Help Crackling in speakers when you use the 3.5mm

[syntrix]

Ok, I tried with Pink Floyd Breathe/On the Run and was quite impressed with how good it sounds through headphones and through my portable bose. I tried Styx/Reo live and the sound was great. I tried Weird Al Cavity Search, which seemed to have the most bass. The song itself sounded a bit tinny, but there was no crackling. I suspect Weird Al's albums are not mixed as well for sound reproduction as Pink Floyd's were.

Good song choices!

I won't be able to test until monday on a bluetooth set (not really the topic but discussed but mentioned).

I've got a cheap belkin that that crackled all the time on my winmo devices, I don't even use it anymore, so I don't even want to test or even use that!

Again, on a sony headset (in ear) and iphone in-ear headphones, things work great! No crackle, and I've done nothing but listen to last.fm and my sync'd 4GB of music at work.

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I have to ask this for the users with crackle....

What apps have you installed? Maybe something is taking up cpu time and causing the issues... just a thought. Do you have a lot of apps running?

Just trying to find the common denominator here!

 

[zim2704]

Ok so after reading this I loaded music on my phone and checked it. I do have the issue of crackling in the left channell. The issue is only with volume to the max so it is easily fixed but annoying. Might stop by the store and try another unit just to test. If anybody figures out another solution let us know.


Slacker radio does it also, all other applications closed out, really sounds like an issue and hopefully it can be resolved via software. I have had no other problems with the phone so really don't want to risk getting a dud on a replacement.

Btw has anybody found an equalizer for audio? Maybe this could help with the problem.

 

[Jacqueline]

A couple of other thoughts.

1) Do you have the volume turned up to 100% on the Droid? If so, that could be the problem. Turn it down to 50% to 75% range and see if that makes a difference.
2) For pandora, it is not set to high quality by default. It could be compression that is causing issues. Change your Pandora settings to high quality and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Droid2001]

I just exchanged mine and I am having the same problem. Again, left channel only, and only on 100% volume (on the device itself).

You guys need to try it with songs with big basslines or drums, hip hop or something. Pink Floyd isn't going to do it

 

[kteel777]

A couple of other thoughts.

1) Do you have the volume turned up to 100% on the Droid? If so, that could be the problem. Turn it down to 50% to 75% range and see if that makes a difference.
2) For pandora, it is not set to high quality by default. It could be compression that is causing issues. Change your Pandora settings to high quality and see if that makes a difference.

I did test the Volume at 80% it seems to be ok.
I tested both High Quality and normal in Pandora same results @ 100% Volume

So it does seem to be an Issue of having the Volume set to 100%

I do want to add that it is with any music I play on the unit and it is only the left side.

I guess I will just keep the Volume down a bit on the unit and crank my speakers...

 

[kteel777]

ONE MORE THING

I LOVE MY DROID....

 

[Jacqueline]

If you have the volume on the Droid at 100% while outputting through your 3.5mm jack, you are likely to experience clipping. Perhaps the clipping is what you are hearing as crackling?

I am no sound expert, but this is something I learned using my WinMo phones, and I found it to be true with my iPod classic, iPod touch, and the Droid. To get the best sound, I turn the sound on my device between 50% and 75%, then adust the volume on the external speaker.

 

[dmgabe]

I have a similar issue, except that I usually get no sound at all out of my left channel. I have tried several cables and have better luck with some but nothing consistent. I have tried both a pair of Senheissers and Shures (both expensive, north of $175, high quality headphones) neither of which work at all in the left channel, but my $5 cassette adapter in the car works on occasion (takes lots of playing with). I hate to have to exchange my droid since that is the only issue I have had with it, and you never know what you are going to get on the exchange.

Update: Swapped it out and the sound is fine. No popping, and both channels work. Now I just hope none of the other problems appear in this phone, I did get one random reboot about two hours after I got it, but no other problems. Both the old and new units were 40/09.

 

[chefboyardee]

I'm finding that just today i'm having the same issue. Up until this point, with a week of heavy use, I hadn't noticed it. For me, it's happening with Pendulum (heavy bass) playing, and I'm running SportsTap with live 1-minute updates. All other apps are closed in the background using Advanced Task Manager.

This is my first time using SportsTap like this, and the first time I'm hearing the crackling, so I'm led to believe it's something to do with the constant updating.

So far it's pretty intermitten, sometimes it will go a few minutes without a problem. Will keep an eye on it all day and report back if I find any consistencies. Just wanted to throw in my experience so far!

(edit: I'm pretty sure I remember my build as 39/09, and this is the first issue I've had with the phone otherwise)

(edit 2: i've got the droid music player volume as low as it can go, so it's definitely not the "droid volume at 100% issue" others are mentioning)

 

[qu_evox]

Same issue here. Really pissed me off because one of the main reasons i got this phone was to use it for pandora in the car. I really want to be able to do this without clicking. Even with the volume down on the phone its still doing it....I have pandora set to high quality but it still seems to be doing it. I have not tried it using the installed music player but this is a big issue, and doesnt seem like it can be fixed by going and getting a different one... i am not sure though but this is somehting that is a biggggg downer...and now seeing that many people have the issue, and switching out the phone is not fixing it is not comforting....any other ideas...?

