I-tech Clip R35, bad sound quality :(

[grkn]

So, It works ok, no skipping issues, but the sound quality is subpar, even with the bluetooth regfixes. Hard to describe, but there is a hiss or more like a high pitched whine in the background, and it sounds tinny.

My sony ericcson ds970 worked a lot better in this respect, but does it works good as a handsfree set on the tytn? on my previous phone it did not.

[Sleuth255]

Isn't that a bit of a letdown :( I wonder if the S35 has the same problem...

[grkn]

Well, it'd be interesting to know if others have the same problem, and if people are able to fix the ds970 skipping issues, because it's sound quality is good.

[darky]

I got the ds970 to work handsfree I even mapped the voice command to it and works like a charm, I still do get the every 30-50 second skip in audio.

[grkn]

So, how bad is the skipping?

[darky]

it's a one second skip every 30-50 seconds on mp3's,

doesn't skip during voice calls (at least I haven't noticed any)

[grkn]

Tell me when it's fixed or when another as good headset comes out ;)

[elbowz]

I've used the S35 with my XDA IIi (Alpine), MDA Pro (Universal) and XDA Mini S (Wizard) and on all three I can say that the audio performance is excellent. I suffer no skipping at all.

[grkn]

Yes, it's skip free for me aswell, the R35, but the soundquality is pooor

[zahar]

This must happen on the songs you are playing, or you are an especially keen audiophile. :)

I am listening to Vanessa Mae playing Minuet (WMP) as I am typing this on PIE with my Dopod 838 Pro... there has been no skipping so far and the music I am hearing has no hiss nor is it of poor quality as described.

In all, I think this R35 has been a good companion on my travels so far, giving hiss free and distortion free use, works as a stereo headset as well as voice headset, with my Dopod 838 Pro, and I can even replace the ear buds with ones I prefer, which is a lot more than can be said of existing competing products in the market.

But then again, I am no audiophile and my ears are old, so the lack of quality may be undiscernable to me.

[grkn]

It's not the songs, and I'm not that much of an audiophile, the stock miniusb headphones sound good enough, maybe you could compare with them?

The r35 sounds much much worse than those.

What rom? do you use btw, I could try yours, I don't know if there could be differences between individual R35s.

[trentend]

Personally I find that my R35, combined with sennheiser MX500's, gives as good as the built in headphones. I also find that I'm getting good range (circa 5 metres - less range if air isn't the only intervening material - although skipping/noise increases with increased range).

I used the bluetooth and audio mods recommended on the tytn wiki.

[derrumbe]

Also have the r35 - have to say that on my headphones and in the car (via mp3 jack) there is a bit of a tinny sound. On the stereo system in the house, however, it has a much better quality...

[grkn]

UPDATE
---------------------------------

Enabled joint stereo again, set quality to 58, reset and repaired the R35, and voila, rather good quality, no skipping.

It's still a little bit noisy and tinny, but it's good enough, I'm using it with the excellent Creative 630 in-ear headset, good for better bass reproduction. Maybe some tweaking in pocketmusics equalizer could do it good.

Anyways, happy for now, let me know when something that improves a2dp comes out!

[mrvanx]

Where can i purchase an R35??? (hopefully a Black one)

[grkn]

Ebay baby.

[mrvanx]

Ebay baby.

Do we know when the HTC S100 (almost the same thing) is going to be released?!?

[lie_ui]

I also got the itech R35. Got it working fine, no skipping etc. All buttons work fine with WMP.

But I also noticed the poor sound quality. I apply the registry tweak:

[HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings]
Add new dword, Value name=BitPool; Value data=58 (Decimal)
Add new dword, Value name=UseJointStereo; Value data=0 (Decimal)

My registry does not have the Settings folder under A2DP and I created it manually. It also does not have the UseJointStereo with the original value data=1. I added this one manually too.

Anyway, after adding those registry tweak and reset my PPC, no sound improvement at all. I also repair the PPC with the R35, and no improvement on the sound quality at all.

Any clue?

[asci]

So you wouldn't advice me to buy them...Well the problem is I have ETYMOTIC 6i Earphones and I would like to use it with TyTn...I know there should be out an adapter for this...any suggestion?

[lie_ui]

anyone that has a good sound quality with the itech R35?

