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Help Static/crackling/speaker distortion

svenoaks

Newbie
Sep 1, 2012
22
3
There is frequently a burst of static fairly frequently when the sound effect plays after saying "Ok Google" or pressing the voice search button with my new Nexus 6 (stock, still on 5.0, haven't gotten upgrade to 5.0.1 yet). Sounds like a "pop". None of my other devices currently have this problem, though I have had Android devices in the past that did this.

I made a demonstration (happens on 2nd and 4th activation):

Does your Nexus 6 do this too or is there something wrong with mine? Sound is fine otherwise.
 
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Have you tried doing a factory reset? That may fix the issue. If the other sounds are OK I'd say it may be a corrupt sound file. I haven't had that issue on mine.
Thanks, I did factory reset and wipe cache. I set up as new device, safe mode, and also side loaded the 5.0.1 OTA update with no fix.
I made a video demonstrating the problem. Would you mind seeing if you can hear it there, and verifying you can't hear on yours. If that's the case I'm definitely RMA'ing it. I use voice search all the time and it has to sound great for $650!
 
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Mine does this I did a similar post but no one really cares to look into it, I pay attention to detail like that.. its annoying to hear that crack sound and mine does this, My HTC M8 used to do this also. sounded even worse and a lot louder with the boom speakers but HTC came out with an update like 4 or 5 months later that fixed the cracking sound with googles services completely. Not sure if google will pay attention to this and actually do something about it. I also did the factory resets and everything and even with the new 5.0.1 update it still makes the crack sound.

Mine does this I did a similar post but no one really cares to look into it, I pay attention to detail like that.. its annoying to hear that crack sound and mine does this, My HTC M8 used to do this also. sounded even worse and a lot louder with the boom speakers but HTC came out with an update like 4 or 5 months later that fixed the cracking sound with googles services completely. Not sure if google will pay attention to this and actually do something about it. I also did the factory resets and everything and even with the new 5.0.1 update it still makes the crack sound.
btw I think everyones N6 does this not just ours.. this phone is totally fine except this one thing.. its just most people don't care to pay attention to it. If they turn the volume up and hit it a few times im sure all of these guys would hear it.
 
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btw I think everyones N6 does this not just ours.. this phone is totally fine except this one thing.. its just most people don't care to pay attention to it. If they turn the volume up and hit it a few times im sure all of these guys would hear it.[/QUOTE]

I have tried several times and I do not have this issue so not everyone is having the issue, sorry to bust your bubble but with the amount of phones released, to say every phone is having the problem can't be accurate or we would see more feedback. I hate to hear from anyone that they are having any issues on this phone and I hope you get your issues resolved. Best of luck!!
 
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Well I have seen this on youtube videos with people reviewing the nexus 6, I have seen them hit the microphone themselves and it did this pop sound.. but they did not notice it. Not sure what else to say.. I guess if its not happening to other people ill have to replace mine. Thing is that it also does the popping sound when I have headphones on which tells me its not really a speaker hardware problem on the phone but a software related issue. I can hit that microphone button 5 times and it will pop 3 out of the 5, its not very loud but its there and something I notice.. but I really do think people are not paying attention to it as it is very minor. I also did this on the display unit at my local tmobile store and it also did the pop. I guess its time to rma this and send it back. I had this same problem on my HTC m8 with the boomsound speakers, it was like every time the boomsound icon loaded for the split second to produce the ping sound it over charged the amp with power and caused it to pop, but if you kept hitting the button it would go away, like it just needed to release the initial power to the speaker. HTC actually fixed this problem months later with an over the air update that totally stopped the pop sound, and man was that pop sound loud on the M8 very noticeable.

