Database Users

Whats that dreadful noise??

I noticed that when I am calling someone that means having the display really close to my ear and the display is on, I hear a ultra high frequency noise similar to the one that old televisions produce. It is quite disturbing. I would like to ask if anyone has a similar sensation with his prophet. Try to hold the display against your ear while the device is on. Do you hear anything like that? thanks!!!!
Very Interesting fact:
If i overclock the device to 216 and above, the sound vanishes. if i underclock it the sound gets deeper and louder.
What the deal with overclocking?
Did it damage the device?

Nope

thanks for the quick feedback but listen closely, i Believe that this noise exists in every unit.. maybe ??

Nope just tried, don't think it matters but I do have a Qtek S200 with the latest Dopod WWE ROM loaded.

thanks for the try, I am very suspicious that the overclocking of the device to 216 MHZ caused this damage. If i clock it down to 180 it starts making this noise. WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!

exxi said:
thanks for the try, I am very suspicious that the overclocking of the device to 216 MHZ caused this damage. If i clock it down to 180 it starts making this noise. WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!
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It's highly unlikely that overclocking has caused this problem. You have surreal hearing abilities maybe?

yes, there is always a high pitched noise whenever the display is on from the very begining... device is a dopod pro 818 HK version. A rom change (x-vendor) did not make a difference. still there today
regards, Alex :?

I can hear it too... NOT happy with this! :evil:

Ehi guys,
You're dealing with devices working at high clock frequencies ! That noise is quite normal... I can hear it even getting my wireless mouse close to my ear... Nonetheless I can understand it could be annoying if occurring on a phone device...
My 2 cents.

I think that it's the screen that makes the noise. I have a screen off key assigned to the memo key and the noise stops when the screen turns off... I use it all the time if I am making a long call...
M

I have this sound on the backside of my display, when i open my Wizard! Seems that it is the display or digitizer or whatever

Overclocking mine to 228 gets rid of the high pitched sound :?:

Hi,
it seems that the noise is produced by a defective electric part of the display. It is not the effect of overclocking. On the contrary overclocking is the solution. If you overlock the unit (or underclock it, if you're in doubt) the broken part will not get in resonance and thus will not produce any noise.
I had the same problem with my Palm Tungsten and overclocking was the solution. On the Tungsten it was definitely a problem of cheap displays.
Keep quiet, just overclock.
greetings,
Ahjetztja

It's not faulty, it's what this type of screen does. Google it and you'll see. If you can only hear it when the phone is close then it is fine, if not, then maybe try to return the unit.
The reason why some people cannot hear it might be down to the fact that as you get older the highest frequency you can hear drops off. Try it with some older people... it's a bit odd that you end up hearing something that others cannot.
If it's annoying, over clock it or use the screen off setup like I mentioned.
M

Hi,
m444rcus said:
It's not faulty, it's what this type of screen does.
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No, making noise is definitely not a normal behaviour of lc-displays. My Neo does not (yet?) have that problem. That special part is faulty and there are chances that the sound will get louder and louder. That is how my palm tungsten behaved. It seems that history is repeating.
m444rcus said:
The reason why some people cannot hear it might be down to the fact that as you get older the highest frequency you can hear drops off. Try it with some older people... it's a bit odd that you end up hearing something that others cannot.
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You are right, hearing gets weaker while people get older. But this has nothing to do with that special problem. My hearing is excellent and I could clearly hear the noise produced by the display of my tungsten, that started after three months. No noise yet with my Neo.
grettings,
Ahjetztja

Anyway, Google the problem and you'll see that lots and lots of people are asking why their screen whistles... Mine whistles, but only slightly. I think it is down to the screen and not a problem at all.
It's not just Windows phones...
http://forum.brighthand.com/showthread.php?t=221912
And also this thread suggests it's the touch screen side of things.
.http://www.modaco.com/index.php?s=2...howtopic=227971&pid=733631&st=40&#entry733631
You missed my point with regards to the drop off of hearing. I was pointing out that people lose their ability to hear such high pitched sounds as they get older. This could explain why one person on the forum says he can hear something and the next person cannot.
What is this 'special' thing you keep talking about.
M

Here is the deal. I called the o2 XDA support hotline and I was told that this sound is produced by a faulty part in the display (some kind of transistor) and that if the sounds is hearable even if the device is not held close to the ear I should return it under warranty. In my case, i can hear the noise when I work at night and everything is quiet which is VERY annoying. I decided to return it and get an exchange unit.
Indeed, if I overclocked the device to 216 the noise would vanish eventually but I am not willing to have a constantly overclocked device or any kind of obligatory change. I can promise you that this noise is not standard for the neo because I testet it with more than 3 devices of friends.
I really hope that overclocking did not cause this harm else I will not overclock it anymore even though i really want it.

