Develop Bugs

Review of AfterShokz Bluez open ear wireless headphones w/lots of pics!!!

This is a review of AfterShokz Bluez open ear bluetooth wireless stereo headphones. http://www.aftershokz.com/AfterShokz-Bluez-Open-Ear-Bluetooth-Headphones-p/as330.htm
All of my previous reviews of wireless headphones were focused around sound quality, noise isolation, and ear tip fitment. Now, here comes a new chapter in wireless headphones with all these rules out of the window. Based on a military technology of bone conduction, AfterShokz were designed to sit outside of your ears conducting the sound through your cheekbones to your inner ear - a shortcut bypassing your eardrums. I know, the description of this process doesn't sound too attractive, but once you get these wraparound headphones on - it will make a perfect sense. I was a bit confused myself reading the description, that's why I couldn't wait to receive my review sample, to test it out, and to share my first hand experience.
Once you open the box, the first thing you notice is a very nice and sturdy carrying case which is the size of the box itself. These are not earbuds or some foldable headphones, but rather a full wraparound band headphones with a unique design shape where having a carrying case with a generous bonus storage pocket is a great idea. For anybody who has Tone+ or similar headphones, you will know what I mean when it's time to pack your headphones and you wish you would have a carrying case to protect these from breaking. Once you take headphones out, you couldn't believe how lightweight these are at only 1.5 ounces (43 grams). These are designed to wrap around back of your head with ear piece pads aligned to sit right in front of your ears. The pads are soft rubberized and form a tight seal around attachment. As stated by manufacture, these are water resistant and sweat proof, backed up by 2 year warranty, and you can clearly see that from a solid design. For a better fitment there is a adjustable rubber tension band that hooks inside of headphone band, and it does a good job keeping these up without falling down on your shoulders.
The controls are located on the sides of earpieces and on the back of the headphone band. First of all, big thumbs up for a dedicated physical sliding power switch. There is no second guessing if you turned these on/off, or if they are still paired up or in a standby mode. You turn it on and get a voice prompt about connecting, pairing up, and battery status (when you hit volume buttons). Right next to it you will find a standard micro-usb charging port. Bluez also come with a high quality micro-usb cable that you can use with your own wall adapter or charging from your laptop/PC usb port. These headphones are rated for up to 6 hours of continuous playback time, and standby time of up to 10 days. Also, it supports all the available bluetooth profiles (A2DP, AVRCP, HSP, HFP), and once paired up I tested it for up to 50ft wireless range in my house until I got disconnected. Also, on the back you will find Volume up/down controls which double as playback control when you hold it down to skip Next/Prev while playing songs. Typically, volume and playback skip controls are not the most used functions so having it on the back of the headphone band is not a bad idea. For your common most used play/pause and call functions, these two buttons are placed on either side of the sound earpieces. Very elegantly designed, those fit in the corner and easy to locate and operate either if you are playing music from your phone/tablet or need to pick up/hangup a call. Both functions work as expected, and receiving and carrying on a phone call worked great.
But the main point of these headphones: how does it sound? AfterShokz manual refers to earpieces as "transducers" since they actually don't go into your ear. As I mentioned before, they sit in front of it, right on your cheekbone, and it WORKS!!! There is no vibration or anything you might associate with "bone conducting" terminology. Although the sound is not the same as you will experience with in your ear headphones, it's loud and clear and you can actually feel some bass. This is not the same as if you would take regular over the ear headphones and slide them down to your cheekbone, the sound is actually almost like if you would have headphones over your ears. For a test purpose, I even put earplugs (as you can see from my pictures, I used a quality Comply earplug/filters) while listening through Bluez to make sure it's not the sound bleeding out of these that I hear. With earplugs in, you loose some high frequency content but can still hear mids and low frequencies which "conducting" through your cheekbone. Another thing to point out, you will not be welcome to use these on a plane or a bus or anywhere else where you expecting to have privacy while enjoying the sound. To outsiders, these are like a pair of high frequency speakerphones on your ears - it is quite noticeable. So my theory on this bone conductive technology is that low frequencies and some mids are conducted through a bone, while all your high frequencies get to your ears by the sound bleeding out of these transducers. That is the only thing that makes sense to me how they work, and from all the testing I have done.
Overall, I found these to be very unique piece of technology. They are not for all around everyday use if your intention to enjoy private sounds or phone conversation. Also, as you move around and tilt your head the sound will change a bit because of the transducer positioning and reception of high frequency content (lows and mids won't be affected that much). BUT, for a sport activity or any other activity where you don't want to have full noise isolation and actually require to stay alert with a surrounding environment while listening to your music or carrying on phone conversation - these are irreplaceable!!! Furthermore, I read a number of posts from people who have partial hearing loss and use these to listen to music since they bypass eardrums. I personally can think of a number of uses myself where I'm riding a bike, or doing gardening outside, or hiking outdoors, or when I'm working out in my home gym - just a few examples where these can come very handy since you still enjoying a music, have full wireless control of the playback (the sound quality is actually not bad at all!!!), can pickup the call, don't have anything plugged into your ears, and can still get alerted by everything that is going on around you. A definitely innovative piece of technology.
Here are the pictures.
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Do They Stay Put?
I've been keeping an eye on these since they were announced, trying to decide whether or not to they'll work for me. They seem like they'd be great for jogging, where it's important to still be able to hear the traffic around you, but they look like they might bounce around a bit and need constant readjusting. Did you notice this at all or did they seem to stay in place pretty well for you?

