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I've been having a problem with my Razr I which was purchased around the 11th October from Handtec, and I'm just trying to work out whether this was a faulty handset or whether it's common for the device, or affects a certain batch.
The issue is high levels of hiss / interference when a speaker is connected to 3.5mm jack while audio is not playing. Hard to describe the sound as it changes, however it's somewhere between hiss, ground loop and EM interference.
There's also an unpleasant thump when audio output turns on (i.e. just prior to playing audio) or off (a few moments after the audio output is stopped).
The hiss/interference noise reduces significantly immediately before and after playing audio i.e. it seems to go down to an acceptable level once the audio chip is taken out of 'sleep' mode and made active. I can only assume that this is because a noise cancellation circuit is removing the interference once the audio chip is activated, but that while it's inactive the unwanted signal is making its way down the cable connected to the 3.5mm jack.
This happens regardless of whether the device is connected to wall socket - and I've tested with a battery powered speaker - so this isn't a ground loop issue as far as I know. It is most noticeable when connected to an external speaker that's turned up to a decent volume, but is also audible through headphones. Please note that different headphones will show the issue to a different extent, as the impedance of headphones can vary quite widely. Through small earphones, the sound isn't too offensive, but through an external speaker or decent headphones it's completely unacceptable.
I tried temporarily disabling the MusicFX app and doing a factory reset – no luck with either unfortunately.
There is a report on gsmarena from someone who noticed the hiss. They got a replacement and there was no hiss on the replacement handset.
The thing that's confusing me is that this seems like two separate issues - though I may well be wrong.
1) poor EM shielding and/or cancellation circuitry inactive when audio is not playing and
2) no soft-start / soft-stop when capacitor(s) on the audio chip is charged/discharged and/or DC offset on the signal coming from the audio chip.
The phone's in the box ready to be posted back to Handtec, but just wanted to try and understand whether anyone else has experienced this issue? Just to note that although I haven't been through the returns process just yet, support from both Motorola and especially Handtec so far has been great.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1930361
---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 PM ----------
tomrazri said:
There is a report on gsmarena from someone who noticed the hiss. They got a replacement and there was no hiss on the replacement handset.
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that was me. the replacement was much better. still not upto gnex audio via headphones standard but the positives elsewhere on the phone (vs the gnex) mean i can live with the slight drop in audio quality.
Ah ok that's promising cheers. As you've mentioned in that thread, it's only really a problem when music's not playing and when the audio chip is activated/deactivated. No realm qualms with the quality of the audio chip itself as i wouldn't expect a studio grade dac in a phone, just the interference / lack of soft-start that was the dealbreaker. Fingers crossed my replacement will be from a different batch
my first unit came from clove. my replacement from amazon uk. good luck
Sent from my XT890
---------- Post added at 04:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:28 PM ----------
build date on my replacement unit is sep 22 if that helps
tomrazri said:
I've been having a problem with my Razr I...
...The issue is high levels of hiss / interference when a speaker is connected to 3.5mm jack while audio is not playing. Hard to describe the sound as it changes, however it's somewhere between hiss, ground loop and EM interference.
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Click to collapse
I'm having exactly the same problem with my XT890 - bought from Amazon round 10th Oct., device build date is 22 Sept.
tomrazri said:
...seems to go down to an acceptable level once the audio chip is taken out of 'sleep' mode and made active. I can only assume that this is because a noise cancellation circuit is removing the interference once the audio chip is activated, but that while it's inactive the unwanted signal is making its way down the cable connected to the 3.5mm jack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my case the hiss is present only in sleep mode with no music on. I can hear silent thud roughly 3 secs after pressing power button to enter the sleep mode followed by the annoying hiss (only on left ear though). It's not loud at all, in fact it's barely noticeable during the day. It only drives you insane if even subconsciously.
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tomrazri said:
This happens regardless of whether the device is connected to wall socket - and I've tested with a battery powered speaker - so this isn't a ground loop issue as far as I know. It is most noticeable when connected to an external speaker that's turned up to a decent volume, but is also audible through headphones. Please note that different headphones will show the issue to a different extent, as the impedance of headphones can vary quite widely. Through small earphones, the sound isn't too offensive, but through an external speaker or decent headphones it's completely unacceptable.