I guess that all devices* cannot be faulty though....?
*all brands/phone etc that have a whine

m444rcus said:
Anyway, Google the problem and you'll see that lots and lots of people are asking why their screen whistles... Mine whistles, but only slightly. I think it is down to the screen and not a problem at all.
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There may be many people that have this sound, but you can not draw a conclusion about the percentage. If you search for a problem, the results suggest that the problem is bigger than it is in fact. That is because people without that problem usually won't tell others in a forum.
m444rcus said:
You missed my point with regards to the drop off of hearing. I was pointing out that people lose their ability to hear such high pitched sounds as they get older.
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Once again: you are right, but it's irrelevant. As I already mentionend, my hearing is excellent and I could hear the sound with my palm and some (not all) other PocketPCs. But as for my XDA Neo there is no sound.
m444rcus said:
What is this 'special' thing you keep talking about.
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According to my research it is likely to be a coil that is not well mounted. Have a look at this german posting concerning the palm:
http://www.nexave.de/forum/thread.php?postid=171540#post171540
Edit:
Or read what the hotline said to threadstarter exxi (german xda-forum):
http://xda-zone.de/thread.php?id=10112&start=16
greetings,
Ahjetztja

Where in that quote did I draw a percentage about how many people have that sound? I merely pointed out that there are many people who are questioning why their screen makes a noise.
You mention about people report problems far more than if there is none, I agree. But you need to take into account that people are asking the question across phone and phone platforms and about laptops. Therefore it is okay to assume that there some reason why these screen make a whine.
Granted your whine (your phone that is) may be greater than the one that I can hear when my ear is very close. The whine I hear is very high pitched and stops when I turn the screen off. It's not got louder, it's not changed due to over clocking and returning the speed to its original speed. Therefore are we infact hearing two different things? Who knows, just stop miss-quoting me and making out that you are correct. I am merely putting forward more evidence as to what the whine is and that it's not limited to these phones.
Still missing the point about the hearing bit and it is relevant as I was talking about everyone, not just you with super hearing (notice in my previous quote I said 'people' not you), marka2k said that they could not hear anything... so it may or may not be faluty or they might not be able to hear a high pitched sound anymore (sorry marka2k if you can )
As for the research (dont you mean you googled?), they would be in German... cannot be arsed to translate the page as I feel I must tell you again. I was only stating a fact that people are questioning why there screen on their product (phones, laptops, tv) make a whining noise!
If your phone is faulty, fix it or return it to the manufacturer or sell it, or throw it in the bin and buy another phone that does not whine.

Annoying whining noise from screen - where do I stand?

Hi folks,
I thought I'd get some opinions from folks here regarding the screen whine issue that some LCD screens get.
I recently bought a replacement Tytn off ebay after breaking my screen on mine. When it arrived it looked fine. I put it on charge and started cleaning it. That night I find out it's got a high pitched whine making it almost unusable.
I've sent it back to the seller and asked for a refund but he says he's contacted HTC to find out if it's a recognised fault or not. If it's not something that HTC acknowledge then he's going to make me make arrangements to pick it up from him.
Does anyone know if this is a recognised fault with the phone?

AFAIK, I have got some experience with some other handheld, it appear the pitch noise come from LCD inverter. seen some picth noise in early production of O2 Atom, old handera handheld. even nokia e61 generates pitch noise if you listen it closely. what I can not confirm is where the LCD inverter located, in mainboard or in LCD modul it self. So I can ot tell you which one is broken.
Well, it's just my opinion.

Thanks for the input tianz.
I've found loads of info on Google about it. It appears to be quite common with some of the older mobile phones.
Is it reasonable to expect me to have to accept a phone which has an audible whining noise to it?

Well... actually it's up to you, If you find the whining noise is too loud for your ear maybe you should return it while you can. As my experience when I had Handera with whining noise, I had return it. but when the replacement came back, the whining noise get worse and the company said that there's no problem at all with my Handera.
Later on I found out what cause the whining noise, and actually very simple to fix it, just find the inverter ?? (sorry I don't know what they call it in english, It's ferit core and copper wire wrapped around it) and put some wax from the candle or you can use glue.
And again, I don't know where exactly the inverter located in Hermes device, or maybe they use different model of inverter in Hermes.
So, It's up to you. I hope my answer will satisfied you. Thank you

Unfortunately I bought the phone off ebay and the guy isn't keen to refund me - although he currently has both phone and my money.
He says it's not that loud/irritating so I'm not sure what to do.

I've just dealt with it. The whine is only there when the LCD screen is on. My 8525 phone is exactly 1 year old. It can be irritating though, so I use the earbuds whenever I can.

Optimal said:
I've just dealt with it. The whine is only there when the LCD screen is on. My 8525 phone is exactly 1 year old. It can be irritating though, so I use the earbuds whenever I can.
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Unfortunately for me the guy that's selling me the phone doesn't appear to agree that it's annoying:
=========================================================
"I have tried the phone and whilst it is just possible to hear a noise if I put my ear to the screen (why ayone would need to do that I have no idea) there is no audible noise when the phone is held to the ear as used in a normal phone call"
=========================================================
I can hear it loud and clear even at arms length - the phone doesn't even need to be near my head!