I only use it now in the car to connect to the car stereo AUX input for receiving phone calls.

asci, other BT adapter that also has the normal 3.5mm audio output is the Globalsat BTH-820. Never tried it, so I do not know the sound quality. But from what I read, its not the BT headset/adapter, is the MS BT Stack that cause the poor sound quality.

lie_ui

[trentend]

anyone that has a good sound quality with the itech R35?

I only use it now in the car to connect to the car stereo AUX input for receiving phone calls.

asci, other BT adapter that also has the normal 3.5mm audio output is the Globalsat BTH-820. Never tried it, so I do not know the sound quality. But from what I read, its not the BT headset/adapter, is the MS BT Stack that cause the poor sound quality.

lie_ui

I have some issues. Occasionally I have to re-pair the devices, to restore good operation. It seems to skip and sometimes does a wierd fading in and out sort of thing. Generally speaking with a rebooted phone, and a recently paired connection, everything is fine and dandy for me.

I mainly use it for calls, with music listening occasional and for a defined 'session' so resetting the devices is viable for that.

Would love to have a more reliable BT stack, as I'm pretty sure that would nail the teething troubles....

[joe_dude]

I have the R35 and Prophet with A2DP patch, so this might not be applicable, but I found that setting HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings\Sa mpleRate to 48000 (decimal DWORD) really improves the sound quality.

It has removed most of the ringing and tinniness, but it's not perfect. None of the other setting have had any effect for me (BitPool, etc.).

Good luck!

[hamer]

So, It works ok, no skipping issues, but the sound quality is subpar, even with the bluetooth regfixes. Hard to describe, but there is a hiss or more like a high pitched whine in the background, and it sounds tinny.

My sony ericcson ds970 worked a lot better in this respect, but does it works good as a handsfree set on the tytn? on my previous phone it did not.

Hi,

I have same problem, but with Imate Jamin (a2dp hacked); with a motorola 417 optimum sound...

[jompao]

Isn't that a bit of a letdown :( I wonder if the S35 has the same problem...

I think that sound quality is quite bad now with the TEST Aku 3.3 rom and HBH-DS970. Without your A2DP fix there is skipping, but it plays without skip with your fix.

But I agree there is an really annoying high pitch whining noise and it aslo sounds a bit "crackling" in the high notes. No matter if I use the Tweaks in Hermes Tweaker 2.

To bad I was hoping for improvements.. Any ideas from the A2DP guru on some manual tweaking that might help? :)

I do like the fact that now the Tytn rings and headset rings at the same time and I aslo se caller id on the headset screen.

I'm worried it will be this poor sound quality for A2DP when released... Then there's no other hope then for a fully working Widcomm replacement..

[daedalia]

Have a look at my post here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=262715

It provides exceptional sound quality, better than the Widcomm stack, supports voice dialing etc and may be the only solution if the next ROM does not resolve the R35 issues. It only supports headsets that accept MP3 streams such as the iTech's & MSI's, not sure about others, and it only plays MP3's (best at 128kbps). Sound quality is as good as the originals and breakups are rare.

I have spoken to HTC as they have re-branded the iTech R35 as their own (HTC S100). I bought the iTech knowing it was re-branded for HTC thinking it would be fully compatible. They told me that they were aware of the issues and "hope" to resolve them with the next ROM release so fingers crossed.

[jompao]

Have a look at my post here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=285227

It provides exceptional sound quality, better than the Widcomm stack, supports voice dialing etc and may be the only solution if the next ROM does not resolve the issues. It only supports headsets that accept MP3 streams such as the iTech's & MSI's, not sure about others, and it only plays MP3's (best at 128kbps). issue with their own branded accessories.

Will give a test to see if it works with the sony headset. Pity all my music is wma but if it works really will it's worth the effort to recode.

[daedalia]

Yeah I was the same, but it is worth it for sound quality as good as wired.

[jompao]

Yeah I was the same, but it is worth it for sound quality as good as wired.

To bad, I could not get anything through the HBH-DS970. Think I'm gonna get an headphone adaptercable and use wired headphones for now.. :(

[BlueAnt1958]

Sorry guys but I don't see what the fuss is about. Mine works ok without any of the issues described in this thread. I have had it now for 5 months and have just done the reg hacks as describe in the wiki. What are you expecting from a $75 (AUD) headset?

