[Redmi Note 8 Questions & Answers] redandvidya:
Welp! After hours and hours of what is essentially torture, it's sadly not a software problem :( This goddamn terrible issue exists on all the multiple roms I've tried flashing and reflashing. Pixel Experience, RR, I EVEN FLASHED THE ORIGINAL MIUI ON IT AND ITS STILL BROKEN. I am so tired!

So now there's only two possible culprits:

1. Hardware problem - I really really don't want it to be this one, with the state of the pandemic I can't easily go to a repair shop right now, and dealing with this broken speaker sucks! It's even worse once I realized that it could just be a dust issue.

When I blow using my mouth into the speaker, I get normal sound for 2 seconds until the crappy earkiller terrible music is back. So it's definitely fixable!! Some way. The only solution I have seen so far is that you take the phone apart and wipe the "grill" of the speaker with a Q-Tip. Another idea in my head is to use compressed air and blow it into the grills so that I don't have to take it apart. However, I am doubting the long term use of this solution, I'm not sure if it'll work.

I even goddamned flashed MI UI back on my phone even though I extremely hate it JUST to use the clean speaker feature, which didn't work. The only thing that works for a SECOND is blowing with my mouth into the speaker.

2. Firmware problem - To be fair, the terrible music only started happening shortly after I flashed the latest firmware (v.12.0.4) + latest build of LineageOS 17.1 (March 15) + latest LOS Recovery, same date.

I have used this phone for several months now, (since May 2020?) and for 95% of the time have worn a case. I have a tempered glass screen protector, and I'm not sure how I could've possibly dropped my phone that could have broken the speaker. However, it has been in some quite dusty places, so that's the ONLY thing that could make it a hardware problem- but why now? Why now only when I flash a new firmware? Why not a week before I flashed it? Or a day or two? So that's also sus as heck.

So here are the solutions, from best to absolute worst for me:

1. It is simply a firmware problem. I don't know if I'm allowed to do this, because I really don't want any potential of bricking this phone, but I'd simply "flash" an older version that doesn't have this bug (specifically, v12.0.3, but if that one has this bug too I am going to) Please let me know if I could do this though, I don't wanna brick this phone. Alternatively I could root it and edit the file that it "changed" that caused this, however because I don't know which file causes the bass to sound this terrible, that could be another challenge in it of itself.

2. It is simply a small dust problem. I can buy a can of compressed air with a straw online, and clean out those speakers, and it will be fixed permanently.

3. It is a hardware problem that can only be fixed by taking apart the phone and cleaning the dust with a Q Tip. This is the one I hate the most as it requires me to go to a store which is impossible during the pandemic. I use my speaker for a LOT of things, so I can't handle not having one right now.

Alternatively, an option that I could use is switching to Viper and tweaking it so that the BASS (which seems to be the main culprit right now for the broken audio, as voices in songs mostly sound fine?) is low as heck. That might ruin the sound of the speaker, but it's a crappy workaround that could just work for now.

This thread about the Redmi Note 7 Pro could give some final hope for me. It described "bad audio distortion", however it is about when you're RECORDING VIDEO, not SPEAKERS. However, it is the closest I have to what I have right now. All the other threads I found on google seemed to only happen in certain apps, which is NOT the audio that I have.

Still, if this theory could prove that all I need to do to fix this overblown bass / distorted audio is to edit a config file in the vendor firmware, it'd be golden!

I really just need help fixing this phone's speakers omg ;-;