I just made a couple of test calls with another Titan user. Got some interesting results. I have tried to be as clear and thorough as possible in case anyone wants to try to repro them.
When I first called them, they were on a Tilt or Tilt2 (not sure which). Sound quality was medium there. He then swapped his SIM card to his Titan and I called him back again. The sound quality then a mixed bag. Overall volume was better but there did seem to be a slight cut in the upper frequencies. It wasn't major, but it was there. This was in a quiet environment with a fairly low signal of 1 bar.
I normally hold my phone with my pinky over the bottom-right corner. As a test I moved my pinky over the bottom mic opening. My fellow tester told me the sound was drastically worse. A finger or case covering the mic opening may be a contributing factor for people with the most severe cases.
Next I rotated the phone 90 degrees so that the mic opening was pointed directly at me but otherwise in same position I would normally use it. Obviously I couldn't hear him but he says that it, again, got better but not significantly. I asked him to do the same but I had a very hard time hearing him as he sounded further away. One thing I did notice was was a garbled sound to his voice indicative of excessive noise reduction. You get the same sound if you use a sound editor like Audacity and are too aggressive with the NR function.
The reason I did that test: Higher frequencies are rapidly lost off-axis and I suspected that the mic may just not be picking up as many to begin with. You can simulate this for yourself by taking a toilet paper roll and hold it up to your ear. Listen to a stereo or even someone talking by aiming the tube at them. Now rotate 90% and you will find they are much more muffled sounding. Given that result, I think that the size of the phone MAY be a partial contributor here but only a minor one at most.
For the next set of tests I went outside and called him back. I had more signal (3 bars) but a noisier environment. There was a light breeze, some people talking across the street, and a fairly busy road about 100 yards away (across an open park) with a busy interstate about 100-150 yards beyond that. My fellow tester told me that the muffled sound was significantly worse now. I think that rules out signal for most cases. He also said that he could not hear any of the background noise.
For the final test, I performed a voice call to him using Tango (using the handset like normal, not on speaker). I noticed that his voice seemed much clearer overall with less breakup. He said that my voice sounded noticeably better as well. He also reported that he could hear the wind noise as well as the people talking and the cars driving by.
Given all of these results, I am forced to conclude that the problem does, indeed, appear to be mostly due to overly aggressive noise reduction on the Titan, at least on the AT&T version, with the size and mic location being a minor contributing factor. On the good side, that means that it's something that can probably be fixed through software. I will be opening a ticket with HTC about the problem and encourage you all to do the same.
When I first called them, they were on a Tilt or Tilt2 (not sure which). Sound quality was medium there. He then swapped his SIM card to his Titan and I called him back again. The sound quality then a mixed bag. Overall volume was better but there did seem to be a slight cut in the upper frequencies. It wasn't major, but it was there. This was in a quiet environment with a fairly low signal of 1 bar.
I normally hold my phone with my pinky over the bottom-right corner. As a test I moved my pinky over the bottom mic opening. My fellow tester told me the sound was drastically worse. A finger or case covering the mic opening may be a contributing factor for people with the most severe cases.
Next I rotated the phone 90 degrees so that the mic opening was pointed directly at me but otherwise in same position I would normally use it. Obviously I couldn't hear him but he says that it, again, got better but not significantly. I asked him to do the same but I had a very hard time hearing him as he sounded further away. One thing I did notice was was a garbled sound to his voice indicative of excessive noise reduction. You get the same sound if you use a sound editor like Audacity and are too aggressive with the NR function.
The reason I did that test: Higher frequencies are rapidly lost off-axis and I suspected that the mic may just not be picking up as many to begin with. You can simulate this for yourself by taking a toilet paper roll and hold it up to your ear. Listen to a stereo or even someone talking by aiming the tube at them. Now rotate 90% and you will find they are much more muffled sounding. Given that result, I think that the size of the phone MAY be a partial contributor here but only a minor one at most.
For the next set of tests I went outside and called him back. I had more signal (3 bars) but a noisier environment. There was a light breeze, some people talking across the street, and a fairly busy road about 100 yards away (across an open park) with a busy interstate about 100-150 yards beyond that. My fellow tester told me that the muffled sound was significantly worse now. I think that rules out signal for most cases. He also said that he could not hear any of the background noise.
For the final test, I performed a voice call to him using Tango (using the handset like normal, not on speaker). I noticed that his voice seemed much clearer overall with less breakup. He said that my voice sounded noticeably better as well. He also reported that he could hear the wind noise as well as the people talking and the cars driving by.
Given all of these results, I am forced to conclude that the problem does, indeed, appear to be mostly due to overly aggressive noise reduction on the Titan, at least on the AT&T version, with the size and mic location being a minor contributing factor. On the good side, that means that it's something that can probably be fixed through software. I will be opening a ticket with HTC about the problem and encourage you all to do the same.
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