iPhone 17 Pro Max and VoiceOver

Hello,
Yes. I use Turkish VoiceOver, and I have the same problem.
Also, while watching some videos, the audio becomes so low that it’s hard to understand, and this is especially noticeable in sounds with boosted bass.
I don’t know what can be done about it.

Turn that off and see if it makes a difference

I can tell you the problem isn't related to any settings.
It seems like it's turning down the bass at high volumes to avoid crackling. This can also cause low volumes to sound very bad.
The strange thing is that this issue can occur when watching one video, but not another.

I haven’t seen this issue on my iPhone 15 or my iPhone SE third generation. I’m using Karen premium on my iPhone 15 and Zoe enhanced on my iPhone SE third generation. What other voices are you seeing this in other than eloquence? Have you tried resetting the VoiceOver settings? That is a new feature with an iOS 26 where you can go all the way down to the bottom of the voiceover settings and it has an option to reset voiceover settings. I don’t know if that would help at all. Or maybe you’ve tried like restarting your phone or just using a different voice or something I don’t know, but I hope that helps. I’m switching my iPhone SE to a different voice, but that’s when this comment on.

I can confirm this issue and have even more issues related audio on my iPhone 17 Pro Max.

• VoiceOver sounds are much quieter than speech output, same goes for notification sounds, keyboard clicks, lock sound, and every other system sound
• At higher volumes, if the output (like music or podcast) is quieter, the sound becomes very thin, which means that the bass is completely gone. If I then change VoiceOVer focus so that the speech output speaks something, while speaking with VoiceOver voice, the audio becomes well-sounding again.
• If I type really fast using direct typing, keyboard clicks sound like they're being pitched up during typing. After a short period of waiting and then typing again, the sound is as usual for a short time, but then gets pitched up again.

For those of you experiencing this, and using eloquence, have tried adjusting the pitch base frequency, enabling or disabling the community dictionary, or adjusting between high and low sample rates?

I have the same problem with eloquence. It's like the audio has this weird phasing sort of sound, It doesn't change pitch but it's like it gets this kind of phased chorus effect and mid/low frequencies are scooped out like an eq. But this has nothing to do with the actual VoiceOver settings and the weird thing is if I'm playing audio the voice is normal. I'm having to use either the siri voices or Ava because they don't have this problem. I hope it gets fixed at some point.

Pay attention bro. If you read the thread you'd know that other voices have this problem too. On my phone the voices I have in my roter that are effected are Alex, eloquence and Samantha. But I'm sure it's most of the vocalizer voices if any of the previous comments are to be beleived.

I use a regular iPhone 15 and an iPhone SE third generation. I have not experienced any audio issues on either device. This may be something to do with the hardware of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. This may be something too report to Apple just to see if it’s happening for just the hardware in general. This could be an issue for other people other than voiceover you should invest the case. That’s not cool that anybody’s having that issue though. Because Apple‘s hardware supposed to be so good so I hope that they’re processing it would be really good too.

I, too, am using an SE 3. I tend to switch between default Samantha, Alex, and US Siri voice for. I do not have this issue on my device.
This is why I suggested playing with eloquence settings above, because I was curious as to whether or not it would help.

If you go to Settings, Sounds & Haptics, and adjust the following options:
• Volume Limit
• Reduce Loud Sounds

These two settings can help eliminate this issue, as it seems to work for me on my old SE 2020, which is currently running iOS 26.1.

HTH

Hi Hugo,

I have an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and my best guess is that what you are observing is largely related to how the device handles and presents audio. I do not think it is something specific with your phone. At the highest volume levels, I have noticed that higher frequencies are much more defined... Which sounds... Odd... When dealing with VoiceOver speech. Without knowing details, my guess is that Apple has tried to equalize the audio to maximize volume for music and video playback.

If you haven't already I would absolutely file something if you haven't tell them what you are seeing and what you expect.

So right now I’ve switched the VoiceOver voice on my iPhone SE third generation to US eloquent Eddie. What I’m noticing is a bunch of unnatural positives of speech. It seems to be a lag between a swipe with a voiceover Sound click followed by any of the speech. It’s like a brief two or three seconds before the Voice start speaking. I know it’s not the same audio issue that you were experiencing. There’s definitely something up with eloquent. I’m going to switch the voice back to my normal enhanced Samantha voice that I use on the iPhone as either generation. On my iPhone 15 I use premium. There’s definitely been issues with eloquence ever since Apple made it available for the iPhones.

Accessibility@apple.com

Hello,
In light of the information provided and including the issues I have experienced, I submitted feedback to Apple.
The feedback text is below:

I am experiencing a noticeable audio processing issue on my iPhone 17 Pro Max when using VoiceOver, especially when the volume is around 50% or higher. This problem negatively affects both accessibility and overall audio quality.

When the volume reaches around 50%, the issue becomes clearly noticeable. When VoiceOver starts speaking, the bass suddenly increases and the audio returns to normal. However, as soon as the VoiceOver speech ends—particularly in low-quality audio content—the sound becomes thin and the bass disappears completely. Since low frequencies are almost entirely lost, some content sounds weak and unnatural at higher volumes.

System sounds (keyboard clicks, notifications, lock sound, etc.) are extremely quiet compared to the VoiceOver voice. Even at 50% volume, these effects are barely audible. Additionally, when typing quickly, the keyboard click sounds shift upward in pitch; after a brief pause they return to normal, then begin to distort again. This appears to be a sample-rate or audio routing issue.

The problem does not occur in all types of content. Music playback is completely normal, with stable and natural sound. However, in some low-quality videos, the bass disappears and the audio becomes noticeably thin. The same issue is clearly present in WhatsApp voice messages as well.

I believe this behavior is caused by a software-related audio routing or processing bug that is triggered when the volume exceeds 50%, and I kindly request that it be addressed. I can provide additional details or sample recordings if needed.

Hi there,

Thanks for posting this very useful information. I'm just about to update as my 13 Pro is about to die. Is anyone experiencing the issues outlined in respect of the iPhone 17 Pro Max on the 17 Pro?

Thanks in advance for any details.

My guess is that the sound on any of the recent iPhones will be similar. This issue was even worse on last year's iPhone 16 Pro Max. The iPhone 16e had more base than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but I think the over-emphasized treble at higher volumes is likely to be universal.

Cheers for that Michael, it would have been my guess as well but wanted to make sure. I'll probably have to just bite the bullet and update anyway.