Earphone speaker query - Galaxy S I9000 General

During voice calls the earphone speaker seems to sound really muddy to me. So much that I cannot understand what the person on the other end is saying if there is a bit of ambient noise around me.
Compared to my 3G iphone it's terrible.
Anyone else experience this or know if the sound through the earpiece can be tweaked?

Hey even i have the same problem. Got my SGS today and iam loving the phone in all of its bits. Excelleny phone but little tiny bugs and issues here and there. hope firmwares and froyo can make a vast difference in the experience. I dont think they can increase earpiece volume with any firmwares.

earphone and speaker quality
I also am having trouble. The speaker sound is "muddy" or muffled. People I call on the Galaxy complain that I am difficult to understand. I don't have any of these problems on my iPhone 3G, it is much clearer.
The headphones are of poor quality and are the ear canal type which I don't like at all as they don't hold in the ear. The ear bud type of headphone are much better (like iPhone) but are not available from Samsung and I have been unable to find or purchase any other brands that work satisfactorily.
A phone is primarily about voice communication and this is where the Samsung Galaxy s i9000 fails and is disappointing. Everything else about the phone is quite good.

I find the earphones to be decent quality (ipod/iphone earpieces suck!!!).
However I do have also have the voice calls problem. It is a little difficult hearing people on the other side, however they don't seem to have any trouble hearing me.
Maybe we can use one of the "secret" menus in the phone to increase the speaker volume? I haven't looked yet.

2G/3G?
When i'm on 3G networks, i get ok sound, sounds a bit muffled, but nothing serious.
When forcing 2G, i get very clear sound with sifficient volume.
I can at least say it's not a hardware problem.

Muddy sound
The headphones do sound ok, the problem that I find is that they will not stay inserted in the ear and block most other sounds hence why I prefer the ear bud types but I guess this is a personal choice. Unfortunately, the choice of headphone is not apparent until the box seal is broken by which time you have agreed to the carrier's contract by breaking such seal. As Samsung have there own headphone socket and impedance design, other manufacturers headphones are not suitable.
The muddy audio is not so much a level problem but a frequency problem. When holding the phone to my ear, the sound lacks some higher frequencies and hence sounds muffled or muddy if you like. Clearly, others are having similar issues. This should be easily fixed by Samsung and perhaps a control to do so would be ideal then it could be adjusted to suit all users.
When I talk to other people on the phone, they complain that I am hard to understand - again the audio is muffled and a little distorted. This should also be easily fixable.

nsgtr34 said:
During voice calls the earphone speaker seems to sound really muddy to me. So much that I cannot understand what the person on the other end is saying if there is a bit of ambient noise around me.
Compared to my 3G iphone it's terrible.
Anyone else experience this or know if the sound through the earpiece can be tweaked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same too, comparing it with my iphone 3gs and 3g. Another thing that I'm trying to get used to is the inability to control music fully without having to turn on the screen. On my jailbroken iphone I'm able to use either the standard headset to pause, play, forward, backward, volume up, volume down without touching the phone itself. Alternatively I can do all these actions with only the phones volume buttons alone. I usually connect my phone via the 3.5 mm audio jack to external speakers before I sleep and this feature on my jail broken iphone let's me fully control the music without having to turn on and look at the screen. I also miss my music videos which can be combined with the audio musics in the same playlist and played with the screen switched off. I also miss the fine increment in volume level of iphone, where I can have the exactly volume I want.
I'm also experiencing pauses and skips in music playing.
Viewing pictures and movies is a far better experience on SGS though.

I have a whole different problem with regards to the stock earphones. When I listen to music (via Music Player) and have my headphones plugged in, it does not seem to deactivate the external speaker. So I hear the music coming from the external speaker and the earphones. And the sound quality coming from the earphones is just horrible. I've tested this with a number of different earphones. I've also tested this with TuneWiki and get the same results.
I'm using the latest firmware JG5.
Anyone else having this issue as well?

