yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
my comment about great audio output was in response to the comment about using the headphone out as a line-out to an amp. Of course it doesn't fix the root problem of crappy audio for low-impedance headphone owners.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] noufel:
Guys I need a favor check your loudspeaker on the factory keys thing(*#0*#) nd let me kno ifbur speaker crackles thank you
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
New handset delivered. Still crackle as expected. Darn rice crispy phone.... just seen a firmware update so doing that via kies and will test again for same crackle :( crap !

---------- Post added at 10:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:03 PM ----------

Installed update. Still crackles...... not sure as people already discussed here if the issue can be fixed via updates as it is what appears to be a hardware issue. Not impressed. Will send this one back Monday and refund my contract. Back to my S2 until they address this issue.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
Here are my headphones with specs for info.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] droidrob:
This really is f***ing annoying! Now, in order to make this phone listenable I have to find a pair of earphones that are over a 16 ohm (which arent that many of them/or cost lots/or are ****e) or order a impedance adapter that will most like take a month from f***cking HONG KONG TO MAKE THIS F*CKING £500 FLAGSHIP PHONE PLAY MUSIC :mad:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 299792458:
Chill my friend, there are plenty of 10 dollar high impedance buds to be found. :(

Ya know...the ones with the exact same sound no matter what DAC they are hooked to. :thumbdown:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
My Yamaha's sound is amazing but crank volume up and crackle. I purchased them as I wanted to hear great audio. Does this mean all decent headphones like shure , Bose etc will crackle too :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NZtechfreak:
No, many decent headphones have impedances above which there is no crackling.

Also, calling Bose good gave me a chuckle :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
Lol. Couldn't think of a decent brand which everyone would know so just wrote one I could remember ;)

Anyone suggest a decent pair of clarity headphones which are not bass heavy like klipsh and of course work with s4 ;) what was the lowest impedance we can have guys ?

---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 PM ----------

Akg 451 have 32 Ohms for info. They should work.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
Don't forget that it isn't just the "nominal" impedance (usually measured at 1 kHz) that is critical. You need to look at the impedance versus frequency graph and make sure that the impedance doesn't dip below 16 ohm at any point, particularly at lower frequencies (I actually measured 14 ohm but 16 gives more margin). The best bet of course is to actually audition them live with your S4.

And also, the higher the impedance phones, the less load on the headphone audio driver and the better is the audio output as shown in the RMAA measurements (for example my Senn HD 598 at 50ohm are fantastic with plenty of volume).
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NZtechfreak:
The lowest impedance appears to be 16 in the bass frequencies, check places like Golden Ears and Inner Fidelity who measure impedance over the frequency spectrum to see. Balanced armature IEMs are the most prone to fluctuating impedance, tending to be lower than their stated impedance at 1KHz in the bass frequencies.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
Thank you sir. Good knowledge. I am still not sure if I am sending it back yet for a refund. May even consider going back to HTC one which I only returned due to gaps. My headphones cost me almost £150 and I can't return them as they are not faulty :( it is an annoyance. At least the HTC had amazing audio :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gio_b:
Very kin of you:so ,did you tell me the in ear audio out put of an s4 9505 with and head phone connected is more audiofile than as 4 exynos, or an htc one till now via head phone???

tks gio.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
Hi guys, I think I can hypothesise why there is audio distortion on certain makes of earphones.

Basically, I believe the earphones affected have low impedance for the bass range (1kHz and below) at least.

The Galaxy S3's amplifier has an impedance of about 3.4ohms, and I believe the chip in the S4 is similar so the impedance should be about the same.

Impedance is basically similar to resistance, so applying V=IR, a lower impedance earphone would require a higher current.

This is where the issue with the S4's amplifier comes in. I believe it does not supply enough current to drive lower impedance earphones properly at high volumes. I did some Googling on the effects of this, and apparently 'audio clipping' will come into play.

As I quote from here: nwavguy.blogspot.sg/2011/02/headphone-impedance-explained.html

So in essence, the 'crackling' sounds we are hearing are probably the effects of current clipping, when our earphone requires more current than the S4's amp can supply. Current clipping may damage your earphones or the amp so if you hear crackling sounds you should turn the volume down!

I think this makes sense since the crackling doesn't occur on headphones which usually have a higher impedance.

The S4 is very quiet compared to other phones, so I guess this probably means the S4 amp's impedance is rather high.

What are the implications of this if my hypothesis is true? The good news is that the issue could probably be resolved quite easily with a portable amp, line attenuator/impedance adapter or with an earphone with higher impedance and higher sensitivity (a high impedance and low sensitivity earphone would mean very soft volume levels on the S4!). The bad news is that it is a hardware issue and I doubt it can be resolved by firmware. We just have to live with the fact that the Galaxy S4 is designed only for driving low volumes and that our low-impedance earphones cannot be driven at high volumes.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] andy3147:
I also have this same issue on my GS4. I'm using the Audiofly AF78, so a decent quality headphone, and any time I have the volume past 30% I get very noticeable crackling/popping. I believe they have an impedance of 16ohms.

