I use my phone as an audio player quite a bit, but I've recently noticed and issue and I was wondering if anyone else had similar problems or perhaps even overcome them. When I have my Vibrant plugged in to a power source and I plug in my headphones everything sounds fine, but if I'm plugged in to power and connect a line out cable (e.g. a male to male cable for connecting to a car stereo) I get a really nasty hiss as well as other audio artifacts. I have tried numerous combinations of different power and audio cables, headphones, and audio sinks (car stereo, home stereo, computer audio in, etc.), but the result is always consistent.
Power + AUX cable = bad audio
Power + Headphones = Good audio
AUX Cable - Power = Good Audio
Has anyone else seen/solved this with their phones?
I assume you are talking about car charger and aux out and the noise that increases as your speed increases. If that's what you are talking about I get it to. Something needs to be grounded. Exactly what I don't know. I would ask a car audio person. If I'm not mistaken all radio components ie. radio amp are grounded that's why you don't hear it. Let me make this clear nothing is broken. More like this configuration was not planned for. I'm thinking the cig lighter is not grounded by car maker. Hope this helped.
In the car audio world I seem to recall some issues with Pioneer units when an owner somehow accidentally made a bad connection. It seems that a tiny fusible link in the unit would blow, and a ground loop noise would get introduced into the system. The fix was to ground the RCA cable inputs to the stereo chassis.
Not a viable solution in this case. I also recognize this may have little direct bearing on the problem, but wonder if somehow a poor power/audio connector in the unit is/has caused the same sort of problem to rear it's ugly head.
Step 1 I think - Do you have another Aux cable to test that as a poor ground on it may have developed from just bending and twisting in normal use.
Go to radio shack and pick up a ground loop isolator. That will get rid of the feedback noise.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I also have the same sound in my car. I remember way back when I thought I was a cool kid and rocked the big subwoofers in my trunk I had the same noise. Then I learned that you couldn't have the power cable running up to the battery and rca cables going to the head unit next to each other. You had to have them separated meaning one would have to go along driver side n the other along passenger side. I tried that and presto no more noise. Its the interference of electricity generated from the alternator. Hence, Faster the engine/ alternator goes, higher the noise pitch equalling more interferance due to the higher voltage/current running thru the power cable. Sorry for all that useless info lol!! Quick fix is don't have the power cable plugged in at the same time. The sound goes away, for me at least. Hope it works for you. Other than that I wouldn't really know how to fix it with a cell phone unless that isolator thingy that the other guy said to buy would work.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
You should tweet @supercurio
if anyone would know, he would
This has nothing to do with software. This is basically electrical interference in audio channel because the audio is not grounded and power plug from cigarette lighter USB is grounded. Get the isolator, they are usually less than $20, just make sure all the inputs/outputs are what's compatible with your setup.
Mine plugs into AUX port on the car, then i have a 3.5mm Y splitter, one end for phone/mp3 player the other for Sat radio.
Thanks for the tips guys; I think I'll pick up an isolator and give that a try. Unfortunately, the local Radio Shack only stocks isolators for RCA jacks, not 3.5mm, so I'll have to wait at least a few more days until it gets here.
The isolator finally showed up, and it worked perfectly. Thanks again for the advice.
Sweet, now get a flux capacitor and find a straight stretch of road. At 88 mph you'll be going at 88mph with a flux capacitor!
Related
Hi All.
I'm using my TYTN II to listen to radio when I have a long drive. The TYTN II is connect using a FM radio transmitter, with the USB converter.
The problem: When using the Internet, then battery drain is quite fast, especially if you are on the move and the radio signal is not that strong. I tried few USB chargers, and all of them have a DC ripple that effects that sound. When I don't use any charger, the sound on the radio is great, but when I connect the charger then I hear the noise of the alternator.
partial solution: I have opened one of the chargers and installed a 22uH Inductor in series to the power. I have also increased the Cap. from 470uF to 100ouF. This helped but not the desired requirements.
Any one solved this problem? I will be glad to hear nay inputs or ideas on how to solve this.
Thanks.
I had the same problem and installed a ground loop isolator to solve my noise issue. It is installed between the usb adaptor and fm mod to eliminate the noise when charging.
http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/1097
Hope that helps.