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Click to collapse
I think this is where the problem lies. First I thought its down to frequency response or even impedance. I think its due to different 3.5mm jack layout. I have no problem what so ever on my Klipsch S4A (10-19khz, 18ohm, 4 rings jack) but on my Koss PRO 4AAT (10-25khz, 250ohm, regular 3ring jack) its simply unbearable.
Shall I try to send it back to Amazon in hope the new piece will be flawless?
denny76 said:
In my case the hiss is present only in sleep mode with no music on. I can hear silent thud roughly 3 secs after pressing power button to enter the sleep mode followed by the annoying hiss (only on left ear though). It's not loud at all, in fact it's barely noticeable during the day. It only drives you insane if even subconsciously.
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i 'think' i had the same hiss you are talking about on my first device. it was certainly noticeable as i mentioned before and unnacceptable i have no hiss on my replacement unit.
3 secs after any music has come to a stop, it sounds as if the internal amp (?) 'clicks' off. that 'click' is/was present on both devices i had but as that does not interfere with and music playing, i don't see that as a problem.
who knows if we are all talking about the same 'hiss' or not
Hiss on Razr I
I had exactly the same problem on first device but on replacement that hiss gone but not all together but 10x better . I have got 64gb micro sd card full of music and I love chillout stuff where any extra noises spoils listening pleasure . Btw my device was prom phones 4 u
Replacement received. Hiss/EM interference and the pop still there :crying:
ooo that is bad luck. as you got both from handtec, i can only assume they had a faulty batch that moto fixed on newer builds.
denny76 said:
First I thought its down to frequency response or even impedance. I think its due to different 3.5mm jack layout. I have no problem what so ever on my Klipsch S4A (10-19khz, 18ohm, 4 rings jack) but on my Koss PRO 4AAT (10-25khz, 250ohm, regular 3ring jack) its simply unbearable.
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Click to collapse
Well, you first thought it could be the impedance but you forgot it or what? It's quite common problem that not all the amplifiers like all headphones. Can happen with hifi equipments too, but mostly mobile devices just don't have good enough output for high impedance headphones. Low impedance headphones are a bit more battery friendly.
I think people just looks silly walking around with big-ass-headphones. About the same as using tablets as cameras.
Anyway, my phone does have slight hissing noise with 18 ohm headphones, but I can live with it.
Sure I think this is probably not an issue for a lot of people, as I want to be able to output to speakers rather than just listen on earphones.
Agree big headphones look silly, I'd only wear them on long train journey's not strolling around
If it doesn't affect the way you use the phone that's fine, and for those people I don't think it should influence their buying decision. The gsmarena review calls out aux audio quality as an issue though and measures it in comparison to other phones, and it doesn't fare so well. It'd be interesting to know whether the situation's improved in later revisions.
If the interference and pop happened with other devices I'd understand it, but I've had no issues with various other mp3 players, smartphones and tablets feeding the same headphones and speaker systems.
Oh well, hopefully be able to buy in a month or so when I'm reassured they've fixed it.
tomrazri said:
If the interference and pop happened with other devices I'd understand it, but I've had no issues with various other mp3 players, smartphones and tablets feeding the same headphones and speaker systems.
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i'm confused by what you say above 'not having issues with other smartphones'. i thought this was your first smartphone purchase according to your review on amazon...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R15W...e=UTF8&ASIN=B008QBBDQ0&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=
Perfect form factor and excellent battery life. Despite being a bit of a geek, this was the first smartphone I've bought, because it ticks all the boxes that no other smartphones have so far.
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Yep, phones of friends don't have the same issue. It hasn't been a problem with some models of HTC, iPhone and Samsung that I've tried with the same speaker systems. I imagine there are plenty of older Motorola handsets that don't have the same issue too so it's nothing against them.
Posted this question on Motorola customer care, but recived a useless anwser. I don't know phone internals, but my guess is problem lies in incorects volume regullation. Just like with with connection of PC with amplifier, if you would turn your amplifier to maximum volume and try to regulate volume only with PC volume controll, you would get similar noise.
Here is my post to Motorola: h**ps://docs.google.com/document/d/1R5ngSJzSjmjbsHPTqnEaUDa3h7oR4OC8l13hK-512uI/edit
and attached noise record: h**ps://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4n8pwAEMymPdHpXUmJHeEV3eVk
Hey Guys,
Mentioned this on a couple of other threads, but I feel it needs a dedicated one.
Firstly, the output from the headphone jack to the line in on my car is poor, the level is so low i'm cranking it up to 20 just to get a decent listenable volume level, my previous phones (Atrix, Nokia N900) didn't require this.
