iPhone Headphone Settings Hacks for a Better Listening Experience

iPhone Headphone Settings for a Better Listening Experience
iPhone Headphone Settings for a Better Listening Experience

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Discover the different ways to enrich your listening experience by tweaking these headphone settings on your iPhone.

While iPhones are believed to produce better audio quality per model, they can still sound unsatisfactory for anyone, both for music and calls

It can be disappointing, especially if it affects your work or relaxation time. Have you ever been on a phone call where the sound quality was so bad you couldn’t understand the other person? Or, have you ever had to rewind a part of a movie every time because you can’t understand the dialogue well?

Luckily, not all hope is lost because you can do a few settings tweaks to give you the satisfaction you need for a better audio experience on your iPhone. Keep reading as we discuss all this below!

The Best iPhone Headphone Settings: Headphone Accommodations

There are still a few features on the iPhone that are a mystery to most, and it’s fun to find new things to discover every time a new iOS update is available.

One of the best additions since the iOS 14 update and still available in the latest iOS (16.2) is the Headphone Accommodations.

Headphone Accommodations allows you to customize your audio output settings in the iPhone to satisfy your hearing needs. You can choose between manually adjusting your sound settings using the presets or picking a customized audio setting you like the most.

This feature can also be helpful for people with hearing problems. It allows you to adjust specific frequencies and enhance softer sounds, giving you better volume and sound quality and clearer audio output.

However, not all headphones can maximize this feature. Here’s a list of those that do:

How to Set Up Headphone Accommodations

Here’s how you can enable Headphone Accomodations:

  1. Go to Settings, search for Headphone Accommodations on the search bar and click on it.

    Headphone Accommodation
    Headphone Accommodation
  2. Next, turn on the Headphone Accommodations to ensure the settings are enabled.

    Headphpne Accommodation toggle switch
    Headphpne Accommodation toggle switch

How to Customize Your Audio Using Headphone Accommodations

Aside from simply turning it on, there are more settings in Headphone Accommodations that you can tweak to further improve the overall sound quality of your headphones on your iPhone.

These settings will give you control over the sound and frequency, making it easier for you to customize it according to your liking.

That said, you have two options: the Custom Audio Setup and the presets.

Custom Audio Setup

First, the Custom Audio Setup gives you an automated option to customize the audio based on your hearing. You can set this up by listening to audio samples and picking which sounds best. Then, it will apply the custom setting based on your choice of sample.

The Custom Audio Setup is also perfect for optimizing your audio for phone calls, listening to music, or watching movies. So, you’ll be able to hear the other person more clearly during phone calls or watch movies without missing a detail of the character’s dialogue.

Follow these steps for Custom Audio Setup:

  1. Ensure that all audio configurations are set to default. Fist, go to Settings, search and select Music, then turn off the setting for EQ.
    Also, disable all other Equalizer apps if you have any.

    Turn off Equalizer
    Turn off Equalizer
  2. Go to Settings, search and select Accessibility, click on Audio/Visual, then set the Balance slider to the center.

    Make sure the balance slider is at the middle
    Make sure the balance slider is at the middle
  3. Next, connect your compatible headphones and stay in a quiet place.
  4. Go to your Settings and select Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations.

    Going to Headphone Accommodations
    Going to Headphone Accommodations
  5. Click on Custom Audio Setup and follow the instructions shown on the screen for your personalized hearing test.
    Alternatively, you can also use the data on your Audiogram from the Health app by tapping the Use Audiogram button.

    Selecting Custom Audio Setup
    Selecting Custom Audio Setup
  6. Finally, select Use Custom Settings to save the custom setting based on your choice.

    Saving the Custom Settings
    Saving the Custom Settings

Headphone Accommodations presets

Compared to the Custom Audio Setup, which is tailored just for you, the presets are pre-made settings you can choose to add color to your audio.

These help you decide what the music will sound like – whether you want to hear more vocals, more clarity, or keep everything balanced.

Here are the Headphone Accommodations presets available on your iPhone:

  • Balanced Tone preset enhances the sound across a range of frequencies.
  • Vocal Range preset refines the middle frequencies. This setting is ideal for word-based activities like phone calls and listening to podcasts or audiobooks.
  • Brightness preset boosts high frequencies and is a great option for music and movie sounds.

Other iPhone Headphone Settings You Can Try

Although Headphone Accommodations provides a good solution for an improved sound volume and gives you different customizable audio settings, it’s not for everyone.

