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iPhone 5S speaker inferior to 4 ?

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,122
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Is this the nature of the phone or a fault that the music playing from speaker is largely inferior to my old iPhone 4? Was much more substantial and not as tinny. More bottom end etc.

Lighter and thinner at expense of speaker maybe? Just wondered.

Even the email sent swoosh is tinny now
 
Last edited:
Peter Franks said:
Is this the nature of the phone or a fault that the music playing from speaker is largely inferior to my old iPhone 4? Was much more substantial and not as tinny. More bottom end etc.

Lighter and thinner at expense of speaker maybe? Just wondered.

Even the email sent swoosh is tinny now
Click to expand...

I think so too. My new iPhone's speaker definitely is quieter than the 4/4s speakers
 
OTOH there are BT speakers everywhere now, you can buy a set for every room, and BAM, big (relatively speaking) sound.
 
True, but was a bit surprised the sound has been downgraded. Wasn't like the 4 was too heavy or thick, but assume its inferior sound now is because of the lighter thinner design of 5S
 
My iPhone 5 is thin but has much better speaker sound than my iPad Mini-r. I'm also still running iOS 6 on the iPhone but the iPad Mini-r came with iOS 7 installed.

The difference in speaker sound between the two devices is significant, whatever the cause. I can barely hear the Mini email update sound even with the volume turned up all the way.
 
That's weird!

Even typing this, the click is so tinny. Wish there was a way to separate volume of email swoosh/pings, and typing clicks from the ringer volume.

Surprised it's better than the mini though. Only thing the 4 had that was better than 5S was speaker sound. Assume the 5 speaker was the same as the 5S.
 
My iPhone 5 was pre-ordered at the first possible opportunity and was in the first batch delivered on 09/21/2012 Launch Day. Perhaps that speaker hardware was different (read: more robust) than what was installed in iPhone 5s models a year later.

FWIW, my iPad 4 also has better speakers than the iPad Mini-r. The Mini-r sound reminds me of a tinny old transistor radio. Earbuds make it normal quality.
 
Peter Franks said:
Re: Alerts, That's because they're tinnier I'd think?
Click to expand...

We'll I should've also posted that I think all sound is clearer and louder. Including music.

However I originally did a restore from back up from my 5 and found them muddled. After a clean install it was like might and day. Take from that what you will.
 
Luck of the draw then. My 5S speaker is definitely inferior to my 4.

Louder or not, it's cheap and tinny sounding. I've been using the 4 for almost 3 years so I am very used to it and only had the 5S a couple of days.
 
I don't know what your doing but the other day I was playing a song on my iPhone 4 and it was on full blast as a joke my friend took out there 5s and we started the song at the same time. My phone could no longer be herd cuz there was so much louder.
 
Mrbobb said:
OTOH there are BT speakers everywhere now, you can buy a set for every room, and BAM, big (relatively speaking) sound.
Click to expand...


This. ^^

With the exception of speaker phone calls, I know very few people who rely exclusively on the internal speakers for quality music and video audio. Same goes for notebook computers and tablets. Majority use BT speakers or headsets.

Personally, this is not a feature in any mobile device that affects my experience. I'm sure for a small minority it's a real itch in the jock strap though.
 
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