I have tried stock headphones, I've also tried my old VSonic GR02 and they worked fine. The AF78 are working on all my other devices yet somehow not on the GS4.

I will do some further investigation tomorrow to see if another handset works, and I will also try it with a headphone amplifier to see if that helps.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
Can I check if you have another Samsung Galaxy series phone you have tried the AF78 with?

BTW, according to http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/review-audiofly-af78, your set has an impedance of only 4.5 ohms in the bass range, so maybe that's why you hear distortion at even lower volume levels, confirming my hypothesis.

Tell us if using a headphone amp helps!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trza2k:
I just tried some DT-250 250ohm version headphones and they crackle/clip @ only 20%, these are pretty big studio headphones but still shouldn't be doing that!

EDIT:

Tried the DT-250 250ohm on a iphone 4S and they sound good @ full volume :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
I have really no idea then :(

BTW could you upload a test audio file with the distortion? Think it might be audio clipping due to another issue but I would need to analyse. Could be the phone not having enough voltage too.

Have you tried calling Samsung?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trza2k:
hoiesai son

Well the UE600 crackle at 60% and the dt250 would require more power and crackle @ 20%, so i wonder if it is simply lack of power?

I will try and contact Samsung this week.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cosinav:
Christ! I hope there's a fix soon because i really don't need to buy another pair of headsets as i have a few good ones already.

Right now i'm doing a comparison of the s4 with my xperia z and definitely this one is going down as a negative because i don't have this problem on the z.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
What is the volume of the DT250 at 20%? Is the crackling sound different? Can you record a sample of how the DT250 sounds like distorted?

Power comes from both voltage and current. However, it seems if the voltage is insufficient, it should not cause distortion... rather, you will just get a very soft volume.

Do you have any in-line volume controls or resistors lying around to test? :/

Add: BTW this is how my UE600 sounds like at full volume. https://www.dropbox.com/s/q7r6rlfkbqnjtzw/Memo(2).m4a

The distortion on mine isn't as bad as it is on others.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tango280581:
Mine sounds same as that. Nice one for delving into this issue, appreciate it. Maybe we should make a list between us all of earphones that are and aren't affected to help us with future purchases. Annoying, considering this a top of the tree high end phone but it is what it is. Thanks anyway buddy.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
This is the list I have so far:

- UE600 (13ohms, ~8 ohms in bass range)

- Shure SE425 (~10 ohms in bass range)

- Sony MDR-EX300 (16ohms)

- JVC FXZ100 (16ohms)

- Sennheiser CX300 Mk II (16ohms)

- Sony XBA1 to 4 (~8ohms in bass range)

- Audiofly AF78 (~4.5ohms in bass range)

The DT250-250 would be an oddball as I wouldn't expect high impedance stuff to experience such issues. If so then using a portable amp may be an issue.

Does anyone have a portable amp and a GS4 who can try this out?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trza2k:
Tried the DT250-250 with an amp(Cordia Aria) and GS4 source, no crackles with the GS4 at full volume.

I wanted to try the UE600 but i can't find my 1/4inch to 3.5mm adapter but i would suspect the same result.

DT250 directly connected to the GS4 has similar sound to your sample, just more extreme and @20% volume level but then i was listening to music with more bass where the issue seems to be present.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trza2k:
Here is a sound sample of the DT250-250 @ 60% volume level from the SGS4 http://dntinternet.com/temp/snapcracklepop.m4a (crackle/distortion may disturb some listeners ;) )
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
That is really bad! Anyway, is the volume loud enough at the point distortion creeps in? Or even at acceptable volume levels the distortion is really bad?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trza2k:
:o:o Well i just did some more testing with the DT250 and wiggled the 1/4inch to 3.5mm adapter and the crackle stopped, WTF. Then i remembered the DT250 has a screw off 1/4inch adapter which reveals a 3.5mm connector, so i tried that directly and the DT250 has no crackle!!!! :o so maybe this was just a bad connection with an adapter(which i didn't need). So just to confirm, the DT250-250 doesn't appear to crackle, please resume your original theories :P

I tried to wiggle the UE600's around but it did nothing.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
That's great to hear! So yep I believe my theory still stands :)

I did a line-out test to my computer's sound card and the audio output seemed rather clean. So I think apart from this impedance matching issue the DAC/built-in amp should be alright.