DiscipleN2k said:
I've been keeping an eye on these since they were announced, trying to decide whether or not to they'll work for me. They seem like they'd be great for jogging, where it's important to still be able to hear the traffic around you, but they look like they might bounce around a bit and need constant readjusting. Did you notice this at all or did they seem to stay in place pretty well for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tension band does a good job keeping them on. The whole ergonomics of the design and how it wraps around your head makes sure it will not bounce. It worked for me and shaped of my head, although I had to pull tension band to the maximum stretch since I don't have a big head. What I would honestly recommend, order them from amazon and see how it works for you. Sounds like functionally these will fit your needs, but fit could be different for different people, and with amazon hassle free return - you have less headache. These headphones are designed for exercising and active lifestyle, thus lightweight, sweat proof, and easily accessible controls. But if it won't fit your head, the bouncing will be annoying because it will affect the sound since high frequency content comes from "speaker" rather then bone conduction (according to my test results). Bottom line, for me it works but I don't have "universal" head shape

OK, cool. I'll have to go ahead and give them a try. Thanks for the reply!

Thinking of getting these to listen to audio books on my cycle to work. Would you still recommend them?

cool2bdave said:
Thinking of getting these to listen to audio books on my cycle to work. Would you still recommend them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For audio books, absolutely. If you want to hear high quality sound - not. But to hear recorded speech while being fully aware of everything around - it will definitely work. And as I always say, if it doesn't - you can return it

vectron said:
For audio books, absolutely. If you want to hear high quality sound - not. But to hear recorded speech while being fully aware of everything around - it will definitely work. And as I always say, if it doesn't - you can return it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback. Now to find a decent price.

Water proof
vectron said:
As stated by manufacture, these are water resistant and sweat proof, backed up by 2 year warranty, and you can clearly see that from a solid design.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are they in fact?
Because here I found quite a different statement: Please Google "AFTERSHOKZ BLUEZ: A RATHER BADLY DESIGNED PRODUCT" (since I can't post links here yet)

eugrus said:
Are they in fact?
Because here I found quite a different statement: Please Google "AFTERSHOKZ BLUEZ: A RATHER BADLY DESIGNED PRODUCT" (since I can't post links here yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you push it hard, anything breaks Every company has defective units, and even the best waterproof headphones break after a week of extreme training. Don't have these anymore, but by memory remember it was sealed really well for moderate use.

