Develop Bugs

Fixing distortion in speaker (of HTC Desire, other HTC phones)

If you don't like the sound coming out of your HTC Desire or other HTC phone, if it's distorting at loud volumes and sounding like a$$, your only option is: get another phone. Until now.
The achilles heel in the HTC phones has got to be the speaker. It isn't a "ROM issue". I always found the speaker horrible in general, and unbearable when listening to the operator on voice mails (via speakerphone), or listening to music via speaker, and some ringtones. It would buzz (physical buzz, not some EMI-induced electronic buzz), and distort at certain frequencies (not to mention a complete lack of bass, creating a tinny sound). Most people put HTC's speaker down to a design flaw, and it is (shame on you, HTC!!). If I lowered the volume a notch, I could no longer reliably hear my voicemails on speakerphone IN A SILENT ROOM.
I searched high and low for a fix for this distortion problem, and noticed a lot of people are talking about it, but did not find any fix for it. So I finally came up with something that worked (though not 100%). My trusty ol' fun-tak fix (phone's too small for duct tape). The speaker is the rectangle (next to the flash diode). The fix required two tiny strips of fun-tak, rolled (like dough), and adhered to the top and bottom perimeter (or 'frame') of the speaker (not the grill). I had put slightly too much and my cover on the speaker corner doesn't close tightly, but that's ok... the Desire is in a silicone case.
What this does is reduce vibrations, which causes the parts to rattle and buzz at loud volumes. Result: very little distortion left, and with much of the distortion gone, the sound quality is not as bad as first thought. Things are clearer and perceptibly louder, due to reduction in distortion. This will make it harder to change the battery, as the back cover is expected to stick somewhat to the internals.
With a bit more tinkering, it might be conceivable to reduce all audible distortion, or reduce some and still close the cover 100%. Next up will be tweaking the phone to acheive better audio quality in general. (I intend to have the best sounding Desire on the planet!).

Cyanoid said:
If you don't like the sound coming out of your HTC Desire or other HTC phone, if it's distorting at loud volumes and sounding like a$$, your only option is: get another phone. Until now.
The achilles heel in the HTC phones has got to be the speaker. It isn't a "ROM issue". I always found the speaker horrible in general, and unbearable when listening to the operator on voice mails (via speakerphone), or listening to music via speaker, and some ringtones. It would buzz (physical buzz, not some EMI-induced electronic buzz), and distort at certain frequencies (not to mention a complete lack of bass, creating a tinny sound). Most people put HTC's speaker down to a design flaw, and it is (shame on you, HTC!!). If I lowered the volume a notch, I could no longer reliably hear my voicemails on speakerphone IN A SILENT ROOM.
I searched high and low for a fix for this distortion problem, and noticed a lot of people are talking about it, but did not find any fix for it. So I finally came up with something that worked (though not 100%). My trusty ol' fun-tak fix (phone's too small for duct tape). The speaker is the rectangle (next to the flash diode). The fix required two tiny strips of fun-tak, rolled (like dough), and adhered to the top and bottom perimeter (or 'frame') of the speaker (not the grill). I had put slightly too much and my cover on the speaker corner doesn't close tightly, but that's ok... the Desire is in a silicone case.
What this does is reduce vibrations, which causes the parts to rattle and buzz at loud volumes. Result: very little distortion left, and with much of the distortion gone, the sound quality is not as bad as first thought. Things are clearer and perceptibly louder, due to reduction in distortion. This will make it harder to change the battery, as the back cover is expected to stick somewhat to the internals.
With a bit more tinkering, it might be conceivable to reduce all audible distortion, or reduce some and still close the cover 100%. Next up will be tweaking the phone to acheive better audio quality in general. (I intend to have the best sounding Desire on the planet!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting...how about a photo of your handywork?

Well, I can't find my digital camera so.... I had the Desire take a photo of itself (hence the weird angle). The fun-tak is shown flat in the pic, but it started out rolled (before the cover was put back on).
Hope this helps someone.
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Hi,
Along the same lines, mine has been a lot better since I fitted a Case-Mate Tough case, it seems to stop it vibrating / buzzing when listening to the speaker, it's still not perfect, but a lot better.
Trev

Might be slightly off topic, but in terms of music quality, I was really dissapointed with my Desire (coming from a Nokia N81)... I've just started using PowerAmp (music player) and I was blown away by how good the EQ is in it. Even the loudspeaker sounds 10x better. Highly recommended.
Thanks for the tip on how to physically increase the quality, will try it.

