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Noise cancelling causing dizzying feeling on calls?

ugahairydawgs

ugahairydawgs

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 10, 2010
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I got my new phone a few days ago and had it activated yesterday. On the first call I made there was an issue with some sort of feedback coming through when I ride down the road. It's hard to describe, but almost sounds like some sort of wind tunnel coming from the ear piece. It only happens when riding down the road (if I'm sitting on the couch for a call....it is fine), which leads me to wonder if it has something to do with the internals and the switching to and from LTE.

Anybody else noticing anything similar? Trying to decide if it is worth the hour drive to the closest Apple Store.

EDIT 9/29

It seems after some more digging at the noise cancelling features in the new phone are the culprit. Pretty bad, as it is a fairly severe effect at times from the phone.

Anyone else experiencing this to the point where it is disorienting you or making you dizzy when taking calls on the new iPhone? My wife had me cancel her pre-order as a result and I'm seriously considering sending mine back.
 
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Same thing...

I have actually experienced the same thing...I have been having ear problems related to allergies and I thought maybe it was just my ears being a little stopped up...now I am thinking something is wrong with my phone...dang!!
 
scotsmith0718 said:
I have actually experienced the same thing...I have been having ear problems related to allergies and I thought maybe it was just my ears being a little stopped up...now I am thinking something is wrong with my phone...dang!!
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I turned off LTE on my phone just now and will do a test call on the way home to see if that is what it is.
 
I wouldn't think that this would have to do with the LTE/HSPA+ switching. The reason I say this is because, to my understanding, the phone does a complete switch to HSPA+ once a call is started. You'll notice, for example, once you start a call, the LTE will disconnect (go to 0 bars), then quickly connect to the UMTS network. Furthermore, any data needed while in a phone call should be going over the HSPA+ network.

Now, in terms of the feedback you're hearing during the phone calls, I would suspect this has something to do with the new noise cancelling technology that Apple implemented (remember, Apple added noise cancelling to the speakers in addition to noise cancelling in the microphones with the i5)

I noticed it immediately when I was walking in an urban area here in Pittsburgh with lots of cars going by and I couldn't hear really anything *but* the audio from the call in the ear that I had the phone pressed up against. I was very pleased.
 
liltechdude said:
I wouldn't think that this would have to do with the LTE/HSPA+ switching. The reason I say this is because, to my understanding, the phone does a complete switch to HSPA+ once a call is started. You'll notice, for example, once you start a call, the LTE will disconnect (go to 0 bars), then quickly connect to the UMTS network. Furthermore, any data needed while in a phone call should be going over the HSPA+ network.

Now, in terms of the feedback you're hearing during the phone calls, I would suspect this has something to do with the new noise cancelling technology that Apple implemented (remember, Apple added noise cancelling to the speakers in addition to noise cancelling in the microphones with the i5)

I noticed it immediately when I was walking in an urban area here in Pittsburgh with lots of cars going by and I couldn't hear really anything *but* the audio from the call in the ear that I had the phone pressed up against. I was very pleased.
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You're right. It definitely doesn't have anything to do with network switching. Turned off LTE and tried out several calls tonight and the issue persists.

I asked my wife to go for a drive and use the phone and I stayed here talking on her 4S. She definitely noticed it as well. Gave her the feeling, and this was something I couldn't express earlier until I heard her say it, that her ears were popping....the same type of feeling you get when you are riding up a mountain or something like that. The only way to get the feeling to go away is to pull the phone away from your ear. Goes away momentarily and then comes back a bit further down the road.

I have a Genius Bar appt setup for Sunday, but knowing how they are about being able to replicate issues I'm not sure how well that is going to go.
 
After some more digging it seems liltechdude is right about it being the new noise cancelling features that are to blame here.
 
I noticed that background noise on the other end can be awfully distorted (the callers voice is clear) , but it doesn't make me dizzy.
 
ugahairydawgs said:
Maybe yours works flawlessly, but if you had this feeling going on in your ear I don't think you'd dismiss so quick.
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Had the same problem - 5 returned...couldn't talk on it for more than a few minutes. The problem isn't the phone being defective as much as it is a problem with certain people being sensitive to the way active noise cancellation works with low frequency noise to drown out sound. It sucks that they added this feature on this phone, because it should be well known that some people are sensitive to this technology (known problem in headphones for a long time), but oh well the 4 and 4s are still plenty decent phones.
 
as0016 said:
Had the same problem - 5 returned...couldn't talk on it for more than a few minutes. The problem isn't the phone being defective as much as it is a problem with certain people being sensitive to the way active noise cancellation works with low frequency noise to drown out sound. It sucks that they added this feature on this phone, because it should be well known that some people are sensitive to this technology (known problem in headphones for a long time), but oh well the 4 and 4s are still plenty decent phones.
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Yeah. If I hadn't already sold my 4S this would be an easy fix.
 
EnderTW said:
Is this guy really saying his phone is making him dizzy? What!?!?
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Really not that surprising - people have the same reaction to the low frequency noise produced by noise canceling headphones, which is essentially what the new iphone does to make calls sound clearer - it's even been in the NY times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/technology/personaltech/20askk.html?_r=0

gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/355678/noise+canceling-headphones-might-make-you-motion-sick

etc.

It can be even worse with the iphone since its only one side, it could stimulate the receptors in your ear on only one side making your balance-orientation feeling even more off.
 
brand said:
Apple still sells the 4S so it is still an easy fix.
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Would love to. Unfortunately they only sell it with 16GB of storage. Need 64. Going to take a look at the secondary market I suppose.

My preference would be for some sort of software toggle to be able to turn this feature off.
 
ugahairydawgs said:
Would love to. Unfortunately they only sell it with 16GB of storage. Need 64. Going to take a look at the secondary market I suppose.

My preference would be for some sort of software toggle to be able to turn this feature off.
Click to expand...

Can you not buy aftermarket ear buds without the noise cancelling built in? Or as another suggest use a bluetooth device. Just an idea.
 
Having same issue almost as if ears need to pop. Sounds weird but when talking on the phone it will start out fine and then randomly feel like phone is suctioning to my ear or something. Literally have to move phone away from my ear and then bring back. Hasn't gone away yet
 
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