Database Users

A FIX for the WINGS lousy loudspeaker NFFAH

First off, first post but long time LURKER
Second, NFFAH=Not for faint at heart
Third, THe FIX: I got tired of all the guurgles,pops and lousy sound from the wings loudspeaker. The speakerphone was useless and that just was bull****.
Removed the old loudspeaker and observed the 2 gold tabs that made the actual contact on the circuit board. Went thru my cell phone junk box looking for something similar in size (I am a pack rat so I have every cell phone I have ever owned and a few I got off buddies that no longer worked too.) Found an old Samsung A707 that always had good speaker sound and the speaker itself would fit into the wings slot with no cutting on the wings case. Using a low watt soldering iron I removed the gold tabs from the old wing speaker and GENTLY attached them to the A707 speaker. It slipped right into the wing and wow the new(old) speaker is not as loud as the old speaker but I can hear everything now on the wing. MUsic sounds alot better and I can use the speakerphone now and actually tell what people are saying. All this on a volume setting of 5 on the replacement speaker.
Bottom line...............the speaker the wing ships with totally and completely SUCKS.

This goes a little beyond a reg hack. LOL
Nice work. I'll be shipping my wing to you shortly

Dude, awesome!
I actually have an old Samsung A707 laying around. So I'm going to do this as soon as I get some free time.
I'm excited!

Sound distortion?

Alright Guys,
Had this issue with my tablet for a while now, regardless of ROM.
When I'm playing music or video, if the notes or sounds are too high pitch (I think). I get horrible distortion from the speakers! I have to have the volume 50% or below to rectify this. It's typically the sound you can get with speakers when they're vibrating too hard on something. Could it be down to the casing, perhaps something is loose? Anyone else have this issue?
Cheers

kashinoda said:
Alright Guys,
Had this issue with my tablet for a while now, regardless of ROM.
When I'm playing music or video, if the notes or sounds are too high pitch (I think). I get horrible distortion from the speakers! I have to have the volume 50% or below to rectify this. It's typically the sound you can get with speakers when they're vibrating too hard on something. Could it be down to the casing, perhaps something is loose? Anyone else have this issue?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't really know what you are expecting from the speakers, but seems you should be able to run 75% with no distortion. If I want it loud, it ear buds for me.

shaun298 said:
Don't really know what you are expecting from the speakers, but seems you should be able to run 75% with no distortion. If I want it loud, it ear buds for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah not expecting great results of course, but shouldn't be distorting above 50%. Usually take the tablet out to the park for music when we're relaxing so need the volume up.
Just took the casing off, tightened all the screws and put some tissue paper in the gaps to stop any vibrations, seems to have done the trick :good: Probably had few too many drops.

Loudspeaker Quality

As there is no similar topic specially for Loudspeaker I decided to create one.
I like the speakers of the phone sound good and bassy.
Although I had to replace the speakers (repair),
(cuz it got low by it self (hardware defect))
But I noticed the bottom speaker is thinner and more high frequency specialized in the other side the top speaker for low frequency (bass)
Idk if it is hardware fault or it is designed by Sony,
I want to know your thoughts abt the loudspeakers ?

I don't know about Z3, but in the Z2 the top speaker is more clear than the bottom one. I think it's probably some kind of technology. But in the other side, if you're watching a film in horizontal direction, you can hear that everything is happening on the left side and that's annoying.

if the phone gets wet especially the loudspeaker area the loudspeakers stop making sound and thd sound is emitted from some sort of loudspeakers internal to the phone which appears the be louder from the back of the phone.
i listen music in the shower, so thats how i found out. though it was interesting to share

BrainstormPL said:
I don't know about Z3, but in the Z2 the top speaker is more clear than the bottom one. I think it's probably some kind of technology. But in the other side, if you're watching a film in horizontal direction, you can hear that everything is happening on the left side and that's annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind of weird, my neighbor have the Z2 and he never had such problem, are you sure it's not hardware fault? If my neighbor find such problems he directly comes to me to ask me what's this etc, but I know he don't have this problem cuz u also use his phone to compare etc, so I guess for you its a hardware fault maybe?
raviboy100 said:
if the phone gets wet especially the loudspeaker area the loudspeakers stop making sound and thd sound is emitted from some sort of loudspeakers internal to the phone which appears the be louder from the back of the phone.
i listen music in the shower, so thats how i found out. though it was interesting to share
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I also listen to music when I shower and I can confirm that,

oh no dont get me wrong it's not a complaint, im suprised the phone knows when its wet enough to stop the loudspeaker, its a good thing =)

raviboy100 said:
oh no dont get me wrong it's not a complaint, im suprised the phone knows when its wet enough to stop the loudspeaker, its a good thing =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm maybe the speakers feel pressure when it gets wet and it shows the volume down / stops the speakers ?

As an audiophile I will say that as a Mobile Loudspeaker it is quite good. Compared to anything else though it is still a low sound quality speaker.
But as a mobile speaker though, it is very good. It is loud, clear and doesn't "break up" that much. It got some bass, but not much.
I think it sounds better with the surround function on. :good:

Its pretty good, but not near the M8. Id say second best of any phone out. I don't get the left/right mismatch many of you have mentioned., I have been through 4 Z3s for cosmetic defects and all sound equal. Maybe its a quality control issue or I have bad ears.

When I go into the service menu and do a test of the speakers, I get the sound coming out of the top/left speaker on both. What's going on there? There is perhaps some sound coming out of the bottom/right but it's tiny in comparison.

Potential loudspeaker issue

Hi everyone, new to xda.
Long time reader, but first time poster.
I picked up my OP2 yesterday and love it, bit noticed 100% of sound coming out of the loudspeaker comes out of the right side grill. So when I cover the right side, all of the sound us muffled
Is this normal? I've tried playing music where sound should only come from one side for a few seconds and I can hear the full song.
Any help is much appreciated

Never mind all! Did not realise the two speaker grille illusion. Got me good one plus!

