[sagem456]

I, too, have horrible audio quality in my Lumia 800. I brought my Sony headphones w an audio adapter suitable for Windows Phone to a Telenor store and compared the audio quality of the Lumia 800 to a Nokia N8. As much as I love Windows Phone Mango, I cannot accept the horrible, tinny audio from the Lumia 800 headphone jack.. I thought my Lumia 800 was a lemon, but the Lumia 800 on display sounded just as bad, while the N8 had fullbodied sound with much more bass and clearer midrange. (The N8 also sounded better than a Samsung Galaxy S2 next to the N8) Nokia has to give some official statement that the audio in Lumia 800 will be fixed (or I will return the phone for a full refund before my 14 day trial period ends) ALSO, they MUST confirm that Internet sharing and DLNA WILL arrive to the Lumia 800. All those problems are dealbreakers to me! If Nokia will not take these problems seriously and fix them, they can quit the phone business and concentrate on rubber boots and car tires!

[Tennisguy]

I just got my Lumia 800 black phone 2 days ago. I was using a N8 and N82 previously. To my horror, I got very similar experience, i.e. terrible music quality from all of my headphones, including the one supplied. Absolutely no bass at all. The sound from my earlier N8/N82 was considered good and I expect the Lumia to be just as good, not expecting it to be better. I will ask for a replacement. Listening to music on the go is one of the important feature to have in my handphone and I totally cannot accept anything less.

My firmware version is 1600.2483.8107.11501

Very dissapointed with Nokia for rolling out a "defective" design. Have been a loyal Nokia user all this while but I am afraid my confidence in Nokia is evaporating fast.

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Singapore

Lumia 800, N8, N82

[khilke]

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NielsMayer wrote:

The "terrible sound" issue seems to happen once the device's audio-server is already playing, and you plug-in to the 1/8" jack to hear your source on headsets or external amplifier. The result -- no bass -- sounds terrible if you're plugging your phone into your stereo via a 1/8 to stereo RCA adapter. However if you stop the audio server, and then restart it again by clicking on the most recently played item in the Zune/music/video app, then the proper sound is restored.

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This is exactly what seems to be happening. Just don't insert the headphones while music is already playing and everything should be fine.

[jussiron]

I did notice that Nokia MixRadio have poor quality, no difference if it's offline or streaming content. With Spotify the audio quality is rather well. Any update coming to that MixRadio? Could you put some settings that one can choose between low or high quality when streaming? Those MixRadio playlists are spot on, but that quality sucks big time. 

[pkjt]

Having read this thread, I was a bit worried to get a Lumia 800.  However, as Bluetooth headphones seemed not to be affected, I went ahead, because that was my primary use case.  In fact, I use a phone for listening to music more than for anything else.

This turned out to be the case, indeed, and the phone has worked perfectly with my Nokia BH-905 Bluetooth headphones, via Bluetooth.  In fact the sound quality is a huge improvement to my previous phone, Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic.  The clarity of the sound has improved hugely!

I did, however, do some tests with the 3.5mm plug.  First of all, using the said Bluetooth phones with a cable, the sound quality is as good as via Bluetooth. I then hooked up the phones via a cable to my high end home theater system with a subwoofer.  I even compared the sound to the original CD, but was not able to find any differences at all.  Deep basses sounded just as pure as from the CD, the sound was clear and the separation perfect.  In a blind test I would probably have not been able to tell them apart.  I'd say this a perfect music phone!

I still continued testing, and tried plugging the cable in while music was playing.  No problems whatsoever.  When I was almost ready to report this, I did one final test.  I plugged the headphones using the original 4-pin 3.5mm plug that came with the phones.  Now I got the disastrous sound quality that you are speaking about!  Indeed, all the basses were gone, separation ruined, and it sounded like coming from a tin can!

Even changing back to the 3-pin 3.5mm cable did not help.  I tried stopping the music player and restarting it, but the audio quality remained bad.  However, restarting the phone removed the problem.  Just do not use the 4-pin plug (at least not the old ones).  I think someone mentioned that the previous Nokia phones used a different ordering of the pins. 

