[Q] What is going on with ICS media volume steps? - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm on Kangy8 and I don't know if this issue is related to all ICS roms.
So when I adjust the media volume while listening to music I basically get this more or less:
- |..|..|..|..|..|..|......|.........| +
where some of the steps seem to be mapped to more than one volume level.
What the ... I don't even get it.
I want something like this:
- |..|..|..|..|..|..|..|..|..|..|..| +
I also don't understand the Voodoo Control Plus audio settings.
Current amplifier is a negative number. Why? So what I understand is, that it's amplifying the current volume?
I saw that CodenameAndroid comes with a 30 step volume addon but as far as I know this will conflict with voodoo sound.

I don't have that volume issue in the stock ROM on my i9023, possibly a kangy bug.
The amplifier level is simple and useful once you understand it. I'll give you some background first and some general numbers.
dB (decibel) is a unit, in an audio sense, which measures the pressure of sound waves. It is a logarithmic scale and requires a reference level to compare to. Basics with audio decibel values:
1dB : Threshold of noticing a volume change
3dB : A little louder
6dB : Double the sound pressure
10dB : We perceive sound approximately twice as loud
Now that's out of the way; the analog control tells the amplifier inside the phone how much it should amplify the sound. Using 0dB as a reference, which is generally the loudest it goes safely, how much less (in dB) would you like it to amplify. If you want it to halve the perceived volume, you'll drop it down to -10dB (effectively half as loud as full blast). The reason why you would want to do this is generally if there is excessive noise generated by the amp, lowering the amplifying power and raising the software volume will give you the same volume and power, but lower additional noise as the amp is working below it's limit. Higher quality DACs of course can reach their max amp capabilities and add no noticeable noise to the earphones/speakers, of course.
Hope that made sense

Related

Speaker playback

I'm a Metalhead n need playback of my Metal tracks to be good quality on the phone if not great ! Everything else plays fine than a Rock/Metal track. Its no doubt that the audio quality on the headphones is great. I also understand that those low quality speakers on the Optimus suck.
So now what's the solution to eliminate the crackling + hiss sound?
Can I apply some software application? Can I change the speaker hardware? Can I alter the music files in a way that they dont produce crackling sound but still sound loud enough on speakers?
P.S : Many of the music files I download are originally encoded at a low volume i.e. some of the music files are low volume, while others are higher volume (based on how they were encoded by the uploaders). I always amplify the volume using the freeware "Wavepad" due to the low volume of files. I experimented by first applying a reverb to the files n then amplifying them to see if they no more produce a crackling sound.
Please help me if someone knows what I'm talkin abt.
I almost solved the issue of the crackling/hiss sound on speaker playback by playing around with the software "Wavepad".
In this software, I applied the following to the mp3 files in the given sequence:
1. Automatic Gain Control
2. Equalizer - Band Stop
3. Stereo Pan
4. Amplify - 200% to 300% (max)

