25 replies to this topic

[DistortedLoop]

Something's wonky with the headphone volume on my SGS.

If I use Apple in-ear or Bose in-ear headphones, even at full volume I can barely hear the music.  If I plug in the stock headphones that came with the phone I can rupture my eardrums with the volume.  I'm waiting on a pair of Etymotics to test it out with, but I'm sure I'll get low volume with them.  The jacks are the same on all I've tried.

Anyone else having volume issues with 3rd party headphones?  I wonder if Samsung is cheating on output wattage (power saving?) and using low impedance headphones to mask it(?).

Any ideas on how to make 3rd party headphones get acceptable volume?

[gravityz3r0]

DistortedLoop, on Jul 9 2010, 03:46, said:

Something's wonky with the headphone volume on my SGS.

If I use Apple in-ear or Bose in-ear headphones, even at full volume I can barely hear the music.  If I plug in the stock headphones that came with the phone I can rupture my eardrums with the volume.  I'm waiting on a pair of Etymotics to test it out with, but I'm sure I'll get low volume with them.  The jacks are the same on all I've tried.

Anyone else having volume issues with 3rd party headphones?  I wonder if Samsung is cheating on output wattage (power saving?) and using low impedance headphones to mask it(?).

Any ideas on how to make 3rd party headphones get acceptable volume?

Galaxy S is rather finicky with  third party headphones, i dont know why. I've heard of this issues and it seems varies from one brand to another. For instance, my Senheisser CX300 works perfectly well and totally blow the stock headphone away when it comes to sound quality. the only drawback is that, it will not output calls conversation via the headphone. So i have to plug out my headphone everytime i have an incoming call. Annoying as heck.

[DistortedLoop]

gravityz3r0, on Jul 8 2010, 21:42, said:

Galaxy S is rather finicky with  third party headphones, i dont know why. I've heard of this issues and it seems varies from one brand to another. For instance, my Senheisser CX300 works perfectly well and totally blow the stock headphone away when it comes to sound quality. the only drawback is that, it will not output calls conversation via the headphone. So i have to plug out my headphone everytime i have an incoming call. Annoying as heck.

Oh yeah, that was another thing I forgot to mention...NONE of these headphones work with phone calls.  I thought I was doing something wrong.  I've got several brands tucked away around here, I'll have to run through them.  Etymotics are my favorite, but they're out for warranty repair, so I haven't had a chance to test them yet.  I'll be seriously distraught if they don't work well with the phone.

I wonder if this is something that could be fixed in the firmware.

[Rendo23]

I've been using Beyerdynamic DT250's with my Galaxy S since I got it a week ago. The volume's a little lower than my old iPhone 3G but still very decent. The impedence on my phones is rated 80 ohms - it's unlikely your in-ears (esp. the Apple's) need more power than the 250's.
I wonder if the plug could by at fault?

I should note that my phones don't work for calls - it must require the special 4 sectioned plug.

[nafem]

I was gutted when I found that my Etymotics don't work. I noticed that if I press the control button next to the mic of the phones it sounded fine. I reckon Samsung have done some strange connection to accomodate the radio and TV out.

[picknick3r]

Samsung messed withe the Headphone plug to get the TV-out functionality to work. Lukily they did it the same way Nokia does (Nokia TV-out adaptor works fine with the Galaxy). So Headsets that work with Nokia TV-out ready devices should also work with the Galaxy S.
I can confirm this for the Urbanears Plattan headset wich comes with an adaptor for Nokia phones. It runs like a charme with my Galaxy and for me is the perfect headphone/mic combination in terms of performance, price and style. The volume is perfectly leveled at half the bar.

Edited by picknick3r, 09 July 2010 - 11:12 AM.