Oops forgot to mention that my phone was originally flashed as a Dopod, I then went to the SA HTC version and am now running the HTC Test Rom. The headset has worked with all of them and no probs.

[daedalia]

What are you expecting from a $75 (AUD) headset?

Errr ... we expect descent quality audio similar to other headsets in this price range, especially as this model has been re-branded by HTC. Besides the problem relates to the OS and not the headset negating the quality over price point you raised. Read the thread fella!

Just out of interest what's your UseJoinStereo key set to?

[BlueAnt1958]

Errr ... we expect descent quality audio similar to other headsets in this price range, especially as this model has been re-branded by HTC. Besides the problem relates to the OS and not the headset negating the quality over price point you raised. Read the thread fella!

Just out of interest what's your UseJoinStereo key set to?

UseJoinStereo key is set to 0 as per the wiki reg hack.

Unlike some, I always read the threads champ which is why I originally commented with my experience in that I had not had the probs noted.

The AUD $75 comment was humour in case you missed it.

[daedalia]

Humour, oh good lordie. I just bet your favourite time of the year is when your gathered around the Christmas family dinner table and those cracker jokes just keep coming one after the other, what a comic onslaught eh. That was sarcasm, in case you missed it.

Hey, don't be so emotional, come here let me give you a hug.

[Dishe]

Humour, oh good lordie. I just bet your favourite time of the year is when your gathered around the Christmas family dinner table and those cracker jokes just keep coming one after the other, what a comic onslaught eh. That was sarcasm, in case you missed it.

Hey, don't be so emotional, come here let me give you a hug.

Hey, give me a hug... or at least a hand here, I'm still stuck trying to get blueplayer working with my itechs!

[daedalia]

Sorry fella been out for the count with flu.

I have to extract it from the ROM image which I'm looking into doing, I'll try and sort something out for you tonight, then we may embrace. ;)

[Dishe]

Hey, feel better, man.

I'll just continue to sit tight.
I really do wish Microsoft would get off their butts and fix the A2DP quality already. There's no reason I should be going through all this to get an unsupported and hacked 3rd party player just get decent sound out of hardware that's perfectly capable of it.

ARE YOU LISTENING MS? YOU SUCK!

[daedalia]

Just installed WM6 and it's no better, will be the weekend now I'm afraid, probably Sunday. This is how far I got if you want to try yourself.

Download this ROM:
http://www.america.htc.com/support/8525/software-downloads.html

Use Total Commander to extract the files from the EXE.
Do a search here for NBH Extract and use this to extract the ROM components from RUU_signed.nbh.

There should be one called OS.nb. This is the file you need to get your dlls from.

I'm sure there is a way to get the files from this but I need to research it. A good trawl of this forum should yield results if you can't wait.

[daedalia]

WM6 Black 3, problem solved. Good work jasjamming.

[lie_ui]

daedalia,

problem solved? You mean, you finally get your BT stereo working great with the itech R35 with WM6? How's the sound quality compared to MS A2DP in WM5?

I'm still running WM5. Have not used the BT stereo for a while, the only good experience playing with BT stereo was with the MSI Blue Player you suggested before, but the software was just not integrated enough with the PPC, while delivering the best sound quality, far beyond MS implementation.

[alkizmo]

I really don't know what you guys are doing wrong, or maybe it's a hardware thing.

I got a 8525 with the iTech R35

My bitpool is 128
my maxbit is 192
Jointstereo is 0

The sound is great without skipping on WMP
I could even try going

It only sucks when I try to do internet streaming video playback :p

[Dishe]

WHOA, hold the phone (literally?)!!!

Has there been a fix for the poor A2DP support?
I might just cry...


please verify, use more sentences, what's the deal, and how come I haven't heard more about this?

[Dishe]

I really don't know what you guys are doing wrong, or maybe it's a hardware thing.

I got a 8525 with the iTech R35

My bitpool is 128
my maxbit is 192
Jointstereo is 0

The sound is great without skipping on WMP
I could even try going

It only sucks when I try to do internet streaming video playback :p

No No, alkizmo... my a2dp never SKIPPED, especially before I tweaked the bitpool settings (after turning it too high one day to test, I did hear the skips and pauses everyone talks about). My problem (and most of the users here) is with the QUALITY of the sound.
On a decent a2dp headset, the sound is flawless- I have a pair of logitech a2dp headphones that sound better than most of my wired headsets!
Yet, the R35 always sounded tin-y with a lot of high frequency distortion.