This could explain the problem, with there being a software hack that tries to reset of the pin order but fails and does not restore the original setup.  Otherwise the audio seems to work perfectly.

My phone firmware version is 1600.2483.8107.11501 and HW version 112.1402.2.4.

PS. Interestingly enough, the spell checker did not know "Lumia"!

[Ztuka]

pkjt

Interesting indeed the things you mention here.

Btw, the 3,5 mm plug is the "american" standard of 3,5 mm and the same standard that Iphone use.

At least I think so.

I am testing audio quality right now on Nokia E6, Nokia Belle 701 and Lumia 800.

[pkjt]

I went on to test the phones that were included with Lumia 800.  Well, I'd say that they provide the function of "inexpensive handsfree".  It was really hard to tell whether the sound quality with music was exhibiting the known problem or not.

On one hand, the sound was "larger" that you would expect from such small phones.  On the other hand, basses were nonexistent and the sound reproduction seemed to be more tailored towards speech than music.  The mechanical fit to my ears was so loose that I was afraid that they would drop out.  That also affected the sound quality, so when testing I pressed the phones to my ears.

All in all, exactly what I expected from such inexpensive phones - nothing.

After removing those phones, no problems were audible when connecting to the home theater system.  I am listening to music from Lumia 800 even when writing this and am enjoying every tune.  Sarah Brightman's high voice is reproduced as purely as she sings!

[WhiteAlien]

I wrote 3 weeks ago about 2 issues I had with this phone - non working MMS and poor audio - and that I'll bring phone to Nokia service center. So today I received my phone.

Based on service manual all they did was to upgrade firmware to 8107. Yeah, they needed more than 3 weeks to do one software upgrade.

They fixed MMS issue since this firmware includes Network configuration tool. Tadaa!
What they did not fix is poor audio quality. BASS IS STILL MISSING. The audio problem still persists.

What is my next step? What can I do? Bring back again to service support? I believe there is no communication between this community, high standing managers and service support.
I think guy at service just checks - there is sound output through jack - device is working - "check", quality? - who cares.

My guess is that problem is more than in software level and it might not be possible to fix it completely. That would explain why Nokia is so silent about it. 

[piran]

@pkjt: More accurately a tip and three rings but not four pins... there is only one 'pin'.

The more basal ring should be the earth or common.

Using a tip and three rings allows for a floating earth between the output amplifiers and speaker load. Getting these awry 'can' lead to a resulting sound much like "...all the basses were gone, separation ruined, and it sounded like coming from a tin can." with loudspeakers but only in an external acoustic ie with loudspeaker cross-talk.Headphone listening (binaural) is different as the head insulates against speaker cross-talk.

XXXPLASTIC-BODYXXX--3---2--1--tip

tip - left

1 - right

2 - apparently common

3 - apparently common but floating? (high impedance)

Putting my trusty extremely ancient AVO5 multi-meter into play shows no resistance between ring3 and ring2 ie they are NOT commoned. Earpieces using tip&3ring connectors are not going to always sound like those with tip&2ring connectors:-|

The meter's resistance battery puts a heavy click into each earpiece when connected to ring2 but a much quieter/softer click with ring3.

I believe that all of this probably explains the differences in sound.

Workarounds: use an extension cable with only tip&2ring connectivity.

In the interim between my previous post and this one I was driven to purchase a bluetooth headset. BTW the bluetooth arrangement sounds good enough for me ...it of course does not use the Lumia800 3.5mm headphone socket. However the earpieces that came with the bluetooth carry a tip&2ring connector and, when connected directly to the Lumia's 3.5mm headphone socket sound fine.

Referring to my previous posting, I repeat, the headset provided is not suitable and should be replaced by one that IS suitable. If I were American I might be saying at this point "Class Action Anyone?" ...but I'm not I'm British so my usual option is to just to say "oh dear, here we go again".