Yeah, the left grill is just for symmetry. Happens a lot in phones, iPhones got it too (for those questioning the spread of this 'trick').

A possible fix to low in-call volume

Recently I found my Z3c had a dramatic drop in earpiece volume. I could barely hear the caller's voice when in a quiet surrounding (like office or home), and impossible to follow the talk when outside. This was quite annoying, because it's a phone and making calls is one of its essentials regardless of whatever extra functions added to it. So I did a lot of work trying to bring the volume back. I rooted the phone (eventually), tried some sound mod, and even worked on the mixer_paths.xml directly. None of these gave me any luck. As the problem seemed irrelevant to the software flaw at the stage, I was thinking about possible hardware cause.
The first thing I did was to open the top side flap, which covers the micro SD and USB. Then I made a call to my voicemail and compared the voice I heard from both the flap opening and the top speaker. I could tell immediately that the sound was much louder and clearer from the flap opening, while the sound from the top speaker was distant and isolated. Wait a sec...
From my research on posts, I was told that there is a film lying on the speakers to make the Z3c dust proof. You can see them through the speaker cuts. To allow the sound goes through it, the film has to be perforated. Could those tiny holes be blocked after spending time with dust, water and soap (yes I did wash my Z3c frequently, thanks Sony for the water proof!). A user did mention the volume on both speakers were much gained after removing those films. I don't want to go extreme, but that did give me a hint.
So I used a pair of tweezers, with pointed tips. I slightly scratched them on those films. Immediately the color changed from dark black to lighter gray. I kept scratching them and made the grey evenly, and made another call to the voicemail. Guess what...the earpiece volume was noticeably increased! Then I airbrushed those films and tried again, this time I could not tell the improvement, but the sound was loud enough that I could hear the voice even from a distance. Now the sound coming from the flap opening would also match with that from the top speaker. I would call it a success.
To summarize: what I did was simply cleaning those meshed films on the speakers, by scratching dust off them. These films can be penetrated if you pushed too hard, so please be gentle. And I'm not sure if this trick would work for others, I'm just sharing my experience, with a good wish that this could work for others who are also bothered by the low in-call volume as I was. Still, try those software fix as well, as the cause to the same phenomenon may be different.
Thanks for reading. Let me know your comments/thoughts/tricks and treats (Happy Halloween!)

Thanks for sharing, I have same issue --- did you test its waterproofing if it still works after cleaning the speaker's mesh?

Has anyone issue with the lower speaker? I actually tried to touch it, its very hollow --- are all units like this? Thank you.

Shizuwi said:
Thanks for sharing, I have same issue --- did you test its waterproofing if it still works after cleaning the speaker's mesh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had it showered once, nothing wrong so far.

today-g said:
Had it showered once, nothing wrong so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
done, so far great improvement with sound, i can hear the other person on the phone better --- but not sure about my bottom speaker, its very hollow.

This was one of the reasons why I'd sent in my phone. I thought the speaker was broken. Seems they've just cleaned or replaced that mesh because the volume works well on the returned phone.

Thanks for sharing :good::good:

I push chewing gum in to the grills and mic to clean them out.
Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

wow.. it realy works... thanks a lot bro ... !!!

Thx for sharing I'll try it

How does such a thin layer of perforated material manage to block so much sound?

You're my hero!!!!!
I was about to send it back cause of the awfully low earpiece volume. Now that I have cleaned it it's even too loud!
Thanks mate I really appreciated it
Cheers:good:

Great tip bro. Immediate improvement to volume level. However I guess I pushed it further that the sound is now cracking at high volume when the phone rings.
But am still happy that I can hear the other party.
Good job man.

Those of you who are claiming this works, could you please go into your service menu (*#*#service#*#*) from your dialer and run the stereo speaker test? Do both speakers have the same volume output or is one significantly louder than the other?
Sent from the only flagship phone that actually fits in my hand... The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

So, I'm almost embarrassed to report that I had no issues with my earpiece, but thought I'd give this method of "cleaning" it out a try. I used a piece of chewing gum to remove any dirt from the screen and almost immediately noticed a drastic DECREASE in output from that speaker. Now, calls sound hollow and tinny, and the stereo speaker affect is nearly gone because the top speaker is so much quieter.
I'm afraid that I somehow caused my top speaker to produce less sound by trying this method. I've tried to wipe away any sticky residue caused by the gum, but nothing seems to help. I can't send my phone back to Sony because it's been rooted and they wont honor the warranty. I can't believe that thin piece of speaker grill would actually be able to block sound. What now?

I managed to get higher volume by cleaning the upper speaker with a chewing-gum but my operation removed the thin grey layer. Do you think I've lost waterproof?

zar69 said:
I managed to get higher volume by cleaning the upper speaker with a chewing-gum but my operation removed the thin grey layer. Do you think I've lost waterproof?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you haven't. Speaker attached to the lcd panel by a plastic staff so water can't goes inside.. I removed the speaker cover too but i admit without that cover phone looks ugly

2russell said:
No you haven't. Speaker attached to the lcd panel by a plastic staff so water can't goes inside.. I removed the speaker cover too but i admit without that cover phone looks ugly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, thanks.

Has anyone tried replacing both speakers with Z3/Z3 dual/Z3+ ones? I was looking at the pictures of spare parts and it might be possible to put some of those in our Z3c, since the sound on Z3c is really low by default, and the ones on Z3 do sound quite louder.

I had same problem, could barely hear a phone call. I scrapped off the black material protecting the speaker now I can hear through the earpiece. I'm guessing now the phone is not water proof..