HTC hero, speakers suck ? Am i alone or is this common ?

[candymancan21]

The back speaker for the speaker phone and music/ringer ect is terrible on this phone. I cant turn it up all the way so i can hear it ringing because if i do im afraid i will blow the speaker due to it litterally rumblig the back of my phone.. I keep the volume at half way or so and it seems to be ok but any louder and it starts to get scratchy and like i said im afraid itll blow the speakers.. So it kinda defeats the point of a speaker phone cause i need to turn it up when using speaker..

My mom's cheap $100 cell phone shes had for years has a better speaker then this one. So am i alone or does anyone else notice how bad it is ?

Considering its my first cell phone i guess i cant complain really but for the money $430 retail ($200 with the contract and a $100 rebate) and a 2 year contract for $70 a month i expected better..

I do like the GPS, and the other cool features it has, but it also seems it runs out of memory and gets very slow.. Sometimes the phone just sits there and stops working. Iv downloaded the task manager thing but some apps keep turning back on and taking up memory.. Like teeter, and footprints and stuff and i dont even use that.

Also youtube doesnt seem to work at all on this phone. Anytime i try to watch video's it just says the application crashed or something and needs to be reset.. Or it says the video cannot be played... It seems i still need to juggle between my ipod and this phone for now... Like earlier today i wanted to show my mom this video i saw on youtube and we were out eating. I had the 3G on it said (ev) but non of the video's for youtube you would work.. I clicked any random one and it doesnt work.

What kind of apps do you guys recomend for a new user ? So far i have

1. Weather channle app
2. Compass
3. Volume control app (thank god the call volume when people talk to me was maxed out and hurt my ears)
4. Ringdroid (i can take my music and cut parts i like and use it as a ringtone)
5. Task manager


Oh what are these issues im reading about with dust on this phone ? I have one of those plastic sticky screen protectors covering the whole screen top and bottom, and i have one of those rubber mold things to make it easier to hold the phone. However i dont have a carrying case yet and i put the phone in my pocket.. Im reading where people have dust problems behind the screen or dust gets in the speakers.. Do i need to worry about this ?

 

[kellysa111]

The speakers are okay. The only time I use the speakers are for when I take a shower and want to listen to music.
I don't know about the youtube thing since mine has been working just fine.

It's not a very useful app but I have the Earthquake app. It sends you a notification of every earthquake that happens at that time. I actually update my facebook status with " Oh, Baja California, Mexico had a 3.0 earthquake today" when I have nothing else to write.
Also, the "where did we park app" comes in handy when we go to Chicago and forget where we parked our car.
Mobile Defense is a good one too. You can track where your phone is from your computer.
Shazam is cool too. I was listening to a song and liked it and was wondering who was the girl that was singing it. by using Shazam, I found out it was Adam Lambert singing... yea...

 

[candymancan21]

mm I'll check the mobile defense one out thanks

 

[V425]

The youtube app is a known problem (should be fixed with the Android 2.1 upgrade), but if I go to the mobile youtube site through the browser is works fine.

Other good apps:
Astro- file manager to make folders, move files, also backup for apps
OI Shopping List
Yellowbook
Colornote- notepad
SMS Backup- saves text messages to your gmail account

 

[salpiche]

4. Ringdroid (i can take my music and cut parts i like and use it as a ringtone)

did you know that you can do the same thing from the stock music app? open the app, select the track and hit menu...

 

[kellysa111]

did you know that you can do the same thing from the stock music app? open the app, select the track and hit menu...

I just figured out that you can trim the song with it lol I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I just let it start from the beginning.

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

My hero is rooted and running the 2.1 RUU with plenty of my own mods done to it. That said, the speaker is great. Best phone speaker I have had yet. Of course I have never had problems that many folks have had with their Heros so I may have just got lucky. I heard many folks were having problems with bluetooth on the 2.1 builds also, as I never really been big on bluetooth I didn't have a headset to try it out. Ordered the stereo bluetooth headset by pyle from amazon. They were like $32 shipped and I received them yesterday.

All I can say is I now love bluetooth. Sound is amazing, no wires and it is perfectly clear and in sync when I talk on the phone. Having come from a Samsung Behold 2 and then a Samsung Moment over the HTC Hero I must say I have loved every second of the Hero. I can't believe how lucky I was to not have any of these issues all the folks on these forums complain about. Heck, I even in live the Phoenix area where dust is everywhere and I haven't had any problems with dust under the screen either.