Mid said:
I can hear it loud and clear even at arms length - the phone doesn't even need to be near my head!
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Refund it if you can, too loud if its for me.

tianz said:
Refund it if you can, too loud if its for me.
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That's the problem, he doesn't want to refund. He wants me to keep the phone so he doesn't have to deal with it.

if you do have the phone in your hand, please confirm the pitch noise come from the front speaker or LCD it self. I'll try to help you finding the inverter located. I'll look around if I had a chance to open my 8525 again. Thank you

i am on my second tytn. I bought both used and in PRISTINE condition on Craigslist. The first one I bought had it, and so I asked for my refund from the seller. The second one (that I have now) just started the whining noise yesterday. I've had it since January 2008. It SUCKS!!!
-Paul
PS: the noise is heard when I put my ear to the front speaker up close. It's weird. I heard it as soon as I move my ear to it. However, after about 5 seconds I don't hear it anymore. Then as soon as I move my ear away, I hear it again... It's like my ears become desensitized to it? lol

PS: the noise is heard when I put my ear to the front speaker up close. It's weird. I heard it as soon as I move my ear to it. However, after about 5 seconds I don't hear it anymore. Then as soon as I move my ear away, I hear it again... It's like my ears become desensitized to it? lol
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[/QUOTE]
It is quite possible. It's like being in a room with an analog clock. You may have sat in that room 100 times, with the same noise around you, but for some reason this time you can hear the tick tick tick of the hand movement. Then just as quickly as you noticed it you can suddenly not hear it no matter how hard you try.
It can be a state of mind that results in your heightened sense of hearing or it can be as simple as your tympanic membrane being a little tighter.

Like the above poster said, I hear mine sometimes too, and other times I dont hear it at all.
To the OP, if the seller has your phone and your money, then either keep asking for your money back and if that doesnt work, email ebay or give him bad marks stating what he has done. If that doesnt work, you can threaten to take him to small claims court ( Judge Judy ). What is loud and irritating to you maybe not to him. Get you rmoney back. Hope this helps..

I think the reason the sound goes in and out is due to the fact that the screen istelf goes to sleep after a few seconds, or what ever you have set in the system...
My screen starting making this noise a few weeks ago. I love the functionality of this phone, but I am pretty much done with it. I can't stand all the tweeks that come with it.
I jumping to the iPhone as soon as they make the slinbox player for it... and they roll out the 3g functionality.
Don't mean to rant, but I am just frustrated.

I think the phone was dropped of damaged and that is why it gives off a high pitch sound.. Mine dropped onto a hard concrete floor. It looks and works perfectly fine but immediately after it emits a high pitched sound when ever the screen is on.
This is not normal for the TyTn which means it was damaged in some way prior to you getting it. Demand a refund.

Hi guys - the person I bought the phone from is still waiting for HTC to get back to him so he still has both the money and the phone.
Even if HTC say it's not a recognised fault, it's still unusable to me because it's really loud to me.
I'm not sure there's much I can do as I'm not exactly in a strong position to make demands.
Personally I think it would be unreasonable for him not to refund me but then he might not be a reasonable person.

tianz said:
if you do have the phone in your hand, please confirm the pitch noise come from the front speaker or LCD it self. I'll try to help you finding the inverter located. I'll look around if I had a chance to open my 8525 again. Thank you
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Click to collapse
The sound is definitely from the LCD - the speaker is fine once the screen is switched off (i.e. you can turn the screen off while on the phone and it's still fine).

I've had 3 8525's, one of them had this problem from day one. There have been a few threads about it as well.
I have just learned to turn my screen off during a call. It's real easy and quick, besides, you aren't looking at the phone when you are talking on it, and if you are, you probably can't hear the whine.
However, if you don't want to deal with the whine, then don't. Hopefully you paid through paypal and can just file a claim if the guy doesn't want to be fair. It is a defect and they should back you up.
If not, look to ebay and see if there is anything further you can do with them.
Call HTC yourself. Don't wait for him.
good luck

yes mine also does it i have just learnt to put up with it, but yes like drakkahn said you should ring HTC yourself and see what they have to say

drakkahn said:
Call HTC yourself. Don't wait for him.
good luck
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Very good point. I don't know why I haven't thought of that.
Just off to call them now.
Thanks.

Noise Cancellation

I'm leaning on upgrading to the Nexus S from the Nexus One, but have a few questions concerning noise cancellation. In the tech specs, the Nexus S states it has software noise cancellation. So is it safe to assume it uses software to remove background noise as opposed to the Nexus One which used a secondary mic? How is the software based noise cancellation on the Nexus S performing for people? Would love feedback. I work at a manufacturing plant, and being able to hold conversations in and around noisy equipment is a must. Last question is, does the built in VoIP stack on the Nexus S make use of the noise cancellation?
I would really appreciate the feedback.

I don't know, but in another thread someone posted that their new nexus s performed very bad in a noisy environment, unusable actually. So its worth investigating and owners posting their results for now.

I am pretty sure that "software noise cancellation" is bull****. they just didnt want to disappoint existing Nexus One owners. Maybe Gingerbread in general tries to improve sound quality, but it has nothing to do with Nexus S

I haven't been in a "plant" environment, but have been in a noisy office, and it has performed as well as the N1. I also frequently use the google chat voip calling feature that was added to gmail recently. It mentions "software based" noise canceling. If it's the NS uses the same, then it will be awesome.
How does your N1 perform in your plant environment? I'm guessing it also will have problems.

rhca50 said:
How does your N1 perform in your plant environment? I'm guessing it also will have problems.
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The Nexus One performs great when it comes to noise cancellation. Never had anyone complain. I have tested the noise cancellation by leaving myself a voicemail on my work phone standing next to a centrifuge, and was shocked at the results. Not a hint of background noise. My voice was pronounced and clear, albeit a tad "digitized", which I'm sure is a side-effect of the noise cancellation. Only gripe I have is the low earpiece volume. Even on "full" blast, it's still too low in noisy environments.

