topic Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality in Portable Audio

iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 09:54:27 GMT

Hi! I wonder if any of you have experienced the same issue as I have. I've recently switched from iPhone 6s to iPhone 11 and there seem to be some sound quality issues on the 11.

While playing music, after a few seconds of perfect quality, the sound coming from Sony WF-1000xm3 turns muted – it's especially audible in high frequencies. It's as if the sound got compressed to a lower quality. I tried this on two different iPhones 11 and they behave the same way. iPhone 6s, however, still plays music perfectly, even after updating to iOS 13.1.1. All three phones run the same software and I know that there have been some issues with iOS 13.1.1 but they don't seem to affect the older iPhone 6s (or iPad Pro for that matter). Is it possible that the new iPhones use some different codec or Bluetooth version and Sony has to update their companion app in order for the headphones to perform like intended? Or is iPhone 11 just doomed and we'll have to deal with unpleasant sound from now on?

I also checked the sound quality of WH-1000xm2 for comparison and there are no issues with it on any of the devices.

Thank you for any input!

Maciej

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

Sean_Mc — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 15:56:59 GMT

Hi Maciej,

I'm a little confused, as you mention the WH-1000XM2 in your message. Can you confirm if your query is referring to the sound quality of the WF-1000XM3 headphones, as these have just recently been released, or did you mean the WH-1000XM3 headphones?

Best wishes,

Sean

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:09:22 GMT

Hi!

The issue is with the newly released earbuds WF-1000XM3. I only mentioned the old over-ear WH-1000XM2's to show that the problem doesn't occur with other headphones connected to iPhone 11. The quality doesn't get compressed after playing music for a few seconds through the old over-ear headphones. It only happens with the new earbuds.

So according to my tests, the issue happens only with iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3. Both devices are fully functional hardware-wise as I tested the issue on two different iPhone 11 devices, and WF-1000XM3's themselves also work perfectly fine with other sources of music.

Thank for any help!

Maciej

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

ryan7727 — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 05:49:26 GMT

Hi, I have exactly the same problem with iPhone XS and the WF-1000XM3. The sound intermittently goes to a lower bitrate once or twice every song, then recovers after around 5 seconds. I don't have the issue with the WFs and my Macbook Pro, nor do I experience it with my iPhone and my WHs. So it seems to be a specific iPhone-WF-1000XM3 combination. I mentioned this in another post a few weeks back (here) and also raised it to Tech support, but they basically advised me to use another device (!).

To me it seems like something a bit of technical investigation and a firmware upgrade should be able to sort.

Moderators - fancy helping us out here? Did not pay this price for tinny compressed sound!

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 07:09:55 GMT

Thank you! At least now I know I'm not the only person in the world hearing this. 😅

I've actually realised that the same compression happens on my iPad Pro, albeit much less often. It takes a longer time for the compression to kick in and then it goes back to high quality, then it compresses the sound again and so on… On iPhone 11 it seems that the compression starts earlier and stays forever (unless I pause the music for a few seconds – then it starts off in high quality again and lowers the quality after a few seconds).

I also believe a software update can fix this, I only hope Sony technicians can hear that something's wrong with the sound. 😞

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

gphung — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 18:55:18 GMT

Hi there,

I'm experiencing the exact same problem on my iPhone X, on iOS 12.4. Doing a bit of preliminary research, it seems there are quite a number of us out there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sony/comments/cz94e4/wf1000xm3_ios_sound_degradation/

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/cm6h38/sound_issues_with_sony_wf1000xm3_nc_earphones/

Not sure how we can escalate this issue to either Sony and/or Apple.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 19:15:27 GMT

Wow, that's a lot of affected devices! I wonder what causes the issue to happen. As I mentioned before, it never happened (and still doesn't) on my old 6s, but iPhone 11 and iPad Pro are affected.

I contacted Apple and they told me to ask Sony. Sony doesn't really respond. I had the highest regard for Sony's headphones but if things like this happen and there's no help offered… I think I might switch to the upcoming AirPods that will supposedly have active noise cancelling feature of their own. At least with those earbuds we can expect good connectivity with iPhones.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

The_Black_Rose — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:39:04 GMT

Hi Mkbest,

I'd say contact Apple.

Cheers,
The_Black_Rose

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 17:28:07 GMT

Hi,

Already did and they advised me to contact Sony. So no one is willing to take any responsibility.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

ryan7727 — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 21:48:17 GMT

...which is disappointing given that the product comes with the made for iPhone logo on the box.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

Danial1998 — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 05:43:16 GMT

Apparently, the new Sony WF-1000XM3 model is having issues with any devices of iOS 13.0 or higher. I have iOS 13.2 beta on my iPhone XR and wanted to update my earbuds firmware so that the issues with connecting to a windows 10 laptop would no longer exist, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to. who should we contact regarding this? I have no idea, but I already reported feedback about it to Apple.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

BritPaul — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:02:20 GMT

Hi,

I’ve not had your specific problem, but I have had volume changing problems between my iPhone 6s (iOS 12 & 13) and my WH1000XM2 headphones.
This happened when I removed my headphones, but leaving them switched on. After 5-15 minutes I would put them back on. However, the volume was now at least 3 times louder. Through trial and error, I toggled the NC switch off and on and the headphone volume would reduce back to its original, quieter level. Weird.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

dmcclish — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 14:28:35 GMT

I have an iPhone 11 and I am experiencing poor sound quality with my new WF-1000xm3 earbuds. I have the Sony WF-1000XM2 over the ear noise canceling headphones that sound great but I’m so disappointed in the newly released earbuds

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 14:36:17 GMT

WF-1000xm3 earbuds actually used to sound very good, even better than
WH-1000xm2 I would say! (I don't have WH-1000xm3 to compare). It's just
they seem not to like iOS recently… All we can do now is to sit and wait
for some updates to arrive. 🤷‍♂️

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

BritPaul — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 15:23:17 GMT

Unless both the new MacOS Catalina and the iOS 13.2 software have a new Bluetooth connection profile, its unlikely the issues are Apple software related. However, as both are new releases, I suppose there is an outside chance.