Time to replace =(
 
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Well I have seen this on youtube videos with people reviewing the nexus 6, I have seen them hit the microphone themselves and it did this pop sound.. but they did not notice it. Not sure what else to say.. I guess if its not happening to other people ill have to replace mine. Thing is that it also does the popping sound when I have headphones on which tells me its not really a speaker hardware problem on the phone but a software related issue. I can hit that microphone button 5 times and it will pop 3 out of the 5, its not very loud but its there and something I notice.. but I really do think people are not paying attention to it as it is very minor. I also did this on the display unit at my local tmobile store and it also did the pop. I guess its time to rma this and send it back. I had this same problem on my HTC m8 with the boomsound speakers, it was like every time the boomsound icon loaded for the split second to produce the ping sound it over charged the amp with power and caused it to pop, but if you kept hitting the button it would go away, like it just needed to release the initial power to the speaker. HTC actually fixed this problem months later with an over the air update that totally stopped the pop sound, and man was that pop sound loud on the M8 very noticeable.

Time to replace =(

Yes, mine does it too with the headphones connected. I too am somewhat skeptical about it not happening on all Nexus 6 as I realize I am much more sensitive to small details than many people, but I posted the video and I'm assuming they can hear it there but not on their own device.

It may be a hardware issue, loose connection types of problems do cause odd intermittent things like this to happen.
 
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Yes, mine does it too with the headphones connected. I too am somewhat skeptical about it not happening on all Nexus 6 as I realize I am much more sensitive to small details than many people, but I posted the video and I'm assuming they can hear it there but not on their own device.

It may be a hardware issue, loose connection types of problems do cause odd intermittent things like this to happen.

I got the RMA from Motorola today going to send this phone back tomorrow and use my galaxy s4 backup until I get another nexus 6. Let me know if your new one has the same issue.
 
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Mine does this I did a similar post but no one really cares to look into it, I pay attention to detail like that.. its annoying to hear that crack sound and mine does this, My HTC M8 used to do this also. sounded even worse and a lot louder with the boom speakers but HTC came out with an update like 4 or 5 months later that fixed the cracking sound with googles services completely. Not sure if google will pay attention to this and actually do something about it. I also did the factory resets and everything and even with the new 5.0.1 update it still makes the crack sound.


btw I think everyones N6 does this not just ours.. this phone is totally fine except this one thing.. its just most people don't care to pay attention to it. If they turn the volume up and hit it a few times im sure all of these guys would hear it.

Mine doesn't seem to. Just tested with volume maxed, no static when activating Google voice search, nor have I heard any static when using the phone or playing other media.
 
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Well just got a new nexus 6 sent back to me and its doing the same exact thing as my last N6.. same exact sound and everything.. I don't think people are noticing it enough.
Hmm, thanks for reporting your new findings. I did not buy a new one yet, think I'm just going to wait now. It seems the new batches are all 'bad' this way. Maybe they all use some new audio hardware, that is not fully supported by the software.

Maybe we will see new software releases that fix this issue, since it appears there is "Fix audio issues on some devices" in the changelogs of upcoming Android updates.
 
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There is frequently a burst of static fairly frequently when the sound effect plays after saying "Ok Google" or pressing the voice search button with my new Nexus 6 (stock, still on 5.0, haven't gotten upgrade to 5.0.1 yet). Sounds like a "pop". None of my other devices currently have this problem, though I have had Android devices in the past that did this.

I made a demonstration (happens on 2nd and 4th activation):

Does your Nexus 6 do this too or is there something wrong with mine? Sound is fine otherwise.

Well I now have my 4th nexus 6, and it continues to make that popping sound, for those who are saying they cant hear it turn the volume all the way up and spam hit that microphone a few times because it should be making that sound. I really don't even have to spam hit it for it to do it. Sometimes it works and does not pop and then if you keep hitting it, it will make the sound it just takes a few times, its random but when it happends its very loud blown speaker sounding pop that you hear. So 3 nexus from tmobile returns and 1 of them from Motorola directly. All 4 making that sound. I have done resets through bootloader and normal resets and also having no other apps on the phone except the normal google apps, still continues to happen.
 
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No audio issues with mine
When was yours purchased? It seems all of the old ones do not have the issue, and all of the ones purchased after about mid December have this issue so far.

