{"id":2199,"date":"2015-11-22T13:51:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T18:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/?p=2199"},"modified":"2015-11-22T13:51:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T18:51:59","slug":"iphone-lightning-connector-low-volume-on-audio-output","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/iphone-lightning-connector-low-volume-on-audio-output\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone Lightning connector: low volume on audio output"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently traded in my old iPhone 4S for a new iPhone 5S (yes, I know I&#8217;m a whole generation behind) and needed to buy all new accessories since the power and data connector changed from a 30 pin to a new-fangled Lightning connector.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2202\" src=\"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/lightningconnectorplug-294352.png\" alt=\"lightningconnectorplug-294352\" width=\"653\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/lightningconnectorplug-294352.png 653w, http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/lightningconnectorplug-294352-400x280.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 653px) 100vw, 653px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I always listen to iPhone podcasts or Pandora music in my car during my commute to and from work, and\u00a0I had to buy a new FM transmitter because my old one was shorted out. \u00a0My car does not have an audio input jack. Nor does it have a cassette deck. \u00a0So my only option in that car is an FM transmitter. \u00a0Those things are pretty expensive, by the way.<\/p>\n<p>So I bought a fifty dollar (ouch!) FM transmitter from Best Buy which I was pretty excited about initially because my old FM transmitter was just a 5mm stereo jack and it did not power\/charge my iPhone, but this new one charges the phone and pulls audio simultaneously using only the Lightning connector. \u00a0That eliminates the separate charging cable I used to use on my old phone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2204\" src=\"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/10369659.jpg\" alt=\"10369659\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/10369659.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/10369659-200x200.jpg 200w, http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/10369659-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the catch. \u00a0The audio coming out of the phone&#8217;s Lightning cable is hard coded in the phone to be at about 25% of full volume and there is no way to change it. \u00a0So the audio level is quite low when I use this FM transmitter and I\u00a0have to turn my\u00a0car stereo up all the way and sometimes that&#8217;s not even loud enough! \u00a0Very frustrating.<\/p>\n<p>Also, FM transmitters are far from ideal. \u00a0They get static from all kinds of different sources. \u00a0It&#8217;s very difficult to find a frequency that doesn&#8217;t have static on it which\u00a0interferes with the listening experience.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out that Apple won&#8217;t let the\u00a0user\u00a0adjust the volume coming out the Lightning connector because manufacturers of docking products (like home stereo systems and alarm clocks) need it hard coded to a known level for various reasons. \u00a0I&#8217;m not clear on the reason they chose to make the volume so low, but some online posts mentioned\u00a0that it is a safety feature to keep users from blowing their ears out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2206\" src=\"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/apple-logo.png\" alt=\"apple-logo\" width=\"163\" height=\"197\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So don&#8217;t buy Lightning connector docking products, like an FM transmitter, unless they have their own internal audio amplifier. \u00a0Most alarm clocks and stereo docking stations do, but I don&#8217;t know of any FM transmitters that do. \u00a0I had to learn this lesson the hard way. \u00a0Hopefully this blog post will save you the trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Kurt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently traded in my old iPhone 4S for a new iPhone 5S (yes, I know I&#8217;m a whole generation behind) and needed to buy all new accessories since the power and data connector changed from a 30 pin to a new-fangled Lightning connector. I always listen to iPhone podcasts or Pandora music in my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[109],"tags":[384],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2207,"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions\/2207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}