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Help Slight but annoying - cracks/pops/audio interference

S

sipart

Member
I'm in the UK on android 1.5 still and I have slight (annoying) cracks/pops/audio interference - on headphones, speaker and using a AUX input in the car. This happens on podcasts (I use beyondpod to download and listen) - it also happens using music apps. I have tried putting it in airplane mode to rule out wifi/gps/mobile interference - no difference - also get same on and off charge.


Topic: Audio problem 2.1



I was hoping 2.1 (when we get it in the UK) might sort this - obviously not reading the thread above!


Next step is to transfer a podcast off the sd card and play on the ipod or pc and check for interference (in case it's somehow picked it up on download - doubtful). Also going to capture some audio and record it to see if I can record the audio with the interference in case I need to a log a call with TMobile.


Anyone else have this issue - you would probably only notice on quieter music and spoken word tracks/podcasts.


Someone on the thread above suggested to me about memory but I have no memory issues and adept at killing apps using advanced task killer.
 
Hey i just picked up a spica and im noticing the same thing. It sounds similar to the cracking/popping sound from a record player.

This is VERY annoying, when playing movies or music with "soft' parts you can hear these loud cracking sounds...for me it happens on speaker or on headphones.

Do you think they would replace my phone because of this?
 
dudemanguybro said:
Hey i just picked up a spica and im noticing the same thing. It sounds similar to the cracking/popping sound from a record player.

This is VERY annoying, when playing movies or music with "soft' parts you can hear these loud cracking sounds...for me it happens on speaker or on headphones.

Do you think they would replace my phone because of this?
Click to expand...

Try using another player from the market. I tried some others and there were no problems with the sound.
 
dancat said:
Try using another player from the market. I tried some others and there were no problems with the sound.
Click to expand...

@dancat - you did have the problem then? What player doesn't have the problem? I use the stock music player, MixZing and beyondpod - all have the same issue - doesn't leave me too much choice!

I haven't called T Mobile UK yet - but really need to - as mentioned before I am still on Android 1.5 - but thread at Sumsung Firmwares mentions people with issues on 2.1.

@dudemanguybro - interesting that someone else has the same issue - I was thinking it was just me. Are you in the UK and what version of Android are you on and do you use the supplied SD card? Only other thing I can think of is an issue with the SD card as all media is on that (I use the 1gb supplied with the phone). I'm not aware of any way to move a mp3 to the main system memory without root access.

If I or if you log a call with TMob UK it might be worth letting each other know the fault ref' if we get one - adds weight to the issue.

Cheers
 
I don't know how it is with 1.5 firmware.

I am using the 2.1 firmware and with the music player that comes installed i had (and still have) problems. I have noticed that if i am changing the equaliser preset the problem disappears for some time, but it will eventually be back.

Then i have tried the Nexus One player (from samdroid) and it worked fine with no sound problems.

As for the videos, i only had syncronisation issues with the stock player. I am using mVideoPlayer which works good.
 
I was trying out the music player earlier and noticed the very same pops and crackles. I brought my i5700 from Three in the UK, using stock 1gb memory card.

shall let you know if i find any solutions
 
Got mine in Singapore and I'm experiencing the same thing. It doesn't happen on every song though. I'm on cupcake, using Kingston 16gig micro sd...
 
I've noticed this a couple of times.

My theory (which I haven't yet explored since it's such a minor issue) is that it's either the stock headphones (connection) or that it's internal clipping, probably sub-sonic.

The reason I think it's possible that it's sub-sonic clipping is that I noticed it most with a track I recorded ages ago, featuring drums played/mixed by me. Being a lazy git, I probably didn't use a hi-pass filter or anything, so there are almost definitely loads of sub-bass frequencies going on.

I wonder if Samsung have been a little...lazy with the headphone amplification/filtering?

Are you click-moaners noticing clicking mostly with bass-heavy stuff?
 
@zargon. Its not related the bass-heavy stuff as far as I am concerned. I get this on audio podcasts, music, on and off speaker, through different headphones and through a car aux connection. You might be right with the "I wonder if Samsung have been a little...lazy with the headphone amplification/filtering?" comment though - but that just points it to being a phone fault.

I called T Mobile UK tonight and as expected didn't really get anywhere on the phone. They just took me through the standard network refresh (battery out, switch it back on etc etc) - still the same. Only advice they offered was take it to a T Mobile shop and let them hear it and set the expectation that the phone might go away for repair - I could kind of understand their may well be a batch of 'faulty' phones - but I'm more of the opinion that their is a fundamental issue with the Samsung build or hardware as several different forums on different carriers, on different versions of Android in different countries report this issue (see end of post).

To level the field a bit and to get some common environment for testing can I suggest anyone who has the issue reports back after trying this:

1.) download Music Junk from the market place
2.) search for "steve roach' and download the track "two rivers dreaming" - some ambient music(!) not my personal choice but quiet and easy to spot crackles (searched for quiet music on google!)
3.) set volume to 75% and report results - listen to it on speaker, stock headphones and another set of headphones.

I get odd annoying crackles on speaker and headphones as always.

Be interested to know of users who have read this and DON'T have this issue - just to reassure me that I could have a faulty handset and it's not common on all spicas/lites/portals.

Links to other forums with reported issues:

Topic: Audio problem 2.1

weird audio of galxy spica [Archive] - Samdroid board
 
Another theory that I'm considering is the quality of the music being played. I listen to mostly 192Kbps mp3s and I'm wondering if the phone can't handle decoding of that particular bit rate?

Sounds unlikely, but I'm going to sift through my music collection and try to identify specific songs.

I'll post back with observations on the steve roach issue as well.
 
I think the problem with the crackling sound is becuase of network activity. Everytime I transfer any data over WIFI or GPRS/3G I get these problems. If I turn wifi/3g off and play music the sound is ok.

Probably because of bad IRQ/Interrupt handling or to small/no hardware sound buffer.
 
I've been having the same problems, but I think I've found a fix. If I use the stock player, it cracks. If I use MixZing, it cracks. If I use an app called "Music Player", it cracks.... But if I use Winamp it seems to be fine.

I've got a 3UK i5700 running 2.1 SamdroidMod. Test track was Bowling for Soup - Much More Beautiful Person 128k MP3.

Hope this helps any and hope the same works for you guys. If anything changes I'll let you know.
 
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