I bought my Tab S 10.5 primarily for multimedia consumption on the go. I love the screen and nearly everything about this tablet, including the default software suite. However, from day one I discovered that there is an issue with sound volume. It's too low. I don't mean that I need the sound to blast my ears like I want to lose my hearing. The issue is with many videos and services that were recorded intentionally or unintentionally at a relatively low volume. And so when I play those few youtube or netflix videos, I really need to strain my ears in a noisy environment to hear anything.
Anyways, for me, the sound is the number one problem. Considering the 19:10 screen, this tablet was obviously meant for media consumption. In the light of that, it's truly perplexing that the stock OS has such lousy volume level control. Please let me know the best course of action. Should I try just some tweaking under after rooting, a custom kernel, or an entire ROM replacement distribution?
Thanks.
Wrong thread
Well, I have made some progress on this problem, and fortunately without replacing the stock ROM. I rooted the device with the Autoroot ROM for T800 posted on this board. After that, it turns out that the gain settings are in a plain text file in /system/etc/default_gain.conf. I changed the two lines that said:
{ "HPOUT1 Digital Volume", 121 },
to
{ "HPOUT1 Digital Volume", 161 },
both apparently under "Headphone" and "Headset out" sections near the top of this huge file. I used the ES File Manager's "root explorer" mode to do this. After that, I had no issues with the sound output level. In fact, on my first attempt, I used something like 191, but it made a lot of default sounds way too loud and it also made it possible to crank the volume level even in "quiet" youtube and netflix videos towards quite uncomfortable levels.
I am glad I could get away without replacing the entire ROM, because besides this issue and the time synchronization (also fixed with rooting and 3rd party app), I am mostly happy with the way the stock ROM works.
Wrong thread
hello this is unfortunately digital levels only and it does not adjusts gains of the hardware. Though it helps it produces distortion / bad quality in higher levels. I'm curios if the sound driver is possible to hack.
Related
There have been a few threads about static, clicks, pops, etc... but nothing that really helped me figure out if i'm having a problem or not.
I have a stock GS3, purchased relatively early - 7/2 - from best buy.
I'm not happy with the audio playback quality, specifically when compared to other devices, like my iPod or old iPhone 4 that i had before this.
Either using the stock Samsung app, or using PowerAmp, which I've purchased... with all file formats... mostly FLAC, but also m4a, mp3...
Using any of the headphones i've tried... beyer dt1350, ety hf2, apple in-ear, etc... (not junk)...
The sound quality of music playback just doesn't seem "clear" to me... not any really blatantly loud static or distortion, although sometimes it is worse than others... occasional clicks, pops, etc. But mostly, just a lack of clarity... which could possibly be a constant mild static or distortion on the output.
Is anyone else experiencing it this way? Am i just being to sensitive to a different sound signature of this device vs apple's devices? I don't think so.
I'm 100% comfortable with the quality and integrity of my music files... i have a ton of them, and they play back fine on all of my other devices.
What else could it be, before i have to send it back to samsung and be w/o a phone for a week? best buy already won't exchange it for me, as i'm beyond my 30 day window.
help!
I know exactly what you mean, I'm very particular about my sound signature as well. I find using an equalizer to work wonders. But i have noticed that some equalizers dont work at all will the stock rom when listening to on device music with Google Play Music.
Have you tried using an equalizer or even installing Awesome Beats?
This is a development forum for custom OS and software... If you're completely stock, maybe you should take that up with Samsung or try some of the nice modded software...
So, posting here was a last resort, but I've exhausted all my other options. I'll try to make this as concise as possible:
I just did a bluetooth/aux input retrofit for my car so I can stop using CDs for music. Aux sounds crystal clear, bluetooth with my 2nd generation iPod touch sounds crystal clear, bluetooth with my Optimus G Pro has static, crackling at certain frequencies. Doesn't sound compressed necessarily, just crackly.
What I've done:
1) Hard reset.
2) Tried both the original 4.1.2 and the new "value pack" update.
3) Actually sent my phone back to AT&T and got a refurbished one in the mail.
4) Sent my bluetooth retrofit unit back and got a new one in the mail.
5) Rooted the phone, installed freegee and twrp, and flashed the hkfriends kernel.
None of this fixed my issues. When playing the same exact song on my iPod and Android phone, the iPod wins every time.
P.S. My friend's Verizon phone (I think it's a Motorola Razr) has the same sound quality issues. Not sure of Android version, though.
Music is the absolute most important thing for me, and if I can't get this resolved I will have to switch back to Windows Phone/iPhone, despite how much I love Android. I have no knowledge or time to develop a new Rom for the G Pro and there's no telling when we'll get one that could fix my issues.
Is anyone else having these problems, or does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!
For some reason my phone decided to play music using "Phone Audio". I disabled phone audio for the device in bluetooth setting, then it connected as an AV signal, and quality improved drastically.
khenault said:
For some reason my phone decided to play music using "Phone Audio". I disabled phone audio for the device in bluetooth setting, then it connected as an AV signal, and quality improved drastically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. Just tried it, unfortunately did not seem to make any noticeable difference for me. To clarify, the sound quality is fine for the most part, it's just at certain frequencies I hear crackling.
