Amplified noise in MP3 playback: How comes no one noticed??

[petulda]

Hello,

I am having a really strange problem with MP3 playback: when playing spoken word into earphones the noise level at low volume is unbearable and becomes as audible as the voice itself. I tested with two different Android versions (1.6 and 2.2) and three phones (Motorola Xperia, HTC Wildfire, HTC Gratia) and multiple MP3s from different sources.

How to reproduce the problem: In the middle of night when everything is very very quiet turn the phone on at the lowest possible volume and plug your earphones in. If your hearing is good enough to hear this as a sound which appears to be perhaps too loud for the late hour, you'll be surprised that silence passages are interrupted by a constant irregular buzz as audible as the voise itself. Switching to airplane mode does not help. Try out with this MP3:
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/85/talk/11476/20101220-Jack_Kornfield-SR-winter_solstice.mp3

I was not able to reproduce the noise sounds when playing on computers or phones not running Android. Also playing music and everything at higher than the lowest volume is fine. Anyone knows a solution to this?

Thanks,
Petr

 

[Sorrow_Doll]

I tried listening to mp3 ( recording and songs) at lowest volume on htc Desire, Froyo 2.2, didn't hear any noise :s
did you try using different headphones?
I was the using htc headphones

 

[petulda]

Yes, I tried using three different headphones: HTC headpones, Koss R/80 and the headpones which come with iRiver music player. The problem definitely is not in the headphones.

Update: It seems that HTC Desire HD does not suffer from this problem, I'll try tonight when it gets quiet.

 

[petulda]

Confirmed: HTC Desire HD has clean sound without noise.

Finally decided to buy HTC IncredibleS. It has a decent level of noise. The noise is still there and can be slightly annoying, but not as bad as the cheaper models. I really do hope HTC will improve this in future models!