Secondly, if I use my car charger with the phone and try and use the line in, there is massive interference that is louder than the output its self making it impossible to listen to music. Again another issue not present on my previous phones using the same charger.
I am going to attempt to make a recording of the noise, and I'll upload this later.
Can a few other people test this out and see if you get the same result please?
Cheers
Andy
Just get a ground loop filter for $5 and you are golden.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I have noticed low headphone output also. I use a ground loop filter so I haven't noticed too much white noise but having to turn up the volume louder than normal to make up for the low output makes it worse. I only hear it in-between songs.
Hmm I'll try and find a ground loop isolator and see if that makes any improvement.
Just don't understand why it is such an issue on the Nexus 4.
The noise for me is louder than the audio that is being output rendering it useless. Going to upgrade my car with bluetooth at some point so that will solve all the problems.
I have a new T-Mobile HTC One. I tried testing out the video quality and recorded a song playing from my stereo system. After recording it, I noticed almost all of the sound was on the left channel, and the right channel was almost non-existent. I uploaded the video to my computer to hear it and noticed the same issue - the left earphone was loud and clear, the right was very quiet.
Is this a defect with my device? How does it differentiate between the left and right sounds when recording audio? Is the back mic for the left channel and the bottom mic for the right?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
mic
jpzsports said:
I have a new T-Mobile HTC One. I tried testing out the video quality and recorded a song playing from my stereo system. After recording it, I noticed almost all of the sound was on the left channel, and the right channel was almost non-existent. I uploaded the video to my computer to hear it and noticed the same issue - the left earphone was loud and clear, the right was very quiet.
Is this a defect with my device? How does it differentiate between the left and right sounds when recording audio? Is the back mic for the left channel and the bottom mic for the right?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have had your hand accidentally covering the back mic.........
CC
I wish, but I've tried multiple times and my hand isn't blocking anything. I talked to HTC and they think it's a hardware defect. I'll probably need to get a new device. I'm just curious as to how the phone records the L vs. R channels.
EDIT: It's definitely an issue with the bottom microphone. When I cover the back speaker, the video's sound is almost gone. When I cover the bottom speaker (right channel), there isn't much of a difference at all.
Can anyone do me a favor and test their HTC One's video recording by recording a video with some audio playing, and then cover up the back mic, and then let go of that and then try covering the bottom speaker. When you play back the video, does it sound like both channels are equal (in other words, both mic's are recording).
Are you still waiting for an answer? Yes I can reproduce a true Stereo Recording with the HTC video app. If I cover one of the mics the signal on the other side is still unchanged. If I blow into the mainmic (near the usb port) it is only on the right channel. If i blow into the camcorder mic (near the lense) it is only on the left audiochannel.
BUT if you use a third party video or one of the audio apps on the market which are able to record just audio (lile RecForge or VoicePro) you will find that the camcorder mic ist not used.
This occurs even if the app uses AudioRecord with the parameter CHANNEL_IN_STEREO. I guess HTC uses a command to activate the camcorder audiochannel before recording.
For all who are serarching a worarround: Look here.
Ralf
I have a problem with my speaker sound, while listening to any audio whether it be YouTube, Netflix, Music player etc... After about 6 minutes the sound quality changes it's as if the bottom. Speaker gets lower and the front speaker gets louder if you close the app and then try again it's fine until 6 minutes again. I have already received 2 replacements and all 3 phones have the same problem. Is anyone else experienceing anything like this?
I have the opposite problem, the bottom speaker is too loud and the front facing speaker is too quiet. I have unsuccessfully been trying to find an app to balance them with no luck.
If you have had your device for less than 14 days, I would take it back to the retailer for a replacement. As there is a chance that you were given a faulty unit. Otherwise take it to a Samsung Service Center and let them take a look at it.
Billyrouth said:
I have a problem with my speaker sound, while listening to any audio whether it be YouTube, Netflix, Music player etc... After about 6 minutes the sound quality changes it's as if the bottom. Speaker gets lower and the front speaker gets louder if you close the app and then try again it's fine until 6 minutes again. I have already received 2 replacements and all 3 phones have the same problem. Is anyone else experienceing anything like this?
