VZW: noise cancellation/mic quality issues still anyone?

[tomatosouplabs]

I got my phone from moto maker with the first OTA already on it so I can't compare my phone to what it was before. I am assuming the newer software fixed the issue of our voice coming through choppy on the other end. It does seem better to me than when I tried various Moto X's before. However several times when I have been out shopping or in a restaurant, the person on the other end says she can't stand my phone and she can't understand me and hears a lot of background noise. Basically the same complaints I got from her on my old phone that has no noise cancellation.

I tried various experiments of leaving myself voicemails from different environments. I also tried some voice recorders (e.g. Smart Voice) and set to 8 kHz and played back using good quality headphones. I also got a Call Recorder (you can find it by that name) and let it record the phone conversation and it saves as a 3gpp file (however as others complained you can't hear or hear well the other end in the recording but I don't care about that part).

So the bottom line is I feel the phone can do better from my own recordings but it isn't too bad to me. Maybe it's different when you're not talking into a voicemail on other end. One thing I did notice in all cases is that my "S" sound is not clear, there's a hiss to it. I have found with the voice recorders I tried, that if I up the sample rate to 11 kHz instead of 8 kHz (phone quality), my "S" sound is more clear. When I up the sample rate to CD quality, I think I sound pretty good and wish voice calls sounded that good.

I also notice quite the background hiss using the phone's speaker to listen to my voice recordings, as well as the audio track of my video recording using the stock camera app. I don't hear the hiss as much with my headphones - maybe it gets filtered out.

I also wonder if voice quality can vary between carriers. I still think when I did a test call from an AT&T demo phone to my voicemail and played it back, it sounded best, and that was before the fix.

So my question is if others feel they have no issues anymore with call quality and people are hearing them well in noisy environments, and also if they have noticed my issue with the "S" sound.

 

[KWKSLVR]

I also wonder if voice quality can vary between carriers. I still think when I did a test call from an AT&T demo phone to my voicemail and played it back, it sounded best, and that was before the fix.

It absolutely can make a difference. Your carrier, locations, signal strength, etc, can make a drastic difference in call quality.

 

[tomatosouplabs]

I called someone else on his verizon droid razr maxx and he told me I sounded grainy. I think that's a good word for it. I borrowed someone's verizon galaxy s4 and left myself a message and it sounds a bit louder and smoother like I have to strain my ear less to understand - more natural sounding. I called verizon CS and he called me back on my phone and he thought I sounded fine. I'm not sure what to do, live with it or try to get a new one or return it and wait for some other phone to come down the road. I don't think I can tolerate the S4. Moto support said I should try clearing my android cache in recovery mode, try it, then factory reset, try it, then decide if i want to return it. I somehow doubt doing that will work.

I'm going to activate my old fascinate and compare again because even though it picked up a lot of background noise, it was good sounding when it was quiet.

Verizon CS gave me what I thought was conflicting info about the difference between the 3G phone and 4G LTE phone for voice. First he said voice goes on the 4G channels but then he said it's the same as my 3G phone going on 1x. I am trying to determine if I use my 3G phone and 4G phone in same location for voice call, does it use same frequency band, same tower, same modulation, whatever, etc.

Did anyone tell you that your voice sounds grainy? It's kind of like you say a word but it's not continuous, like there's little tiny dips or gaps. I wouldn't say choppy because that sounds to me worse.

 

[jephanie]

I've polled several people with whom I was speaking about my voice quality using the X and every person said it is crystal clear and the background was super quiet. The two most extreme examples I had were 1) walking down a metro city sidewalk with trucks, buses, cars and other vehicles roaring past and the other person thought I was in my hotel room because it was so nice and quiet and 2) at a banquet hall in a super noisy and echo-filled room, the other person also thought I was in an isolated room. I was equally happy with how loud and clear they were for me to hear in those conditions, too.

My wife has the X now and I can say there is a MASSIVE improvement in her voice quality compared to her iPhone 4.

The X is hands down the best phone I have ever used.

 

[tomatosouplabs]

I still believe that the noise cancelation may be too aggressive still that it is causing the lack of smoothness people hear. I believe it gets much worse when person on other end uses a speakerphone or it's noisy which I still don't really understand why it manipulates my voice based on their environment.

It might also depend on the tone of people's voices using it and how they hold the phone to their mouth. I find I can make a difference by positioning the mic right by my mouth but it is not optimum placement for my ear over the earpiece to hear well.

My latest thought is to live with it but I'm not thrilled. I like this phone better than any other Verizon one.

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