Poor Voice Quality Vx6000 or CDMA?

[clott]

I am currently debating to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon. The only reason I am considering switching is the dropped calls or no signals from using T-mobile. I currently could not have 5 minute conversation while at my APT. But works (Nokia 6610) great on the ground floor. I had tried everything.... new phones, external antennas, service requests... nothing works.
So I got the new LG VX6000 from Verizon and it works 90% better. Only one dropped call since using it for a week.
My only complaint... besides not using the Nokia 6610 phone is that I get complaints from the people I talk to that the sound quality of my voice is digitized or sounds digital (like I am talking on a cell phone) where my voice will break up or cut of the end or beginning of words. And I NEVER HAD THAT HAPPEN WITH T-MOBLILE TO THEIR CREDIT.
I too have noticed this too when talking to Verizon Customers. Call Quality on my end hearing the conversation is great.. (if they are not a cell phone or Verizon Wireless) I can hear them great with no distortion. I did some testing with a friend of mine and the voice quality on the T-Mobile Network does not do that (when I have a good signal), and is hard to tell the diff. between a regular phone and a cell.
Anyone else noticed this? And how can I correct it? Or is this just the diff. in voice quality from CDMA and GSM. Or is it the LG VX6000 or is the Nokia 6610 a better voice quality phone.
Of course when this occurs I have FULL signal strength and no back ground noise. I am talking directly into the phone (no headset).

I have the current phone and doubled check the bios\HW\SW versions all are current.
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[VWZChick]

UM U LIVE NEAR DEAD SPOT,,, SO U MIGHT NOT HAVE GOOD SERVICE FOR VWZ U PROBALY LIVE OR USE URE FONE WERE VERIZON TOWER IS NOT AROUND

[Tony E!]

some 6k's i noticed since i've used 6 different ones have a muffled sound to them if that's what you're talking about, i takes some getting used to but if it's become bothersome to you i would try a different one and if that doesn't do it for you try a different model. GSM and CDMA tend to have different sound qualities.

[Gamer03]

Tony's right.

When I had the phone for a day and a half, it had the same problem.

Other than that it is a excellent phone, if you have a tower that has verizon on it near you.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[danny boi]

I still prefer the sound of CDMA to GSM. It's like comparing apples and oranges in my opinion. Some people need to hear the backround sound added to GSM technology to make them feel like they are getting a clearer call but that whistling sound to me is annoying. I think it is the area you live at. My lg VX6000 sounds incredible compared to the Nokia 3390 I had with Cingular. I use my aud. 8600 more often and it sound better to me than my VX6000, but not too noticeable. Although manually changing your phone settings are no guarantee to getting clearer calls as the network can override your phone when it wants to, you can manually change your vocoder by entering your phones manual settings. Press menu 0. Then press : 000000. Check submenu until you find your selection for voice options. Select 13k.

[bobolito]

It really depends on what you call audio quality. If you refer to audio quality as all the aspects that affect the voice such as background noise or sound break ups, then that's not the correct definition of audio quality. In reality, audio quality only refers to the fidelity with which sounds are reproduced. In other words, it defines how true is the representation of your voice and what's around you. Whether the background noise makes you feel comfortable or not is another issue not related to sound quality.

CDMA EVRC voice codec was designed to filter out background noise to save network bandwidth. They did this because cellphones are meant for you to send your voice over the network and they figured that since background noise is not necessary on a phone call, they decided to create a vocoder designed to reduce background noise to increase network capacity. So EVRC is designed to reproduce human voice only. However, as a secondary effect EVRC cuts out some of the human voice fidelity in its effort to reduce background noise and this is what makes your voice sound sometimes "digital" or "robotic" as some people call it. This means that music and other sounds are badly reproduced on EVRC. However, this robotic/digital effect happens mostly when you are in noisy areas, so I recommend you hold the phone in such a way that the microphone is as close to your mouth as possible and avoid headsets with hanging microphones or microphones close to your ear. Use headsets that extend the microphone as close to your mouth as possible. Never believe in those claims of clear sound when you see the headset design places the microphone too close to your ear or hanging on your chest. That was a dumb idea headset makers had.

GSM EFR, on the other hand was designed to reproduce more closely the dynamic range of a wired telephone line. This means it does not attempt to filter background noise and therefore less of the human voice fidelity is lost. As a result, all other sounds such as music are better reproduced over GSM. However, as far as human voice is concerned, both codecs reproduce voice very close in quality.

People using CDMA phones must realize that the audio they hear on their CDMA phones is better than the audio they are sending out. Therefore, often they don't realize how muffled they sound to others even though they can hear others just fine. The sound that comes into your CDMA phone is not filtered out so it is very clear and sounds just like GSM or landline. However, the sound that goes out from your CDMA phone to the network gets filtered.

Most annoyances in CDMA and GSM phones are caused by the phone's bad design and not the voice codec. Most GSM phones come with hypersensitive microphones (especially Nokias) that will pick every little sound around them. This amplifies background noise way too much. GSM flip phones do better since their microphone is directional and eliminates a lot of background noise. Most CDMA phones have micrphones that make you sound muffled to other people like Samsungs and Motorolas. However, there are some pretty good CDMA phones that make your voice clearer like the Sanyo 5300.

So in the end, blame the phones more than the codecs because the difference between the codecs is too little to talk in favor of one or the other.

[Tony E!]

thank you Bobolito, now that makes real sense.

[Delta]

An area thing? My 6000 is crystal clear on both ends.

[CWick]

Originally posted by: Delta3144
An area thing? My 6000 is crystal clear on both ends.

I agree there....I have a brother-in-law in PA who I talk to alot, he has a 6000 and he sounds very clear either on my V60i or when he calls on our wired line. It could very well be the signal AND the phone....I know he gets a strong signal where he is....maybe some phones deal with a weaker signal better then others.

Just a thought.

[millenium]

I agree it must have at least something to do with the area as well, because I haven't heard a problem on my end and haven't had any complaints about how I sound to others. Actually, I previously had an Audiovox 8300 (also with VZW) and I think the sound quality on my vx6k is much clearer than that phone was.