Could it be some design and or manufacturing flaw in the phone jack itself? I find it difficult to fully push the plug kind in to get complete sound. Sometime I get sound from one side only. When trying to push all the way in the music stops saying that the earphone was unplugged.

Ok looks like I worked out how to get rid of the "muddy" sound coming from the handset.
Enter service mode
*#197328640#
Tap [5] Audio
Tap [1] Handset
Tap [9] Diamond Solution
Tap [3] Voice Booster (mine was off)
Tap [1] , press Menu, Enter "1" as value(without "").
Tap [2] hpf_cutoff
Now you can enter anything from 1-8, 1 will sound bassy/muddy and 8 will sound clearer but a tad harsh depending on your hearing. Experiment with whatever suits you, every speaker may be different. I assume hpf stands for high pass filter.
Now if you want even more volume during a call you can change the [5]limit level to a lower value. Mine was on 21 at default. I've set it to 12 for now.
To exit the menu just press Menu then tap end.
My default values were.
[1] off
[2] 8
[3] 8192
[4] 6
[5] 12
Let me know if yours were different.

Thank you for that info. Fortunately, Optus have eventually agreed that my phone was faulty and I am waiting for it to be fixed or replaced. The info you have supplied may be useful for some fine tuning if required.

Is there anyway to boost the speaker volume in those settings?
Tried to find one but tbh I didn't have a clue what all the settings in the speaker menu were

my suggestion switch to bluetooth, there is always a degree of issues related to wired earbuds / headphones / headsets

Related

Volume Seems Week

I find that the overall volume on the Treo Pro is not strong. When listening through a speaker or even sometimes through headphones.
Now I realize the quality of the recording is a part of it, but frankly for many recordings i can listen with the earbuds on and cranked to the loudest and its still not that loud.
Anyone know of any tweaks to increase the volume out put? I really would love the built in speaker to be louder.
kunicki said:
I find that the overall volume on the Treo Pro is not strong. When listening through a speaker or even sometimes through headphones.
Now I realize the quality of the recording is a part of it, but frankly for many recordings i can listen with the earbuds on and cranked to the loudest and its still not that loud.
Anyone know of any tweaks to increase the volume out put? I really would love the built in speaker to be louder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont know any tweaks, but i had the same issue, i even called tech support to get a diff phone swapped out, the tech told me to take the plastic piece off because it covers the speaker hole on the screen.....lol....i know how stupid! other then that i dont know anything to make it sound louder besides the keys on the sides to turn the volume up and down. I did notice that the speaker phone gets louder if u have the phone on a table or something. if this info didnt help then sorry for my worthless post...lol
Did you try removing anything covering the speaker? Yes not a fun idea, but if you did, did it seem at all noticable.
Frankly, even with the head phones its not very loud.
Funny bit of information -- if you want more juice out of your headphones, turn the phone off of silent mode, unplug the headphones and wait for sound to come out of the speakers, and than plug the headphone back in... youve now doubled your hearing loss.
Thanks for the tip. Can you restate the steps. Its not clear (and I could not reproduce it.) Maybe it would be more clear if you describe the original state of the phone. Example: Headphones plugged in and mute switched so speaker is muted.
Thanks
Okay here goes, My phone is usually on Vibrate.
Plug headphones in.
Start music.
Move slider to speaker.
Unplug headphones until you hear sound coming out of the speaker.
Plug headphones in.
I noticed this when listening to music on my headphones and i'd get a call, the volume would crank...
Give it a shot, it works for me!
I could have a bunk phone, but if it means anything I'm from Toronto, and i'm using a Bell Treo Pro.