Hi Weav2k4.
From your answer I Google it and I found this article:
http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/audio_isolator.html
From there I found an alternative transformer and I have order couple of samples. When I will get them, I will build this and will let you know if it worked...
Thanks.
Ground loop isolator is what you need. Radioshack has one that's decent too. Scosche is good but the build quality can be (not sure about the isolator) a tad flimsy; I had a line out converter from them which worked great but had to be taped together. anyway, about the isolator: they actually decrease sound quality to some extent - but given that you're not using a high end system, there's no way you'll notice a degradation; only an improvement as the alternator whine goes away!
Solution
Hi.
I have finally built the isolator using the transformer that I got. If I use speakers or BT connection I get almost 100% of clear signal, NO alternator noise!!!
When I use my FM transmitter, I get about 90% - 95% of clear noise. That is probably because of the pickup from the FM transmitter. Never the less, the noise is only apparent when I turn the volume in the car high, and I'm not playing anything on my Kaiser. When I play musing or anything else, you don't here that noise at all the the quality is sufficient for Internet radio.
So what did I do and use?
2 x Transformers: http://www.componentsuperstore.com/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductIdentifier=82096ULF3WEMIDCOM5872510
Connection: See bellow picture.
Good luck to you all.
@gidim:
Glad to see you were successful! Nice job on the schematic and information for future DIY'ers out there.
PAC SNI-1/3.5 Noise Filter at Crutchfield for auxiliary stereo input
gidim said:
Hi All.
I'm using my TYTN II to listen to radio when I have a long drive. The TYTN II is connect using a FM radio transmitter, with the USB converter.
The problem: When using the Internet, then battery drain is quite fast, especially if you are on the move and the radio signal is not that strong. I tried few USB chargers, and all of them have a DC ripple that effects that sound. When I don't use any charger, the sound on the radio is great, but when I connect the charger then I hear the noise of the alternator.
partial solution: I have opened one of the chargers and installed a 22uH Inductor in series to the power. I have also increased the Cap. from 470uF to 100ouF. This helped but not the desired requirements.
Any one solved this problem? I will be glad to hear nay inputs or ideas on how to solve this.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
weav2k4 said:
I had the same problem and installed a ground loop isolator to solve my noise issue. It is installed between the usb adaptor and fm mod to eliminate the noise when charging.
http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/1097
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great question and solution!
I use an auxiliary input jack on my Eclipse, and had the same issue when trying to use charger with my Zune or my Samsung Helix XM. With the information you two provided, I searched for a solution that would work with 3.5 jack and not require splicing or soldering, and found this PAC SNI-1/3.5 Noise Filter at Crutchfield. I have just ordered it - hope it works well - will report back.
I built a little box with a Meanwell DKE-series DC-DC converter that goes in the glove box. 12V in, + / - 5V out, isolated from ground and no ignition noise in the 5V signal. I put it in a little plastic box with a USB A female jack. They're a little bit expensive but I had some lying around from an old project.
I have my Tilt mounted in a car cradle with a 2-in-1 USB / audio y-cable. Works great for me with no noise when charging.
Have you tried to first check to see if your GROUND is clean?
On my 2007 G35 2nd gen sedan, i use the radio hoooked up to the factory audio/video inputs and i get all sorts of noise.
I know for a FACT the cigerette lighter socket on my car has a very DIRTY ground which is the cause for all the noise.
I also have 0 gauge wire to the trunk for my subwoofer amps, and there is no noise back there when tapping those lines (which go direct ot hte battery).
I realize this thread is referring to the "alternator whine" which I get when charging, but that's not my biggest issue, I constantly get interference from the phone radio itself, you know the sound you get when a phone gets near amplified speakers with poor shielding. Is there a similar solution to get rid of this noise? I have a ground loop isolator to hook up already, just haven't got around to it, but I doubt it will take care of the other interference.
rcm_rx7 said:
I constantly get interference from the phone radio itself, you know the sound you get when a phone gets near amplified speakers with poor shielding. Is there a similar solution to get rid of this noise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That kind of noise is radiated over the air, not conducted through wires, so unless you start putting RF shields around your audio equipment you won't likely get rid of it.
