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Hey all, watching some flash videos today made me notice how poorly the N1 puts sound out the back speaker, even compared to my old G1. I remember back in my Blackberry days that people used to mod the backs to "let more sound get out", and so I started looking into this...
First off, the speaker is GINORMOUS in relation to the slit. If you look inside the back where the speaker is, you can see a little internal grille, and the small slit for sound to escape. There's also a TON more room where that grille isnt attached to the back (same shape as the slit, only about 5x the size) that could be milled out pretty easily, and still retain the "keep crap out of the back" feature of the grille.
So, this leaves me with a few questions:
Where can I get a replacement back, in case my mill catches a bit more than I anticipate?
Anyone else interested? I figure if I set up to do one, I might as well bang a few others out instead of setting up multiple times.
Once I get a second back, I will be going at this with pics and hopefully notable improvement in projecting sound into my hand, and back toward my face!
I might not be a software hacker, but when it comes to this sort of thing, I figure its the best way I can give back to the community!
Give HTC support a call and tell them your cover doesn't line up properly(I don't think any of them do) they'll send you out a replacement. If they don't they can sell you one for ten bucks I think.
Hope to hear good results from your mod, might do it myself.
I actually think the small slit does something to amplify the sound..
Take the back off, play music, put it on. Notice it gets louder when you place it back on..
I don't know though, but I'll be following this thread!
Wisefire said:
I actually think the small slit does something to amplify the sound..
Take the back off, play music, put it on. Notice it gets louder when you place it back on..
I don't know though, but I'll be following this thread!
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Yea, I think the OP should test and see if there's even a noticeable difference without the back cover. I would think not...
Try removing the cover, sounds WAY worse.
Yes, I completely realize the back sounds bad off, its acting as a resonator, or isolating front from back waves of the speaker, which causes phase cancellation. Thus why im not removing the cover, just making the one hole bigger. It SHOULD not lose the "low end" that it has with the back on (if you want to call it that.
Either way, Im hacking at least one up, Ill post results!
Do it. (poor phone!)
I would suggest to replace the speaker with a Desire one, some people who have both phones pretend it's way louder on Desire, and yes it's the same form factor and size so it should fit
It is quite a bit louder without the cover but sounds bad due to the lack of resonance.
Shouldnt be too bad with just an enlargement, make sure you put something to block out dust. Let us know how it goes.
I've found that attaching one of these to the back quite useful...
or try a vuvuzela
I think the engineer who designed that whole was well aware of resonance qualities. If you make that whole and turns out better, you should apply to HTC job hehe...
@Hummeroid
Good idea ...
What about drilling mini-holes arround the "slit" ?
Instead of making ONE BIG hole ...
Very Interesting mod idea...I think the small drilled holes would be an effective test.
Or just cup your left hand around the back of the phone.
I looking for the out come of this.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
mrbkkt1 said:
Or just cup your left hand around the back of the phone.
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hah, I've never seen anyone else do it, but I do this all the time if I'm showing people a video or am in a noisy setting (ie. party)
clickwir said:
hah, I've never seen anyone else do it, but I do this all the time if I'm showing people a video or am in a noisy setting (ie. party)
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Nah, everyone does it.. I mostly do it when I want to listen to something quiet, I can turn it down and redirect the sound towards me.
I actually have a really good pair of earphones. I prefer that the main speaker is in the back, instead of in the earpiece like some phones. Prevents earspeaker blowout and call quality is damn good with this phone so far.
mrbkkt1 said:
Or just cup your left hand around the back of the phone.
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I try to put it up against a wall. Your hand can work to absorb sound waves, thus deadening sound and lowering overall quality; but drywall bounces the sound waves back nearly impeccably. Desks, etc, any hard surface should do the trick.
I got mine yesterday, everything works fine except its microphone's quality. The other people hear me like I talk from distance away.
Is this common problem or just mine?
Thank you
This is something that I experienced initially when I got my Atrix, I resolved it by moving the phone up closer to my mouth. I tend to let the phone hang from my ear where I hold it near the top and it put's some distance between me and the mic. I'm a former iPhone user and was lazy with where the phone sat on the side of my head, once I made this change though people have said I sound clearer than when I was on my iPhone.
I can't talk closer, the speaker is exactly on my ear. It looks the microphone has very bad sensitivity. Too bad all Motorola cellphones i had in the past they had excellent quality.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Active nooise cancle
I have same problem, I turned off noise cancellation and got some improvement. I'm pretty sure it is a software issue. I also put a clear bra type case on it from some 3m stuff I have, I didn't cut out for the mic on the back. I'm hoping this too helps but have not tried yet.
Hi guys, I didn't see anything posted here about this so maybe it's just my phone, but does anyone else seem to have a quiet microphone? People are telling me they can barely hear me. I notice this issue on all ROMs including stock, and even though I have the phone NV unlocked for AT&T, even the sound recorder app is playing back my audio at a low volume.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any fix (software or hardware)?
