Stay away from iOS 6 beta 4 (Bad Audio Bug)

[MattSuda]

I suggest that everyone stay away from iOS 6 beta 4 if you want to listen to music in high quality.

I have also noticed AirPlay and Bluetooth playback issues as well. (glitching)

This is not limited to the Spotify iOS app.

I have gotten word from other people and it looks like 3rd party audio apps not made by Apple are having problems with audio.

This results in very bad audio. Audio still plays, but is at a very low quality despite what quality you choose is the settings.

Some people might not notice, but there is quite a difference.

If you go back to 5.1.1 or iOS 6 beta 3, the sound is back to normal.

Hopefully Apple will fix this in the next iOS 6 beta.

UPDATE:

This bug has been fixed in iOS 6 final release!

I don't have iOS 6 beta 4 to compare, but it sounds normal.

YAY! 😃

[dniq]

Dock connector is analog 😉

[ShawnCBerg]

There we go 🙂

[tomh1000]

I have one device with Beta 4 and another with Beta 3. There is a real difference between the two as far as sound quality. If you have a high end sound system you can really hear the difference. On a low end not so much. Also, I don't think it has anything to do with the lowest quality in the app settings because even with both app's set to the lowest the Beta 3 still sounds much better.

Tom

[xry]

I've found a strange way of improving the sound quality. When I was listening through Spotify, I opened the app "Shazam", and the audio quality improved. I'm not sure if it's as HQ as it was before beta 4, but there's a substantial increase in quality, and strangely it decreases again as soon as you lock your iPhone and/or close Shazam, so it needs to stay active and open.

[Al_Capwns]

xry is right! I found out using the app Awareness! fixes the bug too. Plus with Awareness! you can leave the app running in the background as long as you don't mind a big red status bar!

[xry]

Ah, nice. The Awareness!-app was quite expensive, so I'll try looking for a similar app that doesn't need to be active.

[JvetS]

I noticed this aswell, but in a different way.
I noticed that my sound quality improves when I have Shazam opened in the foreground on iOS 6 beta 4.
Whenever you switch to a different app or enter sleep the sound returns to that awfully compressed quality it had before.

[bryandease]

That's already what xry was saying.

[MattSuda]

Apple has apparently come to a resolution for the bad audio quality for 3rd party apps in iOS 6 beta 4.

Fix probably coming in iOS 6 beta 5 or gold master.

[JvetS]

I didn't notice it on the screen of my iPhone, same story indeed.

[Biglime]

I am glad I am not the only one that has noticed this.

It is crazy how different it is for anyone not to notice on a decent stereo, or in my case a car stereo system. All high notes and trebble break up and makes you think you've broken your speakers when at high volume. 

I hope there is another beta updte by Apple soon, we're not far off its release next month, but for daily communte using Spotify premium it is starting to grind my ears. 😞

I'll try these background running app tricks to overcome this issue until there is a fix.

[orderedanalog]

I've got the same problem!  Thanks for the original post.... I was begining to think I was going crazy, but I would switch to my SD card which has 200Kbps MP3s and the quality was far superior, so I knew something was wrong.....

I'm gonna try the Shazam trick on this evening's drive... 

**Update**

Shazam worked as described... the quality difference is dramatic!  I'm gonna try the headphone app next, since it is bothersome you have to keep shazam open...

[Biglime]

Tried the Shazam trick this morning and it worked a treat!

Using the multi tasking audio controls to control the spotify app whilst shazam is open. 🙂

Thanks for the tip, felt like I had fresh ears again this morning 

[user-removed]

Awareness has a free app that works the same exact way! Look at their developer page.

[bryandease]

I can confirm what Mmmmoize said.  If you get the free app from their page - it's specifically for Etymotic headphones - but you don't have to have them.  Just launch that app and the quality comes back without having to be in the foreground like Shazam.  By far the best free tempoarary workaround.

[xry]

Ah, thanks! I was looking at this link http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/awareness!-the-headphone-app/id389245456?mt=8 and that app was expensive. Downloading the Etymotic-app now, thanks! 🙂

[orderedanalog]

Confirmed it works without having to be in the foreground.... thx!

[Bengan]

Awesome! Works great with the Awareness app 🙂 Thanks for the tip!

[nielskorte]

When you use AirPlay the bug is gone, and the quality is good!

[wardy125]

Yeah i noticed in the Music app, when playing through DAC in my car, it skips for a second like every 5 seconds. Like the audio drops for just a beat, but it's very noticable and annoying when it happens so often on every song. It doesn't do this when playing through the iphone speaker.