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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.
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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.
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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.

Strange static noise

I have noticed that when using the supplied earphones I can hear static background noise when I scroll through menus and buttons while music is playing. This only happens when music is activated and I can hear a low annoying fuzzy static that gets louder the more I scroll for example.
I can barely hear it when I put on headphones but can with earphones, seems quite strange wonder if anyone else experiences the same thing?

No one? Just try it, turn the volume down while listening to music then go to home screen and scroll left constantly or right and the hissing noise will get louder.
Audio chip or whatever must be quite crappy.

Restarted phone and can't seem to hear it now. Strange.

I'm glad that by talking to your self you've managed to fix this problem.

I spoke to myself to soon! Its back and I suspect it has something to do with the wifi sharing. As I activated kies air, uploaded a song, listened to song and hissing is back! argh.

jonkrav said:
I spoke to myself to soon! Its back and I suspect it has something to do with the wifi sharing. As I activated kies air, uploaded a song, listened to song and hissing is back! argh.
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Try force stopping it? I've frozen most Samsung apps but even before then I had no problems at all with something like this tbh...although I don't use the stock music player.

I have annoying static background noise while using earphones, it can be better heard whilr using the phone when no music is playing.
This is a general issue or isolated cause?

I have this!!! I seem to get possibly some kind of audible distortion just before i play a song, and then when i pause the song and touch the screen it makes the weird static noise (and possibly when the song is playing as well, but its less identifiable). For me this noise only lasts for about 5 seconds after i have paused it and then stops. And yes, it also seems to be louder in earphones than headphones.
HAVE YOU FOUND A FIX? Firmware upgrades? Sent it back and got a replacement? what did you guys do? Let me know, thanks.

Could it be evp?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

I installed the Backslash Kernel and THEN noticed this, rebooted and it went.
It came back a while after. I also unplugged the headphones with the music app running and the phone rebooted.
Re-flashed the CF-Root KG1 Kernel and it went away, not had any 'noise' or reboots since :/

I got a replacement from orange as this issue was too distracting. My replacement has just come, but exactly the same 'static noise while and after listening to music' issue is still here!!! Is this really what its like for everyone but people don't bother saying?
PDA: I9100BVKE2
PHONE: I9100BVKE2
CSC: I9100ORAKE2
BUILD INFO : Wed May 11 22:56:39
KERNAL VERSION: [email protected] #2
On my last phone i tried flashing to generic KE7 AND KF3 (using odin). Both seemed to make the sound last for not as long after i pause the music, but did not solve the issue. Will rooting the phone, using different kernals and whatnot fix this? Could it be a dodgy batch of phones from orange? (I have no knowledge of what rooting and kernals actually is, let alone what ones i should use)

I have also experienced this. It seems the screen is the problem since the noise is gone when the screen is off.
What headphones are you using?

I have used the supplied headphones, but i have also tried other headphones as well. All seem to give the same sound but possibly at varying levels of volume. Do you still have the problem?

I use the Sennheiser CX300 II and I do not experience it any longer.
It depends on the impedance of the headphones. If the impedance is 16 ohm I cannot hear it but on 12 ohm headphones it is pretty obvious (but they are able to play louder).
I have not tried the supplied ones myself because they ALWAYS sound awful but if you had a specific name for a proper headphone you have tried, you can easily find their impedance on the internet.

Hmm well i have tried my creative EP-630 headphones which have impedance of 16 Ohm and i can still hear the noise. I have used many terrible headphones on terrible 'mp3 players' over the years and i have never experienced this, so i don't see why i should now go out and buy some new headphones. Although if you are really saying that the Sennheiser CX300 II headphones completely cured your problem then it might be worth it? Was your problem exactly the same as the one i described? Cheers.

It's obviously a problem of the audio amp picking up electrical noise from the other components of the device. I'm skeptic that anything can be done to solve it.
I also can hear some faint background noise on mine when scroling the screen and using memory, but anyway it's very faint... not enough to bother even in quiet environments.

I have to agree, it's bad shielding in the design. Something we will all have to live with.
I notice it most between songs when listening to music. Each songs starts with a little blast of noise.

Hmmm well i've heard that with certain kernals it is not there. Also for me, simply changing to different stock firmware reduced the time that the static sound lasts after i pause a song, so surely that can mean it can be stopped altogether. Im not prepared to give up on this (yet).
I would be grateful for other information and reports from other people about this issue, even simply if you don't have it. :/

...anyone?

tgg12 said:
...anyone?
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i have this problem too...
but i have found that it does with some earphones... i guess its a matter of shielding, as posted before.

Headset speaker making popping noise on actions

Hi all, wondering if anyone else has this problem. At the outset, I want to note this is NOT the headset crackle problem (where you can hold phone up to ear and hear noises).
When I perform an action, such as pressing the back button on Chrome or clicking a link or hitting the icon to an app, there's a chance that my headset speakers will make a popping noise. This is weird for a few reasons. One, my phone is on vibrate or silent, so it's not the standard "noise-on-button-press". Second, it's coming from my headset speakers, not the standard speakers.
Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a solution? It's happened to two out of the three phones I've used, and I don't know if it's worth it to do another replacement.

