Bass distortion on iOS 10 with BeatsX headphones

[bmiksich]

I picked up new BeatsX bluetooth earphones yesterday and launched the Spotify app on iPhone 6 with iOS 10 to listen to Jamie XX Gosh to test sound quality. Immediately heard some crackling during the sustained bass drops. I tested the same song through direct download from iTunes store on the same device and it sounded great. Also tested on Spotify desktop and that sounded fine as well. 

[sdschramm · Accepted solution]

Do you have the equalizer in Spotify turned on? I too just bought Bluetooth headphones (not Beats however) and I too heard lots of cracking and clipping in the bass. I thought it was just because the headphones I bought were junk because my wired ones sound fine, but then I too did a test and played the same song in the built in music player on my phone, and the sound was fine. I then found the EQ in Spotify was the cause. It seems like with Bluetooth you can't boost any of the frequencies, only lower them if you want good sound. I'm not sure if this is an issue with Spotify or just the way Bluetooth streaming works since its digital to digital vs digital to analog with wired headphones.

[bmiksich]

Thanks! Disabling the EQ solved it.