Sound distortion playing music with some headphones

I have found some strange behaviour that i'm hoping someone else can test out on their Galaxy S.
I have found that some headphones seem to work fine with the phone for music playing but others result in the sound being distorted with the vocals being very faint as if the left and right channel are cancelling each other out (with vocals generally being on left and right channel).
The packaged Samsung headphones appear to work properly although the quality seems average. I tried my iPhone headphones but these resulted in the strange sound distortion described above. I also tried a pair of cheap Sennheiser which were a free give away with a purchase from Richer Sounds and they worked well. Another pair of no-name cheap headphones exhibited the same distortion problems as the iPhone headphones.
Oddly, the FM radio sounded ok with all the headphones, it's just the music player that has the problem. I have also tried a couple of other music apps including the doubletwist player to rule out the software.
I'm considering taking it back to the shop to swap for a replacement. I'd be grateful if anyone could try out some headphones (particularly iPhone ones) on their Galaxy S and report their results to see if this is just a quirk with my phone or the Galaxy S in general.
Many Thanks
I just need some clarification because I know that a headset, and not headphones, is delivered with the Iphone. If it was a headset then I might suspect that different Iphones use different polarity as opposed to Samsung. Try out the Samsung headset on the Iphone.
EDIT:
Obviously not the problem. I must have skipped over the radio experience.
I can't post a link to it, but I remembered that GSMArena did a thorough review of the SGS. If you find your way to it, go to page 6 and see the sound chart at the bottom. SGS is superior in sound to iPhone. Perhaps the iPhone headset/headphones and the cheap ones are not sufficient for the SGS? I'm guessing
I had a similar experience when I tried to use the Samsung Spica headset on my HTC Hero. It seems that it might be a difference in polarity as suggested above.
Does all the headsets that give distorted sounds have a microphone on them? (E.g. not headphones)
the iPhone's headphones have extremely high distortion regardless of the media using to play them. The SGS is probably just overpowering them because they are very loud headphones as well/easily powered.
No it's nothing to do with them being overpowered.
I have an expensive pair of etymotic in ear headphones that are exhibiting the very same problem. Strangely I found a fix. They have a microphone on them and pressing in the answer button on them seems to fix the problem. I have taped the button down now and everything works perfectly. The second that button is released though, everything goes back to being faint, muffled and distorted.
Odd!
PS. This isn't just with the music player. I noticed it first watching a video.
It sounds like Samsung has their own way of producing the 3.5mm port with regards to the microphone support.
The Samsung headset distorts music on my HTC Hero.
The HTC headset distorts music on my gfs Galaxy Spica
To be clear, are you saying the problem only affects headsets with microphones? I have etymotic er4p headphones and it would be a deal breaker if they didn't work right with this phone.
If its only showing up in the media player, check that you havent enabled the 5.1 button in the the top right of the player. This can really screw with the sound and entire frequency ranges can be lost. I'm guessing this is whats happening.
The default headphones work fine for me if a little tinny, but with my Senheissers, the results are very pleasing. Apart from a slight gap between tracks that should seemlessly play through, I prefer using it to my iPod Touch. Being able to change tracks and volume without unlocking is a nice feature.
I threw my iPod headphones out years ago, they're the most ridiculous design ever, with the cable tapping the inside sleeve all the time when you walk or run.
k2snowboards88 said:
To be clear, are you saying the problem only affects headsets with microphones? I have etymotic er4p headphones and it would be a deal breaker if they didn't work right with this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like that the problem is with headsets with microphones, yes. Not sure if it happens with all 3rd party headsets w/ mic though.
Considering you have etymotic, and ClownShoes a few posts up have problems with this brand, I guess you're out of luck unless you wanna tape the answering button like he did.
The er4p is just headphones, so it sounds like i'm in luck.
Got my GS a few days ago and im having exactly the same problem with the Etymotic hf2 Headset with mic. So yeah it looks like it the mic that causes the problems.
sim87 said:
Got my GS a few days ago and im having exactly the same problem with the Etymotic hf2 Headset with mic. So yeah it looks like it the mic that causes the problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a little bit crude, but taping the button down does work.
I have the same issue with with Monster Studios even with the cable without the integrated mic. Would be great to have some sort of fix.
Headphone issues
Just thought I would post what I knew about the issue, both me and my dad purchased the same pair of headphones to use on mp3 players (the headphones are ultimate ears metro fi 220 vi's if I remember correctly, these have an in-line microphone as well as a single button for answering calls and to control music playback). Whilst I experienced no distortion when using them on my iPod Classic, my Dad's Creative player would produce the issues described above - he found that either taping the button down or slightly pulling the headphones out would solve the issue however it ended up annoying him so much that he went back to using another set of headphones.
I don't know what causes the issue but I just thought I would let people know
i have some sennsihaur sport headphones which work fine no problems. i also a monster fm transmitter in the car.. again no problesm.. just make sure the volume is not on max but 1 setting below max.
Hmmmm, a few problems here. Obviously the standard Samsung headphones are fine, no humming, no background noise. However if I connect the following:
1. Standard Apple iPhone (with mic) loads of background noise, humming etc
2. Shure (no mic) loads of background noise, humming etc
3. B&O (no mic) loads of background noise, humming etc
4. Shure (with mic adaptor) loads of background noise, humming etc greatly reduced by pressing the mute key.
Using the Shure adaptor with the others resulting in the same as 4.
Needless to say I'm not happy!
That's too bad. Not being able to use my Shure with the phone renders it useless for music and that IS important.
In the SERVICE MODE *#*#197328640#*#* there is an audio menu
there you can change the headset settings too like NR noise reducion.
i did not test and changed the settings but when i had the samsung omnia2 last year
i had some problems with my headset and fix it in in the sevice menu.
when you gonne do some tests write down the orginal settings before you try.
hope this will help some of you..... and post the results
im sure its the jack, cos the galaxy s has a 4pole trrs at left/right/mic/ground
iphone compatible headset have a 4pole trrs at left/right/ground/mic
thats why pressing the mic button clears up the sound as it closes the circuit
so it a matter of finding an adaptor that switches the mic and ground terminals
I have a tf10vi and im trying to diy one
will post the results
Just saw the post and thought I would check mine again, not that I noticed anything....anyway tried few songs and different types and all are sounding amazing, I use Sure 530 so music needs to be no lower than 256 to get the best out of the phones, most of my music tracks are 320bit.