 

[qu_evox]

Just to confirm...it is with the left speaker only...and lowering the volume to about 75 percent seemed to make the issue better, but this is a total inconvenience, and makes speakers sound like they are about to blow...i dont understand it and i dont know if its hardware or software... seems more like hardware related though....

EDIT: its crackling out of both speakers on mine. and with some songs...its doing it with the volume at 75 percent or 100.

 

[Lnimoy]

@qu_evox

My feelings exactly.

I notice a crackling or clipping sound at all volumes if i listen for it in headphones or car stereo via aux. It seems like it is caused by the low freq(bass) in the music. I'm desperately hoping that somehow this can be fixed with software.

Im not sure how something like this happens or gets past testing on the the "iPhone killer".

42/09

 

[syntrix]

39/09, tested again, this time with pandora, high quality settings. Absolutely no crackling at all!

I am using headphones with a mic (a la iphone headphones)

 

[qu_evox]

From what i notice you only really notice it during songs was a decent amount of low bass, and when you have the phone volume to 100 percent. Yea its ALMOST there if your not at 100 percent volume but far less noticeable. This is not the end of the world but it would be nice to not have to feel like im about to blow out my car speakers and desktop speakers. I still don't know if this is more hardware or software and or if its worth switching out my phone for a different one and hoping it doesnt do it. Also, i have been getting 13 hours out of my battery no matter what i do. Everything off, moderate use and i can barely get through the day. The people that get 2 days out of it. I tip my hat to them as it is not possible with the droid i have. I might just exchange it all together and see if the battery lasts longer with a different model, or the crackling goes away...anyone else know if this is an issue with every droid?

 

[shadowdude777]

38/09 here. Haven't noticed this or any other issues, but I'm a little skeptical because mine is the earliest build date I've seen so far, and I'm worried about that. Early hardware sometimes comes out badly.

 

[zandroid]

I too have this problem. I had my car mount installed today so I wanted to test everything out.. and I ran Pandora and with bass as stated I get the crackling on the left side of my car. The other day though I used the music app and last.fm and heard no crackling. I hope this can be fixed because I was really excited about Pandora, etc.

41/09 build

 

[Jacqueline]

Make sure for Pandora you have high quality turned on.

 

[milellie111]

I don't think that this is limited to Pandora because it happens with me when i'm playing music that i put on my phone as well. Has anyone heard of a fix for this? It happened on my first Droid which was a 43/09 and i got it replaced. The same thing is happening on my current Droid which is a 39/09.

 

[J.P.]

It has to do with the power cable. When i disconnect mine, the audio is 100% fine, as soon as i plug in any sort of power to it, the speakers crackle like crazy.. I hope this is just a software issue..

 

[milellie111]

It has to do with the power cable. When i disconnect mine, the audio is 100% fine, as soon as i plug in any sort of power to it, the speakers crackle like crazy.. I hope this is just a software issue..

The problem is happening without any power cable attached to the Droid.

 

[milellie111]

Wow, i just had a conversation with Motorola tech support and the guy kept telling me that its my headset that is the problem. He said that this phone has good sound quality and only Motorola headsets are recommended to listen with it. I told him that it is not my sony earbuds which are the problem, because they work perfectly on my ipod and laptop. I also told him that i plugged in my Logitech external computer speakers to the Droid and the same thing happened. He still was swearing that my headphones were the problem and that i should call the manufacturer. Then i got hung up on!!

Im going to try and call to get someone else.

 

[syntrix]

Was support based in the usa? everytime I call mot (in the evening), they are based overseas and it's hard to understand their "techs", which are really just reading from a database.

Did you ask them that if you buy motorola headsets and you had the problem... would they reimburse you for the headsets, as well as for your personal waste of time?

 

[milellie111]

Was support based in the usa? everytime I call mot (in the evening), they are based overseas and it's hard to understand their "techs", which are really just reading from a database.

Did you ask them that if you buy motorola headsets and you had the problem... would they reimburse you for the headsets, as well as for your personal waste of time?

I doubt if it was based in the US because the first guy i talked to had an indian accent as well as the second guy. I got the number from the Smartphone, Android device tech support on Motorola's contact us page 1-800-734-5870.

Oh yeah, the second guy was least helpful than the first. I explained my problem to him and then he just got silent for like 45 seconds without telling me to hold on. Then he said that i should contact the manufacturer of the headphones. I also told him that it is not the headphones and explained my reasons! He said that maybe i should take it back to the Verizon store because he has never heard of this issue.

Yeah, i'm not buying Motorola headphones because i shouldn't have to. Any decent quality headphones should be able to listen to music at FULL volume on this thing without loud popping/crackling. How can it be the iphone killer if it can't play music without clipping? And alot of us have to turn the volume all the way up because we don't have an external volume control on our headphones.

 

[kigs]

agreed

there is some kind of clipping occuring on the left headphone channel on maximum volume.

What's weird is that i dont hear it on the native music player but only on Slacker full volume

 

[blazingwolf]

agreed

there is some kind of clipping occuring on the left headphone channel on maximum volume.

What's weird is that i dont hear it on the native music player but only on Slacker full volume

Hmm, kinda makes you think it is a program issue doesn't it?