Develop Bugs

Speaker/headphone volume VERY low.....

I sold my HD2 on Thursday and let me say first off that I have no regrets whatsoever: I absolutely love this phone. Before I sold the HD2 I played some music tracks on both devices through the loudspeaker and headphones jack and noticed a HUGE differential in volume.....I thought the HD2 speaker was pretty tinny but it was at least audible; the Desire speaker volume is incredibly underpowered...being practically inaudible in a moderately noisy environment. This problem seems to extend even as far as the headphones socket since some of the songs I was unable to play at full volume on the HD2 for fear of bursting my eardrums are simply not loud enough for me on the Desire.
Am I the only person to think the volume levels are too low? Is there perhaps a way to increase the pre amp levels. It's as quiet as the first generation iPhone which was REALLY BAD.
Any thoughts from anyone here?

Hi there - I've been searching online to see if anyone else has been having this problem and came across your post.
Had my Desire for a week now, and I love it. But the volume via headphones is WAY too low. Stupidly too low. I can't hear it on the tube at all, for example.
I was looking forward to using it - and Spotify, in partcular - as a replacement for my aging iPod. But there's just no way.
I can't believe this is common to every phone, as surely there would be more people complaining about it. Are there different firmware versions knocking about? It's got me pretty frustrated.

Ok this is not nice, speaker volume is very important to me. This is the first time I see somebody be this negative about it though...
Damn..
Further, you coming from the HD2, any more thoughts you want to share about the switch?
How is the 4.3 inch to 3.7 inch 'jump'?
Kind regards

Screen size is not a problem for me, colours are beautiful on the Desire and the screen seems note responsive. I tried using the HD2 for a day after getting the Desire and hated it bycomparison! Only massive annoyance though is that it is nowhere near as loud.
I suspect that people are still in their honeymoon period with the phone and that complaints will start to surface about the speaker volume in time. As far as I can recall all my other Android devices were a lot louder than this.

Don't have the device yet but in a video review the guy said the speaker was pretty loud, so it's probably only a software problem
chipshop said:
Had my Desire for a week now, and I love it. But the volume via headphones is WAY too low. Stupidly too low. I can't hear it on the tube at all, for example..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Juste buy in-ear headphones ! your ear will thanks you, pushing the volume to 100db because the tube is masking noise : not a good idea believe me.

I too, coming from an iPhone, find the headphone volume painfully low.
I use an under speaker pillow to listen to podcasts without disturbing the wife, and on the iPhone she'd sometimes complain that she could hear it. Now with the Desire I find that sometimes I can't hear it and that's at full volume.

I know this is probably obvious but I take it you have gone through. Audio settings
And maxed the volume? And checked any volume controls on headphones? If both set to max
And still not loud then the handset is faulty so get it replaced
Now!!
Mine set to max would be at ear bleeding levels!!

The speaker quality isn't great, but considering I don't use them that much it is good enough for me.
Am a little surprised with the headphone issues, considering that I have my volume set just under halfway and it is more than loud enough for me.
I am using my Sennheiser earphones, but the volume is fine with the supplied HTC ones too.

what kind of bit-rates are you using for music? ... 128? or more, ... as the quality effects the loudness somehow I believe.
try experimenting with different bit rates and see how that goes

leoni1980 said:
Screen size is not a problem for me, colours are beautiful on the Desire and the screen seems note responsive. I tried using the HD2 for a day after getting the Desire and hated it bycomparison! Only massive annoyance though is that it is nowhere near as loud.
I suspect that people are still in their honeymoon period with the phone and that complaints will start to surface about the speaker volume in time. As far as I can recall all my other Android devices were a lot louder than this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this might be due to new UE regulations about maximum volume in mobile devices, though im not 100% sure if its already in the system.
However Im pretty sure that in couple days/weeks there will be some hacks/apps/ to change that

So have I got a faulty phone?
Or are people just overly forgiving??
Everything is set to max. I've also noticed that the Mic quality in videos is also shockingly poor in terms of volume. I wonder if all of these functions are shared by the same chipset.

leoni, I'm having just the same problem. I think it must be a problem with some of these phones. I can't believe that people are just being overly forgiving.
I'm not looking to push the volume up too high, but if I can't hear it when there's a little background noise going on, then that's a serious design flaw.
I'd like to do a comparison with another Desire at some point, hopefully I'll bump into someone using one soon...