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Click to collapse
You're not the only one. I made a thread about this a while back but nobody here really noticed. It still happens on my latest software update (ARJ1, September security patch). On Samsung Community there's a lot more complaints:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...ote9QuestionsandAnswers/page/1/thread-id/1440
Some people tried contacting Samsung but the staff had a hard time detecting it. I got mine overseas in Taiwan and can't readily communicate with them at the moment. I always get a "due to we don't understand your message" reply if I use my phone's feedback option. I did try to email them directly but the reply seemed somewhat generic like "try using safe mode". I haven't done this myself but other users have said it still occurs in safe mode.
The fact that replacements have it lead me to think it's a software bug - the bottoms speaker is supposed to emphasize bass a bit more than the top speaker but it almost sounds like the left and right speaker EQ gets swapped (even though the stereo channel polarity is still constant). When it happens the top speaker becomes bass-heavy and bottom speaker sounds bass-light and treble-heavy. It also seems "worse' in some apps than others. For example I barely notice it in music as only the bass seems to drop on the bottom speaker but on other occasions it sounds like the bottom speaker is sucked down in volume.
Really hoping Android Pie fixes it.
I haven't noticed this issue, but I did post a few days ago regarding sound skipping and corrupting on wired headphones.
I've tracked this down to the EQ not playing well with the UHQ Upscaler. If you have any EQ set other than Normal the sound gets distorted through headphones.
Maybe it's related? I know the UHQ Upscaler is disabled when playing through the speakers but the EQ isn't, do you use anything other than 'Normal' EQ settings?
It has only started on ARJ1 (Oct Security patch level) for me. I've fed it back to Sammy.
Oh, you can download Sound Assistant from the Galaxy Store and that lets you play with the left / right balance.
I didn't try Sound Assistant yet, but I forced the speaker output to mono in the phone's settings, and the problem still occurred. So the problem isn't related to the stereo imagery, but rather how each speaker is tuned regardless. Some have suggested it could be a defect in the amplifier but I think if this were the case the effect would be more permanent. I think it occurs more frequently in the ARJ1 update compared to the update before that. I don't recall it occurring in Samsung Music very often before but now it seems to happen after about 4-5 minutes. I temporarily exited the app (without closing) and played music from Poweramp, stopped, then played music on Samsung Music and it sounded normal again.
Blah - is it just me or has this issue become somewhat more easily replicated, but more inconsistent? I was watching some videos with narration, and it sometimes feels like it pans left and right at the same timepoints when I replay that section.
Also, Horizon Chase sounds pretty awful now. The music volume seems to dip out and the sound effects are too loud.
hi all after 1 week of trying i figure out how to fix the problem simply delete the file with name ((SoundBoosterParam.txt)). in the root/system/vendor/etc
you're done
You need root in order to delete the SoundBoosterParam.txt file, and I'm not comfortable rooting a $1k phone under warranty. I turned off Dolby Atmos and changed sound to mono...EQ is normal. While mono isn't the quality sound I want, this has stopped the issue. A user at https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/...thread-id/1440 though said it didn't fix his.
Like FYL21, I tried emailing Samsung but got the usual "this is another canned robotic answer that doesn't address the issue" response. So I just spent about an hour on the phone with them. After continually trying to explain the issue and being told everything to try that's been tried, I finally spoke to a manager who made note of the links to the issue on their forum. She is escalating this as an issue for the technicians to read the complaints and look into this. Maybe it'll be fixed by the time the Note 10 comes out.
That was me as well in that thread. The thing is the speakers are still tuned differently even if they are in a mono configuration - the bottom one is EQ'd for bass and the top for treble (I'm not sure if this changes if you rotate the phone). I got Android Pie but am still testing out if it happens. Some apps or videos still have brief panning at specific time points, but this might just be related to the equalization and it doesn't seem as long-term as it was before (where you had to restart the app or plug/unplug headphones to fix it). I can live with that but it's annoying when it abruptly dips on the bottom speaker and even worse for calling.
you guys should think of this phone as a sound bar.
in that type of configuration, its one device generating sound that appears as stereo even though there is 1 device and not 2 .( or more)
the position and tuning of the speakers within that bar is tuned so that it feels like stereo/multichannel.
so in the same way is the phone tuned that way. plus if you think of it, you hold your phone 90 %of the time upright. the speakers on that position are not left to right but top and bottom...
so again don't look at the position of the speakers on the phone to deduce which is the left or right speakers but as how the devixe as a whole is reproducing the feel of stereo without an array of speakers like on home cinemas or in your car.
think of it, the space between the speakers is so narrow that youd have to be a small mouse to be able to enjoy real left and right channel audio from the speakers in landscape...
anyways this has nothing to do with the audio fading out but more towards our expectation of multichannel audio and how the phone reproduces it.
