iPhone 6s Sound Quality

[Whitigir]

Bad news:


 
 
 
Can anyone confirm?

I can tell you that this guy is generally good at picking out the flaws and defects in audio gears . Whether it is defect, or working as intended, the owner have to bring it to Apple attentions and see. This is not the first time iPhone has design flaw anyways, and beside, first time using 3 DAC

 

[nycheadphones]

I don't have anywhere near golden ears - that said - I don't hear buzzing using my Shure 846 headphones.

 

[elfary]

The iPhone 6s features 3 Cirrus Logic components which is not by any means the same thing as featuring 3 dacs (which does not make any sense at all).


If the tonality it's not right, then nothing else really matters.

 

[colfax]

Holy cow!  Just plugged the Shure 535s into my new 6s; sounds incredible.  I had been using the 4s up until now and this is a major upgrade.  Way more punch, clarity, depth.  Seems to be improved across the board.  Not surprising i suppose since my old gear was 4 years old, but i am quite pleased with the sound overall.  
 
The only problem is that the CanOpener app seems to not be working on the new phone.  It opens up and acts like it is playing but no sound comes out.  Apple Music app works fine.  Anyone hear anything about this?

 

[Whitigir]

Holy cow!  Just plugged the Shure 535s into my new 6s; sounds incredible.  I had been using the 4s up until now and this is a major upgrade.  Way more punch, clarity, depth.  Seems to be improved across the board.  Not surprising i suppose since my old gear was 4 years old, but i am quite pleased with the sound overall.  

The only problem is that the CanOpener app seems to not be working on the new phone.  It opens up and acts like it is playing but no sound comes out.  Apple Music app works fine.  Anyone hear anything about this?

Well....please tell me more.....more......

 

[obsidyen]

I'll buy either this or Sony Xperia Z5 depending on sound quality...

 

[Erukian]

I clearly hear the buzzing in his video, but I can not reproduce the issue on my dual driver IEM's. So far, the 6S+ sounds much warmer to me than the 5S did.

 

[dr cornelius]

  Holy cow!  Just plugged the Shure 535s into my new 6s; sounds incredible.  I had been using the 4s up until now and this is a major upgrade.  Way more punch, clarity, depth.  Seems to be improved across the board.  Not surprising i suppose since my old gear was 4 years old, but i am quite pleased with the sound overall.  
 
The only problem is that the CanOpener app seems to not be working on the new phone.  It opens up and acts like it is playing but no sound comes out.  Apple Music app works fine.  Anyone hear anything about this?

CanOpener not working for me either...
 
Scratchy headphone jack with the Apple buds, but not with Grados... 

 

[jomarr]

I'm getting this phone but that glitch got me worried. I don't use high end IEMs but I'm a bit paranoid with reviews like this.
 
Hopefully it's a software issue.

 

[Whitigir]

I'm getting this phone but that glitch got me worried. I don't use high end IEMs but I'm a bit paranoid with reviews like this.

Hopefully it's a software issue.

Dude ! Apple customer service is the best there is. If you found it hissing, and you are un-happy, they replace it without question....what do you mean you are worried

 

[nycheadphones]

Hoping someone can test this for me- on my 6s plus with the music application on the screen (Tidal) it seems more punchy through my 846s than when I leave the music app to use safari or do something else. It's subtle but I think this difference is there.

 

[jomarr]

Dude ! Apple customer service is the best there is. If you found it hissing, and you are un-happy, they replace it without question....what do you mean you are worried

 
That's not really applicable in the Philippines. I hope it was as good as in the US but it's not.

 

[LouisArmstrong]

I am still amazed by the quality of the headphone out of my iPhone 6S+ and there is absolutely no buzzing at all on my Layla or Kaiser 10. I am now using it exclusively when I am on the go and the AK240 is for home use only. In the past people would say it is a waste to use high end IEMs with mobile phones. This is no longer the case with iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S+. It is that good.

 

[vwinter]

Bad news:


 
 
 
Can anyone confirm?

Confirmed. But the caveat is that you won't hear it with 99% of music playing.

Using pretty much the most sensitive IEM I have had the pleasure of owning or auditioning, the FAD Heaven V (sensitivity >110 in case anyone was wondering, though I don't think sensitivity alone is the best metric for seeing what IEM is good for this kind of test tbh). This IEM made short work of the noise floor on the geek out. Literally unusable with that kit.

I can hear it:
Using App switcher. Initiating Spotlight search. Switching tabs in safari. Unlocking the phone. Pretty much any kind of a transition of apps or services.

Edit: in a dead quiet room at night, I can hear it with pretty much any interaction with the phone, including scrolling up and down.

That's what actually makes me disagree with him on it being hardware related, the extent of where it can happen and what triggers it. See above update.

I'm getting this phone but that glitch got me worried. I don't use high end IEMs but I'm a bit paranoid with reviews like this.

Hopefully it's a software issue.

I'm inclined to think it is. See my rationale above. Whether Apple will consider this worth fixing is another issue. But the odds of you having a sensitive enough IEM and hearing it while music is playing in anything but a dead quiet room is very close to nil imho.

Dude ! Apple customer service is the best there is. If you found it hissing, and you are un-happy, they replace it without question....what do you mean you are worried

This isn't a quality control issue IMO. Getting a replacement will do nothing to alleviate the issue.


[rule]

That all said, here's my 2 sentence summary on the sound compared to my 5S:

The sound is no longer as harsh. Sibilant IEMs in the 5S will exhibit it a lot less on the 6S.

Really, the sound reminds me more of the 4S than the 5S, being more grandiose and less pointed and dense, while keeping more of the cleaner imaging of 5S. It's more organic and less digital sounding than the 5S, i.e. closer to the 4S in general feel of the sound.

Also, as this was a question that came up for the 5S:

compared to the 5S and 4S (all US models), the 6S has very audibly more gain. I'm generally 1-3 clicks of the volume rocker lower on any given track on the 6S than I was on either of the previous two.

I'm looking forward to someone measuring the z-out. Here's looking at you gsmarena...

 

[vwinter]

I am still amazed by the quality of the headphone out of my iPhone 6S+ and there is absolutely no buzzing at all on my Layla or Kaiser 10. I am now using it exclusively when I am on the go and the AK240 is for home use only. In the past people would say it is a waste to use high end IEMs with mobile phones. This is no longer the case with iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S+. It is that good.

I think Lachlan generally was making an oversimplification when he said multi-BA IEMs as being mediums to hear the buzzing. You need an IEM which reaaaally picks up noise floors. My experience with the JH13 Pro (a high end IEM by most accounts) didn't give me the impression that it was overly sensitive (not that it's a bad thing, almost the contrary IMO, as the less sensitive, the less you need to deal with this kind of BS). High sensitivity does not a high end IEM make.

I can barely hear it in a quiet room with my UERM, so barely that I was questioning whether it is was expectation bias.

What i'm saying is:
Enjoy! I'm liking what I consider a pretty organic sound from the 6S a lot.