I am having complaints from people I talk to using my nexus s. They say that it sounds like they are on speaker phone and that the call is nice and quiet until I start talking; which they say has a lot of static and background noise. Any other people getting complaints from people you talk to using your nexus s?
p.s. I work in a loud environment and never had issues using my N1.

I have commented on this in other threads. I've used a N1 since its launch. I returned my NS after having used it for 3 weeks as my primary phone. The main reason that I returned it is the lack of noise canceling, the ear speaker sounds tinny and on a busy street the traffic noise is picked up by the mic and broadcast in my ear. My N1's in call sound quality is far superior to the NS. The noise canceling really does a good job.

given that the Nexus S uses software noise cancellation instead of a secondary mic, is this something that may be able to be fixed with a new ROM or custom kernel?

generalagony said:
given that the Nexus S uses software noise cancellation instead of a secondary mic, is this something that may be able to be fixed with a new ROM or custom kernel?
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I doubt it, for noise canceling to work in an intelligent way, I would think there needs to be more than one mic. All of the noise canceling headsets I've seen have two mics, including my Jawbone bluetooth which has a button that rests on my cheek.

if you work in noisy environment don't buy this phone. I returned it only because of this problem. Every other problem that people complain here on this forum I didn't have and are nothing when it comes to phone calls. The primary function of the phone is the worst ever. Nobody hear me when I made phone calls from my car (driving, not using blue tooth - yes still legal in some countries) and I had to put the phone always on the speaker phone to be able to hear the other callers. Finally give up and returned the phone. Same isuue with my old Samsung i8910, but i was able to tweak the speaker settings in phone service software.
otherwise great phone.

I have found the that the NS works better than my N1 in general as a phone. The call quality is much better and the ear piece is MUCH better than the N1. N1 was hard to hear in anything above an avg room noise. NS I have to turn it down most of the time and much richer sound than the tin sound of the N1. Been in a few coffee shops that are loud and did calls in them. People on the other end said they could hear the background noise but it was very low and I was very loud and clear. Just my 2 cents.

I am going to try an exchange. I bought one of the first units sold at my local best buy on release morning so maybe I got a bad one. Friend of mine who bought just before me exchanged his and said his new one has much better call quality.

I am going to try to put this to the test. Although currently I am unhappy with the results I am getting recording wise.
The situation is that I own a Galaxy S GT-I9000 and often had complaints about sounding muffled. Now a Nexus S and the complaints are gone.
However. It is very difficult to understand an issue OTHER people are hearing, so I am doing some recording tests in different situations and I will be posting the results to http://technocrate.net in the next day or so.

I'm in the same boat with ya. I thought I was the only one. yeah perfect on the N1 now my wife says I sound garbled on the end. I changed the radio thought that would help but didn't. Just upgraded my from the N1 to the NS other wise the phone is great. I guess there's not a fix for this. I'll be returning mine then. even with the newest radio KI1, same way
Edit: Returning my second one, I'm done with this phone. I'm sad to see it go really like it beside the mic problem. Did samsung happen to fix this later on in a rev. batch?

Phone Fixed Post above
Well called samsung and they me told to send in my second phone in. I explained the issue about the mic to the tech which said they never heard about that issue. Ok well havent got a chance to make it home yet to test it but they replace more than just the mic:
Original Problem:
TECHNICAL INQUIRY - AUDIO/SPEAKER/SOUND/VIBRATION - SPEAKERPHONE NOT WORKING
Problem found:
RINGERTONE INAUDIBLE/NO ADJUST - CAMERA FAILURE - LOCK UP DURING OPERATION (SW)
Solution:
REPLACED COMPONENT - REPLACED COMPONENT - REPLACED PBA
Til i check it when I get home, just to let you guys know. The problem at the top, there system didn't have an option for the microphone. They replaced a lot of stuff but the mic only problem was the problem? I was liked its not the speaker just the mic to the tech. She said it was in the notes about the problem. I've been very happy with samsung trying to fix this issue. so far til i get home.

Microphone problem?

Is anybody having problems with mic? People i am talking to can't hear me most of the time... I was just wondering if this is happening with everybody?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Same Issue
I am having the same problem. During the first call I made, the person on the other end complained that my voice was "garbled." That is, the said that they couldn't really understand me. I just got off the phone with my Grandmother (who is hard of hearing) and she nearly hung up on me because she couldn't understand me. I am curious if this is just the unit I have, or if it plagues all Atrixes.

Try turning off noise cancelation

I am also having the same problems. I've fiddled with all of the noise cancellation settings and it didn't help. I even returned the phone and made them give me a new one thinking it may have been just mine but still have the same problem.
If this doesn't get fixed ASAP I'll be returning it to AT&T within the 30 day window.

Mic and speakerphone issue
Same issue with mic on the Atrix. Two people told me my voice sounded muffled. When I called them from the Captivate they could hear me clearly.
Also, they hear fine when I put the Atrix on speakerphone but I hear static on my side but no such problem on Captivate.
Anyone having the speakerphone static issue?