Just to answer some of the above questions/suggestions:-
I'm using MP3s in 256k bit rate format. All volume controls are set to max and there is no volume control on the headphones I am using.

I'm sending mine back. I'm due an upgrade on Monday anyway so I'll test one in the shop and see if It's the same. The headphone volume is the main issue for me; its just too low.

I also think that the volume is way too low. Just out of curiosity, could this be a Rom issue? I'm using the stock TMO Rom. To the people who think it's loud enough, which Rom are you on?

My biggest problem is with the volume through the headphones....speaker volume I can live with, though it is crap and tinny

I think this must be an issue on your phone or you expect it to be crazy loud. I swapped out my ipod for this today on a good set of headphones (AKG KE518LE's) and the volume levels seem identical. As for the speaker, i find mine is a tad on the loud side to be honest. I find myself having to knock it dont a few notches on the volume.

alex101uk said:
I think this must be an issue on your phone or you expect it to be crazy loud. I swapped out my ipod for this today on a good set of headphones (AKG KE518LE's) and the volume levels seem identical. As for the speaker, i find mine is a tad on the loud side to be honest. I find myself having to knock it dont a few notches on the volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you on TMO ROM?

Loud speaker isn't audible above the sound of my shower, which is a real shame as coming from a n95 8gb the loud speaker was great. Oh well. I'm a forgiving type!

I have found music volume to be pretty low but I'm fairly convinced it is a software/Rom issue because the volume in some applications is loud! Doesn't made much sense. Running T-mob here.

Speaker making slight hissing and a click noise

Is anyone getting these slight clicking noise from the speaker whenever the phone is in use, like opening an app for example. I got my phone phone from the launch event (5th in line!! ) and i only noticed when it was really quiet in my room these noises came from the speakers.
To check, open an app and quickly put your ear to the speaker and I hear a hissing noise then a soft click. Always happens when i open an app!
I went back to Phones4U, the guy could tell it was faulty so I got it replaced..now same problem!! (not as loud as before, but still there)
Anyone having the same problem? can anyone check for me? this can't be normal!

saffad said:
Is anyone getting these slight hissing noise from the speaker whenever the phone is in use, like opening an app for example. I got my phone phone from the launch event (5th in line!! ) and i only noticed when it was really quiet in my room these noises came from the speakers.
To check, open an app and quickly put your ear to the speaker and I hear a hissing noise then a soft click. Always happens when i open an app!
I even went back, the guy could tell it was faulty so I got it replaced..now same problem!! (not as loud as before, but still there)
Anyone having the same problem? can anyone check for me? this can't be normal!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have that problem. It's one of those things that you don't really notice until you know it's there, then you hear it all the time
Someone on another forum posted they had the same, so it might not be an isolated problem.

Isn't that just the touch click?
Try Settings/Sound/Touch sounds.
Personally I rather like it..

TonyHoyle said:
Isn't that just the touch click?
Try Settings/Sound/Touch sounds.
Personally I rather like it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I have that turned off.
It happens whenever the speaker is used - when the sound stops there is a quiet hiss, followed by a pop as the speaker switches off.
Try it - hold the speaker right up to your ear, and use the volume rocker to hear the beep. Afterwards there is hiss followed by a pop.
It's not noticeable enough to be an issue (for me) in normal use, but you can hear it if you're in a quiet room.

Shodney said:
No, I have that turned off.
It happens whenever the speaker is used - when the sound stops there is a quiet hiss, followed by a pop as the speaker switches off.
Try it - hold the speaker right up to your ear, and use the volume rocker to hear the beep. Afterwards there is hiss followed by a pop.
It's not noticeable enough to be an issue (for me) in normal use, but you can hear it if you're in a quiet room.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can hear it on my G2x... I'm sure it's not an issue and your just being paranoid because you dropped a whole bunch of cash on a new phone

TonyHoyle said:
Isn't that just the touch click?
Try Settings/Sound/Touch sounds.
Personally I rather like it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The click comes like 3 seconds after you make an input, so it doesn't sound right and it just sounds random (and annoying).
thanks tho!
Edit: Turning off Touch sounds, seems to stop it, whenever im using the phone..but yeah still happens whenever the speaker is in use but that i can live with that!

