I have a theory about the cause of our muffled voice issue, but first let me address the other theories that have been floating around.
The first theory is that the Titan has a poor quality microphone. This theory can be debunked rather easily. Just record a video of yourself speaking. The recorded audio is very clear.
The second theory is that the microphone holes on the unibody shell aren't lined up properly. If this were the case, I would expect some European Titan owners to experience the issue as well because their shell should be identical. Also, the microphone holes do appear to line up correctly upon close inspection.
The third theory is that it's a software issue. I agree with this theory, but let me expound on it a bit. The first piece of evidence is obvious. European Titan owners are running a different software build and haven't been complaining about muffled voice, at least as far as I've seen.
Now for the second piece of evidence. As you may already know, there are two microphones on the HTC Titan. The microphone on the bottom of the device is used to pick up your voice during normal non-speakerphone calls. The microphone on the top is used for noise cancellation during normal non-speakerphone calls. This is accomplished by taking the audio recorded by the bottom mic and cancelling out any audio recorded by the top mic. In theory, the sensitivity of the top mic should be set high enough to record some ambient noise but low enough that it doesn't pick up and cancel out your voice. I believe the sensitivity of the top mic is set too high and a bit of voice is being recorded by it and then canceled out of the audio sent to the other party, making our voice sound muffled.
To test this, I recorded three phone calls from my Titan.
On the first call, I held the phone to my ear in standard fashion. My voice was understandable, but definitely a bit muffled.
On the second call, I tried to speak directly into the bottom mic by holding the phone face up in front of my mouth. To my surprise, my voice was more muffled despite speaking more directly into the bottom mic. However, when I thought about it, it made sense. My voice was also directed more towards the top mic when I held the phone this way, thus more of my voice was getting cancelled out.
On the third call, I again held the phone face up directly in front of my mouth, but I rotated it around so I was speaking directly into the top mic. Can you guess what was heard on the other end? If you said nothing, you're absolutely correct. My voice was completely cancelled out when speaking directly into the top mic.
With all of this in mind, it's time we try a fix. In theory, if we can completely prevent the top mic from recording any audio, nothing will get cancelled out. This may lead to a tiny bit of background noise in your calls, but at least your voice should sound clear to the other party. I would like to see some ideas on how to best disable the top mic. Remember though, covering the top mic hole on the unibody shell won't do a lot because sound can still get to the microphone through the front speaker grill. My first idea is to put a small piece of electrical tape over the microphone on the actual phone body, not on the shell. Unfortunately I'm on vacation now and can't try this myself just yet, but maybe some of you can, or maybe you have an even better idea to disable the top mic.
If you do attempt to do this, please do some tests and let us know if you sound any clearer to other parties.
The first theory is that the Titan has a poor quality microphone. This theory can be debunked rather easily. Just record a video of yourself speaking. The recorded audio is very clear.
The second theory is that the microphone holes on the unibody shell aren't lined up properly. If this were the case, I would expect some European Titan owners to experience the issue as well because their shell should be identical. Also, the microphone holes do appear to line up correctly upon close inspection.
The third theory is that it's a software issue. I agree with this theory, but let me expound on it a bit. The first piece of evidence is obvious. European Titan owners are running a different software build and haven't been complaining about muffled voice, at least as far as I've seen.
Now for the second piece of evidence. As you may already know, there are two microphones on the HTC Titan. The microphone on the bottom of the device is used to pick up your voice during normal non-speakerphone calls. The microphone on the top is used for noise cancellation during normal non-speakerphone calls. This is accomplished by taking the audio recorded by the bottom mic and cancelling out any audio recorded by the top mic. In theory, the sensitivity of the top mic should be set high enough to record some ambient noise but low enough that it doesn't pick up and cancel out your voice. I believe the sensitivity of the top mic is set too high and a bit of voice is being recorded by it and then canceled out of the audio sent to the other party, making our voice sound muffled.
To test this, I recorded three phone calls from my Titan.
On the first call, I held the phone to my ear in standard fashion. My voice was understandable, but definitely a bit muffled.
On the second call, I tried to speak directly into the bottom mic by holding the phone face up in front of my mouth. To my surprise, my voice was more muffled despite speaking more directly into the bottom mic. However, when I thought about it, it made sense. My voice was also directed more towards the top mic when I held the phone this way, thus more of my voice was getting cancelled out.
On the third call, I again held the phone face up directly in front of my mouth, but I rotated it around so I was speaking directly into the top mic. Can you guess what was heard on the other end? If you said nothing, you're absolutely correct. My voice was completely cancelled out when speaking directly into the top mic.
With all of this in mind, it's time we try a fix. In theory, if we can completely prevent the top mic from recording any audio, nothing will get cancelled out. This may lead to a tiny bit of background noise in your calls, but at least your voice should sound clear to the other party. I would like to see some ideas on how to best disable the top mic. Remember though, covering the top mic hole on the unibody shell won't do a lot because sound can still get to the microphone through the front speaker grill. My first idea is to put a small piece of electrical tape over the microphone on the actual phone body, not on the shell. Unfortunately I'm on vacation now and can't try this myself just yet, but maybe some of you can, or maybe you have an even better idea to disable the top mic.
If you do attempt to do this, please do some tests and let us know if you sound any clearer to other parties.
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