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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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Click to collapse
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.

Headset issue

Another of my little niggles, and hopefully you guys can help me out again.
Today I had cause to use headphones with my SGS and found something kinda weird. I plugged in my old head set, a skull candy fmj, and found that much of the music was just 'missing'.
Music plays fine, but vocals are totally inaudible. Not distorted or broken, I mean literally not there, but the track plays underneath. If I listen to speech, then practically nothing comes through. Very very faint.
When I use other headphones or the stock head set or speakers, everything plays back fine, its just that one set. It works fine on my blackberry just not on my sgs.
Any thoughts whats wrong here? Id hate to have to get a new set, not because they were expensive or anything, just because it seems there's nothing really wrong with them!
Thanks guys
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

same happens to me with sony in ears, im busy reading this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=735918&highlight=music
and tried this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=758326

I had the same problem. I was being too timid pushing the cable in all the way because I didn't want to break it. You're probably pushing it in all the way, but something still may be wrong with the connection. When I didn't push the plug in all the way I got the instruments but vocals were almost completely drowned out, but they were there.

LostAlone said:
Another of my little niggles, and hopefully you guys can help me out again.
Today I had cause to use headphones with my SGS and found something kinda weird. I plugged in my old head set, a skull candy fmj, and found that much of the music was just 'missing'.
Music plays fine, but vocals are totally inaudible. Not distorted or broken, I mean literally not there, but the track plays underneath. If I listen to speech, then practically nothing comes through. Very very faint.
When I use other headphones or the stock head set or speakers, everything plays back fine, its just that one set. It works fine on my blackberry just not on my sgs.
Any thoughts whats wrong here? Id hate to have to get a new set, not because they were expensive or anything, just because it seems there's nothing really wrong with them!
Thanks guys
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Headsets with a built-in mic that use the industry-standard pin order on the 3.5mm jackplug don't work with the SGS, as they have reversed the 3rd and 4th bands on the jack.
The easiest way around it is to use a Nokia headset adaptor (as supplied with eg the N95) and then plug your headset into that. I'm not sure if the mic will work in calls or not, but you'll at least be able to use your headphones to listen to music. The sound quality is good, too!
If you use regular headphones with it, you won't have this problem.
There are other postings about this on here.. search and you'll get a much better explanation than my gin-addled brain is capable of giving at this point in time.

Well that's nice of Samsung.
TY for the info, I guess I'll shop for some new headphones then.

[Q] Acer A500 speaker issue?

I have been trying to find any info about this issue all over the internet but havent had any luck. I really want to know whether this a problem with my device or if its justthat speakers themselves arent that great and i have to live with it. My speakers mostly when playing music with vocals rattle, i dont know how to explain the sound but its as if the case its self is shaking because of the volume. I am sure people have had this type of issue with speakers on laptops, desktops and so on. Should i return it and get a new one or is this an issue with all iconia A500's? I hope iwas able to explainthe sound well enough.rattling, case shivering sort (f.
Any info is appreciated, thanks guys.

I have just tried with couple rock and modern jazz and some dance music. If the volume is at the highest volume there is distortion but it doesn't feel like really really bad, just as if you are over driving a small speaker.
One thing you can try is, put the same music tracks that feels like blown speakers to a usb disk and go to a store that has a display model of the A500 that you can play with. Take your A500 with you so you can test both at the same time in the same environment.

Thanks for the reply, its not so bad but it can also get really annoying as it is the most thing an ear catches. I don't want to return my device only to get a new one that has the same issue. I will take my Acer and a USB stick and try out the same music at the store, if the display device has the same issue then I'll just have to live with it, if not then I'll be getting an exchange.

One solution for track problems
I have the same problem on certain recordings, i have found the same distortions of those tracks on several devices. After a bunch of reading i came across a solution that at least worked for my tracks. They were recorded in MP3 mode. Mp3 is not changed by using equalizers. You can adjust the loudness of the sound or like jazz-rock-etc... But if they are recorded with to much base or awkward settings in equalizer, those setting are stuck while in mp3. I converted those tracks back to cd format (wav) adjusted equalizer setting more moderate, then saved those tracks back to mp3. My distortions (am type sound, sounds like speaker is broke, etc...) disappeared. There may be other reasons for these distortions but my problem tracks are good now.

Thing is its not just music saved on my device, its also any video whether online or on my iconia. Everything I play has that annoying shivering noise. For speakers that are supposed to better than most tablets, if they are all like this then even though this is my favorite tablet I might have to go a different way if I were to return it.

My speakers don't have this issue, I would suggest exchanging it.

Thanks lord voldemort...lol, I will be doing that in the morning

I noticed a bit of rattle after turning up the Dolby bass settings too high.
After a little fiddling I found the "sweet spot" and haven't experienced it again.

strider_mt2k said:
I noticed a bit of rattle after turning up the Dolby bass settings too high.
After a little fiddling I found the "sweet spot" and haven't experienced it again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so what's that sweet spot setting?