Shodney said:
No, I have that turned off.
It happens whenever the speaker is used - when the sound stops there is a quiet hiss, followed by a pop as the speaker switches off.
Try it - hold the speaker right up to your ear, and use the volume rocker to hear the beep. Afterwards there is hiss followed by a pop.
It's not noticeable enough to be an issue (for me) in normal use, but you can hear it if you're in a quiet room.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happens with my OG Droid. I only started noticing it one late night when for no reason I had the speaker right up next to my ear.
I don't think it's anything to worry about

KiNG OMaR said:
I can hear it on my G2x... I'm sure it's not an issue and your just being paranoid because you dropped a whole bunch of cash on a new phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, that's certainly got something to do with it
As I say it's not really an issue, and it's not unique to this phone (as you point out). Just one of those annoying niggles - it depends on how sensitive you are to these things

Yes - I have the same problem with my new Galaxy Nexus. In fact, even if it's not a problem for most people, I'd say it is a problem for Samsung because I returned my phone yesterday and got it swapped out. The new one has the same problem, so I assume it's an Android software problem rather than a hardware glitch.
So that's at least two returns caused by this problem. Hope we get a fix at some point!
p.s. Phone is great by the way, even with the annoying click.

Guys
This is hardware problem. And it happens on most of the speakers however its more or less noticeable on some devices.
I have quite good quality monitors (studio speakers) and i can hear something hissing in the back.
Let me put it that way.
Every speaker needs electricity to work. The noise you are hearing is the actual electric current coming through the speakers. The sudden pop and lack of the hiss means that speaker has been turned off. For obvious reasons there is no point for the speaker to work constantly....
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium

I can't hear any click when I plug headphones in, so maybe you're right - the click could be when the amplifier that powers the internal speaker turns off...
However, for some reason I still get a click if the phone is in silent mode. I guess putting it in silent mode doesn't guarantee it keeps the amplifier turned off.

I hope it's just the speakers; the DAC in my HD2 hissed for a few seconds after any sounds even through my headphones. The hissing was always there when there was sound. It was quite depressing. I'm hoping for a good DAC in the Galaxy nexus.

I've got a click (sounds just like a quite speaker pop) from the back cover.
Turn your GN over and push the back cover, on the "Google" logo (below the camera flash). Then quickly release your finger.
Sometime it can happen with only the lightest of touches. If i put my phone down on my chest, the pick it up.
If you look really closely you can see the cover moving just below the camera surround.

Issue has been reported to google.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22307
I have this issue on my gnex. Its def a sw problem. I took the back cover off and still have the issue.

slightly different, but also hiss related...
my rezound does the same thing when headphones(or aux to car) are plugged in and nothing is playing. once you start to play something you don't notice it. and its a confirmed issue.

It's a hardware issue guys, depends on the audio chip I believe. Impedance-related.

Here is the other thread with this annoying sound
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=20087759
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

It isn't just on the speaker either. Atleast on my Galaxy Nexus, I can hear it when listening on high end professional in-ear headphones. I can verify that it is almost certainly a signal isolation problem. The activity causes the DAC (the thing that makes a digital signal into an analog signal that speakers and headphones need) to kick on for a few seconds and until it shuts off you can hear the noise coming out of the DAC. It's pretty substantial on mine though, so I'm wondering if I got a bad unit. I'll have to stop by a Verizon Wireless store and plug in to the display unit to see if it is any better. I never noticed this on my Galaxy S (Fascinate).

My unit is also affected, it was made in Vietnam. I checked the Google Code issue tracker link (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22307) and I can see many people confirming this also. This is definitely not how the speaker should work - I checked another Samsung phone (SGS II) and there's no such "clicks". There's some silent noise but not the click.
I can hear it from the speaker only, not through the headphones.
I think many users are unaware of the issue because it is often only noticeable in a silent environment.

Yes getting same issue. Have tried different ROMS to no avail

[Issue] Speaker pop

i'll do somthing in the UI to make a sound .. like a touch tone.. then in a few seconds i'll hear a pop from the rear speaker

anyone else have this issue?