HD2 Sound Quality (Tones)

I know about the audio booster, but that's just for music (isn't it?). Does anyone else find that ring and message tones sound very shrill and tinny on the HD2? I found an app (Advanced Configuration Tool), which had some sound settings, but didn't seem to do a lot, so I was wondering if there's an app, or a cab somewhere that would 'tone down' the sound, and make it a little 'warmer', if you get what I mean?
Unfortunatly due to it being a tiny mono speaker thats as good as its going to get.
don't expect too much from phone speakers! Just look at the stupid kids walking throught the streets with their cellphones playing their **** music that sounds like crap coming from the tiny speaker. Totally annoying!!
Audio Booster just works when you have connected headphones/speakers via the 3.5mm jack or paired with a bluetooth speaker (I think). Otherwise just turn down the volume a little so it doesn't sound that thin and bad. I always use 2/3 of the max volume and my ringtone mp3s sound ok.
The HD2 mono speaker doesn't come close in terms of sound quality to the Rhodium. It's unfortunate, but I guess HTC couldn't cram another speaker into the HD2. It is pretty darn thin.
Oh well, I guess I'm stuck with it, then. Thanks for the replies.

Sound level during calls

I dont know what I am doing wrong but I find the sound level extremely poor for calls
I tried with a bluetooth headset, the outside speaker and the jack with my mp3 headset
it's pretty weird since when I play videos or music I am impressed by how loud I can push the Tab...
I am on AT&T with JMC (but was the same on JM6). And I set the sound at max
anybody has the same issue? Am I doing something wrong? Or is there any sound booster app for calls? (and is it necessary?)
Thanks for your help
My Tab isn't phone-enabled, but since you're new to Android, I thought I should point out that there are multiple volume settings, and in-call volume is one of them. Menu Key -> Settings -> Sound Settings -> Volume should give you all the sliders (Ringtone, Media, Alarm, System, Notification...). There are apps/widgets too that let you get to/change these settings without having to go into the settings menu every time (audio manager has been a decent widget for me). Until you're actually in the call the hardware rocker is usually doing the ringtone or media volume.
When I use mine with Skype 60% is usually blaringly loud for me, and I don't even have the system or media volume maxed out.
Sorry if it's something you know you've done, but thought it might help. If not, maybe someone else has had the same issue and solved it.
BuglessFan said:
My Tab isn't phone-enabled, but since you're new to Android, I thought I should point out that there are multiple volume settings, and in-call volume is one of them. Menu Key -> Settings -> Sound Settings -> Volume should give you all the sliders (Ringtone, Media, Alarm, System, Notification...). There are apps/widgets too that let you get to/change these settings without having to go into the settings menu every time (audio manager has been a decent widget for me). Until you're actually in the call the hardware rocker is usually doing the ringtone or media volume.
When I use mine with Skype 60% is usually blaringly loud for me, and I don't even have the system or media volume maxed out.
Sorry if it's something you know you've done, but thought it might help. If not, maybe someone else has had the same issue and solved it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes this I had figured out and set at the maximum
Everything non call related is really strong... It's conversation from normal calls that is ridiculously low
Am I the only one ?? What's wrong with my tab ?
Anyone with an opinion about this ?
Voice-enabled on AT&T with JM6. Have good results with the built-in speakers and cheap Nokia BH-214 stereo Bluetooth earbuds. I ordered the OEM earbuds, but I do understand that the 3.5mm jack port in finicky. Is your Bluetooth 2.1 or newer? Do you have many open applications when trying to place or receive calls? I've notice the sound stutter a bit on the speakers when I've got several apps open.
Here's something I noticed, when in call using my BT Headset, the volume slider sometimes says its on max but the output isnt. Try to lower or increase your volume. Once you hear the max level beep, it gets louder.
Im on a SingTel Tab by the way.
ishtangli said:
Here's something I noticed, when in call using my BT Headset, the volume slider sometimes says its on max but the output isnt. Try to lower or increase your volume. Once you hear the max level beep, it gets louder.
