Help Xperia 1 III Wired headset problem

[Xperia owner]

Hi,

Anytime know of a working setup with a Wired headset for this modell ?

I have a bluetooth headset, but want to have an alternative.

I have tried a headset from AKG, that was delivered with My old Samsung S10.

From 3,5mm output i get sound, but Mic is not working.

From USB-C to 3,5mm with Sony adapter, No sound, No Mic.

From USB-C to 3,5 mm with Apple adapter, it works but volume is way to low.

Is there a volume limiter om Sonys Xperia modells ?

I live in an EU country.

IF so, can you bypass it ?

For music, i use USB-C ,external DAC and USB Audio Player Pro, preventing Android to mess upp the processing.and to get higher output volume.

What is the difference between soundprocessing , when using 3,5mm or USB-C ?

 

[Hadron]

I have no experience of this phone or the Samsung headphones you name (Samsung own AKG, and I remember that the "AKG" headphones they sold with the s10 series were a model made for bundling with those phones), but I can tell you that the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter produces a low output with any Android device - I believe there is a workaround for that for rooted devices, but otherwise it's the same with any non-Apple phone or tablet.

The difference between sound processing using 3.5mm and USB-C depends on the device. With a 3.5mm adapter you are by definition using whatever DAC+amp setup the phone manufacturer included in the phone. With USB-C there are two possibilities: a few devices still use the phone's DAC+amp and send analogue signals via a couple of connectors in the USB-C, and for those devices you need a "passive" adapter that connects those pins to the correct parts of the 3.5mm jack. But most devices using USB-C audio send a digital stream to the adapter and it is a DAC+amp in the adapter that convert this to the analogue audio that the 3.5mm headphones need. If you use the wrong type of adapter it won't work at all, but since you say this is a Sony adapter and a Sony phone it's surprising if that doesn't work (they do list the Xperia 1 series as being compatible?).

 

[mikedt]

Hi,

Anytime know of a working setup with a Wired headset for this modell ?

I have a bluetooth headset, but want to have an alternative.

I have tried a headset from AKG, that was delivered with My old Samsung S10.

From 3,5mm output i get sound, but Mic is not working.

From USB-C to 3,5mm with Sony adapter, No sound, No Mic.

From USB-C to 3,5 mm with Apple adapter, it works but volume is way to low.

Is there a volume limiter om Sonys Xperia modells ?

I live in an EU country.

IF so, can you bypass it ?

Yes, I believe there is EU mandated volume cap on phones and DAPs sold in the EU. If it can be bypassed or not, no real ideas, except maybe with rooting and a custom ROM possibly. This is something I've never had to deal with where I am. Also my current phone doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack, so I always use BT earbuds and headphones.

For music, i use USB-C ,external DAC and USB Audio Player Pro, preventing Android to mess upp the processing.and to get higher output volume.


What is the difference between soundprocessing , when using 3,5mm or USB-C ?

Think you answered your own question there. Using a USB external DAC bypasses all the Sony software processing, built-in limiters, phone's internal DAC and amplifier, etc.

 

[Xperia owner]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies so far.

I'm probably stuck with BT headset for this phone modell.

On Samsung phones in EU, you get a warning when pasing a certain volume. And you can Then go further, IF you want.

On Sony Experia, it's just capped at a certain level.

I wish I could get hold of an LG V60, but they were not sold in My country at the Time.

And now, LG is No more in the mobile market sadly.

 

[Hadron]

Yeah, my 2013 HTC One would occasionally warn me about volume but could be ignored. My 2017 Pixel 2 doesn't seem to warn me at all. But as I say, that's not the problem with the Apple adapter, that's the Apple adapter not working properly with non-Apple devices (I own one, so can confirm this personally as well as reporting experience of others).

And none of it explains why the headset doesn't work with a Sony adapter, unless that was an adapter made for some very different phone.

 

[Xperia owner]

I just tried with a Koss Porta Pro headset and it works.

What i cant figure out, is that the AKG headset doesnt work, both are connected with 3,5mm and have three black markings om the plug itself.
I believe two markings are for stereo and the Third is for the Mic.

 

[Hadron]

It's the metal contacts between or outside the black markings that are for the sound (the black markers are insulation between the contacts). But yes, that sounds like a standard configuration (I've at least 1 set of headphones like that, which work with every device I have both for sound and the mic). The pins are the same length, contacts in the same place?

I've tried to find out if there are any oddities in the Xperia I series' audio output, but apart from people complaining that the 1 II's headphone jack doesn't drive high impedence headphones (which won't be the issue for bundled earbuds) I didn't find anything very helpful.

On the USB-C adapters, I've managed to find out that earlier Xperia devices which lacked headphone jacks used the less common arrangement of a DAC+amp in the phone and analogue audio out via the USB-C port. This means that the Sony adapters for those devices don't contain a DAC or amp, and will only work with devices that output analogue audio via USB-C. So the question is, did your Sony adapter come with the phone? If it did then it ought to be compatible, but if you bought it separately it might not be: I don't know whether the 1 III would output analogue audio via USB-C, but I can't see any point in doing that if it has a 3.5mm jack, so it's quite possible it doesn't. And if all of this speculation and guesswork is correct it could explain why nothing works with the Sony adapter. But since we know that digital USB-C output does work, it's likely that adapters from Samsung or Google, who only do digital audio via the USB port, would work with your Sony without the volume problem the Apple adapter has.

 

[puppykickr]

Is the AKG headset actually made for phones?

The only AKG headsets I have any experience with are for live music, and that is a different thing- so the wiring for the mic may be different even though the connectors are the same.
(I have a headset that this is an issue, although not an AKG.)

As mentioned in some other posts on this thread, impedence can play a big role in how loud a headset works.

I prefer wired headsets for the most part.
You may need to go to a slight (or more) extreme like getting a headphone amplifier to go between the device and the headset(s).
And again, at this point you can probably forget about the mic.

On the other hand, I have purchased some cheap headsets that are designed to work with phones, and the mic works.
They were only $10 USD and the sound quality is decent.

I am guessing that the volume could be better if I was using an actual music device to play music from, but I have always been disappointed in the volume capability of headphones.

 

[Hadron]

The AKG is described as the one that came with an s10, so should be compatible with phones (I don't recall the s10 having any special requirements or capabilities for audio - it was only LG who I remember specifically designing for high-impedence headphones)