[gravityz3r0]

picknick3r, on Jul 9 2010, 08:45, said:

Samsung messed withe the Headphone plug to get the TV-out functionality to work. Lukily they did it the same way Nokia does (Nokia TV-out adaptor works fine with the Galaxy). So Headsets that work with Nokia TV-out ready devices should also work with the Galaxy S.
I can confirm this for the Urbanears Plattan headset wich comes with an adaptor for Nokia phones. It runs like a charme with my Galaxy and for me is the perfect headphone/mic combination in terms of performance, price and style. The volume is perfectly leveled at half the bar.

My Nokia N97 doesn't have problem with these 3-section vs 4-section plug thingy. My headphone works and i can use it for call by holding the handset up to my mouth level as mic to speak while listening through the headphone.

[DistortedLoop]

nafem, on Jul 9 2010, 00:47, said:

I was gutted when I found that my Etymotics don't work. I noticed that if I press the control button next to the mic of the phones it sounded fine. I reckon Samsung have done some strange connection to accomodate the radio and TV out.

That would gut me as well.  I practically live with my HF2 Etymotics in my ears.  I've gone through three pairs in under two years due to the bad design of the plug at the bottom, but they always replace them for free, and I'm told the new pair they're sending has a new plug design.

I've found very little wrong with the design or function of this SGS, until this.  If I hadn't bought this phone outright from a 3rd party, I'd actually consider sending it back over this issue.

[DistortedLoop]

picknick3r, on Jul 9 2010, 01:45, said:

Samsung messed withe the Headphone plug to get the TV-out functionality to work. Lukily they did it the same way Nokia does (Nokia TV-out adaptor works fine with the Galaxy). So Headsets that work with Nokia TV-out ready devices should also work with the Galaxy S.
I can confirm this for the Urbanears Plattan headset wich comes with an adaptor for Nokia phones. It runs like a charme with my Galaxy and for me is the perfect headphone/mic combination in terms of performance, price and style. The volume is perfectly leveled at half the bar.

THAT (bolded part of your quote) was actually the ticket to finding a way to partially fix this on my SGS.

I plugged in my Apple in-ears, started the music player and same old crap, muted sound.  I went to Sound & Display settings, then turned on the TV output, then turned it off.  Volume in the headphones blasted to a level I'd expect for the volume setting I was on.  Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, the phone portion of the SGS still refuses to recognize the headphones during calls.  :-(

[DistortedLoop]

I've resolved this issue on my phone and headphones:

I successfully made an adapter by taking a short 4-pole extension cord for iPhones and then cross-wired the mic and ground wires.  On the iphone it's t/r/r/s (L/R/G/M) and on the Samsung it's t/r/r/s (L/R/M/G) - on the adapter I cut the cord open, then soldered the G->M and M->G.

Works great.  Music volume perfect, headset works for mic and headphones in phone calls, and the mic switch answers/hangs-up the phone as well as pause/play music player.

I'm happily using my Etymotics HF2s on the Samsung with full functionality as I type this.

This is the kind of stuff I wish the industry would standardize on.  iPhones, HTC Nexus One, HTC EVO 4G all wired the same, but apparently Nokia, Blackberry and Samsung wired the same different way.  Silliness.

There's probably a commercial adapter out there, but I didn't find one on Amazon I was sure would work, so just decided a little DIY project in order.

[nafem]

Thanks for the tip. I will be doing the same.

[DistortedLoop]

nafem, on Jul 20 2010, 01:06, said:

Thanks for the tip. I will be doing the same.

Enjoy.  I haven't soldered in a very very long time.  My soldering gun was buried in the garage, and it didn't work when I finally found it.  It was too late to go buy one, so I used a cigarette lighter to heat things up to melt the solder.  Shameful, actually.  LOL.

[Brantyr]

Working fine here with my sennheiser CX300II's with the possible exception that minimum volume isn't quite quiet enough but that's to be expected with canalphones.