Im on a SingTel Tab by the way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, will try right away
Edit: yeah I can definitely reduce the volume but my max was my actual max. As anybody tried to compare the volume on the speaker when playing music whith the volume on the speaker when on a call... It's like 5 to 10 times higher volume on a call !! And then same issue on a headset
DonDerham said:
Voice-enabled on AT&T with JM6. Have good results with the built-in speakers and cheap Nokia BH-214 stereo Bluetooth earbuds. I ordered the OEM earbuds, but I do understand that the 3.5mm jack port in finicky. Is your Bluetooth 2.1 or newer? Do you have many open applications when trying to place or receive calls? I've notice the sound stutter a bit on the speakers when I've got several apps open.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned I tried it with everything I could... The default external speaker, a simple stereo headset (Not bluetooth), a bluetooth headset. They all give the same. Low volume
If you don't like volume in speaker, headset, bluetooth....You can change settings in "hidden" Audio menu. There you can change volume of individual ouput, but be careful!!!!!
Before change anything, make sure you can put it back the same number if you are not satisfied or have problem ..so wright it somewhere anything you wish to change.
Good Luck with experiment. If I remember correctly(from my old Samsung i780-Windows phone) "TX" settings is for output and "RX" for imput, but I can be wrong, so be careful.
Alcibiade said:
Thank you, will try right away
Edit: yeah I can definitely reduce the volume but my max was my actual max. As anybody tried to compare the volume on the speaker when playing music whith the volume on the speaker when on a call... It's like 5 to 10 times higher volume on a call !! And then same issue on a headset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what I do is, when in a call, I lower the volume by about 2, then increase it until i hear the max volume beep. The moment i hear it, the volume on my headset usually jumps up.
I have the same problem with the speaker volume. At maximum you cannot hear it. The bluetooth seems to work OK. IIRC JK5 software seemed to work correctly.
09CarreraS said:
I have the same problem with the speaker volume. At maximum you cannot hear it. The bluetooth seems to work OK. IIRC JK5 software seemed to work correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I guess for you too, music or movies play with a high volume on the speakers whereas for calls it's rather low volume ?
Yes bluetooth or headset I can hear but still quite low volume compared with music...
stefanopolis said:
If you don't like volume in speaker, headset, bluetooth....You can change settings in "hidden" Audio menu. There you can change volume of individual ouput, but be careful!!!!!
Before change anything, make sure you can put it back the same number if you are not satisfied or have problem ..so wright it somewhere anything you wish to change.
Good Luck with experiment. If I remember correctly(from my old Samsung i780-Windows phone) "TX" settings is for output and "RX" for imput, but I can be wrong, so be careful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My problem is specifically for calls. Anything else is fine and working well. That's the weird issue... I dont want to boost the volume for anything else!
That's pretty weird... I have been playing with the tab and I found out that for calls, the highest level I can have (by hear) is two notches below the highest. That's by far the loudest I get (If I push higher the sound decreases)
Am I the only one ? It really pisses me off.... I don't know how it can be like that (I am on JMC ROM after flashing a JM6 ROM over the JK5 from Russia (I am on an AT&T Tab flashed to get phone working)
Someone else get the same experience ?
I can confirm that the max 'in call' volume is two notch below the max !!! And I have the same tab/setting of the OP.
Aren't there some codes you can enter to adjust the volume level on calls and music, etc.?? like the Galaxy S?
pakalrtb said:
I can confirm that the max 'in call' volume is two notch below the max !!! And I have the same tab/setting of the OP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks ! Ina sense I am a littel bit relieved to see I am not the only one !
Such a stupid bug. Come on Samsung...
FYI it is fixed with the firmware JME
Sound level is much more acceptable and the highest level is not anymore two notched below the max

