Poor Quality from Audio Jack?

[terryda]

Definitely an issue that needs to be fixed. The low signal to noise ratio in your car is your car, not the phone. Unfortunately, the phone has a low output. Therefore, the more you have to crank your car stereo the more you distort your input signal. The popping noise is definitely a software issue. Hopefully it will be fixed sometime soon. Also, hopefully they will increase the gain on the output.

The shape of the headphone jack has nothing to do with this issue. Despite the jack being cylindrical, there are only small contacts on one side. Therefore the fact that the top partially is exposed, as long as there is not voltage being applied to the exposed metal, there is no problem with the design of the jack.

 

[jmerrey]

That's good news. The fact that sometimes the controller works, and sometimes it doesn't, and it seems directly related to when I fiddle with the plug, made me think it was a hardware issue...

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

 

[penetronn]

Yup, no popping via 3.5mm TRS output. I'll note there is popping on the phone's speaker, for even game sound effects (haven't noticed it recently, however - probably just because I don't have the volume up as much). Also a few other things I don't know how to effectively word out

Headphones (ATH-M50s) at ~5/30
Car at ~30/30.

I also went by the AT&T store last night to test out a Focus S using my wired headset. Audio quality was excellent, actually had more bass and a fuller sound than either my Zune HD and my Focus rev. 1.3. Also changed tracks with 30 second zune clips streamed over 3G+. No popping whatsover. May be that a batch of phones has an issue. If it's bad enough, make sure to take it back to AT&T within the first 30 days and get a replacement unit.

 

[perspicuity]

Ok, so does the Titan have the same popping on track change as the Focus S when using the headphone jack into an external amp (car stereo, et al)?

Nope. No issues at all with the Titan connected to the same stereo with the same jack.

 

[terryda]

That's good news. The fact that sometimes the controller works, and sometimes it doesn't, and it seems directly related to when I fiddle with the plug, made me think it was a hardware issue...

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

The controller is a firmware issue. Make sure the jack is fully seated. Hold the play/pause button for two seconds, then let off. A second later it will pause. Hold it for another two seconds and let go, then it will play a second later. The firmware has entirely way too much "lag". Back in my engineering days programming microcontrollers tells me that the controller is not being monitored enough. The audio controller will ping the check the port state on every designated clock cycle. If the monitor cycle is too far apart, say you only ping it every two second, the audio controller will not detect the bit flip if you only hold it down for a microsecond between those two second cycles.

 

[terryda]

I also went by the AT&T store last night to test out a Focus S using my wired headset. Audio quality was excellent, actually had more bass and a fuller sound than either my Zune HD and my Focus rev. 1.3. Also changed tracks with 30 second zune clips streamed over 3G+. No popping whatsover. May be that a batch of phones has an issue. If it's bad enough, make sure to take it back to AT&T within the first 30 days and get a replacement unit.

Nope. No issues at all with the Titan connected to the same stereo with the same jack.

Noticed no issues on the HTC trophy either. Also, was a lot LOT higher gain. About 1/3 louder.

 

[naplesbill]

Well, I verified via repeated testing that this phone has an issue with pop noises only when connected to an amplified system. In other words, connected to powered speakers, car stereo, etc. I used three different sets of headphones, and no popping occurred. It didn't matter which powered source I connected, it always popped in those instances.

I returned the phone because of this issue. Samsung does not have a great track record of fixing issues with devices they have already released.

 

[slpaige]

I've read that using a bluetooth headset can negate the popping noise. Does anyone know how using a bluetooth headset would affect battery life on the phone (with having bluetooth turned on all the time)? I don't mind charging during the day if needed, but I've seen the posts here in the forum regarding the slow charge issues which makes me a bit concerned.

 

[krague17]

I just got my Focus S last week and haven't noticed any popping/crackling or audio issues. I've used the headphones that came with it and the volume and pause controls work just fine. I've used Zune and Slacker for music. I haven't tried it connected to my wife's car yet. My car doesn't have an audio jack or bluetooth connection.

Maybe it's a quality issue that they have fixed on the newer phones.

 

[reevesmjr]

Audio Issue

I was getting the same popping noise listening through the auxilary audio port in my car, then the issue seemed to disappear.

I rebooted my phone today and the popping returned.

 

[bkydcmpr]

I have a theory on this, haven't tried yet.

Focus S has problems with the earbuds controls, it's virtually impossible to jump forward (2 clicks) or back (3 clicks), it's not reliable to pause/resume either. All these signals are transmitted through the last 2 contact rings on the TRRS connector, I think those 2 rings of the jack on Focus S are problematic.

Meanwhile, the popping noise only happens on AUX port (TRS) but not on earbuds/headphones (TRRS). I'm guessing, the noise might be caused by the last 2 rings when AUX connector is actually contacting 2 rings of the jack. Remember those 4 conduct to 3 conduct adapters (like this one)? I thought they were useless since TRS connector usually are fine in TRRS jacks, but this time it MIGHT prevent the popping sound if I'm right on this.

 

[rayjr@treesworld.com]

It doesn't help, I bought one of these cables cause it was driving me nuts and it does the exact same thing.