I play audio podcasts through car's aux in and just plug in the other end to my Focus's headphone jack. I have noticed that many times the podcast suddenly lowers volume to nearly inaudible levels and happens intermittently.
Once the problem shows up if I
- play songs, the volume level is fine
- stop and start playback of podcast, the problem persists.
- unplug and continue playback on Focus' speaker, the volume level is just fine
- unplug and plug it back in and the problem goes away.
- never have this problem when playing back over headphones (when in gym)
I have this problem only with Podcasts and don't get it at all with songs or videos.
Anyone else noticed this?
Audio output sucks on this phone, that is for sure. Major issues. Sorry to hear about yours.
Thresher said:
Audio output sucks on this phone, that is for sure. Major issues. Sorry to hear about yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how so? i'm not having any problems at all.
Did any of you notice it's not your standard 35mm jack? The headphones that come with the phone are clearly deeper than the standard jack, and have two bands around it instead of the normal one.
I presume you are using standard cable to connect to car's aux jack....
I would check to see if there is a special samsung accessory to make the proprietary jack into a standard aux output?
Samsung are notorious for using this style of jack on their phones. The Galaxy line of android phones use the same jack.
dead_on_the_floor said:
Did any of you notice it's not your standard 35mm jack? The headphones that come with the phone are clearly deeper than the standard jack, and have two bands around it instead of the normal one.
I presume you are using standard cable to connect to car's aux jack....
I would check to see if there is a special samsung accessory to make the proprietary jack into a standard aux output?
Samsung are notorious for using this style of jack on their phones. The Galaxy line of android phones use the same jack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is weird. i hook mine up to my car with the same jack i used for my iphone with no problems. in fact i am under the assumption the sound quality is actually better than with the iphone.
maybe this is a canada thing?
The plug is set up to use headsets with the microphone, and may not work well with some older stereo audio cables. However, I have used it with a podcast and found it to work quite well. I suggest trying another cable, cuz the Focus works fine.
The line level output of the 3.5mm jack is approx. 40% less than that of the iphone, or my HTC Tilt2. That is the issue I have and that others have commented on.
For instance, iphone plugged in playing on my car stereo, Panteras Cemetary Gates @ 320kbps MP3 is mind boggling loud at 50% volume on the car and 100% volume on the iphone. With the Focus the car stereo volume needs to be at 90% to be equal to the volume of the iphone.
Also, since the Focus needs to be at 100% and the car stereo nearly 100% you hear the phones whining, hissing and popping and every non-music portion.
Super lame.
There's some volume problems that I've noticed on the Focus, in that it's not consistent through playback sessions and such.
The iPhone 4 uses a Cirrus Logic codec with an integrated headphone amplifier, the Focus seems to use the built-in codec with it's headphone amplifier, which might not have the same amount of oomph.
I've measured a 7-8dB lower volume on the Focus when using a line-out cable to an Audio Precision test machine.
Thanks for reporting that! Great post.
Does anyone have this problem?
Ok, I have a mp3 car adaptor that I used with my Tilt and Tilt2 without any problems. Rich sound and bass. I plugged in my Focus (just got it last night) and music only comes out one speaker.
In my '95 M3, I run an Alpine HU (9814 IIRC) with a Line in Adaptor, I run very HD (thick) gold plated lines and a Splitter (all from Monoprice.com, one goes to my portable Sirius, other pops up by my center console sunglass cubby, split happens under the passeger seat) and I usually have my 120Gb Zune attached to it, but I tried with the Phone the other day and it worked great. Played a Tool concert and it sounded as good as the Zune. Like the Zune I set the volume to about 80%, still had plenty of head room for serious volume in the Alpine. (only way to listen to Tool is LOUD!) I do run an old school Pioneer Amp, Pioneer Kevlar Components, 2 JL Audio Stealth Boxes (each is an 8" Sub).
I want to escalate this issue but I need you guys to quickly reply on the MS forums so that it gets taken seriously. Please hit the "I need an answer too" button and give some sort of descriptive reply.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...7/thread/9c92dad9-5e12-465d-a0fb-b9465179b436
I hope that his is a software side optimization since we are able to make the volume higher with the diagnostic codes.
