Database Users

Front Speaker Sounds Scratchy

Those of you that have gotten your phone, what's your speaker quality like for the front speaker? I noticed that mine is scratchy for higher pitched sounds like a girl talking, but sounds okay for lower pitched sounds. Does anyone else have the same issue? I might try going to the AT&T store tomorrow and seeing if they have any in stock I can exchange mine for.

Well... supposedly going into the store to pick one up might be a longshot, especially on launch day, if it's to be as popular a phone as it appears it will be. As for the scratchiness of the earpiece.... it could be a defect, or it could just be the volume. Hard to say, really.

Didn't engadget say it was that the speaker were really good?

elementaldragon said:
Well... supposedly going into the store to pick one up might be a longshot, especially on launch day, if it's to be as popular a phone as it appears it will be. As for the scratchiness of the earpiece.... it could be a defect, or it could just be the volume. Hard to say, really.
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Yah, I figured it'd be a long shot. If they don't have one perhaps they can order a new one for me. I tried turning the volume down and that only made a difference if it was 1/4 or lower.

Phone mode audio quality and volume.
Well, my Atrix has decent audio on speaker phone mode, but the audio out on the ear piece is a bit scratchy on the highs if turned up to what most would consider a mid volume level. I have to keep the volume down lower than I would like to avoid the scratch.
The phone mic is also very bass heavy. This phone is a great computer, but as a phone it has audio issues, and is bass heavy on TX and RX audio, regardless of EQ settings.
Currently considering if it should go back, as I need a good sounding phone.
Anyone else underwhelmed with the phone audio clarity?
**FIXED**
EDIT: Under settings, Call settings, "Noise suppression" was defaulted to "normal" Turning this to "off" made a massive improvement in all call audio (in a normal non-noisy environment). Now phone has decent call audio.
Hope this helps someone else... This had me concerned.

I had tried changing the option for Noise Suppression to 'Off', but it didn't make any difference for me. I took the phone into ATT and they replaced it without hassle. The new phone sounds much clearer.

I had the exact same problem with my pre-ordered unit. Went into a AT&T store today, and they were reluctant to replace it. After trying to sell accessories, they opened another one, and it sounded the same, so I left.
I went to a larger store and tried their floor model, which was perfect. The rep mentioned that they just received an e-mail about bad speakers, and replaced it without a problem (except trying to push more accessories).
So if you're picking one up, try the speaker first.

Just wanting to clarify, are those with the scratchy audio problem referring to the "earpiece" speaker or the hands free "speaker phone" speaker?
My speaker phone mode sounds great, only had earpiece issues.
And, does anyone know to which speaker the emailed "bad batch" notice was about?

Earpiece speaker

secretlevel said:
Earpiece speaker
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Thanks for that.

I had the same problem. After reading the response, went back to Radioshack and got my phone replaced. Now it sounds good.

I had the same problem with mine as well. Very bad scratchy/rattle sound at high volumes. Had the phone swapped out and the new one is perfect.
Sound quality isn't quite as good as my Samsung Focus; Motorola seems to make things unnecessarily bassy but its clear and usable.

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.
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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
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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 =)
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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.

[A] Moto X Pure vs HTC One M9 - Speaker comparison

Just got my Moto X Pure today and retired my M9.
I know when I was originally looking at the X Pure, the biggest question on my mind was how the speakers compare to the M9? I am relieved to say the Moto speakers sound pretty good!
What's different? The Moto speakers are louder - Quite a bit louder actually, maybe 50%, without any breakup. It doesn't have the same hi-fi quality of sound the M9 has or the noticeably richer low end , but it still sound pretty good. I was also using Poweramp, which has a really good EQ and I have it set to bump up the bass a little and knock down the mids (1k) just a little to kill the "boxy" sound.
Like I said, this was a main concern in getting a different phone and the main reason I've stuck with the HTC One series for so long....They just sound really good. But over-all, I'm REALLY happy with the Moto X Pure and it's sound quality. I think if anyone is unsure about switching from an M9 for this reason, don't let it hold you back.....And honestly, it doesn't feel that much bigger either.

Sound on this thing is awesome... First time I have owned a phone and had to turn the volume down on it wile watching a video. Coming from nexus 5
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

I never doubt the quality of the moto x style speakers, but great to hear that you are satisfied

Finally will be able to hear my ringtones without it sounding like garbage

How is the placement of the headphone jack, does it prove to be a bother and is it awkward. And how is the sound quality through the headphone jack.