Call quality on my Atrix has been the best of any smart phone I've ever owned. I have it set up just how it came out of the box, pretty much. Not sure if noise cancellation is on or not.

I am having to return my atrix because no one can understand me!!! If I use bluetooth the sound quality is great but as soon as switch to the handset, they say it sounds like I am talking through a cardboard tube. Man, what is up with this? I went back to my iPhone for now.

i think it's a production issue. on my first atrix, straight out of the box, i could not hear anyone when they called me and they couldn't hear me. all i got was static, not even a garbled voice. i exchanged it and voice has been flawless on the new one. i would suggest doing that, there may have been a bad batch.

At this early date, no complaints on a number of calls, and I did call myself on another line to check. Earmic sounded fine too. (A Klipsch.)
But today one person said she couldn't understand me. I think because there was a motormouth making too much noise in the room, or maybe because I was inside a building and the call strength wasn't very good. But then again...the other things that person DID say, made me think she shouldn't be allowed to answer phones in a business office anyway.
So far, so good.

Same problem
Rezznor said:
i think it's a production issue. on my first atrix, straight out of the box, i could not hear anyone when they called me and they couldn't hear me. all i got was static, not even a garbled voice. i exchanged it and voice has been flawless on the new one. i would suggest doing that, there may have been a bad batch.
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No one can hear me either. Need to exchange it tomorrow.

As far as I can tell, the mic on this phone is pretty sensitive but only for about an inch or two. This is what noise canceling is about: letting in sounds near the mic while keeping out ambient noise. I had the same problem on my N1 too, though not as severe.

You can set voice quality on call setting
there are 4 modes for your mic

Looks like some people fixed this problem with an exchange. When i posted on the moto owners forum. The board manager PM'd me asking if they could do the exchange and are investigating the issue.

Yea I think you should go and change the nnoise suppression options and test more calls before taking it back.
I had it on high and people said they couldn't hear mme either.

ANDY12001 said:
You can set voice quality on call setting
there are 4 modes for your mic
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Click to collapse
I see the supression settings what other settings are there?
FLAC Vest said:
Yea I think you should go and change the nnoise suppression options and test more calls before taking it back.
I had it on high and people said they couldn't hear mme either.
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I have tried it on normal high and off, a new sim card (att usggestion) turned on that MOS optoion and the only time people can hear me is if the mic is right in front of my mouth, i am on speaker phone or using a wired or BT headset.
i have tried quite a bit.

This is my biggest problem with my Atrix right now.
There's a long thread on the subject of Atrix voice quality on supportforums.motorola.com.
Their moderator named Mark has promised a diagnosis on this from Motorola within 48 hours from yesterday, so hoping to know something soon.

Call quality is a bit disappointing

Anyone else think this? Everyone sounds muffled

abraxo said:
Anyone else think this? Everyone sounds muffled
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IIRC, this is a common issue with some Nexus devices. I saw somewhere that a 6P owner fixed the issue on their device by changing a line in the build.prop, as done here on the Nexus 5. Apparently you have to change the value of "persist.audio.influence.voicecall" from "true" to "false". Of course, you have to be rooted to modify the build.prop, and I think modifying the build.prop breaks OTA updates because of system block verifications.
Edit - apparently the muffled sound issue is a result of the noise cancellation microphone picking up your voice as background noise, meaning it attempts to reduce the volume of your voice. It's probably some sort of design flaw, but I don't think it's worth RMAing when it can be fixed with a simple software modification to the build.prop. Alternatively, you should be able to fix the issue by covering whichever microphone is the noise-cancelling microphone on the Nexus 6P (for the Nexus 5, I read that it was the top microphone)

Codename13 said:
IIRC, this is a common issue with some Nexus devices. I saw somewhere that a 6P owner fixed the issue on their device by changing a line in the build.prop, as done here on the Nexus 5. Apparently you have to change the value of "persist.audio.influence.voicecall" from "true" to "false". Of course, you have to be rooted to modify the build.prop, and I think modifying the build.prop breaks OTA updates because of system block verifications.
Edit - apparently the muffled sound issue is a result of the noise cancellation microphone picking up your voice as background noise, meaning it attempts to reduce the volume of your voice. It's probably some sort of design flaw, but I don't think it's worth RMAing when it can be fixed with a simple software modification to the build.prop. Alternatively, you should be able to fix the issue by covering whichever microphone is the noise-cancelling microphone on the Nexus 6P (for the Nexus 5, I read that it was the top microphone)
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Thanks, I'll definitely check those fixes out. I don't think losing ota updates are too big a deal since you can't use otas when you're rooted anyway

abraxo said:
Thanks, I'll definitely check those fixes out. I don't think losing ota updates are too big a deal since you can't use otas when you're rooted anyway
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Here you go: I'd go ahead and post here to add to the "pile" of people confirming this as a legitimate issue. Someone from Google confirmed earlier they were looking into it. https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/nexus/g70qCHkqLA4
(Also, the desktop view looks WAY better)

Yes it's weird. Also I am surprised other party cannot hear if you place the phone on the table. What is up with that...