So I was wondering if you all could try one of the following:

1. Get a cheap portable amp, like the FiiO E6

2. Get an impedance adapter, a cheap one like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ETYMOTIC-ER...P3_Player_Cables_Adapters&hash=item439b92ead9

The resulting sound signature will probably change a little but the advantage is that you won't need any extra battery and it adds little bulk. But I don't know if the effects of lowered volume would be counter-productive

3. Get an in-line volume control. Sound signature would change too but I don't know if this would work the same as an impedance adapter?

Does anyone have either of the following three and are willing to test using them?

---------- Post added at 02:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:21 PM ----------

EDIT: Apparently an impedance adapter adds impedance to the output instead of the headphone itself, so it may not work...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dkeny_5:
I have the crackling/distortion issue in my S4 GT-I9500 but not through headphones but the receiver.

I got my handset replaced. Again the replaced handset had the same issue. So i got another replacement and once again my 3rd handset is alos facing the same issue.

Will get my 3rd handset replaced tomorrow.

The issue has been escalated to the CEO's office.

Will get back on the issue tomorrow.

Is anyone facing the same issue?

Check my thread below for more details.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2262703
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trenzterra:
Which amplifier did they give you? There's a Jaben in Singapore (where I live too) but reviews have been mixed. If I'm not wrong certain GS4s experience the issue less than others. So I wonder if there's a chance that there's a 'perfect' set out there without such crackling issues.

But I believe more than half of GS4s should experience this issue.

The Shure SE425 has a rather high impedance curve though (but crackles), so I'm more inclined that there's something more than impedance at play. The underlying issue should be audio clipping due to current, but apart from impedance perhaps other factors may have come into play.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] andy3147:
Just a cheap hippo pipe amplifier, it is nothing special as an amplifier but it removes the issue of crackling so i'm happy. I don't think i can notice much of a difference with the amplifier on the GS4 or without it whilst using my iPod. Not sure what the other stores would be like but the two times i've been to this store the service was outstanding.

I have now tested 5 different GS4's all of which exhibited the same crackling issue. I didn't pay attention to how bad it was unfortunately. Some were purchased outright and the others supplied on a contract by telstra.

Has anyone heard anything back from samsung?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mo_mail:
Not sure if you are going to like what I have to say...

So I purchased this phone on Thursday last week, by Friday was already upset given the crackling/distortion I was experiencing with my UE headphones. I went through a bit with my carrier and Samsung, with the intention of trying to get a DOA replacement given it was brand new.

Fast forward to Monday morning, after subsequent calls with Samsung and my carrier plus visiting a Samsung repair centre (who said they could fix the problem but encouraged me to get a replacement given the phone was brand new - which was also my preference) - and I manage to stumble across this forum - feeling most disappointed that it seems to be a hardware fault with the phone and not something that will go away from being replaced (maybe fixed by Samsung but who wants to get a brand new phone put into service, really sours the whole experience).....anyway, my carrier eventually calls me back later this morning and advises that they will replace my handset. I get a new handset, althought I don't have high hopes of the crackling/distortion going away.

Low and behold, my UE headphones work perfectly in the new headset, no crackle/distortion at all, which makes it difficult to believe it is an impedance issue as you would expect to see all effected headphone act the same way across all S4s, although I also believe OP did mention a display model that didn’t have this issue either.

Nonetheless, I thought it would be good to share that the replacement headset doesn’t have the problem, if you are like me and notice this within the first 7 or 14 days (depending on your carriers policy), take it back as a DOA headset and get a replacement on the spot!!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
I can't make a statement about "more audiofile" because I have only tested (audibly and via RMAA measurements) one S4 SGH-I337 (same as i9505). If I was provided with several different phones, I'd be willing, no charge :) to do an exact comparison of them under identical conditions ... same load impedance etc.. That factors out any subjective headphone taste issue, assuming of course that the phones are above 16 ohm impedance so we don't have that crackle issue. I haven't seen any such direct comparisons of an i9500 and i9505. If Samsung provides me with several phones, I'd be glad to provide an unbiased comparative test of them (I have no relationship of any kind with any smartphone or audio companies). The GSMArena results in their S4 review suggest that the i9505 (not clear what headphones they used ... probably the stock 35ohm ones) appear to have the best RMAA results of any smartphone they tested UNDER OPEN OUTPUT OR ~35 OHM HEADPHONE LOAD. If someone in Ontario Canada magically happens to have a i9500 feel free to contact me about a test :fingers-crossed:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elfary:
In gsmarena they test with AKG450 headphones. Hence the hump at 50hz when testing high output impedance sources.

It would be great if you could get a hold of an iPhone to test it.

But living in Spain makes it hard to lend you my iPhone 4S.

Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] droidrob:
Hey Jensigner,

I was thinking about the Shure Se215, which are rated at 20ohms, but I wondering whether you could help me to make sense of the graph at goldenears?

http://en.goldenears.net/5982

Would these iems definitely be safe to use with the S4?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
OK thanks, so those AKG450 are nominal 32 ohm so very similar to my fixed resistance load tests (at 33 ohm).