Low volume with Bluetooth.

Overall om really satisfied with my x style but I have one really annoying issue with mine, low Bluetooth volume both in calls and music podcasts etc. Coming from a opo where I had no issues with volume at all this is a bit of a let down. I thought that mm would solve it, a bit at least (why I thought that, or have no idea hoping for the best I guess.) but it's still at max setting it's just a tad bit higher than normal speaking volume.
Is there any one else that have experienced this? Maybe there's even a fix?
headset is sony sbh20, I actually have two same issue with both but not on the opo
I use the Moto Surround headphones. Volume is OK but could have just a little more boost for noisy environs or when I'm doing the vacuuming!
For Podcasts I use Pocket Casts which has a volume booster which works. Also the best podcaster out there.
I mainly use pocket casts and Google music, but I've also tried Spotify, songza youtube, and it's the same issue, been fiddling with gmusics eq doesn't matter. The front speakers works great so I assume there's some conflict with the headset, fu*k i don't know.
I just switched from a Note 3, and at least for my car radio, the sound is MUCH louder than my note 3. I'm at almost 1/2 volume on my Pure, and on my Note 3, I have to have it at max (Override the volume limiter) to keep from going deaf when I switch to the radio!!!!
My bluetooth volume kind of sucks too. In my car, if I take the phone and connect via Bluetooth I have to crank the volume to ~75% to be listenable, while if I take the same phone and car and plug in the aux jack, volume can be half of that.
It's a real bummer because I really like the freedom of bt, I can leave my phone anywhere in the apartment and just use the headset. Wired headphones paired with my phone is just a hassle

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