Atomic Floyd SuperDarts Review

Pros: Deep, deep bass. Very crisp highs. V-shape sound body is ideal for baseheads.
Cons: Slightly cold mids. Not too great for vocals/instruments. Rather small soundstage.
Atomic Floyd are a relatively small British based company that not many people have heard of. They continue to sell their products through as few authorised dealers as they feel necessary which means that the £200 price rage for these is pretty much what you're going to have to pay if you want to have your socks blown off by these little gems.
First Impressions:
As I opened the parcel that the earphones came in, there was an essence of premium quality. The box has been finished with a matt texture and a rather shiny picture of the earphones themselves led me to believe these were worth every penny. When i first popped the earphones out of the rather premium box, I plugged them straight into the nearest source of music I could to test them. However, initial impressions weren't fantastic. The bass wasn't very deep, the treble was harsh and the mids just lacked warmth.
A plethora of different striking statements were made around the box. Things like 'Spectacular Sound - Made in metal' and 'Steel. Kevlar. GOLD.' really created an air of drama about the whole process.
The display on the product itself is brilliant. The earphones also come with a small rubber carrying case, 3 different size buds and a DJ adapter. I found the silicon tips to be a little subjective when it came to fitting correctly and I couldn't find the right size for me so I had to look elsewhere for the right fit.
WOW:
However after about 30 hours of burn in using white noise, the difference was immense. The bass was ground shakingly deep and powerful, the highs were twinkling with every note and the mids started to warm up a bit. I mainly listen to Electro/Dance and these earphones suited them perfectly. The lows were not sluggish or muddy at all and when it was called upon, fast and dynamic bass was delivered.
However I do listen to a few other genres as well, such as classical and guitar oriented music and sadly, this is where the Superdarts fall down. They just didn't give me the sense that I was actually listening to the artist himself/herself in the same room. The way that the SuperDarts were built means that they just weren't made for reproducing beautifully warm mids. Having said that, it is clear that Atomic Floyd were not going in that direction when they made these and therefore it cannot be too much of a criticism.
Build Quality:
As it says on the box, they were 'Built For Life'. The SuperDarts really are something of a masterpiece when it comes to earphone beauty and robustness. They apply '1300°C heat to injection-moulded steel for 10 hours so thinner walls can be carved out, resulting in an enlarged acoustic chamber.' Its this sort of level of detail that makes these earphones really special. They have also incorporated a kevlar cable that works really well when it comes to being tangle free and also feels very sturdy. The 3.5mm jack is gold plated which ensures that no feedback can be heard when listening to even the quietest of tracks.
Comfort:
Being crafted from steel and premium materials, these earphones do weigh quite a bit and can become quite uncomfortable after prolonged periods of time. If you have rather small ears, you might want to look elsewhere as the rounded earphones are rather hefty. It also has an inline mic which does work rather well with the volume and track controls.
Comparisons:
In the past, I have owned: Bowers and Wilkins C5, Sennheiser IE8
But I have also sampled many other earphones.
Bass:
With regards to bass, I would say that the SuperDarts win hands down. It just reaches deeper than other earphones that I have heard previously and it does this while delivering it crisply and powerfully. Compared to the likes of Shure SE535, this is on another level when it comes to bass. However, the C5 and the IE8 aren't too far behind.
Mids:
As I said previously, this is where the SuperDarts fall short of my expectations. The deliverance of the mid range frequencies from the SuperDarts is rather feeble and there just isn't much warmth at all. The soundstage is also quite small as the earphones are rather 'Forward' when it comes to delivering the music to your ear canals. This is where the likes of Shure and Westone absolutely trounce Atomic Floyd, along with the IE8 or IE80's. If you predominantly enjoy listening to vocal tracks with a lot of acoustic instruments, you will be disappointed with the SuperDarts.
Highs:
The SuperDarts perform rather well when it comes to the higher end of the frequency chart as the internal sound setup within the earphones slightly boosts the highs and the lows. The crash of a cymbal will ring in your ears with a certain sparkle that, whilst not being too harsh, gives an amazing amount of detail. As stated earlier, the SuperDarts are probably not for the dedicated audiophile as they just do not live up to the standards of other IEM's and they might not be able to reproduce everything the artist intended you to hear. They're not awful in this respect and I must admit that I was hearing a few new things in my favourite tracks.
Overall:
If you have ever heard a pair of SuperDarts then you probably know what I am talking about when I say they will rattle your skull. The bass response from these things is almost unrivalled. I purchased my pair for £200 and in all fairness, i think they are worth that. The overall sound quality is pretty good and for genres like Electro/Dance, i would go as far as saying that these are THE headphones if that is your taste. They really do please the inner basehead in me, I'm just not sure whether the slightly cold mids and forward highs will be to everyone's taste.