My battery door has a foam/rubberized gaskey on it that seals tightly to the speaker when installed. i get no viberation or any distortion from my desire speaker.

Juggalo_X said:
My battery door has a foam/rubberized gaskey on it that seals tightly to the speaker when installed. i get no viberation or any distortion from my desire speaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds good. I take it you don't have a plain Desire then?

Cyanoid said:
Sounds good. I take it you don't have a plain Desire then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i have the north american model, so it possibly has a newer battery door design. i dont know.

Beylie said:
Might be slightly off topic, but in terms of music quality, I was really dissapointed with my Desire (coming from a Nokia N81)... I've just started using PowerAmp (music player) and I was blown away by how good the EQ is in it. Even the loudspeaker sounds 10x better. Highly recommended.
Thanks for the tip on how to physically increase the quality, will try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it doesn't improve sound quality per se, just a noticeable reduction in distortion. I have other tweaks that will improve sound quality. Don't know how much I can do with the 50 cent speaker they put in the HTC Desire, though. I looked at EQ as a solution, but for some odd reason, all the EQ apps were for music. Not for system sounds. Except DM, which came with my LeeDroid ROM. However, boosting EQ here only made things worse. I found I had to cut off all high and low frequencies to reduce distortion. This just reduced clarity (and volume), and in the end, was worse than having no EQ. Hence the fun-tak.
YMMV.

Could we replace the loud speaker and the ear speaker of that of nokia or blackberry , most of them look similar ?
Attached is image of speaker of nokia and HTC touch diamond two .

I was just wondering the same thing for my HTC sensation ... the ear speaker sound is just crap

Yeah, mine distorts as hell.

I've dropped the phone a few times, and now the case is so distorted that there is a ~1mm gap visible on the side, between the back plate and the body of the phone. Thus they do not touch, and I also don't seem to have this distortion problem.
Sound from a phone will be distorted anyway because of the low-cost, low-space, high-volume requirements.

Review of Anker wireless multimedia speaker w/lots of pics!!!

This is a review of Anker portable bluetooth 4.0 rechargeable speaker with multimedia controls: http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Portable-Bluetooth-Rechargeable-Handheld/dp/B00C4Q61Z6/
Once I opened this new portable speaker from Anker and started to read through Instruction Manual (which btw is VERY detailed!!!), the first thought that went through my head was how much functionality they cramped into one small multimedia speaker. With so many designs out there, you will be lucky to get Call pickup button in addition to volume up/down. Here, I think the only missing thing was a kitchen sink Let me go into more details.
First of all let's start with a design, a very attractive glossy cylinder shape with a speaker inside of the main body and 3 stand-off legs connecting to the base with controls. The shape is very comfortable to handle since this is a portable speaker which you might want to move around. And once you place it down - it will stay firmly on the surface thanks to it's non-skid rubber pad at the bottom. Along with a comfortable shape, also comes a comfortable weight of about 166g and dimensions of 60mm in height and 70mm in diameter. The round design and placement of the speaker makes the sound flow in every direction so you don't have to find an optimal position facing you directly. In the middle you have a strobing blue LED light which goes all the way around the speaker. Actually, I think there are two speakers hosted inside of the enclosure with a main treble sound coming from the top and a bass pumping from the bottom.
The controls on this unit cover all multimedia basis with separate buttons for play/pause/stop, volume up/down, and next/prev track skip. These buttons all double as other multimedia controls to adjust eq setting (normal, bass, treble), to mute/unmute the microphone (built in to accept your voice commands or just pickup a call and use this speaker as a speakerphone), and a lot of phone functionality such as voice dialing, answering/ending a call; redialing last number or rejecting incoming call, transferring a call from a speaker to a phone, and some more. This is a rechargeable speaker with an incredible battery life where according to Anker you will get about 8-10 hours of play time or up to 12 hours of talk time. As a mentioned before, it supports new low power bluetooth 4.0 standard and backward compatible with all other standards. Also, it supports HSP, HFP, A2DP, and AVRCP bluetooth profiles. If you want to use it as external wired speaker, you also get an option for Audio-input (Line In) which you can use with an included high quality 3.5mm male-to-male cable.
All this looks good on a paper, but the true test was to get a hands on experience with this speaker. As I expected, everything worked great! As soon as you turn on the speaker, a voice announces about the power being on, and once you pair up with a phone, voice also confirms a successful pair-up/connection. As much as I like the idea of this voice announcement, I wish there would have been a way to quiet it down or disable it (just my personal preference). Hitting Play button started default audio player right away, and I was able to adjust the volume, skip to the next/prev track, and adjust the EQ. I didn't spent too much time with call functions, but did confirm everything working as expected. The sound quality was actually very impressive for a speaker of this size. You can't obviously compare it to some other premium bt speakers that cost 5-6x times more, but still the sound was loud and clear and not tiny at all as you might expect from small speakers. As a matter of fact, it actually had a deep bass kick to it. At high volumes you can start to hear some distortion which was more noticeable with "bass" eq setting. But overall, I had no complains and was actually impressed to hear quality sound out of such small speaker.
I think this speaker would be a great enhancement to any smart phone, which brings multimedia controls to external sound without a need to even touch the phone, to use it as a speaker phone, or to use it in your car placed inside of a cup holder for streaming music without a need for any wired audio connection to your head unit. And did I mention this little guy cost $35.99 with free shipping? And as always, you get 18-month warranty from Anker which you can't beat. I definitely highly recommend this external rechargeable speaker!
Here are the pictures.
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Review of Monster SuperStar audiophile wireless speaker w/lots of pics!!!

