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Is there any way to make the lowest headphone audio setting any quieter?
I am a big fan of in ear headphones, but the problem I always face is that the lowest setting on audio devices is too loud for these types of headphones. I was wondering if there were any tricks to make the lowest sound setting any quieter.
I'm also wondering where the limitation is, either hardware limit, audio driver, or the android API?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
On a side note, it seems like there is just one "Media Volume" setting state regardless of whether the headphones are plugged in or out. This is somewhat annoying as if I was listening to something on the loud speaker at full volume, and then plug in my headphones to listen to some music later without remembering to change the volume my ears would start to bleed
+1. I like how my previous winmo device had system volume AND player volume which stacked. Set both controls to minimum and I could enjoy my music late at night before going to sleep without having those crescendos making me jump out of my bed.... but with Android, I have yet to find something similar.
I noticed this too but when I switched to a different set of in-ear headphones it changed. Maybe buy a different pair of headphones?
Here's my issue, hooking up the phone thru the headphone jack to the aux of my benz the volume level is extremely low. I have the volume on phone all the way up. I have to turn it up extremely loud on the car volume to hear it. Is there like a child protection volume setting or? Didn't have this issue with the gnex
Thanks for any help...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Hi,
This is the same for me Anyone got a solution?
Pandora is much quieter than Google Play if you're using one or the other. I find the volume on mine to be on par with my MP3 player so I am satisfied. If you haven't run an aux into your car before you may be just unaware of how 'loud' you have to make it. My car stereo has been to turned up to 45 to hear it while driving, but I listen to the FM radio on like 22.
Nothing much else I can say about this sorry.
You are correct. Its much much lower. My n4 on my car stereo is at like 30 compared to my wife's iPhone at 20. Through Bluetooth its a bit more normal.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
I actually find my N4's headphone jack to be a bit louder than my LG G2x's; I have to turn down the speakers from where I had been setting them. (Both require a higher volume than the radio or a CD, though.)
Yea I can't even listen to music without hearing other peoples conversation on the train, Stock Android Volume has always been Low what the heck is Google smoking , the iPhone has great volume levels, I know the N4 3.5mm jack is more than capable
Had the GSM Galaxy Nexus before the N4. In my car, the volume goes from 0-40, 40 being max. On my GN I had the volume from 15 to 25, with 25 being incredibly loud. Anything above that would probably make your ears bleed.
On my N4 with the volume all of the way up and the EQ off (loudest setting) I have to turn the volume up to 40 to hear it at all. I'd say my GN at this volume level would mean my car was on 10, whereas with my N4 is has to be at 40.
The volume is MASSIVELY lower - basically unusably so. I've warrantied out my current N4 in hopes that this is a hardware problem, but after seeing threads like this, I'm beginning to wonder if it's just ridiculously low on purpose.
I don't notice it on headphones/car aux in, I do notice it on a cheap set of external speakers...I haven't found a fix.
any of you tried the volume+ app from the store? I used it on my Sony xperia and it did the trick....
Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk 2
Atrix27 said:
Here's my issue, hooking up the phone thru the headphone jack to the aux of my benz the volume level is extremely low. I have the volume on phone all the way up. I have to turn it up extremely loud on the car volume to hear it. Is there like a child protection volume setting or? Didn't have this issue with the gnex
Thanks for any help...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem solved through Bluetooth Audio: http://www.amazon.com/GOgroove-BlueGate-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B00727FE5U/
my headphone goes in crooked.
Yeah.
I tried my bluetooth adapter and, while it's slightly louder, it's still not really that loud. Why do manufacturers choose to make the volume out on phones SOOOO quiet?
Also, Bluetooth audio (A2DP) always sounds so bad to me. I'd much rather have a real, physical connection.
This just seems to be what you get with Android phones. They dont get it. At 100% volume it should be as loud as the radio or CD, except its like 30% lower. My iPod touch and regular ipod were just as loud as the radio and I didnt need to adjust the volume when switching between sources, on my Android stuff I have to crank the stereo volume to unsafe levels and then hope to god I remember to turn it down before switching to the radio. If Im riding on a loud road I have to turn the volume up to like 80% to hear it, that would blow out my speakers if I switched to radio at that volume.