Well I now have my 4th nexus 6, and it continues to make that popping sound, for those who are saying they cant hear it turn the volume all the way up and spam hit that microphone a few times because it should be making that sound. I really don't even have to spam hit it for it to do it. Sometimes it works and does not pop and then if you keep hitting it, it will make the sound it just takes a few times, its random but when it happends its very loud blown speaker sounding pop that you hear. So 3 nexus from tmobile returns and 1 of them from Motorola directly. All 4 making that sound. I have done resets through bootloader and normal resets and also having no other apps on the phone except the normal google apps, still continues to happen.

Perhaps at this juncture there is no point in continuing to return for a new one as it very likely every replacement will have the issue.

I still am living with the HTC One M7 GPE which is not a bad phone. Think I'm going to avoid the Nexus 6 until I somehow have verification that I will not receive a phone with the popping sound, or until a newer pure Android phone comes out.

I got this popping sound issue on a phone once when I flashed a custom ROM. That and other more critical issues convinced me to always run stock. A shame stock Nexus 6 has this issue as it was otherwise a very nice phone.
 
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When was yours purchased? It seems all of the old ones do not have the issue, and all of the ones purchased after about mid December have this issue so far.
Well this is recently I got from Tmobile and the one from motorola directly, not sure what to say about this any further hopefully others hear it and can say soemthing about it, or maybe my hearing is just better then most. Im not sure its a batch thing.

Perhaps at this juncture there is no point in continuing to return for a new one as it very likely every replacement will have the issue.

I still am living with the HTC One M7 GPE which is not a bad phone. Think I'm going to avoid the Nexus 6 until I somehow have verification that I will not receive a phone with the popping sound, or until a newer pure Android phone comes out.

I got this popping sound issue on a phone once when I flashed a custom ROM. That and other more critical issues convinced me to always run stock. A shame stock Nexus 6 has this issue as it was otherwise a very nice phone.
I had the HTC M8 before this nexus 6, and I had that phone since it was released, and it too had this same exact problem but HTC came out with an update like 3 or 4 months later that totally fixed it. Seems to be a similar thing probably with the driver google services use when turning on the speaker to make the chime sound.. but htc fixed it so I guess it was a problem with their software... have no idea. On the HTC m8 man that shit was super loud through the boom speakers.
 
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I don't have an issue with the mic. But when sending or receiving Txt messages I something get distorted or broken up notification sounds. Very annoying.
Yeah I have to turn off the outgoing sound in the new google messenger app, because it also messes up the sound while sending a message to someone, just like the microphone sound it pops loudly and sounds all messed up, it bothered me so much I disabled the sound on messages. Does not happen all the time but when it happens it loud enough and bothers me just as baddly as someone running finger nails down a chaulk board lol, even just using google voice or sayin OK google pops hella loud on my phone about 50% of the time, I try not to use google services anymore because of it, or I have to turn media sound volume all the way down so I barely hear the pop crackle sound.
 
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Well this is recently I got from Tmobile and the one from motorola directly, not sure what to say about this any further hopefully others hear it and can say soemthing about it, or maybe my hearing is just better then most. Im not sure its a batch thing.


I had the HTC M8 before this nexus 6, and I had that phone since it was released, and it too had this same exact problem but HTC came out with an update like 3 or 4 months later that totally fixed it. Seems to be a similar thing probably with the driver google services use when turning on the speaker to make the chime sound.. but htc fixed it so I guess it was a problem with their software... have no idea. On the HTC m8 man that shit was super loud through the boom speakers.

Guess everyone is affected by this and that it is a software bug. I have the problem with the sound the Hangouts App makes when sending a text. Sounds distorted most of the times. Downloaded Zedge which has all Hangouts sounds so you can play them from the app. From Zedge I can play the exact same sound over and over again without any issues. So it has nothing to do with the sound itself.

How do we get Google and Motorola to acknowledge this problem and fix it? I hope all report this or this will never be fixed. Pretty sure that it is software related.

Im from Sweden btw so it is the same for the european model.

Br J
 
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