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Crappy front facing earpiece 'right' speaker.

D

Dreamliner330

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 1, 2011
641
152
Has anyone noticed the 'new' speaker Apple added in the earpiece for 'stereo' sound is terrible? It's horribly buzzy as if there is something loose or the speaker is blown.

Make a phone call to your carrier (for the automated voice) or listen to a podcast or something and cover the top speaker with your thumb and listen to the bottom speaker only, then cover the bottom speaker and listen to the top speaker only and you will instantly hear that it sounds HORRIBLE and BUZZY.

At first I thought it was just my phone, but I've tested my three 7's and a 7+ and they all exhibit this. I could immediately tell when I spoke to the very first person on speakerphone it sounded like crappy speakerphone from 2002 with the nasty buzzing.
 
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Relentless Power said:
No issues on mine. Contact Apple and see what they say.
Click to expand...
Apple denies all problems.

Try again. Call your carrier, hit speaker, turn the volume all the way up. Cover the bottom with your thumb, and listen to the distortion. (Cover earpiece with thumb to listen to bottom speaker for comparison).
 
Newtons Apple said:
I have found the speakers to be darn good. Maybe something wrong with yours as I hear no buzzing no matter how hard you try to convince me.
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I don't need to convince you. I have a THIRD replacement arriving tomorrow and EVERY phone I've tested so far does this.
 
TrueBlou said:
Have you had your ears checked, seems to be the one constant with all the phones your testing.


I kid of course :p
Click to expand...
Lol. So far I'm batting 100%. I asked for someone's 7+ and isolated the distortion in about 4 seconds and they acknowledged it.
 
Dreamliner330 said:
Lol. So far I'm batting 100%. I asked for someone's 7+ and isolated the distortion in about 4 seconds and they acknowledged it.
Click to expand...

Oh my god, you've infected other people's ears now. :eek: Quick before it becomes an epidemic, get treatment for your ears. The fate of the world depends on this monkey....

No, wait, wrong film. But that as far as I'm concerned is one of the best (ridiculous) lines in movie history, if anyone even knows what it is. But I digress, that's what happens when you're sleep deprived and on heavy medication :D
 
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Dreamliner330 said:
Apple denies all problems.

Try again. Call your carrier, hit speaker, turn the volume all the way up. Cover the bottom with your thumb, and listen to the distortion. (Cover earpiece with thumb to listen to bottom speaker for comparison).
Click to expand...

Still no issues. Tested on two iPhone 7's. You must have some serious bad luck.
 
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By saying you guys don't have this problem, you are saying that the earpiece speaker on speakerphone at max volume sounds just as clear as the bottom speaker, right?
 
Both speakers definitely sound different, they have dissimilar tonal qualities. I would never connect two different and non-matching speakers to my home HiFi so it's a shame that Apple went down this route. If a phone has two speakers then I would expect and wish them to be identical. A lesser bugbear is the fact that one fires horizontally and the other vertically. Overall a strange 'stereo' implementation by Apple.

Back to the OP, I don't ever use max volume so I hear no buzzing but it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that one speaker craps out at a lower volume than the other, after all they are different speakers.
 
I know exactly what OP is talking about as my first 7 had this very problem; it's one of the major reasons I returned it.

However, second device is much better.
 
The speakers on my iPhone 7+ sound very cheap and tinny. First I just thought it was just my phone, but I checked with friends and family and their 7s sound the same way with very slight variances. Coming from an iPhone 6+ with rich full sound (from only one speaker), the difference in sound is blatant and disappointing.

However, with my 7+, the top speaker has better, fuller sound - it's the bottom speaker that sounds more tinny and cheap.
 
Dreamliner330 said:
Has anyone noticed the 'new' speaker Apple added in the earpiece for 'stereo' sound is terrible? It's horribly buzzy as if there is something loose or the speaker is blown.
Click to expand...

Mine was fine when I got it and then about a week later, it made some distorted sounds when playing music and then stopped working all together. So, no audio in my ear on calls. Verizon says October 24th before I can get a new replacement.
 
I'm in a Verizon store now and BOTH of their display ear speakers have the buzzing sound.

That makes 6 out of 6 that I've personally listened to that buzz on high volumes.
 
My speakers don't buzz, my beef is that they are not the best quality and sound flat, cheap and tinny compared to my iPhone 6+. I have since learned that the 6s also had weak speakers, so if you're coming from that, you may not notice a difference. Every iPhone 7 that I listened to had the same tinny sound. As for buzzing? Well, that might be a defect, and a separate issue.
 
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