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JasonHD

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
122
0
Anyone else have this issue? The custom ringtones sound really low quality, all the apple ringtones sound fine. If restore as new and used different tones but they all sound like low bit rate tracks. Wasn't like this on iPhone 4.
 

xav8tor

macrumors 6502a
Mar 30, 2011
533
36
Anyone else have this issue? The custom ringtones sound really low quality, all the apple ringtones sound fine. If restore as new and used different tones but they all sound like low bit rate tracks. Wasn't like this on iPhone 4.

I think you are on to something. I am somewhat of an audio buff and I can hear a definite difference between the quality of my custom tones on the 4 and 4S. On the 4S they sound like they are overdriven/clipped and a bit distorted. I can't see how the file itself would change so I have no idea how this can happen, but I hear it too. My original files are pristine.
 

JasonHD

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
122
0
I think you are on to something. I am somewhat of an audio buff and I can hear a definite difference between the quality of my custom tones on the 4 and 4S. On the 4S they sound like they are overdriven/clipped and a bit distorted. I can't see how the file itself would change so I have no idea how this can happen, but I hear it too. My original files are pristine.

Yes same. I have an mp3 as my ring tone, I created it myself and it is top quality. However, it sounds muffled when set as ring tone. Of I play the same track on the music app it sounds perfect. Just when it is set as ringtone it sounds terrible, tinny and muffled. Hmmmm. How to fix this?
 

HiRez

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2004
6,250
2,576
Western US
Yes same. I have an mp3 as my ring tone, I created it myself and it is top quality. However, it sounds muffled when set as ring tone. Of I play the same track on the music app it sounds perfect. Just when it is set as ringtone it sounds terrible, tinny and muffled. Hmmmm. How to fix this?

mp3? I thought ringtones had to be .m4r...an AAC format.
 

Gilb2406

macrumors newbie
Oct 18, 2011
13
2
Ringont Quality

I totally agree with this. I noticed a different quality of audio straight away after getting my iPhone 4S. At first I thought it was a faulty speaker, but then realised that if I play the file with the Music app, it sounds perfect, play it through Sounds or set it as a ringtone, it sounds awful! Really tinny and stripped of all bass!
Looks like Apple have applied some really bad equalizer settings to ringtones in the hope to make them sound better through the iPhone speakers, but it really has destroyed all of my custom ringtones! Really wish they'd make this a switchable option! I'd go back to iOS 4 to get rid of this if I could! :(
 

ukSamo

macrumors newbie
Oct 18, 2011
6
0
Poor quality ringtones

Same problem here, though I've tried the ring tones on my Wife's iPhone 4 and they exhibit the same problem, could this be an iOS5 bug, have you tried them on the iPhone 4 with iOS5? The interesting thing I've found is that if you select them as text tones they play just fine, it's only as ring tones that they sound awful!
 

Ktdhc

macrumors member
Jul 9, 2010
72
3
Yeah this is really bad.

Anyone know if it sounds normal if you actually buy the music from iTunes store, and make a custom ringtone from that?
 

mechaBORED

macrumors member
Jun 8, 2011
37
2
Same problem here. I thought it was just me. I hope they come out with a fix to this soon.
 

Cersche

macrumors newbie
Mar 9, 2011
7
0
Was thankful that I'm not the only one with this issue. Hopefully it's addressed with an update!
 

iMacDragon

macrumors 68020
Oct 18, 2008
2,358
704
UK
You're right, they appear to be making them louder as a ringtone. and presumably they're toning down the bass to make them less likely to distort.
 

Artey

macrumors member
Feb 16, 2011
43
0
I'd like to know if this happens when you make ringtones from music purchased on iTunes too. Because if there's no problem doing it that way then I doubt Apple will fix this, because converting to AAC and changing file extension to .m4r has always come as a big surprise to me. Such an easy way to circumvent their restriction, I think they intentionally want to screw over people like that with bad quality ringtones.

EDIT: Using a default tone like Marimba also sounds distorted in the same way when used as a ringtone compared to it being used as an SMS tone. So it's definitely a bug then.
 
Last edited:

DuckSoup

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2008
589
5
Upstate Central NY
I think you are on to something. I am somewhat of an audio buff and I can hear a definite difference between the quality of my custom tones on the 4 and 4S. On the 4S they sound like they are overdriven/clipped and a bit distorted. I can't see how the file itself would change so I have no idea how this can happen, but I hear it too. My original files are pristine.

^^^^
this

Got my 4S today and I immediately noticed this as compared to my 3Gs. Livable but bothersome.

Mike
 

rudysky

macrumors newbie
Nov 12, 2011
1
0
I've encounter this same problem. The sound quality of the ringtones that came with my iPhone 4S are just fine. However, I used the Ringtone Maker app to create my own customize ringtones. When I played them in iTunes the sound quality was great. However, when I installed them on my iPhone 4S the quality was very poor. I can barely hear the ringtones!:mad:

Hopefully this can be fix, unless someone finds an alternative solution for customize ringtones.
 

bluemonkeyguy

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2010
295
22
I'll try to look into the API responsible for ringtones and see the changes. This probably has to do something with saving memory and or battery.
 

JasonHD

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
122
0
It's a terrible bug that should be fixed by now. My £10 Samsung phone sounds better. Seriously.
 

Bettz1

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2010
140
0
Leicester,UK
I've just found this thread spent this afternoon making some custom ringtones for them to sound loud and distorted on my Iphone 4s Not happy any update?

I've just sent them a message on there feedback page
 

i hate phones

macrumors 6502a
Jul 5, 2010
905
393
Philly Suburbs, PA
uhhg having this problem too. i never used custom ones on my 4 to compare to but they sound awful on the 4s. i tried multiple programs thinking maybe they were changing the quality when saving.

after no luck making them i started looking at the ringtones in the itunes store which sounded GREAT when previewing (playing through the iphone speakers) but after downloading sound like crap when playing through the sounds settings. would like my money back please :rolleyes:
 
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