Hello! I noticed the bottom speaker sounds a bit louder than the top one, specially with higher frequencies. Is this specific to my unit or is this due do a difference between the speakers in this phone? Anyone can relate?
Mike845 said:
Hello! I noticed the bottom speaker sounds a bit louder than the top one, specially with higher frequencies. Is this specific to my unit or is this due do a difference between the speakers in this phone? Anyone can relate?
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Click to collapse
Be aware that stereo signals might affect your perception of them. Try turning on mono audio in accessibility settings.
As far as physical differences go, they are indeed different in size. You can see it here:
?t=6m1s
After 2 weeks of owning this phone, I just noticed it now. Bottom speaker does sound louder than a top speaker. So disappointed to find out that both speakers aren't equal I bought this phone mainly for front stereo speakers.
I think Top speaker is an earphone doubling as speaker. Bottom speaker is a dedicated speaker.
I noticed something strange. After turned off the phone for a few minutes and then turn it back on, now both speakers sound balanced just like when i just got the phone and had not noticed this issue until now. Please try turning off the phone, not restart.
Sitti01 said:
I noticed something strange. After turned off the phone for a few minutes and then turn it back on, now both speakers sound balanced just like when i just got the phone and had not noticed this issue until now. Please try turning off the phone, not restart.
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Click to collapse
Software problem
Not hardware
Speakers hardware are great
I hope Asus releases updates that allows user to adjust the balance of stereo. I think it's also the stereo frequencies in each content. some music, video, and games are noticeably louder on bottom speaker, and some are louder on top speaker.
I just turn on mono audio when the speakers are in use. The stereo separation doesn't work well enough for me, and it just sounds fuller.
I'm also aware that the phone has 2 vibration motors, but I noticed the vibration is much stronger at the bottom, anyone noticed this?
Sitti01 said:
I hope Asus releases updates that allows user to adjust the balance of stereo. I think it's also the stereo frequencies in each content. some music, video, and games are noticeably louder on bottom speaker, and some are louder on top speaker.
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Click to collapse
I can definitely relate to this. But overall, I'm very satisfied with the quality of the speakers.
Do y'all have your bottom speaker blown out or distorted?
guys Ive owned several stereo phones before and almost all of them sound differently, you just need to turn on Mono audio as other's have mentioned too.
this phone has great speakers, reminds me of my HTC 820 boomsound speaker which were pretty loud back in the day, but this is loud and clear!
Bottom Speaker sounds louder
@Mike845 Thanks for posting this issue as I am also facing the same issue. I am skeptical as this being a hardware issue because I saw jerryrigeverything's video on YouTube and top speaker is indeed smaller than the bottom one.
I want to know that are the top bottom speaker should be of same intensity or is there a problem with my unit. Also if buttom speakers are loud than top one and there is no issue then I am very angry with Asus as one of the reason for buying this phone was dual front firing stereo speakers.
For all the other folks, I request you to check your device for this issue(balance) using this link youtu.be/2ZrWHtvSog4 . Here you'll get perfect idea if speakers are balanced or not.
Please help me so that I know that if this is an issue.
---------- Post added at 12:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------
Ansticexvi said:
Do y'all have your bottom speaker blown out or distorted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes at high volume bottom speaker does sound distorted.
Tweak for balancing speaker audio
Okay, first of all switch off and reboot (not restart) your phone.
Then go to AudioWizard, switch to normal mode if not already then don't exceed the volume beyond 10 notch. Now check, speakers would be balanced and clear.
It becomes unbalanced only after 10 notches where only bottom speakers volume gets increased and not top. Also beyond 10 there could be distortion in bottom speaker.
Hope it helps.
Also in Asus ROG Phone III
It is on Asus Rog Phone 3 too, very disappointed. With black crush issue.
AHThatGuy said:
It is on Asus Rog Phone 3 too, very disappointed. With black crush issue.
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I don't know how YouTubers are saying that Rog has got the best display ever, paid reviews probably. These YouTubers are taking people for granted.
Asus's image processing is just ****, black crush, red tint and what not.
I don't know why I went with this when OnePlus 7 pro was equally priced. Regretting my decision.