Why doesn't iPhone have stereo speakers?

[KeanosMagicHat]

And that difference has little to do with the HTC One having stereo speakers.

Well if you took a little time to read my previous posts on this thread, you'd realise it did.

I watched a movie clip with a helicopter flying across the screen from left to right and despite the closeness of the speakers together there was a perceptible "movement".

I'm not disputing that stereo sound effects are exponentially better on a well spaced hifi system, but to say that the media experience is not improved by having front facing stereo speakers is simply not true.

I don't own an HTC one, I have an iPhone 4S and before that a 3GS and 3G. Despite this, I can recognise that the HTC One is currently one of the best converged devices out there that's just the right side of "Phablet" to still be considered a phone.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

It's clear you've put a lot of effort into your post, but so much detail on sound quality is only really relevant if we're talking about hifi systems. We're not though, these are phones.

Take your iPhone (like I did) into a store and do a side by side comparison against the HTC One and tell me the sound is not significantly better on the HTC. You won't, because the difference is clear.

As for your worry of a speaker / battery size trade off, well you can't get much smaller than the current iPhone speakers . . . . and Apple wouldn't need to use a smaller battery as I fully expect next year's iPhone 6 to have a bigger screen and a larger body to accommodate it all.

Well, everyone in these forums likes to get their geek on, and since stereo broadcasts of live acoustic music events (predominantly classical) were my bread and butter for over two decades, I still like to talk and write about it, regardless of whether others are likely to change their opinions. Old-timers like talking about the old times.

It's not about hi-fi vs. crap speakers - "worst-case" listening conditions was a key consideration in my work - mono clock radios and car radios (still pretty common in my day), AM mono (yeah, serious music on AM as well as FM - what a concept!), stereos with one malfunctioning speaker, fringe FM reception where switching to mono was the only way to get a decent signal… My work had to sound the best it could under any of those conditions.

So yeah, good-sounding mono mattered to me. Bad audio was a tune-out factor, and nobody in broadcasting likes tune-outs. The point? If it sounded good in the worst case, it'd sound a whole lot better under the best conditions.

I trust your opinion on that side-by-side comparison. I doubt many would say an iPhone's speakers can't be beat. When it comes to explaining why… that's when I'm going to trot out my credentials.

 

[GoSh4rks]

Well if you took a little time to read my previous posts on this thread, you'd realise it did.

I watched a movie clip with a helicopter flying across the screen from left to right and despite the closeness of the speakers together there was a perceptible "movement".

I'm not disputing that stereo sound effects are exponentially better on a well spaced hifi system, but to say that the media experience is not improved by having front facing stereo speakers is simply not true.

I don't own an HTC one, I have an iPhone 4S and before that a 3GS and 3G. Despite this, I can recognise that the HTC One is currently one of the best converged devices out there that's just the right side of "Phablet" to still be considered a phone.

Sorry, didn't realize you were talking about the stereo effects. Kinda lumped you in with the OP who was talking about general sound quality.

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

Well, everyone in these forums likes to get their geek on, and since stereo broadcasts of live acoustic music events (predominantly classical) were my bread and butter for over two decades . . . When it comes to explaining why… that's when I'm going to trot out my credentials.

Quite right too

Sorry, didn't realize you were talking about the stereo effects. Kinda lumped you in with the OP who was talking about general sound quality.

No worries.

 

[Monster Sana]

I love having stereo speakers to listen to podcasts etc without having to use earphones. Plus stereo speakers make it enjoyable to play mp3 music samples as an Alarm Clock in the morning, not to mention the advantage it gives when using the phone as a Speaker-phone.

the iPhone not having stereo speakers keeps me from using it in all the ways I would like to use the phone.

Anybody know why Apple hasn't incorporated stereo speakers into the phone? Why stay with mono?

I guess it's because iPhone is designed to be slim, there is no space for stereo speaker. If you want to enjoy music better, i suggest you get a headphone or speaker which is stereo or has APTX

 

[JaySoul]

This is one of the most ignorant threads I've ever read on this forum.

The OP asked a perfectly legitimate question and the responses are truly atrocious.

 

[0098386]

Would be nice for games. The last "real" portable console to be mono-only was the Gameboy Advance in 2001.

 

[tdream]

This is one of the most ignorant threads I've ever read on this forum.

The OP asked a perfectly legitimate question and the responses are truly atrocious.

This is another one of those Apple knows best threads, when of course they eventually do decide to include stereo speakers like the HTC one, it will be the best thing since sliced bread and Apple will have invented it.