I added my vote there.
Raptor550 said:
I have a second complaint. When I stick a headphone jack in the mic turns off, it probably is expecting an inline mic with the headphones. My problem is when I then go to pull out my headphones the phone doesn't notice and will continue to not hear. It takes two or three times reinserting and pulling out the headphones to remidy this. Is anyone else haveing this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here. But is worst, I connect the Focus to my Car Auxiliary jack to use it as a mega speaker, I mean, when someone calls I can hear them, but they can not hear me. The microphone is dead when I plug it in. Someone knows a fix for this?
jaraya13 said:
Same problem here. But is worst, I connect the Focus to my Car Auxiliary jack to use it as a mega speaker, I mean, when someone calls I can hear them, but they can not hear me. The microphone is dead when I plug it in. Someone knows a fix for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't say that I have a fix for it, but it may be the connection your cable is making with the jack in the phone. I do the same thing, have the phone mounted in a jack around the same height as my head unit and people hear me fine when I speak during a call. I am currently using a cable from radioshack designed for recessed headphone jacks. Can't think of the brand off the top of my head however.
rswilson411 said:
Can't say that I have a fix for it, but it may be the connection your cable is making with the jack in the phone. I do the same thing, have the phone mounted in a jack around the same height as my head unit and people hear me fine when I speak during a call. I am currently using a cable from radioshack designed for recessed headphone jacks. Can't think of the brand off the top of my head however.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi pal, thanks for the reply, but I couldn't understand very well your explanation. What is a recessed headphone jack? What is the head unit?
Thanks in advance!
I have not noticed this problem however the microphone shutting off is very annoying and funny since at&t says texting while driving is unsafe yet i have to unplug my phone while driving to turn on speaker and talk. they need to fix that ASAP
This is in my car. I have a pretty high quality headphone cable to connect the phone to my car to listen to music. Every time I plug in the cable the phone it launches google voice search, I can easily dismiss it and everything is fine but it also prevents me from using Google voice search after this.
I'm quite certain it has something to do with the phone thinking I'm plugging in a headset that also has a microphone. The thing is I've used the same setup for both the N4 and N5 with no problems.
Is there a fix for this? Or anyone else experience anything similar? I'll have to try out some new cables.
Me too. I think it is a a headset thing like you said. I would like a solution for this problem as well.
I had this issue myself. This is actually caused by a poor ground on the 3.5mm jack on the stereo system itself which is causing feedback to loop back to the phone. The phone picks up on this and thinks you just pressed a button on a headset, even if there isn't a button to press.
You have a few options:
Stream via Bluetooth if supported, and ditch the cable all together. Expect slightly less than optimal audio quality.
Break open the stereo and run a better ground to a part that isn't inside the stereo. This will void your warranty on the your car stereo.
Buy one of these, and re-wire the 3.5mm jack. This is what I ended up doing (more about this later).
If you end up doing #3, you can just plug it in and go, without any warranty voiding stuff, however it looks ugly having that box thing hang down. Here's what I did to make it look a whole lot better, but also voids warranty.
Separate the female 3.5mm jack from the stereo face plate and the radio hardware.
Disassemble the female 3.5mm headphone jack so that it's no longer flush with the plastic face plate.
Chop off the female end, and chop off the male end on the GLI (the thing I linked above in #3), and solder the two together.
Re-mount the female end of the GLI to the face plate, and tuck away the additional hardware behind the stereo
Alternatively, you can solder the male 3.5mm jack to the GLI and run that as your 3.5mm cable.
The alternative way will give less interference as there's one less connection point, but it's not optimal as the 3.5mm cable may not be long enough.
Use shielded shrink tube on all connection points, and make sure that you wrap it in some EMI Shielding Tape for the best audio throughput. The EMI stuff is optional too.
Wiltron said:
I had this issue myself. This is actually caused by a poor ground on the 3.5mm jack on the stereo system itself which is causing feedback to loop back to the phone. The phone picks up on this and thinks you just pressed a button on a headset, even if there isn't a button to press.
