SOME songs on my iphone suddenly "not right"

[StraferJack]

Anyone else have this problem?

In the last few weeks, I?ve noticed that maybe 30-40% of the tracks on my iphone have started to sound not right

At this point, anyone with a beef about apple, iphones, MP3, digital music generally needs to start another thread because this isn?t the one!

By ?not right? I mean volume seems about 50% of what it should be. Vocals have retreated to the background. A general light smear of muffle over the whole sound

If I play the same track via spotify it?s absolutely fine ?so I?m ruling out my phone connector or headphones

The affected tracks were playing fine until recently ? and it?s not the album master as some tracks on same album don?t have the problem

I get it on both MP3 and AAC files so it?s not format specific either

The remaining 60-70% of tracks on the phone play just fine but the problem is affecting more of them every week

It sounds odd and I?ve googled it and I get a sense it is a new problem which is affecting a few people but so far not enough for anyone to be able to help or take it seriously so I thought I?d try here

[????]

As you get older your tastes change - New Order/Joy Division really weren't that good, see? :)

[DaveR]

Does Teenage Kicks sound wrong, but Phil Collins is clear as a bell?

[KidKruger]

And those Leo Sayer tracks are coming over so much brighter now...

[????]

hours of potential fun but no help for Straefer methinks :)

[Jeremy]

Check that the EQ and Volume Limit features are both turned off.

[StraferJack]

cheers Jez - but that would affect all songs equally wouldn't it (they are off btw)

[Jeremy]

Well.. I wouldn't be surprised if all that "pop"/"rock"/"jazz" nonsense made more of a mess of some recordings than others. But yeah... ruled out. It's a strange one...

[DulwichFox]

Possibly a problem with IOS 7.0.3 if you have recently upgraded..

Seems a common problem

DulwichFox.

PS. Might affect different songs. ie. Louder songs might be subjected to attenuation whilst quieter

songs not be affected thus maintaining a constant volume level.

[numbers]

"By ?not right? I mean volume seems about 50% of what it should be. Vocals have retreated to the background. A general light smear of muffle over the whole sound "

my iphone has been doing EXACTLY this fairly recently but I discovered it during voice calls not when playing music (altho I expect same thing will occur if I do). Does that happen to you during calls as well? the muffled volume thing like they are really really far away?

Really bloody annoying as at first I thought it was due to the other caller on a bad line. But its not that..sorry, not helpful as I have no idea how to fix it.

[El Pibe]

It does sound suspiciously like a firmware issue, probably directly related to the ipod type softweare, but that would be guessing.

Have you tried using the lineout rather than the headphone jack and seeing if the difference is still there?

[StraferJack]

Found it.

Eq was off

Sound limit was off too

But what's this? "sound check". A feature which is meant to prevent sounds from being too jarring from others.

Never seen it before so obviously a recent ios addition. Turned off and I'm hearing what I should be hearing

Foxy came closest. But cheers all

[El Pibe]

and of course the lineout bypasses all that stuff.

Am putting my ipod through a musical fidelity DAC and it sounds excellent (rather than music played from beyond the mortal coil)

maybe something like this for on the hop? http://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/products/HP-P1.shtml

[Jeremy]

Carrying one of those around in your pocket would require a whole new level of geekdom.

[El Pibe]

*shuffles uneasily*

actually i don't do on the hop any more. i walk nowhere!!!!!!

[Jeremy]

Don't worry. It's a compliment.