Is it normal to have a poor music quality with the watch?

Former Member over 5 years ago

Hello, new fenix 5 plus owner here.

Is it normal to have a pretty poor music quality when listening to MP3 files from the watch?

The audio quality was really poor with my Optoma NuForce be sport3 headphones, which are usually great when paired with a phone. I didn't have any audio dropouts, but listening to 320kbps mp3 files from the watch sounded like listening to 128kpbs files or worse. All the low and high frequency sounds were distoted. My phone uses aptX codec, but I don't think it would make this much difference in sound quality. My current headphones should be compatible with SBC, aptX and AAC codecs

I'm about to buy new headphones soon to replace these rather old ones. Do the newer headphones use some better bluetooth audio codec with the watch if the Aptx is not supported? Do you know of some that will definitely work great or will the music quality be so poor always?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

My Sony SBH70 works great while running with my 5+. Buttons on headset work well with the spotify app on the watch, sound quality is nice.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

OK thanks, maybe my headphones are using some older bluetooth standard with the watch then..? All the buttons worked great and there were no audio dropouts with me either, it's just the sound quality that's not right. Like you would probably notice if the drums sounded as distorted as with my headphones. I'm not an audiophile, but really the quality is bad enough to bother me even while running. I'd just like to know what is the reason for this and will it be better with other headphones.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Should't Bluetooth be a universal standard? Did you remove the headfones from the watch and reinstall?

0 tess over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I use Spotify set to download with the highest quality (I don't know the bid rate) and my songs sound amazing using my Bose Sports Free headphones. I believe Spotify offers a free trial. You may want to try it and see how it sounds. This way you'll be able to determine if the sound quality is from your headphones or maybe how your 320 kbps MP3's are playing through the watch.

0 SAHO over 5 years ago in reply to tess

tess said:
I use Spotify set to download with the highest quality

Where exactly do you set this? I can’t find such setting in the Spotify app on my watch.

I know there’s settings for it in the phone/ipad/desktop apps of course, however I think it’s device specific and doesn’t «follow» when you log into a different devices.

That said - I don’t have any issue with sound quality when using Spotify on my F5+.
Sounds okay - but I suspect it’s equal to standard quality in the phone app.

0 tess over 5 years ago in reply to SAHO

I'm not aware of any setting on the watch. I have it set in my PC desktop app and it's my assumption when I select streaming quality to highest possible, that it saves those songs on my playlist to the highest quality and that's how the files are transferred to my watch. If that's not the case, then I'm pretty impressed with the download quality as it sounds great. I am a little of an audiophile and like listening to my music loud. No distortion with the bass as that's where you'd notice it most with poor quality.

0 sholling over 5 years ago

Absolutely no issues with music quality on mine. I synced mine with Garmin Express to iTunes and all works seamlessly.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

OK, since no one else seems to be having issues with audio quality, I assume the issue is with my headphones. Just a bit strange that the quality is so different when paired with a phone... Will be interesting to try with different headphones when I finally decide to buy new ones.

I Would also like to try the quality with Deezer, but I suppose that app still doesn't support deezer family plans?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

nah... I have this same issue as well on Fenix 6 Sapphire. It sounds awful and crackly with distortion in highs and lows. Using Galaxy Buds+. they work perfectly on my Samsung phone, iPhone, Macbook and Samsung Watch. Its a shame...

0 RunR over 5 years ago

Are you sure this is only an issue of the watch? My F5+ works great with 2 Taotronics headphones and my Anker Speaker. It is luckily not a high class MP3 Player with lots of sound improving features, because this would cause enormous battery consumption! If you do sports in nature please consider enjoying its natural relaxing sounds!