Good review, mate! Truly head-fi worthy write up
Here, on this side of the pond, Atomic Floyd is not as big name. B&W is popular, and I actually reviewed P7 and P3 (check out my index from sig). Though these sounds like not my cup of tea, I'm trying to distance myself from v-shaped sound since I gotta have my vocals clarity. Balanced or a bit mid-centric is fine, as long as it not too much upfront/analytical.
I assume you can't post picture in your review because you don't have enough posts yet? Would be good to see some shots.
I went ahead googling it, and found pictures from T3 review:
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To be honest, I'm a bit confused with this design. I assume that's the one you have/reviewed? The back of the shell has some rough edges; if those come in contact with ears - that's not going to be fun. Not to the same extent, but I recently reviewed a pair of cheap Chinese earphones: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2690229 (honestly, not that great), and that diamond cut was really bothering me. How is it with SuperDarts?
The biggest concern is where/how the wire comes us. It's very non-traditional, looks like absolutely no strain relief, and feels like that wire will break any minute. I know the kevlar reinforced cable probably strong enough, but my concern is the attachment in the back of the shell?

Review of B&W T7 HiFi Bluetooth wireless speaker w/lots of pics!!!

This is a review of B&W T7 HiFi wireless Bluetooth portable speaker. http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Wireless-Speakers/Bluetooth-Speakers/T7 , also available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bowers-Wilkins-T7-Portable-Bluetooth/dp/B00OLE9606/
Everywhere you look you see wireless speakers. A number of them are budget BT speakers intended to enhance functionality of your smartphone with a louder external speakerphone and general sound boost in comparison to built in speaker. Then you have a handful of mid-fi speakers with an improved sound quality, but still lacking a full body sound or loudness in comparison to wired speakers. When it comes to a quality hi-fi wireless Bluetooth speakers - the choices narrow down significantly while the prices go up in the opposite direction. For the last week I was fortunate to get a chance to test B&W new entry into Bluetooth portable speakers pool, their HiFi T7 model. Here is what I found.
B&W doesn't need any special introduction, this legendary UK company has been around for many decades and made their name known designing and manufacturing some of the best HiFi loudspeakers. Their venture into headphone world was equally successful with likes of P- and C-series models that feature both excellent sound performance and exquisite design. They also scaled down their design to portable speaker models, but limited to Apple users due to a support of AirPlay only protocol. Finally, they decided to expand their product portfolio with universal Bluetooth wireless support, featured in their latest T7 model.
I always find unboxing of any B&W product to be a very satisfying experience where you know from a get-go this is a premium product. Except in this case the first thing I noticed was a WEIGHT!!! Being used to lightweight speakers, T7 was quite noticeable in your hand at 2 pounds, yet still very compact with dimensions of about 8.5" x 4.5" x 2". Though some might find extra weight as a negative impression, I was pleased about it knowing it got hefty driver guts! The next impression was about a unique combination of its premium design with metal grills and honeycomb dampening frame and... rugged rubber material covering its top/bottom and sides. Such design combo works quite well together considering this is an upright standing speaker where you get a chance to enjoy artwork of front and rear panel presentation, while rubber seal around it prevents speaker from sliding around, leaves all the control buttons covered for protection, and also makes these buttons shaped and easy to identify by a touch without actually looking at it.
Starting with a top, you have a dedicated -/+ volume buttons where you can adjust the volume with a single click at a time or hold it down for a faster change. Next, you have Play/Pause button to control the playback with a single click, and a hidden gem of double clicking it to skip to the next track. Also you have a bluetooth pair up button with an adjacent blue status LED. Every button requires a little bit of force to push it so there is no accidental tapping. Pair up was effortless, and it connected to media audio right away. I tested wireless connection to operate without a problem at a distance of 45 feet in open space. When you turn the speaker on you get a very pleasant audio chime tone, and you also have a specific tone once pair up is complete. Since this speaker doesn't support speakerphone protocol, you can't pick up your calls from it. Also, if your phone supports aptX codec, T7 will take a full advantage of its reduced audio compression to preserve quality of the original audio source.
