My Bluetooth earbuds (LG TONE Free FN4) deliver pretty bad audio quality. I've tested them paired with my phone, (Windows) laptop and tablet - every time I get the same results. I would describe the sound (or at least certain frequencies) as quite "muddy", especially when listening to music it's cymbals or I think the higher frequencies of snares that sound very poor. I've listened to some examples on YouTube, and the only audio issue that seems to match with what I hear is a low (or plainly a wrong) bitrate.
The only codec that my phone and my earbuds both support is SDC, even though the "HD-Audio (AAC)" option does show in the Bluetooth settings for my earbuds. Checking or unchecking this option doesn't seem affect the audio in any way.
These are the Bluetooth audio values from the developer options:
AVRCP-version: 1.4
Audiocodec: SBC
Sample rate: 44,1 kHz
Bits per sample: 16
I have my old pair of JBL Free buds, the quality of the audio is great. The Bluetooth audio values are the exact same as the LG ones, which is what confuses me the most considering the LG ones don't sound nearly as good as the JBL ones. There don't seem to any reviews mentioning the same issue as I have either, I've seen almost no negative reviews - which is why I didn't think I was experiencing the audio quality I was supposed to in the first place.
Here's everything I tried so far that help me out (besides testing the earbuds paired with different devices):
- Rebooting my phone.
- Reconnecting the earbuds.
- Updating the earbuds' software using LG's TONE Free mobile app.
- Experimenting with the EQ (both on the TONE Free app as Spotify's mobile app).
- Changing the Bluetooth audio values (besides the AVRCP-version they all just switch back to their defaults, so I assume they don't support higher values).
- Disabling hands-free telephony (Windows 10); disabling any of the other options didn't help either.
I've generated Bluetooth HCI Snoop logs (and read them using Wireshark), but I can't really make out any relevant information. Please let me know if I could find my answer there or if you know how to parse the file to a more pleasible to read format (couldn't figure it out with btsnooz.py script or btsnoop).
I feel genuinely bummed 'cause I love pretty much everything else about these LG buds, I really hope someone could help me out in some way. Thanks in advance for taking time to read/help.
Edit: I've tested them paired with some Samsung phone, the audio was perfectly fine. This device did support AAC and switching the codec to SBC causes the audio to sound just as bad as the audio quality I get paired with my own phone. That doesn't clear up everything for me though, considering the JBL earbuds have the same exact settings as the LG ones when paired with my phone.
The only codec that my phone and my earbuds both support is SDC, even though the "HD-Audio (AAC)" option does show in the Bluetooth settings for my earbuds. Checking or unchecking this option doesn't seem affect the audio in any way.
These are the Bluetooth audio values from the developer options:
AVRCP-version: 1.4
Audiocodec: SBC
Sample rate: 44,1 kHz
Bits per sample: 16
I have my old pair of JBL Free buds, the quality of the audio is great. The Bluetooth audio values are the exact same as the LG ones, which is what confuses me the most considering the LG ones don't sound nearly as good as the JBL ones. There don't seem to any reviews mentioning the same issue as I have either, I've seen almost no negative reviews - which is why I didn't think I was experiencing the audio quality I was supposed to in the first place.
Here's everything I tried so far that help me out (besides testing the earbuds paired with different devices):
- Rebooting my phone.
- Reconnecting the earbuds.
- Updating the earbuds' software using LG's TONE Free mobile app.
- Experimenting with the EQ (both on the TONE Free app as Spotify's mobile app).
- Changing the Bluetooth audio values (besides the AVRCP-version they all just switch back to their defaults, so I assume they don't support higher values).
- Disabling hands-free telephony (Windows 10); disabling any of the other options didn't help either.
I've generated Bluetooth HCI Snoop logs (and read them using Wireshark), but I can't really make out any relevant information. Please let me know if I could find my answer there or if you know how to parse the file to a more pleasible to read format (couldn't figure it out with btsnooz.py script or btsnoop).
I feel genuinely bummed 'cause I love pretty much everything else about these LG buds, I really hope someone could help me out in some way. Thanks in advance for taking time to read/help.
Edit: I've tested them paired with some Samsung phone, the audio was perfectly fine. This device did support AAC and switching the codec to SBC causes the audio to sound just as bad as the audio quality I get paired with my own phone. That doesn't clear up everything for me though, considering the JBL earbuds have the same exact settings as the LG ones when paired with my phone.
Last edited:
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