This is a review of Monster SuperStar wireless speaker. http://www.monsterproducts.com/speakers/superstar/
It takes a lot of confidence to label your product "The world's smallest audiophile speaker". That's exactly how Monster refers to their latest wireless speaker. I do have to agree, it's among the smallest speakers I have tested, considering a unique flat rectangular footprint with rounded corners resembling a smartphone shape. I also have to agree that it has a very detailed clear sound, not typical for wireless speakers. Here is more about this little SuperStar!
Following their flashy tradition, you don't expect anything less from Monster product packaging where SuperStar doesn't disappoint with a high quality box, detailed graphics, plenty of description, and traditional magnetic flap cover revealing a gift box setting of the product inside of it. In addition to a speaker, a usb to micro usb cable and storage drawstring mesh pouch was included. There is no exaggeration, but the speaker is small!!! Weighting only 230g and 140mm x 75mm x 22mm it had a footprint smaller than my Note 2, and about double in thickness. It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and soft rubbery texture felt very good to the touch which also should help to absorb a shock if dropped. Furthermore, the speaker has IPX-4 rating for water splash protection, so you will be safe around the pool or at the beach as long as you don't submerge it into the water. Also, the speaker itself was designed to work placed flat on the surface or in a sturdy upright position.
A closer examination of the speaker revealed some very unique design details. First of all, it has 2 top firing drivers placed in the corners under the perforated grill. In the center on the top and the bottom of the speaker you have a pair of cleverly designed passive bass radiators to enhance low frequency performance of SuperStar. One of the main problems with small speaker enclosures is not being able to fit enough of regular active drivers to cover a low frequency sound. Some speakers use bass ports to direct the sound outside through some clever filtering, while in here you get a pair of passive radiator cones pumping the air out. Don't expect an earth shattering bass you can feel, but you will be surprised to hear a decent bass punch with injection of sub-bass to make sound feel solid. With a lot of the smaller speakers, you typically get a thin high frequency sound or muddy bass distortion, but with SuperStar you get a well rounded detailed clear sound. As a matter of fact, I pumped it up to a max volume and experienced minimal distortion, only noticeable in low frequency range due to exaggerated pumping of radiator ports.
For sure, this speaker sounds VERY good for its size and has clarity surpassing a lot of other speakers I have tested before. Beside sound quality itself, you also get an impressive volume level where I compared it to another 12 Watt wireless speaker I recently tested and found SuperStar to be louder. Another big advantage is the use of Apt-X codec which helps transmit audio wirelessly without too much of bandwidth compression. It really felt like listening to a wired speaker. Speaking of that, there is 3.5mm Input port if you want to connect this speaker to your mp3 player or devices that don't support bluetooth. The port is located on the side and has a rubber flap to keep it's IPX-4 certification. On the other side of the speaker, there is micro USB port with a flap cover for battery charging and also for audio-over-usb connection. The battery should last about 5-6hr at moderate volume use, and micro-usb port also doubles in functionality to be connected to compatible devices where you can send audio through usb port.
Now, let's talk about the actual wireless performance. It wasn't very clear to me if it supports BT3.0 or 4.0, but regardless of that pair up with my smartphone was flawless, and it easily covered 30ft of operating distance. You have 4 dedicated sealed buttons on the top for power, volume up/down, and bluetooth, two led lights for power and bluetooth indication, and mic opening. Pushing Power turns the speaker on and pushing Bluetooth either puts it in a pair up mode for the first time or starts pair up if there was some issue with disconnect. Once paired up, it shows up connected to your phone and media audio, so it can be used to play audio from the phone as well as functioning as a speakerphone with a build-in mic. Volume adjustment is self explanatory. There is also one hidden control which is not obvious and you can only learn about it from manual. Bluetooth button actually functions as Play/Pause button where during a playback a short press will pause and resume playing the song.
Overall, I was a little skeptical when I approached this review thinking it's going to be another "small" speaker claiming to have "big" sound. But as soon as I paired it up and start playing music, I realized it wasn't just an empty promise. This speaker truly does sound great, it looks very cool, has unique design elements with passive bass radiators, hidden playback control (only play/pause, though I would have liked to see track skip next/prev as well), and audio over usb playback. The negative comment I have, which could be a matter of a personal preference, I don't like voice guidance announcing "power on", "paired up", "power off/goodbye". It provides a clear feedback of functionality, but I wish it could be disabled. Price tag is a bit steep, currently on sale for $129.95 where $99.99 would have been a more reasonable price in my opinion. At the same time, you are paying a premium for its unique features packed into a very small footprint. Personally, I was very impressed with this wireless speaker and would definitely recommend it if you want a loud detailed sound and a design to make you stand out from a crowd!
Here are the pictures.
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Tronsmart Encore S4 ANC Wireless Headsets - Unboxing & Review