By the way, earlier I also edited the audio.conf file under /system/etc/bluetooth and changed the values of "SBCSources=1" and "MPEG12Sources=0" to 0 and 1 respectively, which I read should force better quality out of bluetooth. Additionally I changed the value "Master=false" to true, which I also read could improve quality. It might be my mind playing tricks on me but it does seem to sound better, however I still hear the crackling at times, so I'm definitely not where I want to be.
Highly disappointing. Any other suggestions?
Which music player are you using on your phone? And have you tried any of the equalizer apps from the market?
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda premium
I've tried both the Music app that LG includes, and Google's Play Music app, which I prefer. No difference. Have not tried any equalizers, but not quite sure what that would do aside from eliminating the frequencies that have issues through bluetooth but work fine through an aux input? I don't consider butchering the music as an acceptable solution, unfortunately.
try this, it might help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=51930699
Does this help with volume output?
russilker said:
Thanks for the suggestion. Just tried it, unfortunately did not seem to make any noticeable difference for me. To clarify, the sound quality is fine for the most part, it's just at certain frequencies I hear crackling.
By the way, earlier I also edited the audio.conf file under /system/etc/bluetooth and changed the values of "SBCSources=1" and "MPEG12Sources=0" to 0 and 1 respectively, which I read should force better quality out of bluetooth. Additionally I changed the value "Master=false" to true, which I also read could improve quality. It might be my mind playing tricks on me but it does seem to sound better, however I still hear the crackling at times, so I'm definitely not where I want to be.
Highly disappointing. Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity - how did you find out editing the audio.conf file? I'm looking for a way to boost the output volume for my bluetooth, did a quick search and saw your post and it made me curious...
Will this change boost the output volume at all or is there a separate line or file to be edited?
Thanks for your help.
Hi,
most of the time, I'm using my phone for listening to music, and since I own Galaxy S4 Mini (GT-I9195), I'm thinking about throwing my 320€ worth smartphone in trash. Mostly I'm listening to rock music where basses are very important. When I was using stock firmware, everytime I increased the bass level, the music volume diminished. It came so far, that when I was traveling from work to home by bus, I could hear what people around me were talking to, even though my volume level was on 100%. Then I somehow increased the volume of my phone (I found a thread how to do that here on xda), but then the next problem became annoying. Almost every time I skipped the song, the equalizer settings went back to default. So every time i had to press menu button --> settings --> equalizer, and then basses went back to normal. Sometimes equalizer doesn't work at all, until I reboot my phone.
So I tried with Cyanogenmod today, and I'm even more disappointed with music quality. Every time I try to turn on bass boost, the music starts to crackle, even though bass level is only on slight. I'm using 120€ worth Sony headphones, which work great on any other device, so the problem definitely isn't in headphones.
Does anyone deal with the same problem? I just don't know what to do anymore ...
Thanks in advance & sorry for bad English.
m_010411 said:
Hi,
most of the time, I'm using my phone for listening to music, and since I own Galaxy S4 Mini (GT-I9195), I'm thinking about throwing my 320€ worth smartphone in trash. Mostly I'm listening to rock music where basses are very important. When I was using stock firmware, everytime I increased the bass level, the music volume diminished. It came so far, that when I was traveling from work to home by bus, I could hear what people around me were talking to, even though my volume level was on 100%. Then I somehow increased the volume of my phone (I found a thread how to do that here on xda), but then the next problem became annoying. Almost every time I skipped the song, the equalizer settings went back to default. So every time i had to press menu button --> settings --> equalizer, and then basses went back to normal. Sometimes equalizer doesn't work at all, until I reboot my phone.
So I tried with Cyanogenmod today, and I'm even more disappointed with music quality. Every time I try to turn on bass boost, the music starts to crackle, even though bass level is only on slight. I'm using 120€ worth Sony headphones, which work great on any other device, so the problem definitely isn't in headphones.
Does anyone deal with the same problem? I just don't know what to do anymore ...
Thanks in advance & sorry for bad English.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello there.
First off, if you are going to throw S4 mini into trash, you can instead send it to me and I'll pay for the delivery, as I simply love the phone.
Secondly, I think the problem is you and not the phone. I have S4 mini and I love listening to music. As anyone who loves music (proffesionaly or unproffesionaly) knows, basses ARE NOT THE ONLY (and most) important thing, even in rock music. And as far as basses goes S4 mini does a very good job, as it does in other spectrums of music playback. The volume decreases a bit if you set it to bass, because the equalizer decreases the treble value, thus you get the perception of decreased laudnes. Although I would recommend you get your hearing checked, as the laudness of S4 mini seems to be laud enough for others.
If you really like to listen to high quality music and are a true audiophile, than you wouln't be listening to the music on S4 mini on the first place, but would go for a high quality professional grade mp3 (or FLAC) player with an external amplifier.
Therefore I conclude that you are just a bass freak who wants to complain, but please feel free to prove me wrong.