Google can't seem to get noise cancellation right. I remember the issue with my N5. I left myself a voicemail back then and was surprised how muffled I sounded. After that, I understood fully why people would keep asking me to repeat things while on a call. I'm still subscribed to the threads on Google Product Forums and it seems they never actually fixed it.
I suggest calling your Google Voice number or something and leaving a message to test.

Yeah, noise cancellation is kinda funk though I've actually been pretty pleased with it on the 6p. I do notice times with both the 6p and the 6s+ that sound gets muffled and I assumed noise cancellation was the cause.

coolguy949 said:
Google can't seem to get noise cancellation right. I remember the issue with my N5. I left myself a voicemail back then and was surprised how muffled I sounded. After that, I understood fully why people would keep asking me to repeat things while on a call. I'm still subscribed to the threads on Google Product Forums and it seems they never actually fixed it.
I suggest calling your Google Voice number or something and leaving a message to test.
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Click to collapse
Ironically, Google once had the best noise cancellation there ever was and was possibly the first to put it in a smartphone. The Nexus One used the Audience chip (now called Earsmart). It was amazing. People regularly thought I was at home when i was in a noisy cafe or out on the street. Subsequently Apple put the Audience chip in the iPhone 4 and it also got rave reviews for noise cancellation.
But it's been downhill since the Nexus One. The Nexus S had no (!) noise cancellation. The Galaxy Nexus had something crappy that I have never figured out what it was. Then the Nexus 4 turned to what is now the default in most phones, Qualcomm's Fluence--it's built into their chipsets; Fluence is pretty medicore and tends to have a lot of issues, compared to the Audience chip. The Nexus 5 also uses Fluence and has had a lot of issues cutting off the beginning and end of people's statements. The Nexus 6 uses Motorola's Crystal Talk and has four microphones (instead of two) for noise cancellation; it seems to be a step up from Fluence, but nothing like the Audience chip. And now I assume with the Snapdragon 810 chipset in the Nexus 6P Google has gone back to Fluence; however the 6P has three microphones, which is interesting; I read at least one person saying it's better than the Nexus 6.
Anyway, probably people should blame Qualcomm, rather than Google. As their chipsets have become more and more common, Fluence has become the default noise cancellation on many phones and it's never been that great.
Strangely, Apple dropped the great Audience chip in the iPhone 5, and people noticed that was a real step backwards. And Samsung, which used to put in in all the Galaxy S and Note phones has now dropped it with the S6. So for whatever reason (probably companies not wanting to pay licensing fees) the Audience chip seems to almost be unused these days, even though it is the best and was a pioneer in the field. Noise cancellation started out great and has only gone down hill ever since.
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For those experiencing muffled voices, it's possible that the way you're holding the 6P is blocking one of the noise cancelling mics. There is a whole under the camera hump on the back that is one of the mics. I'm assuming the main mic is in the speaker at the bottom of the front of the phone. I'm not sure where the third mic is.
If you block one of the mics that can create issues with call quality. So you might try moving your hand around to see if that improves call quality.
If you take the advice above to disable noise cancellation in the build.prop, your voice will be more clear in quiet places, but you will have no noise cancellation at all and in noisy places it could really suck--every tiny little background sound will probably be picked up and overamplified, for your caller.

cb474 said:
Ironically, Google once had the best noise cancellation there ever was and was possibly the first to put it in a smartphone. The Nexus One used the Audience chip (now called Earsmart). It was amazing. People regularly thought I was at home when i was in a noisy cafe or out on the street. Subsequently Apple put the Audience chip in the iPhone 4 and it also got rave reviews for noise cancellation.
But it's been downhill since the Nexus One. The Nexus S had no (!) noise cancellation. The Galaxy Nexus had something crappy that I have never figured out what it was. Then the Nexus 4 turned to what is now the default in most phones, Qualcomm's Fluence--it's built into their chipsets; Fluence is pretty medicore and tends to have a lot of issues, compared to the Audience chip. The Nexus 5 also uses Fluence and has had a lot of issues cutting off the beginning and end of people's statements. The Nexus 6 uses Motorola's Crystal Talk and has four microphones (instead of two) for noise cancellation; it seems to be a step up from Fluence, but nothing like the Audience chip. And now I assume with the Snapdragon 810 chipset in the Nexus 6P Google has gone back to Fluence; however the 6P has three microphones, which is interesting; I read at least one person saying it's better than the Nexus 6.
Anyway, probably people should blame Qualcomm, rather than Google. As their chipsets have become more and more common, Fluence has become the default noise cancellation on many phones and it's never been that great.
Strangely, Apple dropped the great Audience chip in the iPhone 5, and people noticed that was a real step backwards. And Samsung, which used to put in in all the Galaxy S and Note phones has now dropped it with the S6. So for whatever reason (probably companies not wanting to pay licensing fees) the Audience chip seems to almost be unused these days, even though it is the best and was a pioneer in the field. Noise cancellation started out great and has only gone down hill ever since.
*
For those experiencing muffled voices, it's possible that the way you're holding the 6P is blocking one of the noise cancelling mics. There is a whole under the camera hump on the back that is one of the mics. I'm assuming the main mic is in the speaker at the bottom of the front of the phone. I'm not sure where the third mic is.
If you block one of the mics that can create issues with call quality. So you might try moving your hand around to see if that improves call quality.
If you take the advice above to disable noise cancellation in the build.prop, your voice will be more clear in quiet places, but you will have no noise cancellation at all and in noisy places it could really suck--every tiny little background sound will probably be picked up and overamplified, for your caller.
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Click to collapse
I bet the main microphone is the one in the back and that is ****ed up choice by whoever made this phone. You cannot have a vonference call and lay the phone on the table while speaking because microphones get muted.