[beto_nl]

DistortedLoop, on Jul 20 2010, 06:52, said:

I've resolved this issue on my phone and headphones:
I successfully made an adapter by taking a short 4-pole extension cord for iPhones and then cross-wired the mic and ground wires.  On the iphone it's t/r/r/s (L/R/G/M) and on the Samsung it's t/r/r/s (L/R/M/G) - on the adapter I cut the cord open, then soldered the G->M and M->G.
Works great.  Music volume perfect, headset works for mic and headphones in phone calls, and the mic switch answers/hangs-up the phone as well as pause/play music player. This is the kind of stuff I wish the industry would standardize on.  iPhones, HTC Nexus One, HTC EVO 4G all wired the same, but apparently Nokia, Blackberry and Samsung wired the same different way.  Silliness.

Nice job and thanks for sharing, but I am not technical and have no idea how even to begin soldering.

But I do have the nokia 5800xm headset with stop forward, rewind ,pause Volume control functions.
You think it.s going to work on the sgs?Also for phone calls ? ( I,m thinking about buying the sgs)

IF the NOKIA HS-45 AD-54 HANDSFREE headset works on the sgs, this could be the adapter
you are talking about, because the remote control part got a standard jack that works with any other earplug
and it doesnt cost much on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/N..._Accessories_RL

Thanks

[Gustaf Jarnling]

a rather long (but well worth the read) description and explanation of the problem can be found here. an early, but fully functional, solution is found here. enjoy!

[DistortedLoop]

Gustaf Jarnling, on Aug 19 2010, 04:48, said:

a rather long (but well worth the read) description and explanation of the problem can be found here. an early, but fully functional, solution is found here. enjoy!

Hi Gustaf, thanks for the links - I'd already seen those threads on xda, and want to point out that they have nothing to do with the problem I described or how to fix it.

The one we're discussing here is a hardware issue, cut and dry.  The T/R/R/S wiring on the SGS is not the same as on iPhone & HTC phones, so premium headsets designed for those just won't work with the SGS unless you re-wire (via adaptor or the headsets themselves) to address the reversal of the mic and ground wiring.  Software won't fix that.  The software discussions address another issue, which is the belief from some that the phone just won't put out enough decibels.  That's not a problem for me if I use headsets properly wired to the SGS phone.

I'm still looking for a reasonably priced adapter that will cross mic/ground...my homemade solution is bulky and ugly!

[Ashish kumar]

gravityz3r0, on Jul 9 2010, 10:12, said:

Galaxy S is rather finicky with  third party headphones, i dont know why. I've heard of this issues and it seems varies from one brand to another. For instance, my Senheisser CX300 works perfectly well and totally blow the stock headphone away when it comes to sound quality. the only drawback is that, it will not output calls conversation via the headphone. So i have to plug out my headphone everytime i have an incoming call. Annoying as heck.

I have used my dell headphone with galaxy they respond good ...

[DistortedLoop]

Ashish kumar, on Aug 21 2010, 06:41, said:

I have used my dell headphone with galaxy they respond good ...

Headphones with a mic?  Does the mic work for talking on the phone?  Click to pause and click to answer on the headphones work as well?

[DistortedLoop]

Readers of this thread might be interested to learn that the US AT&T Captivate version of the SGS is compatible with the iPhone and similarly wired headphones according to a couple of respondents to a thread I started on the Captivate forums.

Looks like the actual issue here is that the US version of the phone is wired differently than the i9000 international version (at least different than MY Singtel (Singapore) version of the phone).

I may actually just take the soldering iron to the internal jack if it's accessible and end this on my phone once and for all...

I'm also curious if this cross-wiring is specific to the Asian phone, or if the European phones have it.  Any one with a European phone able to use iPhone-compatible headphones with mic and full functionality of the clicker switch with their phones?

[Dogmann55]

Hi all,

Interesting reading and only had my Galaxy S 4 days but have found my Shure EC2g's work fine no problem with volume levels at all and using my Nokia BH-500 allows extra volume from it, that's also what I'm using for making and receiving calls with as well as listening to Music i can also report that all the functions work such as Play, Pause, Stop, Forward track, Reverse Track and answer and end calls basically all the functions work as they should.

Marc