Galaxy S4 headphone amplifier / Low volume / Bad quality

[whirloop]

Hi,
is there something wrong with my device or is samdung quality this bad at the headphone amplifier?
I use fm-transmitter to listen music at my work and in a car. But I have to add so much volume at the receiver that the buzz noises comes too loud.

Fm-transmitter is the same which I used with my Lumia 920 and I tried exact same songs. In Lumia 920 I don't have to put volume so loud at the receiver, not even near.
The sound is more rich and have more bass than galaxy s4. With SGS4 it sounds like I'm listening some cassette from early 80's or even worse.

What can I do?
Maybe I need to change back to Lumia 920 or wait 1020.

 

[Kedar]

FM Transmitter? Hmm, I've never used that application.
How is it when you try other music apps? The same?

 

[rushmore]

You can use Poweramp or Volume + to increase the hardware gain. This works with the Snap S4 dual, so since the 600 is the same chipset family, should work with it too. The S3 is not iPod 5 level, but sounds good enough with my Klipsch S4 buds I do not feel the need to always use my iPod 5.

That said, out for box, the gain and volume output for the S3 via 3.5MM is TOO LOW as well. The best phone for audio I owned was the N900, since actually had a dedicated amp in line to the 3.5MM output. Shame the phone itself SUCKED.

 

[whirloop]

I use FM-Transmitter in 3,5mm jack (headphone jack) to transmit all the sounds to the radio.
something like this ->

Newegg.com - Professional Cable FM-TRANS2 FM Transmitter for iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Most Smartphones - Black

Do guys think that latest firmware I9505XXUBMEA could fix this?
But i don't think that this is the same problem as using low-impedance headphones. (which gives you crackling and distortion)
(it's been reported that latest firmware do fix low-impedance problem)
latest I9505 firmware I9505 XXUBMEA - Page 27 - xda-developers

 

[whirloop]

Do guys think that latest firmware I9505XXUBMEA could fix this?
But i don't think that this is the same problem as using low-impedance headphones. (which gives you crackling and distortion)
(it's been reported that latest firmware do fix low-impedance problem)
latest I9505 firmware I9505 XXUBMEA - Page 27 - xda-developers

Well, it didn't help.
F**k this phone sucks! Another proof of samdung quality.

Any other advice than sell this device?

 

[jasonb]

Mine seems to sound better and is louder than the iPhone 4 it replaced. With my Vsonic GR01 in ears I usually listen at the 5th or 6th spot on the volume dial. In my Car I put it to the max and it sounds fine and is also plenty loud there as well.

 

[whirloop]

Post number 8 has mod to increase headphone volume, but even that didn't help.
[Sound Mod] BMSound_Full the deep bass for S4 I9500 / I9505 - xda-developers
Don't really know what to do anymore.

 

[asanatheist]

Post number 8 has mod to increase headphone volume, but even that didn't help.
[Sound Mod] BMSound_Full the deep bass for S4 I9500 / I9505 - xda-developers
Don't really know what to do anymore.

My only question is why are you having to use the FM Transmitter? Those things suck pretty badly. My suggestion? Get your stereo replaced with bluetooth or 3.5mm input.

 

[snazzypants]

This sounds just like my problem. Music sounds good up to about half way (which is way too quiet). Right at the mark where it gives the "listening to loud music for prolonged periods can damage hearing" it starts to sound TERRIBLE. This is true for many pairs of headphones, whether they have a mic or not, except for the pair that came with the phone...but I have a lot of headphones that I'd prefer to use before that set. They all sound great and loud in my iPhone. My friends with the S4 don't have this issue. So I'm about to take this back to geek squad. The phone is great though otherwise, and I'm an apple snob.

I'd suggest you eliminate the possibility of your transmitter being the issue. Because its a ridiculously high possibility. How does it sound in headphones? Try many different headphones. My issue definitely resides on my phone, which is brand new and I haven't adjusted any audio settings, so everything is default. Maybe there is some stupid eq setting that needs turned off, but I'm worried I got a bad headphone jack.