On a side you have a power button with 5-led indicator of battery status. Once you turn T7 on by long pressing power button, the corresponding amount of LEDs will lit up for a few seconds, and later you can check the battery status by a short single press on this power button. And speaking of power, the only included accessory was a proprietary AC wall power adapter which came bundled with different international tips. Proprietary connector is not very convenient, especially when you are traveling and can't rely on universal micro-usb cable. But considering T7 battery endurance of a whooping 18 hours, in this case a wall adapter means a faster charging time and battery longevity to keep you unplugged for a very long time. Besides, in my opinion this is not exactly an outdoor rugged speaker you would take with you on a camping trip expecting to be away from a power supply for an extended period. The power plug connector goes in the back of T7 and has a tight fitting to keep it from being accidentally unplugged while charging. Next to the power connector you have 3.5mm AUX input to connect an external wired source, a micro usb port for Service (assuming future firmware updates), and a reboot pinhole to reset BT connection and clear everything to defaults. I was a bit surprised 3.5mm male to male audio cable and micro-usb cable was not provided with accessories. Though micro usb cable is very common and every household probably has a dozen of these already, not everybody has 3.5mm audio cable.
Looking at the design from an audio perspective, T7 features two 50mm front facing speakers and dual force-canceling bass radiators. When you look closer at the grill, you can clearly see the outline of forward firing drivers on each side of a front bass radiator and another bass radiator on the back. A close attention was paid to housing of each driver, mounted in a rigid steel basket to make sure vibration is kept down to a minimum. That was also a main principle behind honeycomb frame which provides extra dampening while suspending heavy drivers in the enclosure. Even at the max volume, there was zero vibration on the surface where I had T7 sitting on. According to B&W, there is also a built in DSP and audio quality D/A converter. I assume Service port access is for any future firmware updates related to optimization and improvement of DSP performance. Overall the construction felt very solid and well build with a quality which can justify premium price. But it will only remain a 2 lb eyecandy brick if there is no sound quality to back it up!
So how does it sounds? It has a sound signature you would expect from a wired speaker designed by B&W! The sound has full warm body, deep rich bass, and slightly recessed mids. Low end has a deep extension with a powerful sub-bass and rounded mid-bass with a bit of spillage into lower mids. Other than that, bass was well controlled and even at the max volume level didn't distort or sounded muddy. Mids are detailed and smooth, warm, though do lack some clarity. Treble is also very smooth and non-fatigue with a bit of roll off. For some people who will jump in with premature conclusions, you have to realize these are warm tuned speakers with a very unique sound signature. As a matter of fact, I compared it playing the same tracks both wireless from my Note 4 and wired (through AUX port) from FiiO X5 - and found the sound to be literally unchanged which is quite remarkable. I do have to admit this sound sig had a big contrast to a lot of other thin bright one dimensional sounding speakers I tested in the past. Also, I noticed that position of the speaker will play a significant role in perception of the sound. When I placed it down on the floor, I wasn't able to hear details of upper mids/treble content. Not until I placed it up on the table or higher on a bookshelf, I was able to really appreciate the rich content of the full sound spectrum. It was very interesting to see how these were designed and tuned similar to a regular wired speaker that requires a proper positioning in order to get full benefit of its potentials!
We all have different taste and different perception of sound. Until now, my favorite BT wireless speaker was UE Boom, but I was never satisfied with its bass. T7 really fulfills that gap and also makes you realize how thinner Boom sounds in comparison. Also, in comparison to a similar models of Braven 855 and Bose SoundLink, I found Braven to have more distortion and sounding dull while SoundLink (also a highly regarded speaker) to have a muddy low end and not being able to reach the same loudness level. Other cheap speakers have more focus on high frequencies while leaving bass sounding hollow and thumping, instead of a meaty deep bass of T7. Another interesting observation, I found T7 to be highly responsive to EQ where you can tame down the bass and boost highs for more clarity. With other speakers, no matter how much you boost low frequencies, they simply can't physically reproduce it or they add sound artifacts with Eq boost.
Overall, the final sound analysis always depends on a type of music you are listening to, the environment where you are listening at (acoustics of the room plays important factor), and your phone source (aptX support helps significantly with a reduction of sound compression affecting low and high frequency extension). So my advice, look at reviews as a guidance to narrow down your choices, and still try to find a time to audition and to compare. I found B&W T7 to satisfy my bass craving and to make me feel like I was listening to a hifi wired speaker, something I haven't experienced with any of my other wireless speakers. My only wish for B&W is to take this portable wireless speaker experience and to extend it into their P7 series of headphones!
Here are the pictures.
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Sounds good! Love this post! very informative.:good:

Speakerphone (loudness, clarity)

Proper etiquette aside (hint: don't use speakerphone while doing your "business" in a public bathroom), rate this thread to express how you think the OnePlus 3's speakerphone performs. A higher rating indicates that you love it: it's loud and it's clear.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

hello guys..i know this off topic..but can anyone compare the vabiration of this op3 to any samsung device..
is the strength is the same or lower.
is the type of vibration is the same ...by the type i mean somthing u can feel it specially when u write with the keybord

If you are coming from a 6P, you will be greatly disappointed with the OP3 speakers, and maybe most phones that do not have front facing/dual speakers. OP3 are fairly weak, but gets the job done as long as there arent much background noise, otherwise you might have a hard time listening to whatever you are playing.

How is it? Is it loud? Is it crispy?

since this thread is about speakerPHONE, I'll comment. From a volume perspective it isn't quite as loud as my Nexus 6. However the N6 speakerphone sounds like garbage...tinny and raspy. The OP3 sounds much more refined and voices are overall much easier to understand.

I found the speakers very weak in max sound and to loud in min sound. For example, in my previous smartphone, i could see a video with min sound in a room without other noises and others just listen a bit. Now, all can hear very well even in min sound. And if others are sleeping, is boring. With max sound in Street, with normal city noises, is very difficult to hear

thebiggboss180 said:
hello guys..i know this off topic..but can anyone compare the vabiration of this op3 to any samsung device..
is the strength is the same or lower.
is the type of vibration is the same ...by the type i mean somthing u can feel it specially when u write with the keybord
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
remydlc said:
If you are coming from a 6P, you will be greatly disappointed with the OP3 speakers, and maybe most phones that do not have front facing/dual speakers. OP3 are fairly weak, but gets the job done as long as there arent much background noise, otherwise you might have a hard time listening to whatever you are playing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Delgadovsky said:
I found the speakers very weak in max sound and to loud in min sound. For example, in my previous smartphone, i could see a video with min sound in a room without other noises and others just listen a bit. Now, all can hear very well even in min sound. And if others are sleeping, is boring. With max sound in Street, with normal city noises, is very difficult to hear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All off-topic. This thread is about speakerphone for calls.

