Greetings.
I have been having some strange problems with several pairs of wired headphones I’ve been using with my iPhone 8 lately.
I’ll plug them in for the first time and, then, about a month later, one of the speakers goes out or mostly goes out. What I mean is that, when I move the jack around in the adapter, the audio sometimes comes back but goes away again if I move the jack around even slightly. When this happens, I try them with several jack to lightning adapters with the same result. When I put those headphones into another device like my PC, they work just fine. Indeed, I have sadly thrown away a few pairs of headphones because of this thinking that the issue was with them, but it also happened recently with some newly-purchased headphones from Amazon.
I tried contacting Apple, but, as you might expect, they said they couldn’t help because the headphones were third-party.
Any idea what could be causing this and how I could fix it?
If there are no ideas, I may just have to go ahead and purchase some bluetooth headphones.
So, any recommendations? Here’s basically what I would be looking for, in order of priority.
1. They MUST be on-ear (NOT in-ear or over-ear)!
2. They must have a good microphone/good recording quality.
3. They must have long battery life. I spend practically all day with headphones on my ears with my iPhone.
4. They should have clear sound quality and a wide volume range. I have a mild hearing loss as well, so I need to concentrate more on this.
I was looking and saw some Beats on-ear headphones on Amazon with apparently 40-hour battery life. I’m wondering if anyone has had experience with these? As I understand it, Beats is in some way affiliated with Apple, so they would probably work more seamlessly with an iPhone.
Thanks.
Comments
headphones
The apple dongle is quite anemic and struggles to power much beyond cheap headphones. Mine can't even power my ATH-m40x cans properly which... honestly is kind of pathetic considering how low their impedance is. I've also noticed that 4-pole jacks (TRRS), the kind that can do a mic input, tend to be more fragile than their 3-pole counterparts.
If you want to continue with wired headphones, you might want to look into third-party DACs that can pump a little more juice out. If you want to go bluetooth, most stuff should work fine. Apple owns Beats, so those should work well with your phone. You can always go with AirPods. A note on airpods, since the standard airpods don't have a seal, you lose a lot of bass and end up turning the volume up more than you should, potentially causing hearing damage. I only use stuff that seals like airpods pro. Alternatively, you can try the headphones from Anker which I've heard good things about. Stay far, far away from Raycons.
The Best of Both Worlds
You could go with Beats, but from my experience, Beats has average sound quality at best and, because they're owned by Apple, can cost a good deal more. I would recommend something like the Soundmagic P23-BT. You can use them wired or wireless, the wire they come with has a built-in boom mic with great sound quality, and the battery life if you use them wireless is up to 60 hours. There is no noise canceling, the power button is very small, and it uses a touch surface to control playback and volume, but these are my every day drivers when I go somewhere because I can take the wire to use at work and use them for wireless listening to music on my commute. Oh yeah, and they are only about $54. https://www.amazon.com/SoundMAGIC-Bluetooth-Headphones-Isolating-Headphone/dp/B097RF6YYF/ref=sr_1_1?crid=HNXMQ6Z7F49R&keywords=soundmagic+p23&qid=1658855395&sprefix=soundmagic+p23%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1
Debris on conector
Try to clean out Jack input .
Other than that can try also to clean lighting port.
Had happened to me a few times.
Plastic tooth pick should do, please be gentle
Have a professional clean it
A toothpick sounds dangerous, I'd ask them to clean it, god Knows what crap gets in the port. It's probably filled with dirt. You can use forced air, the stuff comes in a can and you gently put the straw into the port and blow the air out. I'd definitely spend an Uber or whatever to have them really clean it though. It won't take long and you will be surprised. also, you don't need Apple itself, I'm sure walmart etc will do it if asked. Just be honest. Dude my headphones are F... up and I need help. be nice of course and you'd be probably spending not much if anything.
Cleaning the port
Apple staff should clean your port for free if you take it in. A toothpick should be okay. Use something that's gentle and not made of metal. It probably won't fix audio issues since the DAC is in the dongle, but it never hurts to clean the crud out of the lightning port. If it's convenient, I'd take it to an Apple Store.
I've never cleaned out a headphone jack, so proceed at your own risk. There's probably a guide somewhere for that sort of thing.