When having a phone conversation over speakerphone, only one speaker is functioning. I still have to turn it down from the max volume. I fiddle with the volume a few times until it is at a comfortable level.

Business.Owl said:
How is the placement of the headphone jack, does it prove to be a bother and is it awkward. And how is the sound quality through the headphone jack.
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The output from the headphone jack is a little lower than the M9, but the M9 was too loud, when turned up all the way, and would distort the auxiliary port on my car stereo.... The MXP doesn't push it to distort, even full volume.
I haven't tried it through headphones/earbuds yet, just in my auxiliary port in my car stereo......It sounded really good (no better or no worse than my M9). I did mess with the EQ on my music player, but ended up putting it about the exact same way as I had it on my M9. I've included a couple screen shots of my EQ settings, one is PowerAmp, the other is Shuttle+.
I also noticed under Settings>Sound & Notifications...There is a setting called "Audio Effects", which is a built in EQ, I haven't touched that setting yet. This may be normal for ROMs based on GPe (stock Android), but I've not noticed it on the custom ROMs I've ran in the past, unless I used Viper4Android or Dolby.
As for the headphone jack, it's fine where it is. It's not a deal breaker for me, but I do wish it was on the same side as the charging port. With my M9, when in my car I would plug in the charger and headphone jack, flip it upside down and stick it in my cup holder in my car. With it being on top and the charging port on bottom on the MXP, I can't do that.......So I just lay it in the passenger seat.

tele_jas said:
The output from the headphone jack is a little lower than the M9, but the M9 was too loud, when turned up all the way, and would distort the auxiliary port on my car stereo.... The MXP doesn't push it to distort, even full volume.
I haven't tried it through headphones/earbuds yet, just in my auxiliary port in my car stereo......It sounded really good (no better or no worse than my M9). I did mess with the EQ on my music player, but ended up putting it about the exact same way as I had it on my M9. I've included a couple screen shots of my EQ settings, one is PowerAmp, the other is Shuttle+.
I also noticed under Settings>Sound & Notifications...There is a setting called "Audio Effects", which is a built in EQ, I haven't touched that setting yet. This may be normal for ROMs based on GPe (stock Android), but I've not noticed it on the custom ROMs I've ran in the past, unless I used Viper4Android or Dolby.
As for the headphone jack, it's fine where it is. It's not a deal breaker for me, but I do wish it was on the same side as the charging port. With my M9, when in my car I would plug in the charger and headphone jack, flip it upside down and stick it in my cup holder in my car. With it being on top and the charging port on bottom on the MXP, I can't do that.......So I just lay it in the passenger seat.
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Your car does not have bluetooth? I never realized this problem of headphones and charging cable on opposite ends because of bluetooth. I also always put my phone in the cup holder upside down with the charger cable attached....

devsk said:
Your car does not have bluetooth?
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No

Glad to hear this. I'm coming from an M8, which isn't quite as good as the M9, but I do appreciate the quality of sound that comes out of the speakers on my M8. If you've owned an M8, how does the sound compare to that? It sounds like it might be on par with the M8, but not quite as good as the M9, would that be accurate?

jonathanbailie said:
Glad to hear this. I'm coming from an M8, which isn't quite as good as the M9, but I do appreciate the quality of sound that comes out of the speakers on my M8. If you've owned an M8, how does the sound compare to that? It sounds like it might be on par with the M8, but not quite as good as the M9, would that be accurate?
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I personally liked the M8 sound better than the M9, but that's just my opinion (that's a story for another day, I wish I kept my M8 instead of upgrading to the M9)...... But the MXP is still not quite as good, but good enough.
I used a different player (Shuttle+) and messed with the EQ on it and got it sounding REALLY good through the speakers. I think if both the M8/M9 were sitting next to the MXP and I was looking at them, I'd be able to tell the difference. If I closed my eyes and someone held one up playing a song, and asked which one it was..... I'm not sure I could tell the difference?
The HTC One phones have a certain Hi-fi sound through the speakers, the MXP isn't quite there but is really good IMO.

