Nexus 6P - Sound Quality Issues?

[GreatCanadian]

I have to admit that I'm beginning to have some doubts here. Between the Bluetooth issue and now this .... I use my phone in the car a ton to make hands free calls, so the Bluetooth problems could be a deal breaker; and I specifically got the 128GB because I wanted to have all my music (over 60GB) on one device again, as I listen to music a lot via both headphones and Bluetooth speaker.

I'm still loving most of what I see and hear and know about this phone, but these 2 recent revelations are definitely causing me to have some second thoughts.

Guess I have some time to mull it over, since my order is still "pending" and isn't scheduled to ship until 11/13.

I have zero issues with Bluetooth hands-free calls in my truck. As for music, I play it from a USB stick and not the phone. When I do listen to my phone music it's through a set of Audiotech M10 headphones. I'm fine with the sound, but yes, I would like more volume.

GC

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[Nevpaurion]

I can confirm there are manufacturing headphone jack issues.

Google sent me 2 phones in error. Using same headphones (apple iphone stock) the first one was very quiet, ie insufficient volume. The second one was equal to my galaxy s5, which is still not enough for me, but is "normal"

So clearly some people are getting bad headphone jacks, it's not in their head

Huh I kinda figured my opinion was barring actual manufacturing defects but for the sake of argument sure, I recognize that sometimes people can get defective products in a world where things are manufactured in bulk...

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[Calvin johnson3]

Improved sound quality noticeably. I thought the onboard DAC was horrible. It's the only thing I don't like about the 6p. But you will need a USB c cable that sends info 2 ways. A lot of cheap cables and adaptors won't work.

 

[csnack]

Well, I have to say that reading these posts about the relatively poor sound quality of the Nexus 6p speakers has been both enlightening and depressing. I'm still on an HTC One M7 and I REALLY love the sound quality of he front facing speakers on it. The M7 has Beats, not BoomSound, and it's killer for a little device and gaming, YouTube and music rocks on it. I've read that these M7 speakers even rival the M8 and M9. In fact, the HTC One M8 reportedly sounds better than the M9. Now I'm reading that the Nexus 6p speakers are not even as good as the HTC One M9. And to make matters worse, HTC's new M10 that's due to be released shortly got rid of BoomSound all together, according to the recent leaks, and so that's had me eyeing the Nexus 6p. Coming from the HTC One M7 speakers, anything not comparable to those is going to be greatly disappointing and likely a deal breaker. I have a separate pmp that I use my Westone IEMs with, but for YouTube and gaming where I don't care or want to use headphones the front speakers on the phone are imperative AND they have to sound awesome; merely being loud is not good enough. So I'm bummed now; I thought I finally found an awesome replacement for my M7, and even though I'm eligible for a contract upgrade discount on a new phone you have to pay full price for the 6p if you want it and I'd have bought it, but these posts here of folks saying the sound is comparably flat and lifeless, well, damn. Now I don't know what the heck to do, but I guess that's my first-world problem.

 

[anon(470989)]

csnack, I would suggest the Moto X Pure if you are coming from a M7. I too used a M7 until the battery just couldn't hack it anymore, and I miss it. I have used the 6p and the Moto X Pure extensively and I felt like the Moto X Pure gave the better sound experience and was a pretty worthy "successor" to my M7. It is much larger and lacks a finger print scanner, but give it a go because I think you will appreciate the sound.

 

[Thomas Guide]

Not sure why everyone raves about M7 sound. It's not that great, my father' in law's Galaxy S3 has louder speakers. So do most iphones, especially when you put them down on a surface the speaker output from the bottom of the phone bounces off the table and makes it sound even louder.

 

[Thomas Guide]

Then you have to put up with Moto X inconsistent camera, if that's not important then it's a good phone and cheaper than 6P.

 

[anon(470989)]

Not sure why everyone raves about M7 sound. It's not that great, my father' in law's Galaxy S3 has louder speakers. So do most iphones, especially when you put them down on a surface the speaker output from the bottom of the phone bounces off the table and makes it sound even louder.