RecursiveLogic said:
Hi all, wondering if anyone else has this problem. At the outset, I want to note this is NOT the headset crackle problem (where you can hold phone up to ear and hear noises).
When I perform an action, such as pressing the back button on Chrome or clicking a link or hitting the icon to an app, there's a chance that my headset speakers will make a popping noise. This is weird for a few reasons. One, my phone is on vibrate or silent, so it's not the standard "noise-on-button-press". Second, it's coming from my headset speakers, not the standard speakers.
Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a solution? It's happened to two out of the three phones I've used, and I don't know if it's worth it to do another replacement.
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My first n4 had that same issue so I called Google play and they issued a RMA. It was just really annoying. And that same one had the noises in the ear piece. My second one doesn't seem to have the popping noise, but does have some noise in ear piece sometimes.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Earphones Mic too low volume

From Day one i have been trying to get good earphones with Mic for nexus 4
tested out more than 6-7 quality earphones with mic like J6M, Klipsh, etc
but the microphone volume on the other end of call is too less compared to apple ear phones( recently switched from iphone)
I have to keep the mic piece really close to my mouth for a good conversation...
can someone help me here.. the mic on nexus 4 works perfect but when i connect earphones the problem begins... i used mic sensitivity apps to test and they pick very less volume from the connected mic
How do i boost the mic sensitivity on earphones or should i return the phone

Will try with my skullcandy's and revert

spaceguyy said:
From Day one i have been trying to get good earphones with Mic for nexus 4
tested out more than 6-7 quality earphones with mic like J6M, Klipsh, etc
but the microphone volume on the other end of call is too less compared to apple ear phones( recently switched from iphone)
I have to keep the mic piece really close to my mouth for a good conversation...
can someone help me here.. the mic on nexus 4 works perfect but when i connect earphones the problem begins... i used mic sensitivity apps to test and they pick very less volume from the connected mic
How do i boost the mic sensitivity on earphones or should i return the phone
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I'm having the exact same problem - did you find a fix?

I tried quite a few.. expensive as well as cheap ones. finally i got hold of a cheap ear phone set and the volume to the other end is good to be heard (as I have been reported).. While trying them all, I was calling my friend and asking him.. so thats how I know i picked the best one. However, since it extremely loud.. i kinda have to keep it away from my ear a bit and volume on phone is turned down to minimum.. Plus, due to its sheer loudness, I can hear the buzzing sound.. For the first time i noticed it, i.e.: through these extreme loud ear phones. The other party hears it too. Never heard it while on call directly using the ear piece. Strange.

filthykid said:
I tried quite a few.. expensive as well as cheap ones. finally i got hold of a cheap ear phone set and the volume to the other end is good to be heard (as I have been reported).. While trying them all, I was calling my friend and asking him.. so thats how I know i picked the best one. However, since it extremely loud.. i kinda have to keep it away from my ear a bit and volume on phone is turned down to minimum.. Plus, due to its sheer loudness, I can hear the buzzing sound.. For the first time i noticed it, i.e.: through these extreme loud ear phones. The other party hears it too. Never heard it while on call directly using the ear piece. Strange.
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Do you mind me asking which brand headphones you are referring too here? I have the same issue.

I bought from a local shop. It was a knock off of beats audio. The sounds it throws is EXTREMELY loud.

Is it just me, or does the OP make very little sense? I'm completely lost at what he's trying to ask.. Something about the mic? or the sound output of the "earbuds"?
No trouble here with any of the wired earbud sets I've tried. Clear as a bell and no buzzing.
If its so Loud for you, what are you not adjusting the volume? Would kinda of make sense to do so...
Or you could upgrade in your tech and get a bluetooth earbud.. I have absolutely no problem with volume levels from my Jawbone; I'm hear clearly and I can hear them just find (even when driving with all windows down, it sounds like they are right next to me yelling)

UberSlackr said:
Is it just me, or does the OP make very little sense? I'm completely lost at what he's trying to ask.. Something about the mic? or the sound output of the "earbuds"?
No trouble here with any of the wired earbud sets I've tried. Clear as a bell and no buzzing.
If its so Loud for you, what are you not adjusting the volume? Would kinda of make sense to do so...
Or you could upgrade in your tech and get a bluetooth earbud.. I have absolutely no problem with volume levels from my Jawbone; I'm hear clearly and I can hear them just find (even when driving with all windows down, it sounds like they are right next to me yelling)
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Nope, it's you. OP was referring to the mic volume on the headset being low, but in filthykids response, he mentioned that the headphones that solved the quiet mic is also very loud on the earpieces.
Also having the same problem, BTW.

Headphone pop at high volumes

Does anyone else have an issue with the audio cutting out when the volume is up high when using headphones? For example, during a phone call, if things get loud, the audio will start popping.

Something's telling me that I may have to RMA, but other than that, I have no other issues. Screen is perfect and I don't want to lose that.

I have the same issue

rr5678 said:
Does anyone else have an issue with the audio cutting out when the volume is up high when using headphones? For example, during a phone call, if things get loud, the audio will start popping.
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I have the same issue, I purchased my Nexus 6P yesterday and this exact issues is being experienced. I can only have the audio up 3/4 before the earbuds headphpnes start to pop and cut out. I have tested this on myltiple earbuds headphones and the same issue occurs every time. Any one have any ideas before I take it back under warranty.