This is the Tronsmart Encore S4 Headset.
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Unboxing
The packaging feels pretty premium from the outside, but the inside might not look that great. When it comes to accessories, Tronsmart is a bit strict, with only some Earbuds (L/S size, M pre-installed), a little plastic thing (unknown usage), an User Manual, a Micro-USB Cable and the Headset (of course). A pair of sport supports for the earbuds might have been appreciated.
As regards the Chassis, it is made of Plastic, with some glossy parts (slightly fingerprint magnet) and overall solid build quality. For daily usage it is perfectly fine.
On the upper side there is the neckband made of soft-plastic (similar to TPU) that makes its usage comfortable and without major issues when it comes to hot temperatures.
On the left end (where the Tronsmart logo is located) there isn't anything at all, i guess this is where the battery is located.
On the right side instead is where all the magic happens, with the ANC ON/OFF switch, Power/Volume buttons, Microphone and Power/Activity LED.
The ANC switch unfortunately features a serious design flaw, at least in my opinion. You can turn ON/OFF the ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) even if the Headset is turned off. It is useful when you only want to isolate yourself without listing to any music, but it is also slightly annoying because you need to turn on/off two things separately.
Sound Quality
Well...the sound quality is decent, nothing superb, neither terrible. The equalizer seems to be set in order to increase low frequencies too much, so in order to get more clarity i had to tune it via software (depending on your smartphone, i use AudioFX on LineageOS 14.1).
The volume is extremely high though, probably the most loud BT earphones i have ever tried.
As regards the most important feature, ANC or Active Noise Cancellation, it works pretty well actually. Of course you can't expect superb isolation because we are dealing with earphones not headphones, but you can definitely feel the difference with and without this feature. Again though, as already said before, there is a design flaw.
The Microphone is decent too, luckily there are no equalizer issues with it but, due to its slighly weird position, your voice might sound a bit muffled. Just be sure to keep the Microphone open and not completely attached to the neck.
Something the goes between sound quality and controls is the built-in Vibration motor, that alerts in case of incoming calls. Pretty useful considering that with the ANC turned on it might be difficult to hear the Ringtone. (if not router to the BT headset of course)
Controls and Connectivity
Controls are just the same as on all Bluetooth Earphones you can find, with the exception of the ANC on/off switch that is indipendent. Power/Volume keys seems to be well-sealed so that you can use the product also in extreme conditions, and the LED located just under the Microphone is pretty bright and noticeable.
The Bluetooth Connection is stable, nothing to complain about. I don't know if my device is cheating me or not, but Bluetooth LE doesn't seem to be supported.
Conclusions
This is the first time ever i get an ANC Headset, and i must say that this feature is impressive especially considering that it was something "exclusive" to Bose Headphones. OK, it isn't as good as on high-end products, but for the price and the overall quality, it is perfectly fine and still better than not having it.
The product is good actually, not perfect due to the design flaw, but still perfectly usable in daily life and for almost all kinds of usage. If with the next model Tronsmart manages to tune the equalizer better and implement the ANC switch properly, then i can declare it a best-buy with no doubts.
Battery Life is great, almost 6 days of usage, 3 hours x day, listening to music at medium volume.
Pros:
- Battery Life
- ANC - Active Noise Cancellation
- Build Quality
Cons:
- Design Flaw for the ANC switch
- Badly set default equalizer
- Glossy Plastic Parts (PERSONAL)
Rating: 8.1
Packaging and Accessories: 7
Design and Materials: 8.5
Sound Quality: 8
Price: 9 (based on Amazon price)
Official Product page: http://www.tronsmart.com/products/tronsmart-encore-s4-active-noise-cancelling-bluetooth-headphones
You can find full-res images (I know, Quality isn't excellent) here: http://imgur.com/a/BWnBE​