You have a few options:
Stream via Bluetooth if supported, and ditch the cable all together. Expect slightly less than optimal audio quality.
Break open the stereo and run a better ground to a part that isn't inside the stereo. This will void your warranty on the your car stereo.
Buy one of these, and re-wire the 3.5mm jack. This is what I ended up doing (more about this later).
If you end up doing #3, you can just plug it in and go, without any warranty voiding stuff, however it looks ugly having that box thing hang down. Here's what I did to make it look a whole lot better, but also voids warranty.
Separate the female 3.5mm jack from the stereo face plate and the radio hardware.
Disassemble the female 3.5mm headphone jack so that it's no longer flush with the plastic face plate.
Chop off the female end, and chop off the male end on the GLI (the thing I linked above in #3), and solder the two together.
Re-mount the female end of the GLI to the face plate, and tuck away the additional hardware behind the stereo
Alternatively, you can solder the male 3.5mm jack to the GLI and run that as your 3.5mm cable.
The alternative way will give less interference as there's one less connection point, but it's not optimal as the 3.5mm cable may not be long enough.
Use shielded shrink tube on all connection points, and make sure that you wrap it in some EMI Shielding Tape for the best audio throughput. The EMI stuff is optional too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! Well it looks like I'm In trouble. As my car is a Toyota Prius classic which has a cassette deck. I use a cassette adapter to a female plug adapter to a thin male plug which fits through my case. Two adapter is one too many I would guess. Thanks for your time and input on what to do to fix this issue.
Every time I connect the headphones to the Nexus 6P start Google Voice, thus interrupting several times (every minute or so) what I'm listening: music from Play music, streaming radio from Chrome, etc ...
How can I solve this problem?
Thank you.
Hey everyone, I'm an LG V20 owner who loves my device, but I keep noticing that my AUX cables keep getting damaged when listening to music in my car. I thought I'd ask if anyone else was having similar issues. When I say "damaged" I mean that I either have to play with the AUX cable to get it to work or sometimes I only hear sounds from the left or right speakers. I have the Hi Fi Quad DAC enabled and I usually have the phone volume all the way to 75 (max) when I'm in the car. I've gone through at least 3 AUX cables and I'm assuming its either because of the Hi FI Quad DAC or because I have the volume too loud. Are there any good high quality AUX cables that anyone can recommend (preferably from Amazon lol)?
Not possible.
Damage to the cable would have to be physical, either you're using them in a way that stressed them and caused shorts, or you're just buying really cheap cables. You're sure it's the cables and not a problem with the headphone jack or the aux input in your car? Are the cables fully inserted? They're not coming loose?
I've used UGREEN cable in the past and they seem fairly robust
@thisisjason thanks for the response, the cables are fully inserted and not loose. I don't have any issues when I listen to music in my headphones so I'm blaming the AUX cables lol. I'll give UGREEN a try!
I've been using the same aux cable with my V20 since day one. This same aux cable has also been in use with my Nexus 6 it's entire lifetime. I doubt it is the DAC. 99.9% of the time, it's usually due to repeated bending in the same spot of the cord breaking wires. In fact, when used in a car we tend to always place our devices in the same spot which means any cords attached will bend... at the same spot, each and every time. This will lead to the wires inside breaking. Since they're in a sheath, they still stand a small chance of continuing to make contact. Which can make a signal come and go depending on how close the ends are.
If your headphones work fine then you should get a new aux cable, otherwise, it's the headphones jack
Strange, I recently posted about how an aux cable failed on me, I only got full volume / stereo from it when the phone was grounded through USB. Not plugged in, just ground to ground.
It's probably all just a coincidence coincidence since these cables often spend their lives in hot cars, It it's so.ething.
I thought i was the only one experiencing this but i figured its just cheap cables no more than $10. how can i raise volume to 100
charlie95113 said:
I thought i was the only one experiencing this but i figured its just cheap cables no more than $10. how can i raise volume to 100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can't, when dac is enable, the volume should be louder so the max vol will be 75
Just thought I’d do a quick write up of how I have today got rid of a bit of interference noise/alternator whine I had on my Audi A3 with Bose and a PX5 Android 8 unit.
