Help Hollow Sound with play music

[michaelparas]

Hi,

I have had some issues when playing music on my Nexus 4. The audio sounds extremely hollow when listening with earplugs. Without earplugs, the sounds is perfect.

I have tried a lot of stuff, playing with the equalizer, downloading other software to play music... Nothing seems to work.

Any idea where I should adapt my settings? Or is it something else?

Thanks in advance.

Michael

 

[El Presidente]

Welcome to AF!

Obvious question, but are you sure it's not an issue with the earplugs? I take it music sounds ok you use them on other devices

Are you also streaming or listening to locally stored music? Also, are the headphones fully inserted?

 

[michaelparas]

I thought those earplugs would be universal. I use the ones of my previous samsung galaxy.

Will try other ones.

Thanks.

 

[El Presidente]

Some headphones work better with some handsets than others.

What other EQ apps have you tried? I found this one worked pretty well for me: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noozxoidelabs.eizo.rewirepro

 

[John Bean]

"Hollow" sound is usually an indication that the earplug connections are messed up either by a badly-fitting plug, a partially inserted plug or one with unusual wiring.

The effect is caused by a phase reversal (usually) due to left, right and ground getting mixed up and you can often also get a lack of "solid" stereo - it sounds "all around" but you can't identify the direction of anything.

 

[codesplice]

As others have mentioned, I'd try out a different set of headphones and see how they do.

Out of curiosity, do the ones that you're using have an inline microphone? If not, that's probably your issue - headphones without a mic usually have three contacts (R, L, G, as John Bean mentioned) on the plug, while the jack in the phone has four (and extra one for the mic). Get a headset with a mic and I bet it will work better

 

[John Bean]

I use ordinary several different ordinary (no mic) Sennheiser and Koss headphones with my N4 and many other devices, all work fine. There's not a lot to go wrong if the plug is pushed right in but some with microphones have given me problems in the past, working on some phones but not on others.

So my experience says the opposite is more likely - that "ordinary" headphones will work on pretty much any device so long as they are not faulty, those with mics are more fussy even when no fault exists.

 

[codesplice]

I use ordinary several different ordinary (no mic) Sennheiser and Koss headphones with my N4 and many other devices, all work fine. There's not a lot to go wrong if the plug is pushed right in but some with microphones have given me problems in the past, working on some phones but not on others.

So my experience says the opposite is more likely - that "ordinary" headphones will work on pretty much any device so long as they are not faulty, those with mics are more fussy even when no fault exists.

Some deets on the differing standards: Phone connector (audio) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And, like you, I've found that quality TRS (three-conductor) plugs generally work fine in TRRS (four-conductor) jacks, but I have had issues with cheaper TRS-style headphones.

The best option is to use matching physical and electrical standards in both the plug and jack.

 

[John Bean]

I can't disagree about cheap (anything), but especially cheap earphones; they're usually uncomfortable, unreliable and sound awful.

With earphones you almost always get what you pay for.