---------- Post added at 10:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 AM ----------

Based on the Impedance and Phase chart (near bottom of that page), it looks like the impedance is 17 ohm or higher over the full frequency range so BASED ON WHAT OTHERS HAVE REPORTED and my own measurements those phones should not crackle! But you really have to test them.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
I was looking at the akgs. This maybe a cheap answer to my issue. There is a little light at the end of this tunnel. Do you think I can get Samsung to pay for my £150 headphones. I am going to send an email and a receipt and try my luck. I will also send a copy to phone dog or one of the other sites like technobuffalo ;) Sammy deserve some hassle for doing this. ;)

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 PM ----------

Can anyone post the gsm arena link for this please.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
Not sure if you mean this GSMArena S4 review: Audio quality is perfectly clean
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wified:
Does anyone have a link to such an adapter? Someone tried a 75 Ohm adapter that is available, but that apparently lowered volume too low. Thanks for any links that you have for something in the 10-15 Ohm range.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
Thank you sir. I tried to Google it but I got another review ???

So I am looking at shure 215 or akg 451. Totally different headphones.. coming from very good in ear Yamaha eph-100. Which is safest bet jensigner and may I say your knowledge in this audio subject impresses me .
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Cinco5:
I've read all 39 pages of this thread looking for a fix, and I've found a temporary one that seems to solve my biggest clipping problems.

I downloaded and installed Volume+, and set it (rather than MusicFX) to the audio mixer. Install the app, run it, enable simple volume boost set to 0dB for headphones. Then Settings < My Device < Audio < Music effects, and select Volume+. Kill anything that's running music, and restart them.

For me, this solves 95% of my clipping problems. It'll work for me until Samsung gets around to fixing this.

Hope this helps you as much as it helped me.

Edit: Just going to add, my biggest clipping problems were on my car stereo. The stock headphones, as well as my Bose QC15s didnt have a problem. My test song was "The Kids Aren't Alright" by the Offspring, and the opening guitar solo went from insanely crackly to "I probably wont notice this over the sound of my truck at highway speeds" after changing mixers.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
I think trenzterra got one. Remember that if you order one, just look at the MIMIMUM value of impedance your headphones have and get/make an adapter with a value (16 ohm - mim_value), so if you have 8 ohm min for your headphones, 8 (or 10 ohm) ohm series resistors should be perfect.

---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:40 PM ----------

Thanks. I don't have amy experience with great headphones, so everything else being equal, I'd go for the phones that have higher-impedance. I don't think any low-frequency bump in response is a big deal. My Senn HD 598 have a fairly significant low-frequency bump and I really love that gentle bass-boost, but that is totally my personal taste. BTW, I will eventually be on the hunt for a good pair of more portable iems for my S4. I think I'm going to wait and see what, if anything, Samsung does about this problem though.

---------- Post added at 06:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------

Glad you found a solution for your particular problem but it doesn't seem to be the same problem that others have with low-Z phones. The main problem people are reporting here is not a "clipping" problem which usually means a signal being chopped at a very high-level. The "low-Z" headphone problem is an instability in the output drive which ADDs a "ringing" tone to the otherwise unclipped audio.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] epcd0728:
I tested sgs4s today.

I tested sgs4 demos with my ie-10 (13ohm) in futureshop and they all have same problems over 50% volume.:crying:

Before I heard this problem from my buddy's sgs4 with xba-3, I was going buy it, but now I'm confusing.:rolleyes:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] one0one:
Shure SE215 crackle very much at low frequiencies. If you listen to music like hip hop or similar you dont actually listen.

Shure SE215 will NOT work properly with my 9505.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jensigner:
From the goldenears specs, that headset is ~ 17ohm and doesn 't seem to dip much over the frequency range, but it is pretty close to the limit I measured of 14 ohm. So to the extend that anything can be said based on one combination of SE215 and i9505, there is probably some variation in:

- i9505 crackle threshold

- variation in nominal impedance of SE215

The bottom line is since the problem is not well understood (but only case-by-case reported here based on subjective listening), you really have to "try with your i9595 before you buy" your iems ... totally unacceptable really.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elfary:
Unacceptable is the word that conveys what that headphone out ultimately is. Given the fact that mobile devices are meant (aside from this very smartphone) for low impedance earbuds and given the price tag of the i9505.

One can only hope for changes in future batches if the issue is given serious 'airplay' by users.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipmanwck:
Changed my mind. My Second S4 is boxed up ready to be sent back tomorrow . Unacceptable poor quality. Disappointing but my s2 has great audio and 2 Years is a very long time :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
I haven't noticed any of these issues, but I'm using the headphones supplied with the handset if that matters. The only time I notice any noise or distortion is when it's charging at the same time.