Are you telling me that the itech clip has always sounded as good as regular wired headphones to you?

[alkizmo]

yes it did. I used to use it on my nokia E61, using the blueplayer software and the quality is about the same. I do feel like there are higher frequency notes that are sharp, but I got a feeling this is an equalizer issue from the software player.

The sound is certainly not tinny.

Im using Fontopia earphones, they are great with boosting the bass. I do agree that when connected to a normal amplified speakers, I need to put the bass to maximum.

[lie_ui]

alkizmo,

Please help post complete registry setting you applied, I really would like to give it a try one more time. Thanks in advance!

And yes, I agree with Dishe, I never have skipping problem.
The issue is the sound quality which is always poor when it reaches high frequency.

[alkizmo]

I made two recordings of 30 seconds from a 220kbps MP3.

Unfortunately, I only got a microphone input, so I couldnt make it stereo, I tried to make it the highest quality possible so we can notice any difference.

Both are unequalized, unboosted, about the same volume level, recorded on the same PC with the same settings.

Played with Winamp on PC (http://alk.selfip.net:8080/speakers.mp3)
Played with i.Tech R35
(http://alk.selfip.net:8080/R35.mp3)
Trimmed Original MP3 (http://alk.selfip.net:8080/original.mp3)



And here is the complete export of my bluetooth registry (http://alk.selfip.net:8080/bluetooth.reg)

[daedalia]

It is a known issue that some users have problems with the combination (I spoke a bit to HTC). They stopped talking to me when i asked why some people had the problem and others didn't. Basically you'd be in pain listening to the audio and it was nothing to do with the quality of headphones etc.

When I was using WM5/6 the only registry setting that had any effect was the join stereo. The others made no difference at all to the sound quality and believe me I tried everything.

The quality is not as good as Blueplayer but is roughly on a par with the Widcomm stack, some noticeable attenuation of high frequencies, but very listenable. No skipping at all while I was testing, about 5 minutes.

Dishe; it's a feature of a ROM upgrade unfortunately, new BT drivers so only for the TyTN. There is a possibility that you could cook your own ROM with the drivers in but you're probably better off just using another headset. Speak to Jasjamming in the Black 3 thread if you want to persue that.

I've gone back to the greener pastures of Symbian. The TyTN is a brilliant phone but seriously ham-stringed by Windows Mobile. It is a nasty, bloated, resource hungry piece of programming and of a quality I have come to expect from Microsoft.

On the N95 I can play Picodrive with A2DP sound with no slowdown or breakups at all, the performance hit on the emulator is barely noticeable. Hell I have never had A2DP breakup once on the N95. Basically it does exactly what it says it will and what you would expect of it with no fuss or sillyness. It's so ergonomically designed and well thought out that I don't even miss the touchscreen, keyboard would be nice though.;)

Anyway, before I go off on one, if you have trouble with A2DP I seriously recommend Black 3. As the man says, once you try black, you wont go back. Well, unless Symbian comes in wearing hot pants splaying itself across the kitchen table.

[alkizmo]

LOL Daedalia, I JUST came from the Symbian side. I've used Symbian S60V2 and V3 for over a year and in the end, I got sick of it for its lack of customizability.

Also I got sick of using blueplayer with S60, the software sucks, and it's only for music.

DONT FORGET : A2DP can only be simulated on S60 for MSI/Itech headphones. N95 is one of the first S60 to support A2DP.

Also, Symbian is very slow when it comes to applications such as web browsing and video playback. It also has a crappy e-mail implantation.

I guess it's a matter of taste....

or it's a matter of time before getting sick of either PocketPC or Symbian :p

[daedalia]

LOL, yeah true, I went from UIQ to WM to S60, might try Spectrum Basic next, must be possible. :rolleyes:

The N95 is the first one to basically do it all right for me. It has a faster processor and is an absolute joy to use, I find WM6 a bit slower and clunky, like an bloody etch-a-sketch drawing the screen sometimes.

