How to Get the Best Audio Quality on Your iPhone

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It’s not in your head: Sometimes the audio coming out of your iPhone doesn’t sound very good. A muffled sound, for example, could mean something is wrong with the speaker. Sometimes the audio quality may suddenly drop when you switch to cellular data, which likely indicates that some data saving settings are in effect. You may even just want to enhance the audio in another way, whether based on personal taste, a need for immersion, or your inner audiophile wanting a lossless sound experience.

Either way, you can improve your iPhone’s audio quality with a few tweaks. These include cleaning your speakers, adjusting equalizer settings, and enabling options like Spatial Audio. Some solutions will require you to purchase an inexpensive accessory that will allow you to use wired headphones instead of wireless headphones to escape the lossy compression of Bluetooth audio. One thing about cleaning your iPhone speakers is that if it doesn’t remove the muffled sound, there could be a hardware problem. If your iPhone still has AppleCare (the free one-year basic warranty that comes with every iPhone from the date of purchase) or the AppleCare+ extended warranty, you can return it to Apple for repair.

Dirt and debris that builds up on your iPhone speakers can cause muffled sounds. It’s best to clean your iPhone speakers, but you need to turn off your iPhone before doing so. Then use a soft-bristled toothbrush to gently brush the speaker grills at an angle, making sure to sweep away dirt and debris instead of pushing them further away. You can also use a rubber air blower (the one that looks like a light bulb) to blow air into the speaker grilles at an angle to expel debris. Another option is a special putty designed for cleaning iPhone speakers, like Stikki Cleaning Putty.

If the sound quality of your music decreases when you use cellular data, you can fix this problem in Settings. For Apple Music, go to Settings, then Apps, then click Cellular Streaming and set it to High Quality. For an app like Spotify, you can use the app settings. Go to Settings & Privacy and choose Media Quality. Under Wi-Fi Streaming Quality, select High or Very High. Do the same under Cellular Streaming Quality and Audio Download Quality (tap Download next to Update Existing Downloads to re-download high-quality audio versions of your content).

If you want to balance the sound, boost bass, or make vocals clear, you need to change the equalizer settings. To do this for Apple Music, go to Settings, then Apps, then EQ, and choose one of the audio presets. On Spotify, go to Settings & Privacy, then Playback, then Equalizer. Turn on the equalizer and choose one of the audio presets.

When using headphones, iPhone has a way to help you adjust audio quality based on your subjective listening profile. It’s called Headphone Accommodations, but before using it, undo any EQ settings you made above. Next, go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Custom Audio Setup, then Audio & Visual, and choose Headphone Adaptations. Enable Headphone Hosting and tap Customize Audio. Select Continue and listen to the audio samples to determine which one suits you best.

If you want a more immersive listening experience on your AirPods, you can enable Spatial Audio. It gives you 3D sound, making it seem like the sound is coming from all around you. To enable it, open Control Center, press the volume bar and select Fixed or Head Tracked. The latter option means that the sound follows the movement of your head.

If you still crave better sound from your iPhone, you can try wired headphones for lossless sound. But since Apple removed the headphone jack with the iPhone 7, you’ll have to rely on a USB-C to 3.5-millimeter jack adapter. What many people don’t know is that the iPhone’s USB port can actually output sound. A good option is the Subynanal USB-C to 3.5mm Headphone and Charger Adapter for iPhone 15 or newer. It costs $9.99 on Amazon and also has a USB-C connector for charging your phone while you enjoy audio on your wired headphones.