I find that the speaker for calls is on the low side imo. I have placed a couple calls on speaker while at home where its pretty quiet, and had to turn the speaker all the way up for it to be "loud enough". If I were out in public or somewhere where there was more ambient noise, I feel like I'd have trouble making out the conversation.

The speakers are OK but I hope next phone stereo or on an other place.
Gesendet von meinem ONEPLUS A3003 mit Tapatalk

Weak sound from the earpiece
XDA_RealLifeReview said:
Proper etiquette aside (hint: don't use speakerphone while doing your "business" in a public bathroom), rate this thread to express how you think the OnePlus 3's speakerphone performs. A higher rating indicates that you love it: it's loud and it's clear.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi all,
Your expert advise required. I purchased my one plus 3 yesterday. I just love the phone. But I noticed that the volume coming from the earpiece is not that loud. Even I have kept the volume to max, but still its not that loud. Also if I am in a crowded place, I can't hear a damn thing what other person is speaking . For ex , yesterday I was travelling in BMTC bus and when my friend called I couldn't hear anything clearly, his voice was very very faint. In a quiet room it's okay, but outsides I have to press my phone very close and hard to my ear so that I hear everything right.
I am switching from moto g2. I my moto, the earpiece sound was crazy, just spike the sounds to more than 50%, the voice of the caller will be deafening and the whole world can listen to your conversation.
Please suggest if anyone else noticed or has faced it recently.
Many thanks !!

Just got my Oneplus 3 Soft Gold. The down-firing speaker isn't as loud as my G4 but the sound is clearer and it doesn't distort. It gets the job done for me as I don't use them so much. I mustly consume media through earphones and there it is very nice and loud.

Better / Louder speakers than Redmi Note 3 amd Redmi Note 4G
Hi,
I have used Redmi Note 4G and 3 in past and have recently got this OnePlus 3. While watching Youtube and other videos I have found that the loudness and clarity are definitely better in this phone.
But it more than twice costly as well.
Not sure about the other brands though.

Speakerphone works perfectly; absolutely no complaints on that count. In normal conditions, can carry on your conversation or even con-call (2 to 3 people in the room/office, speakerphone on) quite comfortably. You do not need to lean in to the phone to hear what is said at the other end. The speakerphone is indeed quite satisfactory.

Hi..I am also struggling with low sound volume through the earpiece during calls. Is it possible to increase it beyond what is possible through volume up/down buttons?

Quality and loudness it´s preety god, but the ubication is horrible. It would be great to have front speaker like Moto G4. But in general is really good (compared with iPhone 6s and S7)

ashpdy said:
Hi all,
Your expert advise required. I purchased my one plus 3 yesterday. I just love the phone. But I noticed that the volume coming from the earpiece is not that loud. Even I have kept the volume to max, but still its not that loud. Also if I am in a crowded place, I can't hear a damn thing what other person is speaking . For ex , yesterday I was travelling in BMTC bus and when my friend called I couldn't hear anything clearly, his voice was very very faint. In a quiet room it's okay, but outsides I have to press my phone very close and hard to my ear so that I hear everything right.
I am switching from moto g2. I my moto, the earpiece sound was crazy, just spike the sounds to more than 50%, the voice of the caller will be deafening and the whole world can listen to your conversation.
Please suggest if anyone else noticed or has faced it recently.
Many thanks !!
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Hey, Did you able to fix it? low volume on earpiece ? I also facing this issue and I ordered a new earpiece online. waiting till it deliver. This happened me after 2 months of purchase. previously it was OK somewhat.

Have you guys tried any sound mods? I've used divinebeats on MM/3.X.X and CM13/14 and it made the speaker go nuts in a wonderful way. I can't get it to work on N/4.X.X and haven't tried lineage yet.
There's also this in francos kernel updater app:
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Speaker is decent not great but decent and its loud enough

Can not change anything in the root directory for example in the "ROOT / System / ETC / mixer_paths_tasha.xml" to increase the sound?