 

[dan330]

speaker is good... you can turn it all the way up... I do..
if you are having issues , maybe you have a bad speaker??

youtube... is a Flash version problem. android 1.5 does not support new full version Flash!!!! 2 choices
1. use the browser to look at the youtube site.
2. load in a custom android 2.1 ROM.

your locking up and performance problems..
you should read more on android os/linux and why not to use Task Managers to kill apps. You should leave it alone!!! let the phone take care of it.

Upgrading to a custom android 2.1 will fix a lot of your issues with performance and give you more features and benifits.

you should also look into a2sd app. this helps free up memory so that you can add more apps and increase speed.

apps to look into:
handcent
shopsavvy
quick boot
quick system info
meebo im
meridian music player
pandora

 

[dpeeps74]

i personally like the speaker on the hero. it has always seemed pretty decent to me for a cell speaker. i turn all my volumes all the way up.

 

[bobr0949]

No problem with my speaker all the way up.
I listen to talk radio, speaker phone and music.

 

[cooolone2]

For a PHONE, the speaker is actually pretty good. If you are getting that much distortion at higher volumes I would agree that the speaker is defective and should be replaced..

As for App's...

Astro File Mgr.
Google Maps
Google Sky
Where
Delete Old Messages
iMusic
MixZing
Movies
RingDroid
Speed Test
Weather Eye
WiFi Analyzer

Those are my essentials... there are more good one's but it all depends on what you use the phone for, work or play...

Happy Trails

 

[jeffreynothing43]

i personally haven't had any issues with the speaker, but i do notice that i get crackling in my ear piece if the volume is up too loud. has anyone else noticed this?

 

[candymancan21]

Is there anyway to delete apps ? I was told by the sprint guy to download the task manager but if you say its bad then how do i get rid of it ?


Thanks for all the app suggestions guys.

 

[Bat~man]

Is there anyway to delete apps ? I was told by the sprint guy to download the task manager but if you say its bad then how do i get rid of it ?


Thanks for all the app suggestions guys.

You can go to the market, hit downloads and uninstall the apps there.

 

[aceofspades626]

My speaker went bad and started sounding distorted as though it were blown. I had never used it for music, just ringtones and notification sounds coming through it.
Went into a repair location today. Took about 45 mins and they replaced the speaker under warranty.
While they had it open they cleaned the dust out from under my screen as well. Couldn't be happier!
...well maybe if they had a 2.1 date for me. Then I'd be happier.

 

[DFRESH]

you expect HTC to throw on some JL Audio speakers on their phones or what?

 

[jeffreynothing43]

you expect HTC to throw on some JL Audio speakers on their phones or what?

i was really hoping HTC would have included a SUB Woofer on the Hero....this just proves that they really don't care about the customer. hopefully the EVO will make my slow jams sound how they're supposed to.

 

[candymancan21]

you expect HTC to throw on some JL Audio speakers on their phones or what?

just better then whats in there. Ipod and the iphones have good speakers why cant this one specially for the price the phone costs

 

[statnut]

just better then whats in there. Ipod and the iphones have good speakers why cant this one specially for the price the phone costs

I thought the iPhone's speakers were shit.

 

[chick3nstrip]

download louder volume hack idk if it cost money (i think it does tho) i downloaded it a while ago, but it hacks the volume and turns up everything, like bluetooth, speaker, headones, and in call volume... this app is so awesome. i turned my headphone jack, in call and speaker volume up and if i have my phone in my room with door shut i can here my music when im in the kitchen its great

 

[dan330]

download louder volume hack idk if it cost money (i think it does tho) i downloaded it a while ago, but it hacks the volume and turns up everything, like bluetooth, speaker, headones, and in call volume... this app is so awesome. i turned my headphone jack, in call and speaker volume up and if i have my phone in my room with door shut i can here my music when im in the kitchen its great

that is pretty loud.. do you get any distortion in quality of sound??

also.. are you not worried that you might blow the speakers??

 

[chick3nstrip]

that is pretty loud.. do you get any distortion in quality of sound??

also.. are you not worried that you might blow the speakers??

I only have mine set to 2 (the second loudest) I think its pretty loud but not loud enough to do all that. and yes if you have it set to the loudest it has disortion and sounds fuzzy and very high pitched. i guess im just a ROCK head n love my music hella loud lol, but i love this app its amazing