If you have taken the phone to the gym and sweat or simply haven't cleaned out the mic area that will probably fixture issue. I took the phone to the gym a couple times and my fiance couldn't hear me afterwards whatsoever. Cleaned the mic and all of as back to normal.
Sent from my XT907 using xda app-developers app
Jersey846 said:
If you have taken the phone to the gym and sweat or simply haven't cleaned out the mic area that will probably fixture issue. I took the phone to the gym a couple times and my fiance couldn't hear me afterwards whatsoever. Cleaned the mic and all of as back to normal.
Sent from my XT907 using xda app-developers app
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Hmm, well the mic area looked clean to me, but this was a pre-owned phone I bought from Swappa so I'm not sure if the previous owner did anything. In any case, I called some friends and they said they could hear me fine. I don't know if cleaning the mic did the trick, because using a voice recorder app it still sounds low, but as long as other people can hear what I say, I'm fine with it. Thanks a lot for your help!
phantomsniper773 said:
Hmm, well the mic area looked clean to me, but this was a pre-owned phone I bought from Swappa so I'm not sure if the previous owner did anything. In any case, I called some friends and they said they could hear me fine. I don't know if cleaning the mic did the trick, because using a voice recorder app it still sounds low, but as long as other people can hear what I say, I'm fine with it. Thanks a lot for your help!
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Glad it's working better.. let me know if it persists and I'll do some more research.
I recently snagged an M from Craigslist. The phone is in pretty much brand new condition, not a scratch on this thing, the guy even threw in a brand new Otter Box case for it. It works great, except for the terrible mic quality. No matter who I call, they all complain about the quality, whether I have 5 bars of 4G or not. I've downloaded a few voice recorder apps, and they seem to record in fairly reasonable quality, so I'm not quite sure what the deal is. I've been looking for any reference to poor mic quality for the xt907 for a few days now and this is one of maybe 3 threads on the topic. So obviously it's not a very widespread issue. But I'd still like to be able to use my new phone without resorting to Bluetooth or a wired headset.
Does anyone have any experience with this issue? Or replacing the actual physical mic inside the phone? I've found replacement parts here and there, but they all just say 'XT907 Replacement Mic" etc. If someone has an actual model/part number for the microphone, or know where to find it, I'd greatly appreciate the info.
For the OP, when you cleaned your mic, how exactly did you go about it? I've hit it with compressed air but I haven't taken the phone apart yet.
Thanks again for any help.
WusteHase said:
I recently snagged an M from Craigslist. The phone is in pretty much brand new condition, not a scratch on this thing, the guy even threw in a brand new Otter Box case for it. It works great, except for the terrible mic quality. No matter who I call, they all complain about the quality, whether I have 5 bars of 4G or not. I've downloaded a few voice recorder apps, and they seem to record in fairly reasonable quality, so I'm not quite sure what the deal is. I've been looking for any reference to poor mic quality for the xt907 for a few days now and this is one of maybe 3 threads on the topic. So obviously it's not a very widespread issue. But I'd still like to be able to use my new phone without resorting to Bluetooth or a wired headset.
Does anyone have any experience with this issue? Or replacing the actual physical mic inside the phone? I've found replacement parts here and there, but they all just say 'XT907 Replacement Mic" etc. If someone has an actual model/part number for the microphone, or know where to find it, I'd greatly appreciate the info.
For the OP, when you cleaned your mic, how exactly did you go about it? I've hit it with compressed air but I haven't taken the phone apart yet.
Thanks again for any help.
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Compressed air would probably work, I just blew into it to clear any dust, and I tried to take a small microfiber cloth and insert the corner into the mic piece just in case there was any extra dust, though the mic hole was pretty clean to begin with.
I mostly had the problem when I called my dad though, and I found out the problem was a problem with the earpiece in the Droid 2 Global that my dad was using. When I switched him to an older Sony Ericsson w518a, the voice still seemed a *tiny* bit quieter than I think it should, but by no means was it as bad as with the Droid 2 Global.
tl;dr: I pretty much came to the conclusion that the earpiece of the other person was faulty, not the mic of the Razr M.
I also have the same issue with the outgoing voice quality of the Razr M. After a lot of researching I have come to the conclusion that it is actually the Noise-Cancelling feature of the phone that is not tuned correctly or outright defective on some devices. The secondary mic is located on top of the back camera. If you try to cover it completely with tape or something rigid, the voice quality improves somewhat.
Since the default phone application is the only one that seems to utilize the noise cancelling feature, it also seems to be the only one that suffers from horrendous outgoing voice quality. All my other apps that use a mic, like Viber, Voice recorder and VoIP apps, do not have this problem.
