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Does your 3GS emit the "15KHz tone"?

  • Yes I hear it.

    Votes: 99 53.5%
  • Nope, can't hear a thing.

    Votes: 86 46.5%

  • Total voters
    185
It bothers my wife that I can hear the CRT TV on upstairs from the office downstairs... while the upstairs TV has no signal and the speakers are muted! She turns the cable off, but sometimes misses the TV power button. So all the TV is emitting is a 15.625kHz scanning noise. Which is about the same frequency as what y'all are reporting.

And I haven't heard that on my iPhone 3G S at all.

-Ben
 
Most people over 35 wouldn't be able to hear it anyways... so it's not really a very accurate poll.
 
I've been tested to hear upwards of 25kHz (following a car accident in which I dislocated my TMJ and "damaged" my ear canal)... some televisions drive me INSANE... so I can confirm that the two 3GS models in my household are not exhibiting this problem.

EDIT: I went through every function I could, and it seems that my iPhone does emit the sound, though not after unlocking or receiving an SMS, as most others have reported. The only time mine does it is for about 2.5s after I lock the phone (and generally stick it in my pocket, thus explaining why I hadn't ever heard it). Odd.
 
I can hear up to ~17500hz and I don't hear anything coming from my phone.

EDIT: I CAN hear it. See my post below.
 
Mine does it. The light, high pitch sound appears after I send a text and does not go away unless I put the phone to sleep. It goes away a few seconds after the display shuts off. I can wake up the phone and it is gone until I text again. I have to put the phone to my ear to hear it. I'm less concerned about the sound than I am with energy use. Whatever it is I'm sure it's wasting battery.
 
I can hear up to around 18k and my 3G S is totally silent.

It would have been returned in about 5 minutes had it sounded anything like a CRT TV.

Edit: or my old PalmTX for that matter. Man that was annoying.
 
I love how nobody had a complaint about this noise until some blog post. :rolleyes:
 
OH, wait. I can totally hear it! It's really quiet. I was expecting it to be loud enough to hear, but I have to literally put the speaker in my ear.

It happened after I locked my phone. It played for a few seconds and stopped.

It's more like 4500hz. I have an app called Oscillator that you can use to make sounds and specific frequencies, and 4500hz sounds more like it.

Yeah, I can definitely reproduce the sound every time.

1. Lock phone so that it plays the "lock" sound.
2. Hold phone's button speaker right next to your ear.

It's not that loud, but you should definitely be able to hear it. It's not 15khz.
 
Yeah, I can definitely hear it if I put the iPhone right up to my ear. I'm not sure of many occasions where I would have otherwise noticed it. It seems like something that happens with a lot of electronics...
 
Yes, you have to have the the bottom left speaker to your ear to hear it.

If you have the speaker "off" and then text there is no evidence of the noise. If you turn the speaker on after you text there is still no noise. However, hit the sleep button and it will appear for a few seconds after the display shuts off but before the phone sleeps.

If you text with the speaker on, the noise will be evident immediately after the text sends.
 
i can easily hear it, but only after turning the lock sounds on. I've always kept them off and it doesn't make that 15khz tone when you lock it if the lock sounds are disabled. Try turning them off if it bothers you.
 
I love how nobody had a complaint about this noise until some blog post. :rolleyes:

The beauty of the internet eh? Collective troubleshooting.

I'm not sending my phone back nor am I complaining. I am however glad to know about it and hopeful Apple can figure out what it is. Anything that emits noise is using power.
 
I can even hear it from a couple of feet away. This could make for a fun genius bar appointment lol.
 
I just went into the settings program on my 3GS and turned the lock sounds on and off. When I turn them on, after the click sound, I can hear a pitch that lasts for a few seconds and then goes away. Is this what people are hearing?

I tried in on my old 3G phone and I hear a different sound on that one that continues for a few seconds also.
 
EDIT: I went through every function I could, and it seems that my iPhone does emit the sound, though not after unlocking or receiving an SMS, as most others have reported. The only time mine does it is for about 2.5s after I lock the phone (and generally stick it in my pocket, thus explaining why I hadn't ever heard it). Odd.

+1; this seems to be it for me as well.
 
I noticed my 2G that I gave my wife makes a slight hissing noise, whereas my 3GS makes the ringing noise. I also notice it happens during the quiet sections of podcasts.

Seems like it maybe something fixable in software.
 
I keep hearing more of a constant droning sound at around 3k. Once I zeroed in on it I found that it was actually just my wife's constant whining about me playing with my new phone. Who knew?
 
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