 

[Haalcyon]

I think he sound coming out of my S4 is great. I don't listen to music loud (I treasure my hearing (I'm somewhat of an audiophile)). I've compared its output to my $1.3K Burson headphone amp and my far cheaper HeadRoom Total Bithead. To me it sounds fine and powers my Senn HD595s quite well. The sound is crisp, clean, and bass response is quite good but not overdone (with no equalization).

Sent from my Note 8.0 LTE

 

[snazzypants]

I also treasure my hearing, but my problem described above is that it was unnacceptably quiet. However, I figured out the stupid answer to the stupid problem, and maybe it's the same for the original poster... MY initial pair of headphones was failing, and when I tried other headphones, the case that protects my phone was preventing my headphone jack from making a proper connection. This made all of my headphones mimick my failing pair so I thought it was a problem with the phone. Sounds good now that I know that! "Doh'!"

 

[Michelle Burgess2]

I have only had my s4 for about a month now and am loving it except for the really bad crackling sound comi g from the media player. Is this a samsung problem in general or is there a problem with my device?

 

[skidoo]

Is the sound OK in other apps? I've had my S4 for about two months, and it sounds great. But I'm usually listening to Rdio, Google Music, or MixZing. I'm sure I must have at some point or another, but I can't specifically remember ever using the built-in player app.

 

[Voodooguru]

See here, makes for an interesting read: Nexus 4 Headset problem - xda-developers

I had a similar issue with my Nexus 4, I simply changed to an old pair of decent, non-remote earbuds and everything works fine.

 

[sad cricket]

I think the reason why the S4 produces such low sound quality is that Samsung moved away from the highly regarded Wolfson DAC. If I remember correctly the S3 has the Wolfson DAC. One can download equalizer apps such as Poweramp and this can improve the sound somewhat. But ultimately the sound quality is as good/bad to the weakest link and in this case it is the DAC.

 

[JawjaBill]

What sad cricket said. I have $200 IEMs that sound like crap on the S4 but on my S3, they were heavenly.

 

[Cool Jeff]

Geez everytime I am tempted to swap my htc One with S4 I read bad things about multimedia stuff of S4 like sound quality and screen
I really want a 13mp superphone but I want also high quality sound for my music in sports

 

[Yahir estrada]

Hi,
is there something wrong with my device or is samdung quality this bad at the headphone amplifier?
I use fm-transmitter to listen music at my work and in a car. But I have to add so much volume at the receiver that the buzz noises comes too loud.

Fm-transmitter is the same which I used with my Lumia 920 and I tried exact same songs. In Lumia 920 I don't have to put volume so loud at the receiver, not even near.
The sound is more rich and have more bass than galaxy s4. With SGS4 it sounds like I'm listening some cassette from early 80's or even worse.

What can I do?
Maybe I need to change back to Lumia 920 or wait 1020.

 

[Mustang5point0lx]

Your reply is irrelevant Yahir. What's the deal with all the blank reply posts on this board? Thats all I see in here.

Regardless.. I wanted to chime in on this post. I caught it via a Google search. I know this is old but I did root my phone and use an edited "snd_soc_msm_2x_Fusion3" system file. Using the moderate sound boost edit, it made the sound from the external speaker just (acceptable) .... but not that good. And the headphones were just (ok). Coming from an HTC Rezound and a Touch Pro 2 before that, the sound on this phone flat out SUCKS @$$! It was like going far back in time. Also, the amount of clicking and popping is ridiculous. You dont even have to be an audiophile to realize the sound sucks. The amount of audible hiss is almost as bad as old cassette tapes. For a high end device, that's very unacceptable.

......................... the rest of the phone is really good. Im still using it to this day because I just can't afford anything (and I cant stand all these sealed battery phones.. I like being able to replace them). Anyway, not to get too far off topic. Thought id give my thoughts on this if anyone still views the S4 section.

 

[Narayan71]

To anyone unhappy with the sound of their S4 I highly recommend Neutron Player plus VIPER4Android (the latter if your phone is rooted) a great combination.