems fine. I'm no audio expert though. It seems perfectly clear to me with the balance any way

 

[willmtaylor]

Hi everyone, I just got around to setting up an iPhone 7 Plus 32GB earlier today. During my initial testing, I immediately noticed that audio didn't quite sound as good as on my 6s Plus. Popping into the accessibility settings, I was able to shift the balance between the standard (bottom) and new (top / earpiece) speaker. The difference was pretty drastic.

The bottom speaker sounds normal with zero vibration but the earpiece speaker (at max volume with multiple audio sources) sounds borderline overpowered and is much more tinny sounding. Worse yet, at max and even a few ticks lower volume, it vibrates the heck out of the phone which I've already found to be very annoying.

My question is, do I have a defective secondary speaker? I'd really appreciate if someone / a few people could pop into the accessibility settings and toy with the speaker balance slider a bit to confirm or deny if my situation is unique. Do your two speakers sound identical? Does the secondary earpiece speaker vibrate the phone at all?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Mine doesn't sound distorted, but rather severely imbalanced. The audio from the traditional speaker location completely washes out the earpiece speaker--it's barely audible and not at all "stereo."

 

[maxsix]

Hi everyone, I just got around to setting up an iPhone 7 Plus 32GB earlier today. During my initial testing, I immediately noticed that audio didn't quite sound as good as on my 6s Plus. Popping into the accessibility settings, I was able to shift the balance between the standard (bottom) and new (top / earpiece) speaker. The difference was pretty drastic.

The bottom speaker sounds normal with zero vibration but the earpiece speaker (at max volume with multiple audio sources) sounds borderline overpowered and is much more tinny sounding. Worse yet, at max and even a few ticks lower volume, it vibrates the heck out of the phone which I've already found to be very annoying.

My question is, do I have a defective secondary speaker? I'd really appreciate if someone / a few people could pop into the accessibility settings and toy with the speaker balance slider a bit to confirm or deny if my situation is unique. Do your two speakers sound identical? Does the secondary earpiece speaker vibrate the phone at all?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Just return it.

We pay obscenely premium prices, Apple delivers marginal quality. So returning / exchanging the phone is the best option.

 

[Mohamad-pro]

Hi everyone, I just got around to setting up an iPhone 7 Plus 32GB earlier today. During my initial testing, I immediately noticed that audio didn't quite sound as good as on my 6s Plus. Popping into the accessibility settings, I was able to shift the balance between the standard (bottom) and new (top / earpiece) speaker. The difference was pretty drastic.

The bottom speaker sounds normal with zero vibration but the earpiece speaker (at max volume with multiple audio sources) sounds borderline overpowered and is much more tinny sounding. Worse yet, at max and even a few ticks lower volume, it vibrates the heck out of the phone which I've already found to be very annoying.

My question is, do I have a defective secondary speaker? I'd really appreciate if someone / a few people could pop into the accessibility settings and toy with the speaker balance slider a bit to confirm or deny if my situation is unique. Do your two speakers sound identical? Does the secondary earpiece speaker vibrate the phone at all?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

@ 6:13

 

[Jeff08Reb]

Just return it.

We pay obscenely premium prices, Apple delivers marginal quality. So returning / exchanging the phone is the best option.

Hey, yeah I have no problem returning or exchanging it but just wanted to see if it was common on all phones before I visit the carrier store

 

[tcannizz]

Hey, yeah I have no problem returning or exchanging it but just wanted to see if it was common on all phones before I visit the carrier store

I have a normal iPhone 7. I just tested the speakers using the accessibility setting and having the music play out of both speakers one at a time. The top speaker definitely sounds completely different.

Either we have bad units or the top speaker is just a different speaker type then they used for the bottom main speaker?

 

[C DM]

@ 6:13

Someone trying to make something out of there being one speaker at the bottom like there's something to it, given that it's basically how it's always been. Pretty silly.

 

[Jeff08Reb]

I have a normal iPhone 7. I just tested the speakers using the accessibility setting and having the music play out of both speakers one at a time. The top speaker definitely sounds completely different.

Either we have bad units or the top speaker is just a different speaker type then they used for the bottom main speaker?

Exactly, that's what I'm hoping to answer here. I have a feeling that the earpiece speaker is just a lower quality speaker but would like to hear from others before coming to that conclusion

 

[MaskedCarrot]

Anyone worry about blowing out the top speaker since it is the same speaker that you use for phone calls? I always thought the bottom speaker would be of a better quality since people play music from it.

Also when I do play music through the speakers, I always have it up full blast, so it makes me wonder if I risk the chance of blowing out the earpiece speaker.

So that leads me to this question, in the accessibility options that you guys are mentioning, I gather we can just change the balance all to the bottom speaker, hence turning OFF the speaker in the earpiece for playing music?

 

[Jeff08Reb]

Anyone worry about blowing out the top speaker since it is the same speaker that you use for phone calls? I always thought the bottom speaker would be of a better quality since people play music from it.

Also when I do play music through the speakers, I always have it up full blast, so it makes me wonder if I risk the chance of blowing out the earpiece speaker.

So that leads me to this question, in the accessibility options that you guys are mentioning, I gather we can just change the balance all to the bottom speaker, hence turning OFF the speaker in the earpiece for playing music?

Well, yes and no. In the accessibility menu, you can slide the balance between left and right channels but when you rotate the phone, the channel orientation changes. This means you can't permanently select the bottom speaker and disable the top speaker as it'll be activated when you rotate the phone. If there was an option to permanently select one or other, that'd be great.

 

[tcannizz]

Exactly, that's what I'm hoping to answer here. I have a feeling that the earpiece speaker is just a lower quality speaker but would like to hear from others before coming to that conclusion

When I turn my volume up, my screen also has a vibrate/shake to it with the music. Again, is this a problem or just how the second speaker is designed within the phone.

 

[sunking101]

It uses the earpiece speaker?
As the top speaker is smaller, less powerful and tinny then it's a very poor implementation of 'stereo' by Apple.

 

[jacob_w]

I noticed something weird with my speakers too. Check out my post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-7-speakers-static-noise.2000093/