[REVIEW] of BT216 Bluetooth speaker (Tronsmart T6)

BT216 Review after a while of use
Nowadays there is many different Bluetooth speaker brands, others are good and some are bad. One thing just happens to connect them, they are made in china almost always, and of course that is not bad thing at all. This speaker is rebranded from Tronsmart T6 to simple but very weird BT216, it's all around identical one but with different branding on it. About the branding it peeled off pretty quick and i had to scrape residue off, it felt like sticker. Now the speaker got small cosmical mark on the area where the branding was.. nothing serious
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I threw away the box long time ago, so i do not have box to take million pictures of
In box there was grey soft-touch material Micro-USB cable, and same soft-touch gray 3.5mm male-to-male cable, both 62cm long (24 inches)
Also, there was 2 silica-gel desiccants, usual manual how to press buttons and how to avoid voiding warranty.
Box is also similar to Tronsmart's "premium box", only thing that was different was text language and pictures.
Speaker is covered in plastic burlap, like JBL ones and the speaker got nice weight on it. It does not rattle or squirk when applying pressure around and trying to twist it.
Buttons on top are bit mushy and takes few attempts to press, volume wheel clicks softly when turning it. There is led right around the buttons what indicates power and battery when charging, on other end is passive radiator, it moves quite a bit when blasting music
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Speaker itself weights 414g and is 75mm in diameter and 193mm in height, 20W of power and SNR is 80 dB, THD ≤ 10 %. 60Hz to 20kHz (It plays well under 60Hz still)
Battery is 2 x 3.7V 2600mAh, charging it takes 3-4 hours from empty to full, and the battery lasts 6-8 hours at high volume.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE / SPEAKER FEATURES
I was very surprised about the quality and fidelity of sound on this when i first time ramped up the volume to the maximum, i did not hear distortion at all thought.
Sound is warm and wide, highs are clear but bit muffly when speaker is facing other direction. High-hats and claps sound good on this
Mids are full, vocals sound clean and natural. Rap is very enjoyable on this speaker, atleast to my ears.
Bass.. There is lot of it, it plays low and manages to shake glass of water on table and rattle things. Speaker does not stay on it's place when playing at max volume, that's how much it got bass. Bass is just awesome
Conclusion time
That volume wheel is very nice feature on this speaker, i'd like to see something similar on more "mainstream" speakers. Also flap for USB port and AUX is nice thing, keeps moisture out. For this price this speaker is no-brainer, best in class
PROS:
-It's loud and got good build quality and very crisp sound quality
-Fabric material is nice touch
-Volume wheel is very satisfying to turn
-Charges up quick and lasts long
-Price/performance
CONS:
-Very loud and bit annoying startup/connecting/shutdown sounds, it's like orchestra blasting all out for second
-Buttons are bit mushy