anglerstock said:
I bet the main microphone is the one in the back and that is ****ed up choice by whoever made this phone. You cannot have a vonference call and lay the phone on the table while speaking because microphones get muted.
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The main microphone is absolutely not the one on the back. The main microphone is always the one positioned closet to the mouth, when you hold the phone to your head. There is no other way noise cancellation could work. The back of the phone is a very typical place for a secondary, noise cancellation, microphone. There is nothing wrong with that position. It needs to be faced away from the source of your voice (your mouth) and towards an other external sound surrounding you (the rest of the room, space around you, etc.). Otherwise, there would be no way to distinguish what's background noise, from what's your voice, and filter the background noise out. What matters is the hardware chip that does the signal processing. Some (e.g. the Audience chip) are much better than others (e.g. Fluence).

cb474 said:
The main microphone is absolutely not the one on the back. The main microphone is always the one positioned closet to the mouth, when you hold the phone to your head. There is no other way noise cancellation could work. The back of the phone is a very typical place for a secondary, noise cancellation, microphone. There is nothing wrong with that position. It needs to be faced away from the source of your voice (your mouth) and towards an other external sound surrounding you (the rest of the room, space around you, etc.). Otherwise, there would be no way to distinguish what's background noise, from what's your voice, and filter the background noise out. What matters is the hardware chip that does the signal processing. Some (e.g. the Audience chip) are much better than others (e.g. Fluence).
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Main microphone is on the back. Put your phone on a desk and make a call. Good luck having other party hear you

anglerstock said:
Main microphone is on the back. Put your phone on a desk and make a call. Good luck having other party hear you
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You are just completely wrong about this and do not understand how noise cancellation and microphones on cell phones work. The reason placing the phone on the desk may interfere with call quality, is because it may block the secondary noise cancellation microphone on the back and cause the noise cancellation to improperly filter out your voice (as if it were background noise), because it can't tell what is background noise when this secondary mic is blocked.

cb474 said:
The main microphone is absolutely not the one on the back. The main microphone is always the one positioned closet to the mouth, when you hold the phone to your head. There is no other way noise cancellation could work. The back of the phone is a very typical place for a secondary, noise cancellation, microphone. There is nothing wrong with that position. It needs to be faced away from the source of your voice (your mouth) and towards an other external sound surrounding you (the rest of the room, space around you, etc.). Otherwise, there would be no way to distinguish what's background noise, from what's your voice, and filter the background noise out. What matters is the hardware chip that does the signal processing. Some (e.g. the Audience chip) are much better than others (e.g. Fluence).
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Click to collapse
cb474 said:
You are just completely wrong about this and do not understand how noise cancellation and microphones on cell phones work. The reason placing the phone on the desk may interfere with call quality, is because it may block the secondary noise cancellation microphone on the back and cause the noise cancellation to improperly filter out your voice (as if it were background noise), because it can't tell what is background noise when this secondary mic is blocked.
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Thank you for clearing that up, I've seen the same ignorance on different forums besides XDA from people who made a big deal out of this and blew it way out of proportion. This is as ridiculous as one post I saw that demanded there be an LED notification on the back so he can place his phone face down.

cb474 said:
You are just completely wrong about this and do not understand how noise cancellation and microphones on cell phones work. The reason placing the phone on the desk may interfere with call quality, is because it may block the secondary noise cancellation microphone on the back and cause the noise cancellation to improperly filter out your voice (as if it were background noise), because it can't tell what is background noise when this secondary mic is blocked.
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Click to collapse
In any case, some basic uses like putting phone on table and holding between ear and shoulder results in no mic/voice capture. This is a serious issue. I have experienced at least the latter on more than one occasion and it was extremely frustrating.

omnius1 said:
Thank you for clearing that up, I've seen the same ignorance on different forums besides XDA from people who made a big deal out of this and blew it way out of proportion. This is as ridiculous as one post I saw that demanded there be an LED notification on the back so he can place his phone face down.
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If you use your phone for phone calls maybe you would understand

subhani said:
In any case, some basic uses like putting phone on table and holding between ear and shoulder results in no mic/voice capture. This is a serious issue. I have experienced at least the latter on more than one occasion and it was extremely frustrating.
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I didn't say it wasn't an issue. I was just clarifying what and where the different microphones are, since some people have complete misunderstandings about this.
Given that one of the two noise cancellation microphones is on the back of the phone, just below the camera visor, and given that covering a noise cancellation microphone will always disrupt call quality, obviously holding the phone between your ear and shoulder (which blocks this microphone) is going to be a problem. Complaining about it isn't going to change it, because the only solution would be for Huawei to redesign the phone. I wouldn't hold your breath for that to happen. If holding the phone that way is a crucial functionality for you, then obviously the 6P is not the right phone for you (though frankly, really? this is important to people?).
On the other hand, it is reasonable to expect the phone to work properly when placed on a table in speakerphone mode. So if that is a problem with the 6P (no everyone is reporting this), then that is a true design flaw. But still, I wouldn't hold my breath for a fix, because there may be no software solution for this (other than disabling the noise cancellation, as some have done--but then of course, you have no noise cancellation, which isn't great either).