Others may find it useful, while some prefer to have it off. Some users don’t like it because it compresses the sound when listening to music, and although it makes the audio sound richer, they prefer the original sound quality to the compressed one.

There are also instances where users hear hissing sounds while playing music when the sound is optimized for Brightness or enhanced to higher frequencies.

At the end of the day, it’s all about personal preference.

Good news for those who are not fans of this feature because tweaking your audio settings is not limited to the Headphone Accommodations feature. You can keep experimenting with sounds using these other iPhone headphone settings and adjust them to your heart’s content.

How to change Audio/Visual Accessibility settings on iPhone

  1. Go to Settings and search Accessibility in the search bar and select it.

    Searching for Accessibility
    Searching for Accessibility
  2. Find the Audio/Visual and click on it.

    Going to Audio/Visual
    Going to Audio/Visual
  3. Once you’ve arrived at the Audio/Visual page, you have the option to adjust the following:
    • Mono Audio – allows you to play the same sound content in the left and right speakers.

      Mono Audio option
      Mono Audio option
    • Balance – lets you adjust the volume balance between the left and right speakers by dragging the slider.

      Adjusting the balance slider
      Adjusting the balance slider

How to adjust the iPhone headphone equalizer

The iPhone also has built-in equalizer settings, with about 23 presets you can experiment with and try. But don’t get intimidated by the number of options. You can try them one by one to figure out the best equalizer settings for your listening experience.

The built-in EQ settings only works with Apple music. See how to utilize this feature using our guide on the iphone equalizer settings.

You can also use third-party Equalizer apps for your iPhone, so you’re not limited to Apple Music.

That way, you’ll have more control over your sound settings, allowing you to customize your audio output for a better music-listening experience.

Check out our guide for the best equalizer apps for iPhone, to get a better idea of what you can download and what to expect for each option.

Customize Transparency Mode

Do you have an AirPods Pro? Headphone Accommodations has a Transparency Mode that’s supported on AirPods Pro. And it works by making your environment’s sounds audible while still wearing the AirPods.

The Transparency Mode feature is beneficial in situations like crossing roads, biking, interacting with others, needing to be aware of important announcements or emergency alerts, and more.

Here’s how you can set the Transparency Mode feature on your iPhone:

  1. Connect your AirPods Pro to your device and wear the earbuds.
  2. Go to Settings, and select the following: Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations > Transparency Mode.

    Accessing Transparency Mode options
    Accessing Transparency Mode options
  3. Select “Custom Transparency Mode” and turn it on.

    Custom transparency mode toggle switch
    Custom transparency mode toggle switch

You can adjust the volume balance in the left and right channels by dragging the “Transparency Balance” slider according to your hearing needs. The Transparency Mode settings are also available in the Control Center, and you can adjust it by tapping the Hearing.

Transparency Mode settings Control Center
Transparency Mode settings Control Center

Conclusion

Now you know how to adjust your iPhone headphone settings in more ways than one, and you can enjoy listening to music without limit!

Customize all you want using these headphone controls on your iPhone and see which setting gives you the best audio experience.

Did you learn something new from this article? Have you tried the Headphone Accommodations feature before? Did you like it or not? What are your preferred headphone audio settings? Tell us all about it!

 

💬 Conversation: 1 comment

  1. a jail broken iphone is the most wonderful and advanced technical marvel of a highly capable and utilized multimedia machine or piece of equipment tool if you will ,bar none .This is second it to it being a communication device .. A NON JAILBROKEN xs/11 IPHONE is a paper weight for toilet paper on shit compared to a decade older jailbroken unsupported forced obsolent iphone 5 s wich has auto eq e and system wide unlimited filters bands and settings for free not to mention the plethora of usb head phones audio interfaces and hubs that can be used with systesysex realtime pro control just like any professional daw and usb thunder bolt device hui midi cc control i dont even have to bother with a mac book ever again and much better qualit of sound. and performace can also be adjusted as a engineer and producer people most part have no clue and itds even more of a shame for apple to make such a wonderful devie capable of lasting decades and mostly comprable even more so in certain areas such as iphone 4 4 s dac that are much more richer sounding. .. the real shame is not so much apple and yes but their customers and users dont demand more transparancy and function from which apple denies the devices even are capable of so deceptively. because its proof and truth , honesty and integrity that matters the most and people so sadly on the most part are willing accept much less .. truth is proof absolute what u can know see hear feel and be real like we all should want to be ..
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