Android makers simply dont understand that AUX needs a pure audio signal at native db, they design the phones for headphone use and have probably never even heard of AUX.
qwahchees said:
my headphone goes in crooked.
Yeah.
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Click to collapse
lol mine is crooked too. I'll get used to it I guess
I'm having the same issue and its driving me crazy! I read somewhere to try "Volume+" but apparently its not compatible with Jelly Bean...
Low earphone volume - Solved !
My friend who is an audio engineer, measured the audio output from nexus 4.
This is what he recommended.
Use a earphone with 16 ohm impedence. (Most commercial phones are 30 ohm).
The sensitivity of the earphone must be 108 dB/mW or higher. Higher the better.
Sensitivity measures the efficiency of conversion of electrical enery into sound.
Based on this, I bought a JVC HA-F150-B. Now audio volume is practically doubled.
You can buy one at ebay for cheap prices.
i have the same problem hooking up my nexus to my car stereo through aux. at first i thought it was just the songza app, but i had no issues with it on my gnex. its to the point where its so low i had to crank my volume on phone and car stereo all the way up and it was still not even as loud as say a cd at half the volume. tried volume + which i was using on my gnex but it doesnt seem to work with my nexus 4. its so annoying .
I bought a Fiio E6 headphone amplifier and called it a day. Problem solved for me at least.
It's not a problem with the phone, it's a problem with the car receiver expecting higher voltage.
Go through the receiver manual and find out if there is a way to adjust the input voltage.
Bump.
I'm facing exactly the same. I'm coming from a cheap Huawei phone that sufferered the same problem (extremely low output, though not as clean) but before that I was using a tiny Samsung Galaxy 5 which cost £30 new and had PERFECT audio/levels on all roms.
I do most of my listening via Tunein which doesn't have any kind of built in amp which can help. I have to crank the volume to max (50 on my Blaupunkt unit) to hear it at an acceptable level, and often that isn't enough. I use radio traffic reports but god help me and the cars around me if they come in while the N4 is hooked up, it'd be deafening!
Surely this can be fixed? I understand the need for safe volumes but there's nothing safe about having to crank everything to max only to have your eardrums popped when you go to listen to the radio.
Very frustrating!!
I just started playing a few games on this Nexus 7, and I turned the volume down to the lowest setting because it is late at night and other people in my house are sleeping. I immediately noticed a soft but very audible static buzz coming from the speakers... about the same volume as the audio itself. I held my ear up to the hardware and confirmed it is both top and bottom speakers.
Anybody else experience this?
copyists sorpeno
I didn't notice at first. Noticed this morning with audio low as well.
I'd like to know if anyone else has this too. Kinda wanna know if its hardware since I purchased at best buy and only have 2 weeks to return.
Yup, I was going to report this too, but since it only occurs at minimal volume I didn't bother. I lost my good headphones so I can test the audio jack. Does it happen to you with them on too?
Btw- if this the trade off with the fantastic (for tablet speakers) surround sound I'll take it. Watch the test video on the Play Videos app.
Sent from my Nexus 7
I don't hear it. on mine. But My hearing is horked.
It's because the Nexus 7 uses a crappy digital volume control that simply reduces the volume of the digital waveform before it hits the DAC, instead of having a real analog volume control -an op-amp that adjusts the volume of the signal before it hits the headphone/speaker amplifier.
What you're hearing is quantization noise as at the lowest volume the audio uses only 2-4 bits of dynamic range instead of the full 16 (or 24, dunno what DAC is in this thing). It's the same as the bit-crushing effect you hear in some dubstep and other electronic music that degrades the audio into a robotic crunchy mess, only here it's not on purpose, it's just cheap design.
There is nothing you can do about it.
I've also noticed this (at first I was like, WTF? Is it raining in my game?). If what was said above is true, that makes me sad that nothing can be done about it.
siraltus said:
It's because the Nexus 7 uses a crappy digital volume control that simply reduces the volume of the digital waveform before it hits the DAC, instead of having a real analog volume control -an op-amp that adjusts the volume of the signal before it hits the headphone/speaker amplifier.