I've had the same problem with the speaker and gone to the service center to claim it. Acer service center said it was factory defect and repaired it. Although i still experience small problem with the sound, especially when i touch certain area near the speaker but so far...works just fine now.

So I went to Future shop to try out the Acer on display and its the same thing when the volume is turned up all the way so I just decided to keep mine.

fincan said:
One thing you can try is, put the same music tracks that feels like blown speakers to a usb disk and go to a store that has a display model of the A500 that you can play with. Take your A500 with you so you can test both at the same time in the same environment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried doing this tonight with the demo model Costco had on display. unfortunately i couldn't even get past the lockscreen. i wanted to see how well Metallica's 'Load' MP3 (VBR) album would sound.

Sound Panning / Fading App

Hi,
Have been searching around and can't find squat, I'm looking for an app to fade/pan my sound to either right or left headphones. Reason being is at work I could do with being able to listen to my music in my left ear and still being able to hear everything else going on.
The problem with it normally is that whatever I'm listening to is then coming out of the spare headphone and constant 'tinny' noise coming from a loose headphone isn't fair on the colleagues really
Any suggestions are welcome.

1. Buy a cheap set of headphones.
2. Cut away one speaker.
done without a single line of code involved...

1. Cheap headphones, the sound quality is **** and not worth wasting the money.
2. Is pretty much covered by 1. .

Don't want to argue, but I think, sound quality is **** enough when you use one speaker. I strongly suggest that you will not hear any difference between "cheap" and "expensive original" headset (in my country original G2 headset costs about 5-7$).
another option would be to make something like an extension cable you put between your phone and headphones, that would have one audio canal disconnected. cost - about 2$ at max.
sorry i insist on using hardware approach, although i am a programmer myself i just think it's easier and makes more sense in this case.

Hello again.
funny thing, I just noticed that recent update of Music Folder Player Free (which i use sometimes) added balance control. Check out this app, hope this helps.

I think PowerAmp should be able to fade too?!

[Q] Audio Jack Issues?

Just came across a disturbing report in a very recent Droid Life review of the Note 3 (from a list of N3 reviews posted on this forum) concerning "Audio Jack Issues". Anybody who treasures their hearing and uses their phablet for audio material (including movies, music, audiobooks, etc), especially using earbuds or headphones, might want to "listen up." The following is an excerpt from the review:
"...When listening to music through the 3.5mm jack, you are sometimes met with a very weak sound. It’s as if the sound of the music isn’t “full” or quite loud enough. Then, after a few minutes without touching anything while at full volume, the volume just explodes and you are left deafened by the surprise volume attack. Some people are pointing towards low-impedance headphones being the issue, but I have had the problem on multiple pairs of headphones, in-ear buds, through car decks, and everything else. It’s a very frustrating and reoccurring issue that I wish Samsung would find a cure for. Until then, I fear listening to music out of this device because I don’t want to go deaf. It might sound crazy, but it’s a very real issue that I experienced over the course of time I had the device."
I've had 3 Samsungs: a flip-phone a few years ago, a Fascinate 2 years ago, and currently Galaxy S3, and just preordered a Note 3. Of the three previous phones, two had infrequent but definitely-occurring audio issues where the volume changed unexpectedly. The flip phone blew out my ears once, and swore after that would never buy another Sammy (what a kidding-myself that turned out to be). What's unnerving is this seems to have appeared intermittently in multiple samsung phone models (the article reports yet another audio jack issue in the S4).
Chatted online with a VZW customer service rep. about this, who was really no help (wasn't her fault, i guess). She just regurgitated the company standard lines--14 days to return, restocking fee, can get a replacement if the problem occurs, etc. But she pretty much stated if there turns out to be a Note 3-specific issue, the customer is stuck with that model of phone; don't expect help from the carrier other than replacing with an identical unit might likely have the same problem; if you enjoy any kind of audio produced by the phone's audio jack, use it at your own risk. (Even more dicey is that it's intermittent--no guarantee you'll be able to demonstrate it to the carrier's service rep.)
Furthermore, i was one of those who got a free continuation of unlimited plan (thanks to the VZW ordering "system glitch" last weekend), which has been reported in the last day that VZW is going to honor contracts which show unlimited data. This rep completely contradicted that and claimed my data will be capped at 2gb at activation time. So with this diametrically-opposed chatter from VZW, what is one supposed to believe? Really suggests getting a satisfactory resolution from any carrier on a brand-specific phone problem like this to be wishful thinking.
Any thoughts or has anybody experienced thru-the-audio-jack sound issues with sammy phone products? My take is i'm not going to be on the bleeding edge of this one, too much of a hearing risk, cancelling preorder and wait for more reports on the N3 as time goes by.