There is no way to disable this feature, on some phones it's a simple toggle but not on the Razr M with JB. I know of other mods where it can be disabled in the Phone.apk by disassembling it and removing the lines of code that way, but I have no knowledge of doing that. If someone is able to shed some light on this process, please help us out.
Problem with noise suppression, nothing else. Try to remove second mic from the board.
I've recently noticed that my left/top speaker is incredibly more quiet than the bottom/right one. It's almost as if it's stuck in "phone call" mode.
I'm rooted, still on Marshmallow (last available version). I've tried rebooting in safe mode, nothing changed. I've tried disabling all Xposed modules, nothing changed.
The speaker is not dead. It simply plays extremely quiet when compared to the other one. Could it be broken or is there something still left to try via software?
I have the exact same issue. Unfortunetly restoring stock Google image didn't help either. I think it's the hardware
same, but mine is bottom/right speaker. it will come on intermittently, usually if i flip phone around a bit into landscape....
am on 7.0 stock/rooted...battery issue has become an annoyance to...ugh
I had this happen after a drop of oil (skin treament oil, not motor oil) must have landed on the grill. At least that is what I hypotheseized. Problem was, because it was an oil, it wouldn't dry any time soon. It was actually so quite, when I made my first call the next day, I thought my phone wasn't working, then I heard a very, very, very faint noise from it. Compressed air in a can helped clean some of it out, and it got better- tolerable. Over the next few months it's very slowly improved, but it's still a little muffled sounding compared to the right, but the volumes almost match now. The grill in that speakers still gathers more junk than the bottom one, and I have to keep it cleaned out regularly. So, any chance a contaminant of any kind got in there? Try canned air, or gently use a clothing pin to remove any dirt/debris.
I think it's a poor design, because my Moto X Pure never had any issues with speakers getting wet or dirty.
Edit, I'll add that the entire speaker was muffled, not just one part of it, the whole thing sounded like it was broken, and I thought it was a hardware issue at first. Until the canned air got a little tiny bit of liquid/oil out. It improved by 50% with the canned air, then over months it slowly evaporated.
Check for metal shavings in the grill as well. I work in a factory and get it all the time.
gorman42 said:
I've recently noticed that my left/top speaker is incredibly more quiet than the bottom/right one. It's almost as if it's stuck in "phone call" mode.
I'm rooted, still on Marshmallow (last available version). I've tried rebooting in safe mode, nothing changed. I've tried disabling all Xposed modules, nothing changed.
The speaker is not dead. It simply plays extremely quiet when compared to the other one. Could it be broken or is there something still left to try via software?
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Hello... Don't know if you're running stock kernel, but you could try to change the gain of the top speaker with a kernel manager app: Kernel Adiutor, EX Kernel Manager, etc... If your kernel supports it. Most custom kernels do.
Good luck...
5.1 said:
Hello... Don't know if you're running stock kernel, but you could try to change the gain of the top speaker with a kernel manager app: Kernel Adiutor, EX Kernel Manager, etc... If your kernel supports it. Most custom kernels do.
Good luck...
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I could do this but I fear that to get acceptable results I would run the speakers entirely out of specifications limits.
If opening it was easier I would have checked for oil/water/anything inside.
It's supposedly still covered by its warranty but that would lead to an undefinable period of time with no phone... and that's unacceptable for me.
gorman42 said:
I could do this but I fear that to get acceptable results I would run the speakers entirely out of specifications limits.
If opening it was easier I would have checked for oil/water/anything inside.
It's supposedly still covered by its warranty but that would lead to an undefinable period of time with no phone... and that's unacceptable for me.
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Hey. Sorry, I didn't think about the "out of specs thing". The warranty won't cover water damage anyway. Though a repair seems to be the only way to get it to work.
I fear myself the day I'll have to open mine...
Goos luck...
Success! Re-reading everything that was written here I tried remembering if something happened that could justify what I was experiencing. And I remembered a cocktail spilling on the phone. Back then I didn't give it much thought because the phone kept on working and I wiped away everything almost immediately. I tried blowing hard inside the speaker grill and blowing and blowing, I noticed some liquid coming out of the speaker, very little drops obviously. Then I "slapped" the phone against my thigh repeatedly.
Thanks to everybody chiming in and especially @HikingMoose that made me think about this.
And now volume appears normal from both sides of the speakers. Using GoneMad Music Player I can adjust speaker balance and both seem to be playing at equal volume.
I have the solution for that
I'm pretty sure I have the solution. That's not b cause I'm claiming smart lol but thats because exactly what has happened to my nexus 6p recently. I got this nexus 6p as a replacement so it was new. A month later the top speaker got extremely low. If you go to YouTube and type stereo speaker test. You would here the difference. I thoughts it's the Oreo update/hard reset/ google support but no luck.