What you're hearing is quantization noise as at the lowest volume the audio uses only 2-4 bits of dynamic range instead of the full 16 (or 24, dunno what DAC is in this thing). It's the same as the bit-crushing effect you hear in some dubstep and other electronic music that degrades the audio into a robotic crunchy mess, only here it's not on purpose, it's just cheap design.
There is nothing you can do about it.
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I'm not sure how you know that but if you're right I guess that means it would happen on all of them... which.. sucks.. Is there anyone that doesn't have this issue to disprove this?
smurfqq said:
I'm not sure how you know that but if you're right I guess that means it would happen on all of them... which.. sucks.. Is there anyone that doesn't have this issue to disprove this?
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I'm a professional audio engineer, I know exactly how these things work. Most cheap devices do volume controls that way, because adding a dedicated op-amp for analog volume control increases costs of the device, and the Nexus 7 is a budget device.
It does happen on mine, too, in every app that plays sound.
I love when pros come in here and give the technical explanation haha hats off to you, sir!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
siraltus said:
It's because the Nexus 7 uses a crappy digital volume control that simply reduces the volume of the digital waveform before it hits the DAC, instead of having a real analog volume control -an op-amp that adjusts the volume of the signal before it hits the headphone/speaker amplifier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the others have said, thanks for the explanation. Nice to hear from somebody who understands it, and if the problem is present in all units that actually makes me feel better since I don't have to worry about returning my otherwise perfect unit.
Question though, how come I don't hear the static when using headphones, even on the lowest volume settings where I hear the static from the built-in speakers? That makes me think it's related to the speakers and not the audio hardware... but you obviously know more than me on this.
mrmartin86 said:
I've also noticed this (at first I was like, WTF? Is it raining in my game?). If what was said above is true, that makes me sad that nothing can be done about it.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, funny thing is the first game I played was Bad Piggies on some levels with an ocean tide moving back and forth at the bottom of the screen. I thought the static was the tide sounds... until I heard it in another game too.
tweaked said:
I don't hear it. on mine. But My hearing is horked.
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It only happens at the absolute lowest volume setting... i.e. one notch up from muted. It sort of happens at the next notch up too, but is most noticeable at the quietest setting, and you need to be in a quiet room. I only noticed because I was using the device in a small echoey mostly tile room (you can probably guess where) and because of the room having such acoustics I put the device on the lowest setting just above mute.
Had something like this on my original nexus 7
Except it happened regardless of the volume setting. Wasn't that audible- had to put my ear against the speaker to really hear it, but it did interfere with other devices, such as my radio, or keyboard with a head phone jack. It would make a sound like a quick DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH...DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH. My nexus 4 can sometimes cause static interference with other devices, too. Haven't gotten the new nexus 7 so I cannot say whether or not my new one has this issue
Well.. mine's not only happening at the lowest volume notch. If I put it to my ear (never actually going to do this for normal use) it's there at every volume level, just hard to hear once whatever I'm playing gets loud enough. The display unit at a local best buy does the same. I can hear it in a quiet room at the first couple notches (normal use), which is annoying. Also, since someone asked - No it doesn't happen through headphones.
The111 said:
As the others have said, thanks for the explanation. Nice to hear from somebody who understands it, and if the problem is present in all units that actually makes me feel better since I don't have to worry about returning my otherwise perfect unit.
Question though, how come I don't hear the static when using headphones, even on the lowest volume settings where I hear the static from the built-in speakers? That makes me think it's related to the speakers and not the audio hardware... but you obviously know more than me on this.
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Click to collapse
My pleasure! There's tons of FUD on XDA about many things, so I try to contribute on stuff I know well to reduce that.
Without looking at the schematics of the thing I can only guess:
The speaker amplifier is probably just a simple design that outputs 100% power all the time, so you have to control the volume of the signal that enters it, whereas the headphone amp probably has an integrated analog volume control.
