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Poor sound quality on HTC One


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hi all,

 

just installed Poweramp on my new HTC One. I've been using if for ages on my SGS2 and it is a great player, the sound quality on the SGS2 was fabulous. However, on the HTC One, it is terrible. Distorted, buzzy with lots of hiss.  I've tried beats audio switched on and off, I've tried different headphones and I've tried adjusting the graphic equalisers, nothing makes it sound any good.

 

The stock music player, however, sounds great, so I'm pretty sure it's not a problem with the sound chip. The interface is no where near as good with the stock player, though, so I'd like to continue with Poweramp, but until the problems are sorted I'll pass I'm afraid.

 

Anyone else had this experience? Is it something that is being looked into?

 

thanks,

 

James

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Hi James,

 

I do have the very same issue with my HTC One. The sound with the HTC Music Player is fine, without hissing. When I play the same Song with Poweramp, I have the same issues. Winamp for example does not have this problem, the same with the denon Music Player.

 

Tested formats were mp3 (192 to 320 kbs) as well as flac. Both with "beats" on and off.

 

regards,

 

Jo

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Sorry, but we can't reproduce such issue on our htc one phone. The only known issue on some htc devices is audio artifacts when beats enabled, but it's only when multiple sounds are played and it's not a quality degradation.

Poweramp without equ/tone enabled plays exactly the same as stock player on our htc one (either with headset or speaker).

Please note that 3rd party equalizer controller apps (such as Equalizer app or any similar) can make sound terrible combined with Poweramp DSP. Please try to temporarily disable/uninstall such apps. Also any kind of non stock ROMs or root based tweaks can result in unexpetced behavior.

Please also ensure you have Poweramp DVC enabled and try to reset Poweramp DSP with long press on Reset button in Equ/Tone screen.

Thanks!

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Ok, I'll try that tomorrow (no headphones with me right now) but I have nothing else running so I'd be surprised if it helps... I will let you know.

The phone is completely stock, so there shouldn't be any difference to yours.

thanks for the reply.

James

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ok... so, I've tried again, having reset the DSP. No real change in quality - a recently recorded high bit-rate mp3 still sounds like a 1980s cassette recording. Note that this is with beats audio switched off, and no third party equaliser apps installed.

 

DVC was set on, I hadn't set it so I presume it is on as default when you install.  Just to see what effect this had, I turned it off. It immediately made it quieter, but it cleaned up the sound immensely. Turn the volume up and re-balance the DSP and it now sounds clean again. Having the "limit" option set also helps. Not sure why DVC should be affecting the sound quality so much, it sounds like it is over-amplifying the sound with associated noise and distortion.

 

I remember on my SGS2, I had the volume to about 1/2 to give nice, loud but not too loud sound through the headphones. On the One, with DVC enabled, the volume is around 10%. With it off, the volume needs to be around 1/2 again. Don't know if that's significant or not, but it seemed interesting.

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You can add me to the list of people experiencing this problem,  However for me it seems to be intermittent.  But boy, when it happens you know about it.   I'm running stock ROM 1.29.401.12 , full version of Poweramp, Beats Disabled, no audio tweaks/DSP or Equalizers other than Poweramp.

 

Tom 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yep, same problem here as documented above.  Oddly enough I never thought to check the stock player, but as previously noted - sounds great with no hiss; Poweramp in the meantime sounds like a cassette I may have poorly bootlegged 20 years ago :( 

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What Poweramp Equalizer/Tone settings do you use? Have you tried non-dvc mode (disable Direct Volume Control via Settings=>Audio=>Advanced Tweaks). We have no such issues on our HTC One, except for broken Beats compatibility - HTC can't fix this bug for year+ for their Sense4+ devices.

Thanks!

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OK - here's all the info I can offer anyone who's interested so far.  The background hissing seems intermittent and temperamental.  I've tried various PA and system settings in the hope of isolating it.  I'm rooted, and running ARHD 10.1 ROM.

 

Currently I've got no noticeable hiss - after wiping PA data with Ti Backup.  Since then I've enabled/disabled various settings in the hope of isolating the cause:

 

PA:

 - Equ is disabled and flat (though enabling equ seems to have no noticeable effect on hiss)

 - Tone enabled (though again, no effect)

 - Limit enabled (no effect)

 - SRS enabled (no effect)

 - RG enabled (unsure if this has any effect on hiss)

 - DVC enabled (no effect)

 

 - Fade, Crossfade, and Gapless - I have DEFINITELY noticed background hiss when this is enabled, primarily in the quiet periods fade in/out; though this may be a placebo due to lower ambient volume.  Going further, fading seems broken - volume goes loud, quiet, loud again as each song fades in - especially noticeable on short fade out/in when skipping tracks.

 

System settings:

 - NFC disabled

 - Fast boot disabled

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After few tests, there is a definitely raised white noise level on HTC One, noticeable in the following conditions:

- Poweramp DVC is ON

- Beats is ON

- Master volume + preamp on minimum (hiss is masked by mid/high volume, thus lowering master volume+preamps makes it more apparent)

 

Switching beats OFF immediately removes that noise. Also, switching DVC OFF removes noise as well. This is Beats VS DVC issue, as we recommend, some of these technologies should be disabled - they can't work reliable together starting from Sense v4.

 

(Technically, DVC sets the Android audio track to max available volume - 0db, while the actual volume changes processed purely by Poweramp. It seems that Beats is tricked by this 0db setting and produces that noise, may be because it has its own volume related processing. The noise reminds of quantisation noise, when bit precision is lost by gaining. Also this reveals the fact that Beats doesn't use dithering or other noise shaping).

 

Poweramp has a warning dialog shown once if it detects beats + DVC enabled together.

 

Thanks!

 

PS We have new Hybrid DVC mode for Poweramp in current dev builds. It makes Beats + DVC working together fine on all HTC devices except HTC One:)) Beats unfortunately breaks any fine grained control over audio there.

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Thanks Max! Nice to know it wasn't in my imagination :D

 

After few tests, there is a definitely raised white noise level on HTC One, noticeable in the following conditions:

- Poweramp DVC is ON

- Beats is ON

- Master volume + preamp on minimum (hiss is masked by mid/high volume, thus lowering master volume+preamps makes it more apparent)

 

Switching beats OFF immediately removes that noise. Also, switching DVC OFF removes noise as well. This is Beats VS DVC issue, as we recommend, some of these technologies should be disabled - they can't work reliable together starting from Sense v4.

 

In your test; do ALL of the above conditions need to be met in order to replicate white noise; or just any of the conditions?  I know I've certainly experienced background hiss with Beats off, DVC on.

 

In any case, is there any combination of audio settings in particular you'd recommend to minimise the problem?

 

Personally, I'm pretty unimpressed with Beats.  I find for listing to music with earphones using my own tone settings and enabling SRS yields far more pleasant results for listening.  That said, Beats seems to help immensely when using the Boomsound speakers for media (certainly in apps other than PA).  I just wish HTC had the forethought to include a few more settings for Beats than just on/off.

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  • 3 months later...

I am also getting poor sound and audio performance from Poweramp since a recent HTC/Android updated on my HTC One VX. Not a hiss, but playback audio drops out and skips. I use a wired Android headset with a single button and mic. It almost sounds like a static charge or a loose headset jack - except it is not.  This does NOT happen with the stock music player app. 

 

I have reset the phone, reformatted my SD card, etc. Nothing helps. It is because of the OS update, I am certain. 

 

IT IS VERY ANNOYING!!!!!

 

HTC Sensation version: 4+

Android version: 4.1.2

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