My opinion and advice may not matter since I don't own a s4 mini (would love to have it)
But did you tried sound alive from Samsung?
Just increase the bass and some clarity then reverb and room size (if you like) then the bass is on a good level, wanting more bass than that would only get in the way of the guitars part!!
Or try viper4android if you're on a desperate situation...
Can I ask something here?? Is the smart volume feature any good??
@Shiningb
Firstly, thanks for your answer. I realized that everything works perfectly with stock Samsung Music app (which doesn't use build-in equalizer, but uses it's own one). The quality of sound is really great.
Only problem is that I prefer Google Play Music which is much clearer, easyer to navigate and overall has nicer interface. But there I deal with equalizer problem; the sound is great at the moment, the equalizer is set the way I want, basses are great, but then suddenly (without particual reason) equalizer just goes flat and the volume increases for about 30% rapidly which is a great way to go deaf. Then I have to restart equalizer app, and it starts working normally again for about next 10 minutes. Until I won't find the solution, I have to use stock music app, ok, i can get along with this
I googled about the issue and I found that it is quite common with S4 users. I heard about ViPER4Android today, and I'm going to try it right now, thaniks for your advice !
And sorry, I don't know if smart volume feature works good, I use mp3gain app on my PC which equalizes volumes of all tracks on the same level and works perfectly.
m_010411 said:
@Shiningb
Firstly, thanks for your answer. I realized that everything works perfectly with stock Samsung Music app (which doesn't use build-in equalizer, but uses it's own one). The quality of sound is really great.
Only problem is that I prefer Google Play Music which is much clearer, easyer to navigate and overall has nicer interface. But there I deal with equalizer problem; the sound is great at the moment, the equalizer is set the way I want, basses are great, but then suddenly (without particual reason) equalizer just goes flat and the volume increases for about 30% rapidly which is a great way to go deaf. Then I have to restart equalizer app, and it starts working normally again for about next 10 minutes. Until I won't find the solution, I have to use stock music app, ok, i can get along with this
I googled about the issue and I found that it is quite common with S4 users. I heard about ViPER4Android today, and I'm going to try it right now, thaniks for your advice !
And sorry, I don't know if smart volume feature works good, I use mp3gain app on my PC which equalizes volumes of all tracks on the same level and works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happens with equalizer because the system kills it from the ram
So a great solution is to use viper...
But you need root and put the apk of viper into system/app set permissions to rw-r-r
Like this it won't be killed, because it will make part of the system app
By the way what kind of music do you hear??
I'm a sound freak with viper, I tunr things like crazy until I reach the perfect sound (for a time!)
I really wanted to know how the smart volume works since the I9070 won't have a official 4.2.2 update :'(
Thanks for fast answer.
I installed ViPER4Android, but everything I try to change, doesn't have any effect on sound. I don't know what is wrong ...
Could you help me with Viper? I know how to put a file in system/app and set permissions.
My phone is rooted I'm using CWM and stock android from Samsung.
My favorite artists are 30 Seconds to Mars, Billy Idol, Bring me the Horizon, Foo Fighters, HIM, Kings of Leon, Oasis, RHCP, etc.
Sry, probably really won't. I owned I9000 before I9195 and it was the best phone i ever had, even better with Cyanogenmod
Apologies for the cross post, if you read the 6p forums you may have already seen this.
I use Chromecast audio for my home radio, it's a whole house intercom with a pretty mediocre amplifier.
When I cast via Google music it works great, but most apps don't support Chromecast audio, so I cast the whole phone via the quick settings tile.
On occasion this works well, but almost always the audio level is obnoxiously low, any good tips on boosting this? I'm currently unlocked but not rooted and running stock. I'll root for a solid fix, but would prefer not to.
If you root, AirAudio allows you to send any audio to any "cast" device. Demo is free, but has a time limit. You can adjust output volumes inside the app, but you can't over amplify (no positive gain, just max volume. I've not had many issues with it, as as far as I know, the volume at the phone and at the chromecast seem to be the same. (so if you have a mp3 at very low levels on the phone, it'll be low level at the device, too.)
Hello
I own a Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 phone. My main purpose of using a smartphone is recording band rehearsals and some parts of live metal shows - that is in very, very loud environment. I have always had RIP Windows Phones and recording literally any loudness produced clean, non-distorted sound which could be then listened to without any problems. Even using lower-end Lumia 635.
As Windows Phone is dead, I was forced to switch to Android and I am extremely disappointed of Samsung's audio recording quality. For now - listening to recorded rehearsal is just impossible - recorded audio is one big distortion and - literally - I cannot figure out any single musical note or song I recorded. It is just impossible to hear anything.
I am a software developer and I do write Android applications, but after deep research - there is no any API for reducing microphone gain on system level, so I went further and found this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/development/how-to-microphone-gain-increase-s5-t3190613
Reducing gain by this method is proven to work somewhere on youtube, but this method requires a root and I do not want to root my phone.
Does anyone of you know any methods, APIs, SDKs, undocumented manifest permissions, anything, that could allow access and modify file system/etc/mixer_paths.xml in order to reduce microphone gains?
Any help would be appreciated
Thank you