I am not even talking about just the quality coming from the speakers, but also when plugged in using headphones. It is really good. As for the camera on the Moto X, it did suffice. Are you going to be taking shots that make your iPhone and Galaxy buddies drool over? Probably not. But if you are the Snap Chat, Instagram sort, it is perfectly fine. Takes solid video too.

 

[csnack]

Not sure why everyone raves about M7 sound. It's not that great, my father' in law's Galaxy S3 has louder speakers. So do most iphones, especially when you put them down on a surface the speaker output from the bottom of the phone bounces off the table and makes it sound even louder.

Because we're talking about quality of sound, not merely quantity of volume - at least I am anyway. Just because a device is louder than another doesn't mean it sounds better. I've seen a few a/b video comparisons of the Nexus 6p speakers vs HTC's BoomSound and the 6p speakers always came out on top in terms of being louder, but in terms of quality of sound the HTC wins. Of course, some folks do perceive more volume as equating to better quality; to them louder = better - and there's nothing wrong with that and I do believe that describes the opinion of most people in this case, but I'm not one of them. I'd rather have a deeper, fuller sound with relatively less volume than a super loud, but flat and lifeless sound by comparison. There were a few videos where the reviewer praised the 6p speakers, but again, those reviewers probably weren't coming straight from an M7 and in any case were probably of the louder = better camp anyway. Whatever.

 

[Nevpaurion]

With the understanding that this is all completely and entirely subjective here's where I'm coming from:

For many years I paid the bills and kept the lights on with a combination of doing Live sound and studio sessions, or editing.
I've owned the Moto X Pure edition (and 2014 model)
I've owned the HTC One M7
I've owned (current phone) the Nexus 6P


With all that said:

The "worst" of the speaker quality here was the 2014 Moto X
The HTC One M7, Moto X Pure, and Nexus 6P sound quality difference between speakers was negligible at best, with possibly the Moto X Pure edition being the winner.

There was almost no difference to me in sound when plugged into the audio jack of all 4 aforementioned phones.
HTC's "boomsound" when plugged in, if engaged did the same thing any of the other audio gimmicks do, Slapped a smiley face EQ on the phone, exaggerated Bass and Treble, scooped out mids. Some people find that to sound "better".

That's my take away, the take away of someone that survived off using their ears for work, who has owned every single one of the phones mentioned in this thread (of recent)

sidenote: I do remember some of these phones feeling louder than others with the same set of earbuds. I think the Moto's got the loudest, the 6P being the "quietest"

 

[csnack]

Anyone who is not happy with the stock sound of your Nexus 6p, have you tried viper4android on you 6p? I'm thinking that might be the solution.

 

[dubhlainnux]

Sorry to barge in on something old, but given what you said in this post, I was wondering if I could pick your brain about something?

My new 6p has a weird hissing whenever I listen to something at low volume. It's still there at high volume, but harder to notice. It also is harder to notice when listening to pieces with loud percussion or something.

I'm a music student (violin and piano), and every time I try to listen to something soft like Chopin, the hissing makes it almost impossible to concentrate on the music...
It happens through the headphones (many different kinds) and through the speakers.

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[Nevpaurion]

I listen to a lot of jazz using my Nexus 6P, stuff that has a ridiculously large dynamic range.

Because of this sometimes I do hear a bit of a hiss, but only if my volume is set pretty high and it's a quiet spot of the tune.

No louder of a hiss than I've had occur with any other device, not even so much a hiss as a soft static or white noise if that makes sense.

Just that classic audio device on with volume set up and no or little audio going through it sound, if that makes sense.

What you're describing sounds like an issue beyond that, especially if another phone in the same signal path doesn't do it.

If that's the case you'd want to RMA it, sounds like a defect to me.


Just as a note of where I'm coming from, I use my phone for music every single day, during the work week for about an hour or so and on the weekends through my chromecast for hours on end when cooking or cleaning sometimes.