[JayRoss]

Hey guys,

Im not techy or geeky so no bombarding with "info" I use a Lumia 800, which I generally love. After 3 months using this the sound was good enough on music playback, but shame no GE. However a few days ago, the bass just disapeared  

I plugged into to Zune and went back to last update and this has put it right. Scared to do the last update again incase it goes back to no bass sound, anyone else have same experience?

[bugbugger]

Software is probably not perfect. Result. Bad audio after changing plug or receiving message, or whatsoever.

Pitty.

I would buy this phone right now if it had a decent player (with equalizer).

(a Winamp app or something like that would also be ok).

[snaut]

pkjt,

What about those popping/clicking when you start playback? Are they gone, too?

I tried the phone in the store with my own 3-pin earbuds and while the frequency response sounded fine, with enough bass and everything, still there was an awful popping noise each time I went into Zune and started any music track. There was also hiss in the background, audible even in the noisy store. I imagine it would be quite annoying with low level listening in a quiet environment.

[GeoffN]

I've had my Lumia for couple of months now and have never had any problems with music playback, no hissing or clicking and the bass works fine, although I have never used the supplied headphones as they don't fit into my ears.. The problem must  limited to certain devices, accessories or software set-ups.

[Yury_A]

Nope, clicking sounds when changing tracks is still there.

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snaut wrote:

pkjt,

What about those popping/clicking when you start playback? Are they gone, too?

[pkjt]

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Yury_A wrote:

Nope, clicking sounds when changing tracks is still there.

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snaut wrote:

pkjt,

What about those popping/clicking when you start playback? Are they gone, too?

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I hadn't noticed any clicks, but then again I use the bluetooth phones.  So I went on and tested the Nokia BH-905 with the supplied cable (the three-way one).

Absolutely no pops/clicks when starting playback.  An almost inaudible and very short "nit" when changing tracks.  It sounds more like a "keypress confirm" than an audio driver issue.  I would not consider that a problem.  I would not have even paid attention to it, hadn't it been discussed here.

One thing, though, that might affect the results is that I always turn off all the "extra" sounds in phones and PCs, like keypresses and notices and I don't use other applications that use the sound.  I use Zune for playback, not Nokia music, but simply because it seems to have better features and integration with PC Zune.

[snaut]

I played with the phone a bit more and I must take back what I wrote about the frequency response. After comparing directly with a few other devices It's clear that the problem with lack of bass and poor sound is there, and it doesn't go away with restarting or with plugging 3-pin headphones.

There are a lot of other quirks ( UI not always smooth and not always responsive) but this, along with removing of the offline navigation by Nokia is an absolute show stopper for me. Unaceptable in a supposedly top of the line device.

[sweeteuphoria]

Well, if you really want to be disappointed, try to compare iPhone sound quality (even iphone 3) with Nokia lumia sound... Lumia sound quality is just to bad. What's happening, Nokia ?

[WhiteAlien]

So did anyone found a real solution to this issue except buying other phone or bluetooth kit?

I'm about to bring it to another service point (first did nothing except updating OS)

I also called hotline and the guy told me that my complain about sound is subjective even after I told him that there is a thread in Nokia own forums with 258 posts about this. And yeah, he said it's first time someone complains about Lumia sound. GREAT SUPPORT!

[piran]

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WhiteAlien wrote:

So did anyone found a real solution to this issue except buying other phone or bluetooth kit?

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(with reference to this thread's message #249) Did you try a tip&2ring extension cable or a convertor/connector or any other headset equipped with only a tip&2ring connector?

[WhiteAlien]

No, but I did try about 15 different audio earphones ranging from 50€ till 300€ as well as ones shipped with phone and all basically give the same result - no bass, flat sound.

That is when I found out that higher impendence earphones gives better result, still not how it should be.

Did all those earphones had tip2ring connector, I don't know, but my guess that atleast Nokia shipped should.

update: I dropped phone to another support service for repair with special notice 'request for device swap'. Maybe I'll get a new lumia from new batch or maybe not, but I'll report back in 3 weeks about outcome of this ..... cu