[Q] Earbuds excessive call volume

So I only noticed just now the Nexus 5 did not come with any earbuds. I have been using some cheap Skullcandy earbuds for music and they are decent enough to block out transit noise and play music at a moderate volume. However when I try making a phone call, at the lowest volume the sound is just ridiculously loud. It is painful for me to attempt to listen to more then 10-15 seconds of call audio wearing these. I also tried with my Galaxy Nexus earbuds, and it's the same story.
Has anyone found a pair of earbuds with mic that delivers gentle, quiet call audio at the lowest call volume of the Nexus 5 on stock ROM? Failing that, is there anything I can do to decrease the headset call volume further than the volume control will allow?
Bump, anyone else experiencing this? It shouldn't be deafening to make a phone call with earbuds...
OK I'm going to bump this again. It got WAY worse on 4.4.1. While I appreciate the volume boost for the phone's speaker, the earbud volume situation is out of control. The lowest volume setting on music, in a quiet room, is the loudest I can tolerate on earbuds - no option of turning it down lower. The lowest volume setting on phone calls is earth-shattering on earbuds - completely unusable for conversations unless I want to go deaf.
Is there ANY way I can force call volume down further on the headphone jack? Hacks, kernels, Xposed modules? I really don't want to be locked out of being able to make calls with earbuds.
All perfect with 4.4.1, skullcandy have a very bad quality earbuds, better buy sennheiser.
jlmcr87 said:
All perfect with 4.4.1, skullcandy have a very bad quality earbuds, better buy sennheiser.
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The sound quality is great, it's just too damn loud. Same with the earbuds that came with my Galaxy Nexus.
The call volume is ridiculously out of proportion with music volume. That is not the fault of the earbuds. The OS should not be pushing out call volume significantly louder than the music volume at a comparable setting.
OK, so a friendly individual in the Franco thread directed me to this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2532788
I simply used the same instructions for the mod but reduced the number rather than increase it. For call volume, the value that I changed was under path name "voice-headphones". The original setting was 20 and 20 for HPHL and HPHR volume. I turned them down to 05. I thought I heard a reduction from 20 to 10 but did not hear any further reduction from 10 to 05. Then I also tried reducing the RX1 and RX2 digital volume. I tried taking them from 84 down to 64 which was maybe a bit low, so I settled on 70. At that setting, the loudest IVR systems I've reached on the phone are just right at the lowest call volume setting, and I still have room to raise the volume in noisier environments.

[Q] separate low and high tones

Hi all,
Would it be possible to separate the low and high tones, so the low tones are played through the one speaker and the high tones through the other?
I know the maximum volume may be a little bit lower when that's done, but it shouldn't make a huge difference either. 2 speakers doesn't mean the maximum volume doubles, in fact, it doesn't even raise that much.
Also, I don't know for the lower tones, but the speaker that plays the high tones could probably be pushed a bit loader since the driver doesn't come out that far. That way the total volume could maybe almost be as it is now.
After all this said/asked, THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF SEPARATING THE SPEAKERS.
When the speakers play the whole frequency of the sound, it may reduce bass or sound less "clear". This comes because the driver has to "trill" fast for the high tones and slow for the low tones at the same time. If we can separate the speakers so one speaker plays only the low and the other only the high frequencies, each speaker would have a smaller frequency range to play. This could give deeper basses and clear sounds.
What do you guys think about this?

Volume mods, both quieter and louder.

Has anybody heard of a mod that would both lower the minimum volume while allowing a sufficiently high max volume. Either having the steps between have a greater effect, or having more steps? I can use Viper to lower the minimum volume sufficiently, but then the max volume is not enough. I've tried the mixer_paths.xml mods, but that just increased the volume all around.
Running Xstrestrolite 2.3, with ViperV4A on a Canadian W8
Thanks
Hpras said:
Has anybody heard of a mod that would both lower the minimum volume while allowing a sufficiently high max volume. Either having the steps between have a greater effect, or having more steps? I can use Viper to lower the minimum volume sufficiently, but then the max volume is not enough. I've tried the mixer_paths.xml mods, but that just increased the volume all around.
Running Xstrestrolite 2.3, with ViperV4A on a Canadian W8
Thanks
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There is nothing like this, since you are asking for a mod which will dynamically adjust the gain. Current solution is only a fixed value on the volume gain - e.g. if you use higher gain, you'll get louder volume all around, if you use a lower one, you'll get the opposite.
viper4android works on mine

Headphone volume too loud on lowest setting

The lowest volume setting when using headphones is just slightly too loud for me. I am using Vsonic VSD5S headphones which have an impedance of 45 Ohm. Is there anyway to lower the minimum volume? If possible, I would like to avoid rooting or installing any apps.
Unfortunately, there's not a way without root or installing apps, maybe the next OTA will solve the issue.
You have to root the device to do anything about it.
Have you tried going into the settings of the supplied music player to see if you could alter the audio settings.
Most music apps have preamp of replay gain settings to help this some what, but so far I found all of them suffer from terrible snr at low volume (aside from stock music player). I get around this with an external amp like the fiio e5 which had it's own volume control.
With power amp alpha you can also change the volume steps to 100, that may allow you to go lower than the default volume step can

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