It wasn’t a massive nuisance but when the volume was down and you revved the car you could hear it through the speakers.
On the Audi forum everybody that has the Bose system and one of these Chinese android units seemingly gets this problem, some people use noise filters or noise suppressors which does get rid of the problem but it also reduces the quality of your sound.
So today I had some ferrite filters laying about that I had previously bought for something else and thought I would use them on the power cables to the headunit. The A3 has a quadlock connector and then obviously there is the loom that comes with the headunit to plug into the quadlock connector from the headunit.
I used 3 of these ferrite filters altogether. One on the yellow cable from the battery, one on the acc cable and one on the ground cable. I have placed these on each of the cables directly behind the connector that plugs into the headunit so I have placed them on the cables before they split off to other sources.
I then rested the unit back in the dash and started the car and I have perfect sound and have lost no sound quality, if anything it is now better as there is no interference.
If you’re not sure what a ferrite filter is then just type it into eBay or something, they just clip onto the cable and have a magnet inside which draws out the interference and are very cheap. You might have seen them before on power cables or some company’s use them on hdmi cables.
I’d advise anyone to try this that has any alternator whine with one of these android units and especially if you have a factory fitted amp and sub like the Bose ones.
Not working for me
ab1702 said:
Just thought I’d do a quick write up of how I have today got rid of a bit of interference noise/alternator whine I had on my Audi A3 with Bose and a PX5 Android 8 unit.
It wasn’t a massive nuisance but when the volume was down and you revved the car you could hear it through the speakers.
On the Audi forum everybody that has the Bose system and one of these Chinese android units seemingly gets this problem, some people use noise filters or noise suppressors which does get rid of the problem but it also reduces the quality of your sound.
So today I had some ferrite filters laying about that I had previously bought for something else and thought I would use them on the power cables to the headunit. The A3 has a quadlock connector and then obviously there is the loom that comes with the headunit to plug into the quadlock connector from the headunit.
I used 3 of these ferrite filters altogether. One on the yellow cable from the battery, one on the acc cable and one on the ground cable. I have placed these on each of the cables directly behind the connector that plugs into the headunit so I have placed them on the cables before they split off to other sources.
I then rested the unit back in the dash and started the car and I have perfect sound and have lost no sound quality, if anything it is now better as there is no interference.
If you’re not sure what a ferrite filter is then just type it into eBay or something, they just clip onto the cable and have a magnet inside which draws out the interference and are very cheap. You might have seen them before on power cables or some company’s use them on hdmi cables.
I’d advise anyone to try this that has any alternator whine with one of these android units and especially if you have a factory fitted amp and sub like the Bose ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a pack of these from Amazon. In addition to putting one on BATT, ACC, and GND, I sprinkled the ferrite beads onto entire wire bundles and audio signal wires like it was Mardi Gras. The sound was not noticeable when the head unit was sitting on the dash as I installed the beads, but it was there when I reinstalled it into the dash. Still RPM-dependent.
jeffreydbrown said:
I bought a pack of these from Amazon. In addition to putting one on BATT, ACC, and GND, I sprinkled the ferrite beads onto entire wire bundles and audio signal wires like it was Mardi Gras. The sound was not noticeable when the head unit was sitting on the dash as I installed the beads, but it was there when I reinstalled it into the dash. Still RPM-dependent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
I have the same problem. Tried the ground loop isolators - the interference is gone but no bass at all. The ferrite filters didn't work. Does anyone have solution for this ?
Thanks
Hello, sorry for bringing back an older thread but I am currently working to fix this issue myself.
I had alternator whine to begin with and the ground loop isolators sorted that but mfilip, I have no bass at all and the sound quality isn’t all that great.
I have tried some Line-Out Converters and they did nothing but make the problem worse. I am going to get some Ferrite Cores and try them too.
The Bose system worked spot on so I know it’s capable, but something just isn’t right. However years ago I retrofitted an RNS-E in place of an Concert head unit and had this alternator whine, it turned out this was because the Bose pin was not connected correctly. Once I moved this pin to the correct location it worked perfectly, but I can’t seem to understand what to do with this pin with the android head unit as there is no where for it to go?