For sure something is wrong with mine. (tmobile N3) The output levels are maybe half or less what my N2 can put out. I have carefully setup audio systems in my house and car, and it is unusable. Its also not USB compatible with the new Kenwood KMM 100u deck that plays FLAC files. It must be a glitch they can fix, i hope! The jack SQ sucks right now.

I hope mine won't have this problem.

*wierd double post an hour later*

dareo said:
For sure something is wrong with mine. (tmobile N3) The output levels are maybe half or less what my N2 can put out. I have carefully setup audio systems in my house and car, and it is unusable. Its also not USB compatible with the new Kenwood KMM 100u deck that plays FLAC files. It must be a glitch they can fix, i hope! The jack SQ sucks right now.
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I got that the first time you said it.

im experiencing this too with an AU Telstra Note 3.
ive tested it a bit and it seems like its 2 separate things to me, but I could be wrong.
firstly it seems like all EQs either crash or just lose their settings at random moments. this can be things like between track changes or when the 3G signal drops out. if you go back into the EQ panel it will kick in again, almost like it was off and you've launched it again.. very annoying. ive verified this with both the stock EQ and noozxoide. the difference in volume is minimal though, its more quality / bass / whatever EQ you use.
the second part with the volume dropping out completely only happens to me between track changes. if i pause the music for a couple of seconds then play it again, it will play at normal volume. fast forwarding between tracks is the most obvious since every other track will be minimal volume, and the ones in-between normal volume.
ive only tested this with google music. although my phone isnt stock now, the same behaviour was there out of the box. using etymotic earbuds with reasonably high impedance but i doubt thats the issue since pause/replay fixes it.

Doesn't happen to me on N7player or PlayerPro. (nor on videos in Dice, MX or VLC.)
Try not using stock apps if you have the issue. Might just be a stock problem.
I can't test Google music, I disabled that. Stock player itself is too annoying for me to try.
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk

kanemari said:
im experiencing this too with an AU Telstra Note 3.
ive tested it a bit and it seems like its 2 separate things to me, but I could be wrong.
firstly it seems like all EQs either crash or just lose their settings at random moments. this can be things like between track changes or when the 3G signal drops out. if you go back into the EQ panel it will kick in again, almost like it was off and you've launched it again.. very annoying. ive verified this with both the stock EQ and noozxoide. the difference in volume is minimal though, its more quality / bass / whatever EQ you use.
the second part with the volume dropping out completely only happens to me between track changes. if i pause the music for a couple of seconds then play it again, it will play at normal volume. fast forwarding between tracks is the most obvious since every other track will be minimal volume, and the ones in-between normal volume.
ive only tested this with google music. although my phone isnt stock now, the same behaviour was there out of the box. using etymotic earbuds with reasonably high impedance but i doubt thats the issue since pause/replay fixes it.
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Click to collapse
Got the same here. N9005 with Google Play Music. Sometimes it's also (it seems) input-triggered. Sometimes when I push Menu or Back button, volume goes down and when I open Browser volume goes up. I know this sounds like voodoo and I'm completely crazy but I got this situation some times now.
With original sound files this problem came very often but after installing sound mod, it became seldom but not solved.
Annoying!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Silberpfeil3110 said:
Got the same here. N9005 with Google Play Music. Sometimes it's also (it seems) input-triggered. Sometimes when I push Menu or Back button, volume goes down and when I open Browser volume goes up. I know this sounds like voodoo and I'm completely crazy but I got this situation some times now.
With original sound files this problem came very often but after installing sound mod, it became seldom but not solved.
Annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually moved to the stock sammy app since it was irritating me so much. i have to say though, that if you can be bothered syncing a playlist to your phone that the sound is much better through that... hard to pick fault with.
i set up galaxy adaptive sound first, which is the one that plays high med low tones through left and right channels on your headphones independently and lets you tune it. found a much more balanced tone coming out after that, to which I then applied higher bass EQ settings from within the sammy music player and it sounds pretty good. some distortion on really heavy bass tracks at high volume, but very nice otherwise. MUCH BETTER than variable bass and audio volume on the google music player.
i think samsung neglected to test the standard music APIs and borked them, but their own proprietary ones work fine. the adaptive music filter doesnt work in any player apart from the sammy one I read.
since i cant cross-flash regional roms without voiding knox warranty i havent tried the updated EU roms, but maybe they fix it there?

Experiencing same problem on my AT&T note 3. Google Music tracks will randomly apply a shoddy EQ setting that is either too loud or too soft. Then the next track will be normal. It explodes my ear drums constantly. I have the EQ set off also, but that doesn't seem to matter. Also unplugging and re plugging the headphone jack "fixes" the issue as well. I'm pretty annoyed by this problem.