Anyone having this issue?
basically.. does your rear speaker pop when the amp cuts power to the speaker ?

cant say i have this happening on mine

Exactly have the same problem. I didn't notice the hiss though, but definitely heard the pops. But yes when I listen closely I with my ear to speaker I hear exactly what you described: a hiss ending in a pop.

appelflap said:
Exactly have the same problem. I didn't notice the hiss though, but definitely heard the pops. But yes when I listen closely I with my ear to speaker I hear exactly what you described: a hiss ending in a pop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my other phone (samsung epic 4g touch), it does the hiss/pop/silence thing too, but the pop is much much quieter that I can only hear it if I put my ear right next to the speaker.
However on this galaxy nexus it is loud enough that I can hear it from 1-3 feet-ish. Its especially noticeable in quiet areas.
I'm considering return it because of this

Pitnefor said:
On my other phone (samsung epic 4g touch), it does the hiss/pop/silence thing too, but the pop is much much quieter that I can only hear it if I put my ear right next to the speaker.
However on this galaxy nexus it is loud enough that I can hear it from 1-3 feet-ish. Its especially noticeable in quiet areas.
I'm considering return it because of this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it's not a big problem. I notice it but it is not annoying me. I hear it only when I'm concentrating on it. BTW just applied the new update and that didn't fix this issue.

appelflap said:
For me it's not a big problem. I notice it but it is not annoying me. I hear it only when I'm concentrating on it. BTW just applied the new update and that didn't fix this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh good to know... cause I'm actually kinda wondering if this affects all devices or just a few. If it affects mostly all, i wont bother getting a replacement

Pitnefor said:
oh good to know... cause I'm actually kinda wondering if this affects all devices or just a few. If it affects mostly all, i wont bother getting a replacement
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've got it too - Doesn't fuss me though - only notice at night when i'm using it in bed

minooch said:
Yeah, I've got it too - Doesn't fuss me though - only notice at night when i'm using it in bed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow me too!
it's not so bad i guess
least i know the amp is turning off saving battery

I am having this issue also i have noticed it today i was in a quiete area. Is it an option that you can disable? I am afraid this will drain the battery
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

I'm pretty sure this happens on all devices. I have this on all my phones, navigation units, clock radios...

Me, too, I just checked all electronical devices I have and they all have it. Though, it's so quiet, that I have to get closer to the speaker than I normally ever woult.
Is that different for the GN? Is it louder than "normal"?

Atreus said:
Me, too, I just checked all electronical devices I have and they all have it. Though, it's so quiet, that I have to get closer to the speaker than I normally ever woult.
Is that different for the GN? Is it louder than "normal"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my GN is defiantly louder than normal. I can hear it easily from almost any normal usage distance. It almost sounds exactly like the normal touch sounds so that I get confused and think I clicked on something
pretty sure it's the amp cutting off power to the speaker a few seconds after it makes a noise

Mine does it too. Simplest solution I've found is to turn off touch sounds. That way the speaker doesn't keep turning on and off so often. I would normally turn those sounds off anyway because they are annoying, so it's no biggie for me.

Only time I have noticed a speaker pop is going into recovery

Mine does this too.
Glad its not just mine!

yeah, i thought i was going crazy last night too, but i definitely have the same popping problem
its not very loud , but its there - i heard it when i was in my room cause it was dead silent. Whenever i played any type of sound file, you'd hear the little pop afterwards from the speaker =/
it kinda sucks with touch tones for the dialer cause it happens everytime you push a number
i wonder if google/samsung knows about this and if it can somehow be fixed through a SW patch just like the volume bug haha - cause this LOOKS like a HW issue again

Yes, I certainly also get this, my hearing is very sensitive, so something like this is very noticeable for me.
Even "turn off touch sounds" doesn't seem to stop it.

Bakedbread said:
i wonder if google/samsung knows about this and if it can somehow be fixed through a SW patch just like the volume bug haha - cause this LOOKS like a HW issue again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would guess it's just something as simple as properly muting the output to the speaker before turning it off. This should prevent the voltage spike from affecting the speaker.
Its not unique to the Nexus - it can potentially happen to anything with a speaker that isn't muted before turning off the amp.