I am an Apple beta software member and raised this as an issue.

There are known issues by the way between iOS 13 and WH1000XM3.
If you look under INFORMATION in the Sony Headphones Connect app, you will find this:

Connection issue with WF-1000XM3 headphones and Apple devices using iOS13.1
Thank you for your continued interest in Sony products. We have confirmed the following issues when using the WF-1000XM3 with Apple devices using iOS13.1:

* The Voice Guidance language cannot be changed using the Headphones Connect app.
* The Headphones Connect app Easy Pairing function doesn't work.
NOTE : You can perform Bluetooth pairing from the device's Settings page.
* The WF-1000XM3 software cannot be updated using the Headphones Connect app.
NOTE : The software download has been temporarily stopped.
* Google Assistant doesn't work.

These issues do not occur if you use iOS13.0, or earlier, on your Apple devices.
You can continue to use the Music Playback and Sound Tuning Setting functions on the Headphones Connect app even if your device is using iOS13.1.
________________________________
Notification to iOS 13.0/iOS 13.1 user
Connecting supported headphones with Headphones Connect requires permission to access Bluetooth. If the headphones are not recognized, or if you cannot connect them, please try the following.

* Go to "Settings" - "Headphones" on your iPhone and enable access to Bluetooth

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

BritPaul — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 15:31:17 GMT

Hi,

If you look under INFORMATION in the Sony Headphones Connect app, you will find this neatly tucked away:

Connection issue with WF-1000XM3 headphones and Apple devices using iOS13.1
Thank you for your continued interest in Sony products. We have confirmed the following issues when using the WF-1000XM3 with Apple devices using iOS13.1:

* The Voice Guidance language cannot be changed using the Headphones Connect app.
* The Headphones Connect app Easy Pairing function doesn't work.
NOTE : You can perform Bluetooth pairing from the device's Settings page.
* The WF-1000XM3 software cannot be updated using the Headphones Connect app.
NOTE : The software download has been temporarily stopped.
* Google Assistant doesn't work.

These issues do not occur if you use iOS13.0, or earlier, on your Apple devices.
You can continue to use the Music Playback and Sound Tuning Setting functions on the Headphones Connect app even if your device is using iOS13.1.
________________________________
Notification to iOS 13.0/iOS 13.1 user
Connecting supported headphones with Headphones Connect requires permission to access Bluetooth. If the headphones are not recognized, or if you cannot connect them, please try the following.

* Go to "Settings" - "Headphones" on your iPhone and enable access to Bluetooth

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 15:55:17 GMT

Hi,

Yes, many issues are mentioned, but nothing about the sound quality
degrading. Hopefully these are somehow connected and once the issues
mentioned in the note are resolve, the quality will also get back to normal.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

BritPaul — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 17:39:33 GMT

My Problem fixed. Try it too.

it wasn’t easy.

Note:

Apple Notifications for App Store updates is not working (it’s enabled on my iPhone), so I was unaware that the Sony Headphone Connect app had been updated from 6.0.1 to 6.0.3

I decided to restore my iPhone. All the apps reloaded, but importantly, they did so to the latest revision, in the case of Sony Headphone Connect, this is 6.0.3.

Using iOS 13.2 beta 2 with v6.0.3 of Sony Headphone Connect has solved my problem. Music played for 2 hours without any power downs.

Update the Sony Headphone Connect app to 6.0.3

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

mkbest — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 17:55:17 GMT

Thanks for the reply!

If I remember correctly, you had an entirely different issue and with a
different headphone line, right? I also have my old 6s and WH-1000XM2's and
I never had any problems with those. The issue is with WF-1000XM3's
(earbuds, not overear headphones) connecting with newer devices (e.g.
iPhone 11, I saw people reporting the same issue with XS). I have the
newest version of SONY Headphones app, but it didn't change anything. I
believe either an iOS update or firmware update to the earbuds can help.
The app itself being updated won't solve anything, since when I tried
connecting the earbuds without having the app installed, the poor quality
issue was still there.

Re: iPhone 11 and WF-1000XM3 – poor sound quality

BritPaul — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 18:06:17 GMT

I mentioned it just in case it might help you too.

IOS 13 has caused many problems for Sony WH1000XM2 & 3 users. The issues might be interrelated in some way.

The upgrade from v6.0.1 to v6.0.3 has only happened in the last few days to the best of my knowledge.

Check “About” in your Sony Headphones Connect app to see if 6.0.3 is installed.

By the way, I am almost religious about keeping my apps updated on my iPhone. I was just unaware of this Sony update because the Apple Store Notification system isn’t functioning. It is enabled on my phone.

Kind regards,

Paul.

‭‭Mob/WhatsApp: (00371) 28020603

Sent from my iPhone