Aside from HTML email the email client is no better on WM6, but easier to use with the jog wheel. Browsing is excellent on the N95, the included browser is far superior to Pocket IE and again a joy to use. DivX player runs at full speed with HD TV rips so no need to mess around with converting files (unless you want to save space), Coreplayer is also out soon. With regards to speed all I can say is try running Picodrive with A2DP audio on WM, it's messy. Even loading another program with A2DP audio playing causes breakups and long pauses. None of this with the N95.

Yes, Blueplayer is highly shite and I am aware of the situation for other 3rd edition phones. I'm in the process of trying to crack the 30 second limit for some poor N80 users (I did the latest release for the PPC version a while back). If it's anything like the PPC version... I had to write a Mortscript to get it all to work automatically when my headset connected to the phone and even then it would throw a wobbly sometimes. It's funny, one of my main reasons for going to the N95 was because I had to use Blueplayer on WM to get listenable audio and I too was sick of using it.

I just found WM suffered from not being thought of from a user standpoint but made up for it a bit with it's level of customability. It's saving grace is the 3rd party development community. If there is something WM does not do it is very likely that someone has already written a program that will. The Symbian software community is no where near as large as the WM one but I find there is less need as the included software is so much better. But you're right, it's all a matter of preference, I just got tired of constantly farting around with the phone to get it working the way I wanted. It took up a lot of my time and I felt that wasn't what it should be there for, that's the other half's job.;)

Anyway I have waffled on enough, off topic again.

[joej]

well, if you want stability Symbian definitely has it much better than any WM device. I am back to using the Hermes only for messaging/PDA and using a separate phone for all my calls for much better stability.

[alkizmo]

I just got tired of constantly farting around with the phone to get it working the way I wanted. It took up a lot of my time and I felt that wasn't what it should be there for, that's the other half's job.;)


Saaaamme reason I left symbian. I wasted time trying to modify it for my specific needs.... I wasted my time because it is actually IMPOSSIBLE to modify the symbian configurations. There are "config" files, but in the ROM, which is UNEDITABLE EVER!! nor are there customizable ROMs prior to flashing...

oh and if you flash a different language ROM for, let's say Chinese support, you will suddenly have a keypad that gives different characters than printed. You cant change that unless you buy a new keypad (good luck finding the one you need).


Anyhow, onto A2DP, I think we got a chance on day this will be fixed. Widcomm stack drives came out, it's still highly unstable, but it's a beginning.

[daedalia]

well, if you want stability Symbian definitely has it much better than any WM device. I am back to using the Hermes only for messaging/PDA and using a separate phone for all my calls for much better stability.

Yes, it's a good sign when a manufacturer doesn't feel the need to include reset button on a device.:p

Luckily I generally like the way the N95 is set up by default otherwise I could see I would get a little frustrated.

BTW, if you flash a Chinese ROM onto a non Chinese phone, what do you expect?

If you have a TyTN flash the latest Black, it's the Bluetooth support we've all been waiting for.

[alkizmo]

Yes, it's a good sign when a manufacturer doesn't feel the need to include reset button on a device.

I often had to take out the battery on my S60 phone. The button is like a PC!.. sometimes you screw up some settings :p

I LOVE being allowed to screw up settings.


BTW, if you flash a Chinese ROM onto a non Chinese phone, what do you expect?


I do it because it's the only way to add chinese character support.
I got no other choice, unless I find one of those very secretive, not freely available language packs.

At least with WM, I can ADD support for anything :p

[Dishe]

If you have a TyTN flash the latest Black, it's the Bluetooth support we've all been waiting for.

I tried to find out what's different about it, and if it really fixes things... so far, I've only heard it from you. I can't find any additional information about it, and jasjamming hasn't responded to messages (I'm sure he gets too many of them already).

[porkchop83]

flash to lvsw, no problems with it at all..and best thing. i can play 8 hours with bt on non-stop..this new release is crazy..

[alkizmo]

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX IT :

I realized what people meant by high pitched sound on the i.Tech R35.
When using Blueplayer, it sounded AMAZING, but it would skip quite often.

Then I tried this

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1072773&postcount=72


Install it and never look back. It's amazing

[Dishe]

dosen't that solution require the Widcomm stack?
They don't have Widcomm for smartphone...

[alkizmo]

This is a PocketPC forum. I did not claim this fix works on smartphones.