Volume not loud enough

Every phone I've had prior to this, all Androids and even the iPhone 4 I had for 4 weeks had a louder speaker. Is there any way to jack the speaker volume up because I can't hear ringtones or notifications for anything.
And sorry for posting this here and not Q&A, I literally just realized this wasn't Q&A.

Get Volume+ by meltus on the market. Works fantastic. The free version is crap though. It only ups it 30% of what is possible, and there's really no difference as far as I can tell.
Don't kick it up too high though. Seriously.
It was designed for GB in mind, but it still works on the GN ICS.
Here's the link:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.TEST.android.lvh&hl=en

waylo said:
Get Volume+ by meltus on the market. Works fantastic. The free version is crap though. It only ups it 30% of what is possible, and there's really no difference as far as I can tell.
Don't kick it up too high though. Seriously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 kicking it up too high would cause it break. Someone should really make a MOD to up the volume without this app though. Would be helpful.

I guess I should consider myself lucky. Speaker is significantly louder than my previous phone.

Thanks much guys. Oh and I definitely am aware of the too high volume, I'm a DJ and I can't stand distorted sounds, and not only that it could break the speaker.

On Market, Volume+ is described as only working with rooted phones.
Is there any way to fix this on a standard phone? I'm still in my 14 day return period. Can't root yet!

Verizon-Unlimited said:
Why do they put it on the bottom does not make sense. If you have it in your pocket and and plug in a headset for example... doesn't make very good for the cord run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, I always put my phone in my pocket upside down so that when I pull it out it's rightside up, so audio jack on bottom is perfect for headset plugin.
It's when I'm using nav and music in the car that's going to be tricky. Landscape ftw? Dock?

speamer phone sucks

Lg did a good job with this phone save a few small things and one larger one. This speaker phone sucks. I have never used a phone with a worse speaker phone feature in my life. If I even attempt to make a speaker phone call I always have Tunnel sounds and low volumes and people on the other end can't hear what I'm saying. Is this a hardware problem or is the microphone somehow turned down when you make a speaker phone call?

conan1600 said:
Lg did a good job with this phone save a few small things and one larger one. This speaker phone sucks. I have never used a phone with a worse speaker phone feature in my life. If I even attempt to make a speaker phone call I always have Tunnel sounds and low volumes and people on the other hand can't hear what I'm saying. Is this a hardware problem or is the microphone somehow turned down when you make a speaker phone call?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like this phone, but the speakers on it is garbage, it's not very loud and the quality sucks compared to Samsung. I won't compare it with the HTC one, because that phone ifs on a different league on its own. Comparing to other non dual speaker phone, this is by far the worst I've ever heard. For such s great phone, LG went cheap on its speakers. Even plugged into auxiliary in my car, I have to blast the volume just to get it a little bit loud, I'll admit the sound is clean but just really low through auxiliary. This and the fact that the camera does not have image stabilization really it's a big disadvantage for me. However it's different for everyone. I'm going to wait on the next HTC phablet, it'll have a better camera then the one with beats audio amp.

The camera does have an image stabilization feature on video. Never need that for stills though. Use multiburst.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda app-developers app

I wonder if some people have defective speakers. My speakers sound the same as my Note 2 and zero issues with speaker phone turned on.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda premium

The vibration on this phone sucks too, it has the weakest vibration on any phone I've ever used. Miss calls all the time at work where I can't keep my ringer on.

there is an option to turn the vibration intensity up or down. since you didnt know this i assume you havent tried turning it up. theres settings for three things, touch vibration notifications and calls.

rob219 said:
there is an option to turn the vibration intensity up or down. since you didnt know this i assume you havent tried turning it up. theres settings for three things, touch vibration notifications and calls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I know about the settings, mine is turned all the way. Compared to htc or Samsung phones, heck even Apple, the vibration is too weak.

socacola said:
No I know about the settings, mine is turned all the way. Compared to htc or Samsung phones, heck even Apple, the vibration is too weak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
huh...maybe its the phone? mine seems to be pretty good and i just came from a one x to a s3 then a note 2 now this one. iam very disapointed in this speakerphone though, id take no vibrationjust to have a speaker phone that i can turn all the way up and use my volume apps and jam with.