Crackling Speakerphone & Speaker - design problem or bad batch?

[mssher07]

Hey all,

Bought an HTC Aria on sunday, amazing little device. However, both the ear-speaker (speaker you listen to when the phone is against your head) and the speakerphone to a much larger extent make an interference/crackling noise, particularly at higher frequencies and with louder sounds. But it's pretty ubiquitous.

Checked your forum and others, no one's reported this problem for the HTC Aria that I could find, so I went to return it.

Went back to the AT&T store to get a new one--guys in the store were great, no questions asked. On a whim I tried one of the default ringtones that was giving me trouble on my original phone and was surprised that the new one also had noticeable crackling on most ringtones. We tried all the rest of the Aria's in the store, and all had the same problem.

Here's an example of a sound that crackles. Put the ringer volume to max, and play the (built-in) ringtone called "Riffing". About a quarter of the way in there's noticeable crackling / noises and it gets worse as the ringtone goes on. It's most noticeable on this ringtone but if you listen it can be heard on most ringtones. It's very bad when I use the speakerphone for a phone call.

QUESTION: Am I just OCD in finding and being bothered by this, and all the Aria's have less than stellar speakerphone quality? Or is this a bad batch from this one store? I feel like someone would've reported this by now on some forum, but haven't found anything yet. Only thing that's pretty common is that the speakerphone isn't loud enough, but no one's mentioned hearing interference / crackling noises.

 

[JudgeMAN#AC]

Sounds like a malfunctioned speaker. Exchange for another?

 

[mssher07]

Sounds like a malfunctioned speaker. Exchange for another?

Judge--hate to get on someone's bad side on my second post, but you didn't read my message.. I did return it. And every Aria they had in the store had the exact same problem.

Let me simplify: if you own an Aria, and you play the ringtone "Riffing" at medium/high volume, do you hear crackling?

 

[Dags]

I'm getting the same sound interference. However, I don't get similar interference on other sounds (music). If I had to guess, the interference for some ringtones and callers might be from resonance, not the speaker quality.

 

[REDDEVILVS]

Just checked the "Riffing" Ringtone and mine is crystal clear..Good Lick..

 

[cmiquel]

I moved from BB Bold to HTC Aria, same problem. While in front of my computer, I simply plug in to the device jack and use my computer speakers - works great, good sound quality both ends.

I will be picking up a bluetooth earbud in order to eliminate use of the speaker phone.

 

[regalblue]

I have the same issue, I am strongly considering switching to sprint for an Evo or epic.

 

[s2h2golf]

I had the Aria for about 30 days before exchanging it for the Captivate. For the first week or so, the speakerphone sounded fine, but towards the end of the 30 days it started crackling when I was using it (for voice calls). It is a great device and I recommended it to a coworker, but the low speakerphone volume, coupled with the crackling sounds and more missed calls than my other phone, and the fact that ATT was giving me a good deal for the Captivate off contract (less $ than the Aria), I returned it.

 

[thejdubb02]

Just checked the "Riffing" Ringtone and mine is crystal clear..Good Lick..

Mine is 'clear' as well. It is a small speaker so it does have problems with loud sound anyway. This is pretty common... I have had a few returns for this but at this point I just let my customers know its pretty much standard and to kind of expect it to some degree.

On the other hand, 'crackling' I have not seen. Might be a bad batch as you mentioned.

 

[JB407]

I've been having a very similar problem with two different Arias. My original, brand new Aria worked great from the time I bought it in December 2010, until about mid-March 2011--a whole three months. Then, in the middle of a call, the speaker suddenly went full volume and was very crackly*. I wasn't able to adjust the volume, and the crackling got worse until about three weeks later when the speaker suddenly went quiet. I could barely hear the caller when I was in a quiet room, and if there was any background noise it was impossible. The volume adjustment made no difference. That is the current (and only) problem with my phone--otherwise I would be very happy with it.

After jumping through several hoops, including updating my firmware to the latest version 2.2.2, the warranty center sent a replacement ("reconditioned") phone, which looked like it was put together by a two year-old, and was already falling apart. I returned it immediately, without ever checking the sound quality.

The second "reconditioned" phone just arrived, and the first thing I noticed when I turned it on was that after they had made me go through all of the trouble to update the firmware (which factory resets and erases everything you have stored on the phone--contacts, apps, settings, etc.), they didn't even have the courtesy to send me one with the latest firmware (it only has 2.1-update 1)! Even worse, on only the second call with the "reconditioned" phone, the speaker went totally silent. I tried to turn the volume up, and found that the button doesn't click. It works, but you can't tell that you pushed it. I assume that it was from the last angry owner that tried in vain to hear their call. So, I can't make calls at all on the replacement phone unless I use speakerphone.

As I said, I'm happy with most other features of the phone, but since my cell phone is primarily for making phone calls, it's an utterly worthless pos. And so far the customer service is worse.

*While I was writing this, my wife discovered that the reason my original phone went full volume was probably due to a firmware or software problem which caused the phone to automatically go into hearing aid mode. I always noticed an ear-shaped icon in the status bar, but the manual's list of icons (pp 27-28) doesn't explain that one, and the explanation for hearing aid mode on page 51 doesn't show an associated icon at all. Worthless. I'm starting to think that I won't ever buy an HTC again.