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iPod touch iPod Touch (3rd gen 32GB) Speaker quality is horrible

S

spazma7ik

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 12, 2009
926
359
The speaker quality on my new iPod touch is terrible. If I turn it up all the way it's still really low and becomes slightly distorted, and if I turn it down enough to where it's not you can't even hear it really.

Did I get a bad one, or are all iPod Touch external speakers like this?
 
spazma7ik said:
The speaker quality on my new iPod touch is terrible. If I turn it up all the way it's still really low and becomes slightly distorted, and if I turn it down enough to where it's not you can't even hear it really.

Did I get a bad one, or are all iPod Touch external speakers like this?
Click to expand...

I can't speak to the 3G, but the 2G is great.
 
flyfish29 said:
My 2G plays find loud....are you using the buttons on the side or the screen- perhaps try the other way to see if it makes a difference....and is this with music or an app?
Click to expand...

Isn't it exactly the same either way, cause when I press one, the other goes up as well. And this happens when just playing music! It's very annoying. I have an appointment with the genius bar tonight, so hopefully it goes over well.
 
spazma7ik said:
Really? So you can turn it up really loud and have it play clearly?
Click to expand...

I'd say it works as advertised (ok for "casual" listening). Translation = if you don't have earbuds handy or your friend doesn't have them, sharing an idea of a track works ok at up to about half volume. After that, or depending on the type of music and the engineering, distortion city, baby.

I just played Brett Dennen same track on iphone 1st gen and ipod touch 2nd gen. I'd say they're about the same, iphone a tad better maybe.

I don't expect a lot from these devices without having to pay more for the feature than it's worth. I do happen to expect more from speakers in the laptops and they are not getting better imo.
 
The speaker quality, in my limited experience, can vary from one touch to the next. I had my old touch replaced (in warranty) due to unrelated speaker/button problems, and the new one seems to sound much better through the speaker (though still only 'okay') than the first one did.
 
The 2g speaker is not loud at all, any type of background noise and you cant hear it. Its nothing like a phone speaker.
 
Bearing in mind its smaller than a headphone...

Its pretty good on my 3G S, but not music worthy quality, i sometimes use it though.
 
spazma7ik said:
Isn't it exactly the same either way, cause when I press one, the other goes up as well. And this happens when just playing music! It's very annoying. I have an appointment with the genius bar tonight, so hopefully it goes over well.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking it may have a glitch- it should be the same.
 
spazma7ik said:
The speaker quality on my new iPod touch is terrible. If I turn it up all the way it's still really low and becomes slightly distorted, and if I turn it down enough to where it's not you can't even hear it really.

Did I get a bad one, or are all iPod Touch external speakers like this?
Click to expand...

I've just bought mine yesterday and i have exactly the same problem, so can you please tell me what did the genius bar guys tell you?
 
monmon238 said:
I've just bought mine yesterday and i have exactly the same problem, so can you please tell me what did the genius bar guys tell you?
Click to expand...

I'm the same guy from the other speaker topic. Basically I'm stuck unless I decide to up or downgrade to a 8/64. I wanna know if those with a 64 have problems with their speakers?
 
spazma7ik said:
I'm the same guy from the other speaker topic. Basically I'm stuck unless I decide to up or downgrade to a 8/64. I wanna know if those with a 64 have problems with their speakers?
Click to expand...


I am the same. I want to know if the 64 is better, if so I will spring more money and get that instead..

Someone with 64gb please post :)
 
My new 3G 32GB Touch's speaker works as good as my previous 2G 8GB speaker did. However, I am not sure if the speaker has been improved like other users are claiming.
 
Expectations are too high.

I have a 3g 64GB and the speaker is fine. No, it sucks. Wait, no, it's fine. What do you expect? To me the speaker is to be used for voice only and it only works well if there is no background noise. That's all it's supposed to do. After all, it must be really really tiny.

The speaker is there as a convenience and mostly for the beeps and such. Even if it was excellent for its size I still wouldn't use it for music and only rarely for voice. I think you guys are expecting too much.


Mooch
 
I also bought a new 32 GB ipod touch from Dick Smith and it had the same
problem. The loud speakers were really bad but when i put the earphones on, they were better. Because of this, I went and exchanged my ipod for a new one. It still had the same problem! Even the music on apps are quite horrible... I compared my ipod with a 8 GB one and the speakers on 8 GB were fine. I dont know what the problem is :(
 
Reply

The answer is in the question.
If you think of what the speaker is, expecting it to have a clear quality at higher volumes is just not really feasible because:
1) It's a really compact and dense device;
2) It's an internal, probably small speaker.

I can confirm my one month old (as of today) iPod touch does have and has always had a poor speaker quality when I play it loud, however, I don't really need it at all and as long as I keep it about halfway up the volume scale I get a perfectly decent sound quality.
 
LordEntropy said:
I am the same. I want to know if the 64 is better, if so I will spring more money and get that instead..

Someone with 64gb please post :)
Click to expand...

I don't have it now (sold it to a friend since I use my iPhone 3GS as an iPod Touch now), but I had a 64gb, and, ironically, to my untrained ear, it's onboard speaker sound quality at high volume settings was what I'd consider great, considering what size this speaker actually has to be to fit inside the casing. I do know that it DEFINITELY was leaps and bounds better than the one in my 32gb 2nd gen Touch. Way louder, and a whole lot more clarity(again, for what this speaker is). I'd rate it around 75-80% as loud at max volume as my 3GS, and the 3GS is LOUD. The 64gb Touch speaker made is so much more enjoyable to play games with, as even in a room with a good bit of ambient noise, I could still hear it fine. With my old 32gb 2nd gen Touch, you could barely hear it at max volume with even the slightest noise around you.
 
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