Anyways I thought of taking of the speaker grill to see if any dirt is blocking it. Believe it or not: as soon as I took the top speaker off I noticed the speaker got back to work asbestos loud as the bottom one. So it's the grill mate.
JUST BE CAREFUL THOUGH, it's hard to put the speaker back in. You might not be able too unless you glue it or something. I could not find anywhere to buy a replacement. Just be careful
Hani84 said:
I'm pretty sure I have the solution. That's not b cause I'm claiming smart lol but thats because exactly what has happened to my nexus 6p recently. I got this nexus 6p as a replacement so it was new. A month later the top speaker got extremely low. If you go to YouTube and type stereo speaker test. You would here the difference. I thoughts it's the Oreo update/hard reset/ google support but no luck.
Anyways I thought of taking of the speaker grill to see if any dirt is blocking it. Believe it or not: as soon as I took the top speaker off I noticed the speaker got back to work asbestos loud as the bottom one. So it's the grill mate.
JUST BE CAREFUL THOUGH, it's hard to put the speaker back in. You might not be able too unless you glue it or something. I could not find anywhere to buy a replacement. Just be careful
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I'm having the same problem on the top/left speaker, sounds seem muffled after accidentally poured chili oil on it (lol). Anyway, how did you managed to take out the speaker grill?
So I saved up an got Nexus 6P hoping to keep it for 2-3 years. Exactly 14 months, you guessed it no warranty left, the volume while I am on a call is really really low. I can hear someone when I am in a quiet room otherwise it is not possible to make out what the other person is saying. While driving a car, in even a slightly noisy room I have to turn on speakerphone to make a call.
I tried putting a tape on the back mike, not using protective cover, someone suggested I hard reset. All tried to no use :crying:
I am running stock and at this point desperate to find a fix. can't afford another phone and this one is no good other than in my bedroom :crying::crying:
Someone is saying replace the top speaker. I don't want to resort to that unless you guys think that is the only option.
VoltaB said:
So I saved up an got Nexus 6P hoping to keep it for 2-3 years. Exactly 14 months, you guessed it no warranty left, the volume while I am on a call is really really low. I can hear someone when I am in a quiet room otherwise it is not possible to make out what the other person is saying. While driving a car, in even a slightly noisy room I have to turn on speakerphone to make a call.
I tried putting a tape on the back mike, not using protective cover, someone suggested I hard reset. All tried to no use :crying:
I am running stock and at this point desperate to find a fix. can't afford another phone and this one is no good other than in my bedroom :crying::crying:
Someone is saying replace the top speaker. I don't want to resort to that unless you guys think that is the only option.
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Click to collapse
We can be friends. I have the same problem. Don't bother changing the speaker. I did and it makes no difference. Did you install any sound mods like I did? In all probability, it's something to do with the sound chip in the motherboard. God knows I've tried everything. This might sound crazy but I'm about to get a second hand unit. I haven't finished with this phone and can't do without front facing speakers unless I'm prepared to pay a lot for the pixel 2. It feels like someone has taken away your half finished dinner.
You can try this if on MM or Nougat. Worked pretty good for me. https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/mod-boost-call-handset-volume-t3329419/page7
Bluetooth headset or some cheap headphones with mic.
Finally got back my top speaker. I took the phone to a repair shop and the guy unblocked the speaker grill. He said it's basically an accumulation of dust, sweat or maybe spillage. He used some type of solvent. Now it's back to normal. So, nothing to do with speaker if anyone else has this problem. I tried compressed air previously but it's not effective.
Had this issue
tropical cactus said:
Finally got back my top speaker. I took the phone to a repair shop and the guy unblocked the speaker grill. He said it's basically an accumulation of dust, sweat or maybe spillage. He used some type of solvent. Now it's back to normal. So, nothing to do with speaker if anyone else has this problem. I tried compressed air previously but it's not effective.
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I had the same issue, along with my voice being muffled on the other side off the call. I used an air compressor and that works perfect for me. It was like night and day. it's a pretty powerful air compressor so maybe that's why it worked for me and not you. Or maybe you had gunk that needed a solvent. Either way it's worth a try to use an air compressor. I would be careful not to use too much pressure cuz I'm sure that could cause some damage at a certain point.
chacedj said:
I had the same issue, along with my voice being muffled on the other side off the call. I used an air compressor and that works perfect for me. It was like night and day. it's a pretty powerful air compressor so maybe that's why it worked for me and not you. Or maybe you had gunk that needed a solvent. Either way it's worth a try to use an air compressor. I would be careful not to use too much pressure cuz I'm sure that could cause some damage at a certain point.
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Thanks for the input. My gunk couldn't be removed even with an electrical compressed air gun (don't know the term). A friend tried earlier. Really glad I came across this repair shop. Was ready to buy another 6p.