anglerstock said:
If you use your phone for phone calls maybe you would understand
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I do, the NC mic is located way at the top back of a quite tall phone. It's nearly impossible to grip a phone to your head and have your hand be anywhere near that mic unless your hands are literally half a foot or more wide. So that leaves sitting it on a table in speakerphone or shouldering it. I don't shoulder phones, but I have used it on a table in speaker without any issues. And it's not happening to that many people anyway.

abraxo said:
Anyone else think this? Everyone sounds muffled
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I think everyone in this thread misunderstood your question. From your question I take it you are the one using the Nexus 6p and you are the one who hears everyone else muffled. Which would not have anything to do with your mic but everything to do with the top speaker.
I don't know about you but I personally think this phone is the best sounding phone for calls I've ever owned when it comes to hearing people on the other end. Whether they can hear me OK or not, I don't know. I haven't heard complaints.

cb474 said:
I didn't say it wasn't an issue. I was just clarifying what and where the different microphones are, since some people have complete misunderstandings about this.
Given that one of the two noise cancellation microphones is on the back of the phone, just below the camera visor, and given that covering a noise cancellation microphone will always disrupt call quality, obviously holding the phone between your ear and shoulder (which blocks this microphone) is going to be a problem. Complaining about it isn't going to change it, because the only solution would be for Huawei to redesign the phone. I wouldn't hold your breath for that to happen. If holding the phone that way is a crucial functionality for you, then obviously the 6P is not the right phone for you (though frankly, really? this is important to people?).
On the other hand, it is reasonable to expect the phone to work properly when placed on a table in speakerphone mode. So if that is a problem with the 6P (no everyone is reporting this), then that is a true design flaw. But still, I wouldn't hold my breath for a fix, because there may be no software solution for this (other than disabling the noise cancellation, as some have done--but then of course, you have no noise cancellation, which isn't great either).
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That was an answer straight out of Steve Jobs' mouth . Jokes aside. If there are faults, one shouldn't dismiss them simply out of the view that it may need a HW revision, when the solution may be simpler. One certainly mustn't assume that a phone with one stated defect is simply not for me, since really that is for me to decide and at no point have I given the impression that this is a deal breaker for me.
TLDR; it IS an issue for some. Is there any solution? How widespread is the problem? Nothing too complicated guys. This IS the 'Help' section of the forum.

subhani said:
That was an answer straight out of Steve Jobs' mouth . Jokes aside. If there are faults, one shouldn't dismiss them simply out of the view that it may need a HW revision, when the solution may be simpler. One certainly mustn't assume that a phone with one stated defect is simply not for me, since really that is for me to decide and at no point have I given the impression that this is a deal breaker for me.
TLDR; it IS an issue for some. Is there any solution? How widespread is the problem? Nothing too complicated guys. This IS the 'Help' section of the forum.
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Yes, I thought of making a steve Jobs joke when I wrote that. But if ever there was a case of don't hold it that way, this is it. With the iPhone 4, the problem was you couldn't hold the phone in the most normal way, during calls, that almost anyone would do. Whereas shouldering the phone to your head, especially with cell phones that are so thin and not conducive to this, is a pretty limited use case.
Sure, it could be a deal breaker for some people, but I don't really see this as a design flaw. That noise cancelling mic needs to be on the back of the phone and as far away from the mouth as possible, for noise cancellation to work. The position it is in makes a lot of sense. There aren't a lot of other good places for it, where it wouldn't be more likely to be covered by a finger (like on the side of the phone). If the trade off for functional noise cancellation is you can't shoulder the phone, that's a pretty sensible trade off, I think. You can't please everybody and catering to a very small use case scenario doesn't make sense.
On the other hand, if the phone doesn't work properly in speakerphone mode when sitting non a table, an incrediby common and normal use case scenario, then that to me seems more like a legitimate design flaw.
That aside, part of my point is also, whatever people think of the design and whether it works for them. If they are hoping that mic on the back is going to be repositioned in a revision of the phone, so people can shoulder it, they are deluding themselves. This is not an issue that's going to be addressed. But other noise cancellation issues, that might have to do with the algorithm might get addressed, although it would require more than an update to Android, since the noise cancellation is built into Qualcomm's chipset. I don't even know if it can be updated. So again, whatever one thinks, you probably should take it as a point for deciding whether you want the phone, because I think it's pretty unlikey there will be a "fix" for these "issues."
The most likely thing that might get fixed is just if there are quality control issues, having to do with the position of the microphone inside the phone and the gaskets between them and the holes in the body of the phone. Tiny misalignments can be surprisingly detrimental to the performance of both mics and speakers. That's something Huawei could correct, without having to physically redesign the phone.
So it's prefectly okay to hate the 6P for having these issues and not want the phone. But I think people should set there expectations pretty low if they think they will be fixed. It's much more complicated than as simple update to Android.
TLDR: Don't hold it that way. And now may be the time to lose all hope. (But by the way, some people report the call quality on the 6P is great and it would be nice to hear more from those people.)