Guys the solution is the simplest one
i cleaned the earpiece's grill (after you remove your earpiece there will be probably a black layer of Speaker Cloth remove that too and then you will see the grill ) , it had a thick layer of dust in it , i used some alcohol an old toothbrush a little force at the grill and after i removed all the dust i putted the old earpiece and the cloth back in I reassembled the phone and volume was like new ....

Question P6P Stereo Sound?

I'm only getting sound out of the R/H speaker. I've tested the speakers with an online website that fades the sounds from left to right and all the sounds come out of the R/H speaker like it's mono (L/H channel sound comes out the R/H side). It's like the L/H side is muted, anyone else experiencing this?

Same for me too on p6p not sure what's going on

Same p6p

Just found this, I guess it's normal. The L/H "speaker" is actually a microphone. Number 14 is the mic, I don't know why the descriptions didn't show up.
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Link to source: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/7157629?hl=en#zippy=,pixel-pro,pixel
SIM card tray
Top speaker
Top microphone
Front-facing camera
Power button
Volume up/down button
Fingerprint sensor
Rear-facing camera
Tele camera
LED flash
NFC
Bottom speaker
USB-C port
Bottom microphone

I would think that the best way to get stereo would be to use top and bottom speakers rather than two that would be right next to each other.

Mine seems to have stereo set up, tested a stereo YouTube clip and sound does come out of the top speaker. The bottom firing speaker is louder and I have adjusted in the settings to try and balance it out.

Another thing for people to ***** and moan about

Gulfstream 650 said:
I'm only getting sound out of the R/H speaker. I've tested the speakers with an online website that fades the sounds from left to right and all the sounds come out of the R/H speaker like it's mono (L/H channel sound comes out the R/H side). It's like the L/H side is muted, anyone else experiencing this?
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while its a long shot, make sure you dont have mono sound turned on in accessibility and/or that the slider there is not adjusted to one side. settings > accessibility > audio adjustment.
short of that or a hardware defect, stereo sound on pixels is pretty bad as the lower speaker is a great deal louder than the upper (earpiece) speaker. it has been a somewhat widely reported issue.

wilpang said:
Mine seems to have stereo set up, tested a stereo YouTube clip and sound does come out of the top speaker. The bottom firing speaker is louder and I have adjusted in the settings to try and balance it out.
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Be careful when adjusting the L&R balance. I managed to blow the weaker top speaker on my pixel 4xl.

86rickard said:
Be careful when adjusting the L&R balance. I managed to blow the weaker top speaker on my pixel 4xl.
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Nice of them to match the speaker to the DAC output limits.

86rickard said:
Be careful when adjusting the L&R balance. I managed to blow the weaker top speaker on my pixel 4xl.
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Not gone crazy with the adjustment just moved it a smidgen to the left!

Most pixel phones were crap for this, Pixel 5 launched adaptive sound to balance these and adjust to surrounding. sound and vibration in settings, then enable adaptive sound, this option is supposed to balance the two speakers more to give closer stereo sound. I can definately hear a difference when using it.

To clarify for those asking: the stereo speakers aren't both placed at the bottom. One of the bottom grilles houses the bottom speaker, the other houses the microphone.
The second speaker is found in the earpiece.
To my vast surprise, the earpiece speaker seems to be amplified and delivers much richer sound. I tested the speakers with L/R music and was surprised to see that the low-end and midrange is actually tied to the earpiece, not the bottom speaker!
That is in dire contrast to what one would think, especially considering the fact that sound balance seems to be shifted towards the bottom firing speaker, something which DXOMark also confirmed in their audio review. But the earpiece just sounds better when it's playing on its own.
The speakers sound their best at around 60-70% volume. That is when you get the most low and midrange with balanced highs. The higher volumes just turn up the highs and drowns the bass and the low volumes don't really have bass.
As has been said previously - adaptive sound is a worthwhile feature to enable. The difference is noticable.
It's a decent set of speakers, and in some scenarios they play better than iPhones - especially at that 60-70% volume. But they shine in such narrow conditions that it's difficult to praise them wider.