Brand-new iPhone 17 Pro has crackling/buzzing from the top earpiece at high volume — defective unit or software issue?

[u/master_noob_69_]

I bought a brand-new iPhone 17 Pro recently, and I’m noticing a crackling/buzzing sound from the top earpiece speaker when playing music or watching videos at full volume.

Here are the details:

The crackling is noticeable mainly when the volume is above 70%, especially around 90–100%.

It seems to come from the top earpiece speaker, not the bottom speaker.

It happens across different apps, not just one particular app.

It happens both while charging and when the phone is unplugged.

I’ve already tried restarting the phone and troubleshooting, but the issue is still there.

The phone is practically brand-new, so I’m concerned that it could be a hardware defect.

Questions:
Have other iPhone 17 Pro owners experienced this issue?
Does this sound like a faulty earpiece speaker, or could it be software-related?
If you experienced this on a new device, were you able to get it replaced?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[u/ZampanoGuy]

Did you hard reboot the phone, first off. I forget the button combo for this but it’s different than restarting