I guess it's a waiting game before we can run Viper4Android on this baby. I know V4A makes a huge difference on my Galaxy S5. I can't wait to try out the front facing speakers. Real Racing 3 is going to sound epic

Coming from an M8 this was really good to read!
★sent from hTcOneM8★

Is there a legit mod, hack or something to raise speaker volume?

Yes, I have V4A installed, but it doesn't seem to do much volumewise.

Even if there was, I don't think it would help much. The 10j update helped make mine a little clearer but the sad matter of the fact is the speaker is lame. Can't niece LG brought the A game to the headphone jack but could t make a better external speaker. What is even sadder is that it isn't waterproof which usually bring speaker quality down in some way or another. I'm guessing we are going to have to live with it. For shame for shame.

@rbiter said:
Even if there was, I don't think it would help much. The 10j update helped make mine a little clearer but the sad matter of the fact is the speaker is lame. Can't niece LG brought the A game to the headphone jack but could t make a better external speaker. What is even sadder is that it isn't waterproof which usually bring speaker quality down in some way or another. I'm guessing we are going to have to live with it. For shame for shame.
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So dramatic

joewoo said:
So dramatic
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Not really.. The non-stereo single speaker sounds awful when comparing it to any phone, even my old S5 Active just because it had 2 speakers. And that phone only cost me $200 out right.
But yeah besides using v4a, WETA offers the most audio mods as far as ROMs go.

I noticed if Im playing music, and then record a video with snapchat while the music is playing, once it goes into playback mode, my speaker audio jumps to double the loudness, even after i close snapchat.

You can mess with the media_profile.xml files

Keep a look out for my post, I'm putting it in the Guides, News, and Discussion section. It's a small hardware mod for the speaker. Nothing major, but it helps.

Yeah I can understand the frustration it makes no sense that the G4 speaker is better than the current models. The g4 speaker sucked but in comparison to the v20 it's louder and doesn't sound like its going to blow.
I don't depend on the external speaker at all (I use a clip on felt speaker that is 10x better) but it does suck that LG skims on the external speaker when audio is a big feature of the phone.
Sent from my LG-H918 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I can guide anyone with a rooted V20 to make the audio output through wired headphones be so loud it hurts. Using myself as an example, Ive loved LOUD music my whole life. I have never been able to find a portable music device that was as loud as I wanted it to go, and the battle to be loud without distortion was constant. I am sure in those 25 years doing that I have a bit of hearing damage, so what I have now is even more impressive. Today, with this V20 I have, and the hacks/tweaks I put together on it, I cannot listen to music through ear buds over ~70& volume for more than a few songs before a migraine comes, and I have to spend the rest of the day half deaf because of the ringing in my ears.
But as far as sound through the built in speaker inside the phone, I would never expect to use it for anything but regular random sounds like youtube clips or podcasts. The speaker is the size of two dimes stacked together, and there isnt any sort of chamber or cabinet like bigger music speakers use, which is maybe most important.
If you want to play music without headphones, I would suggest getting a portable bluetooth speaker or something like that. They are impressively good these days and arent very expensive

How is the call quality and noise cancellation, with the four microphones?

On the Essential website is says that the phone has four microphones: "4x microphones with noise cancellation and beam forming."
I'm wondering how this affects call quality for noise cancellation (and if all four microphones are in fact used in calls--or is it just used for detecting voice commands). Has anyone tested how well the phone cancels out background noise? In other words, when you are in a noisy place, how much of the noise does your caller on the other end of the line hear?
In-call noise cancellation is an area with phones that has really languished and in fact mostly gone backwards, technologically. I still haven't seen a phone with better noise cancellation than my Nexus One (that used the amazing Audience chip, which no one uses anymore--because Qualcomm includes a noise cancellation function in their chipsets now, which is not as good, but, well, comes with the chipset at no extra cost.)
Secondarily, how is audio recording quality in videos?
Thanks for any feedback.

I would also love an answer to this. Reviews almost never mention how clear or understandable you are to people you call anymore.

celticchrys said:
I would also love an answer to this. Reviews almost never mention how clear or understandable you are to people you call anymore.
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Have not had one complaint coming from a S7 and G6 the essential is fantastic.

O wanna know where the 4 mics are! We've obviously got one on the bottom by the SIM, and one by the camera.
Where are the other 2? Perhaps one in each speaker grill (earpiece and large speaker)?