Awful high pitched whistle in headphones with audio tones

Got my Fenix 6s Sapphire in April and use the Backbeat fit wireless headphones. All worked perfectly for a few months. Suddenly all km audio prompts were announced with an awful whistle sound. Button press, phone notifications were similar but not so loud. Put up with this for a week assuming it was a headphone problem and then on a run the headphones just stopped working completely.

Replaced my headphones and upgraded to Backbeat 3150 and from the first use I had the same problem. Now the headphones have a slight crackle on certain tracks. I have logged a call with Garmin support, the forums were down at the time so I couldn't search for other users with the same issue. I was asked to provide a video of the issue which I did but a few weeks have gone by and I can't get any response from Garmin. I did find a thread on reddit that said known issue and to turn off audio tones which has helped but I am still left wondering if the sound on my new headphones has been impacted and if it killed the last pair.

Has anyone else experienced this?

0 Former Member over 4 years ago

I have been experiencing exactly the same thing. Changed headphones thinking it was the headphones, but the same thing is happening with the new headphone. It's definitely the watch. It didn't happen at first, but started happening about a month ago.

0 jkny over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

I am also having a problem with the default volume being too loud when I connect each time and the button press down on my headphones wont work any more (only a few weeks old). I can turn down the volume via the watch but that's not very convenient. Some tracks play slightly louder than others or sometimes you just want to turn up a good track mid run. Searching through the forums I can see others are also having this same issue so I am sure it all must be related.

0 jkny over 4 years ago

I called Garmin and was told to wait for the next software update to fix the noise. That's happened and the sound/volume problem is still the same! I've gone back to customer support and no response again!

0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to jkny

I reset my watch and switched audio tones off... seems to have worked... for now. Maybe gove that a try. It's not ideal to have to resync my Spotify playlists, but it sure beats hearing that squeal every time I cluck over a lap or get a notification.

0 Former Member over 4 years ago

Same issue! The sound is horrible, has anyone gotten a response from Garmin?

0 jkny over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

No never had a reply from them. I just have to keep audio tones off. At the same time this issue appeared my headphone volume button stopped working. No response on that either!! Everything plays way too loud by default and I have to turn it down each time going into the music settings on my watch rather than just tap a button on the earpiece. Must all be related to same fault.

0 Kramo over 4 years ago

the same with me: Fenix 6x with Aftershokz Trekz Air combo

0 figz over 4 years ago

Same here on 15.20 still. Tried 2 different headphones and the tone is still incredibly painful. Garmin - please fix this!

0 5135968 over 4 years ago in reply to figz

Yes, I reported this in the 15.71 beta thread and also reported to outdoor beta email a month or two back (no response)

0 Dan.Boilermaker over 4 years ago

Purchased a 6 Sapphire in December 2020 and have updated with every SW release including betas. I've used Bose Free and Bose Sports (both true wireless) and have not experienced the painful tone on a lap notification as described by OP. The tone is certainly a high pitch, but not painful. At least not to my old ears.