A volume control is much easier (read: cheaper) to do in an integrated chip with low power signals (headphone out) than higher power (speaker out), and again, cheaper was the way to go with the Nexus 7.
Hence, there are two separate outputs from the audio chip - one that feeds the speaker amplifier and uses the bit-crushing digital volume control, the other outputs full-scale audio to the headphone amplifier which controls the volume in analog.
siraltus said:
My pleasure! There's tons of FUD on XDA about many things, so I try to contribute on stuff I know well to reduce that.
Without looking at the schematics of the thing I can only guess:
The speaker amplifier is probably just a simple design that outputs 100% power all the time, so you have to control the volume of the signal that enters it, whereas the headphone amp probably has an integrated analog volume control.
A volume control is much easier (read: cheaper) to do in an integrated chip with low power signals (headphone out) than higher power (speaker out), and again, cheaper was the way to go with the Nexus 7.
Hence, there are two separate outputs from the audio chip - one that feeds the speaker amplifier and uses the bit-crushing digital volume control, the other outputs full-scale audio to the headphone amplifier which controls the volume in analog.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes sense. Thanks again.
siraltus said:
My pleasure! There's tons of FUD on XDA about many things, so I try to contribute on stuff I know well to reduce that.
Without looking at the schematics of the thing I can only guess:
The speaker amplifier is probably just a simple design that outputs 100% power all the time, so you have to control the volume of the signal that enters it, whereas the headphone amp probably has an integrated analog volume control.
A volume control is much easier (read: cheaper) to do in an integrated chip with low power signals (headphone out) than higher power (speaker out), and again, cheaper was the way to go with the Nexus 7.
Hence, there are two separate outputs from the audio chip - one that feeds the speaker amplifier and uses the bit-crushing digital volume control, the other outputs full-scale audio to the headphone amplifier which controls the volume in analog.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this something they can fix (or at least mitigate) in a software update?
paxunix said:
Is this something they can fix (or at least mitigate) in a software update?
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Click to collapse
No, this is how the hardware is designed.
Noticed this too from the speakers regardless of volume, and regardless of what is playing audio. It's a high pitched squeal to my ears which I can't stand. I've thrown out computer power supplies and video cards that have made similar(obviously, louder) noises.
Was hoping it could be something improved in software, but I guess not. Time to sell this.
http://youtu.be/c9aQnuOrTY8
Recorded what it sounds like at lower volumes with a small condenser mic next to it. Let me know if that's similar to what you guys are hearing too.
When playing sounds or music at very low volume there is an interference noise that can be heard if you put the ear next to the speaker. I've tested it with the game Mystery Room. It's very annoying when you are on a quiet environment.
View issue on Google Product Forums
Listen sample on GoHear
View Youtube sample
Another thread in xda: Static / buzzing from speakers at low volumes
siraltus said:
It's because the Nexus 7 uses a crappy digital volume control that simply reduces the volume of the digital waveform before it hits the DAC, instead of having a real analog volume control -an op-amp that adjusts the volume of the signal before it hits the headphone/speaker amplifier.
What you're hearing is quantization noise as at the lowest volume the audio uses only 2-4 bits of dynamic range instead of the full 16 (or 24, dunno what DAC is in this thing). It's the same as the bit-crushing effect you hear in some dubstep and other electronic music that degrades the audio into a robotic crunchy mess, only here it's not on purpose, it's just cheap design.
There is nothing you can do about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's already a thread about this...
Please search 1st before posting!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2383248
Great job mod!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Thanks for consolidating everything and giving people an easier way to learn about this issue.
The best way I believe to produce the static.
Play YouTube Video > Adjust volume to mute > Listen to top speaker (portrait mode) > Then gradually increase it from mute and up
I was at a BestBuy and I was still able to hear it, the Aug/Model I bought and the floor model they had, both have the static.
I have a pair of QCY earbuds which are great except for the volume is a little low even on maximum Are there any proven methods or a working app to increase the volume a little more
"EDIT" Also the AUX on the phone is a little low too I use it in my car and I have to turn up the volume on the car audio and phone very high so anything that will help is appreciated.