6360 Poor Audio Quality - Anyone Else?

[DougR]

Has anyone else ever heard of the 6360 having poor outbound audio quality? I started using mine (love the functionality) but a caller complained of poor audio quality.

I did some testing, using voicemail to A/B test it against an old Audiovox dual-band, and the difference is incredible. (Note, the 6360 is TDMA on AT&T; Audiovox is CDMA on Verizon, but both have strong signals).

The 6360 sounded somewhat muffled and mid-rangey, the Audiovox was almost indistinguishable from a desk phone (full-sounding, easy to listen to). Plus, the positioning of the 6360's mic hole (on the bottom) didn't seem to help - the phone picked up sound bouncing off the walls.

The problem got even worse when plugging a Plantronics mic into both... the Audiovox sounds great... but the Nokia gets REALLY tinny-sounding.

Anyone have any experience with this? I'm bummed, because I love the phone... hate the sound!

[bobolito]

ALL, and I mean ALL Nokias have that problem with outbound sound. Some models is not as noticeable, especially the CDMA and Analog models. However, the TDMA and GSM nokias suffer from that tinny sound and seem to pick up every sound around you better than your own voice. For some people, it really depends because they either never notice the problem because it is only outbound (and they never know how they sound to other people), or it seems ok to them because they just don't find it annoying, or they have a model which doesn't highlight this problem as much. Sometimes, it depends on the person's voice. If they are soft spoken, the outbound sound quality will most likely be Ok and the person on the other end will probably never complain.

[DougR]

Wow... thanks for the insight. This Nokia may be heading back to whence it came. If all Nokias have this problem, it's a wonder they haven't been trashed in the marketplace - I guess their functionality has kept people from complaining... and, since you don't listen to your own outbound quality, most people don't know (or care).

Thanks for the reply to the post.

[DougR]

If anyone's interested, here's what Nokia's customer service responded to my query:

"Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding your Nokia 6360 phone.

"There is not any known issue with the Nokia 6360 phone that should cause it to have poor sound quality. From your description, it sounds like you are describing the difference between how a phone sounds on an analog network compared to a digital network. The CDMA network in your area may still be using some analog towers. A digital signal does not sound natural because the voice you are hearing is a reproduction of it made by a computer system and not the speaker's real voice. This is done to help increase the amount of traffic availability on the cellular towers.

"The only other thing that it may be, is just the way the TDMA network is set up in your area. Some areas of the country have better sound quality than others. You may want to contact your cellular provider to see if this a common problem in your particular area."

[TNDan21]

I haven't experienced a problem with this on my TDMA Nokia.

[DougR]

Thanks for the reply.

May I ask: have you actually heard your own outbound audio, or have you just not had anyone complain? (Such as calling in and leaving a test voicemail for yourself.?)

Thanks.

[Airb330]

My outbound audio sounds like $*** on answering machines.......only answering machines though. It's odd. My friends Cingular TDMA 5165 picks up EVERY SOUND around her, I hate it. I am glad CDMA picks up more human noises, it's annoying hearing the car, tv etc on her cell.

[TNDan21]

Yes, I've heard myself on my mom's answering machine before and I sounded fine. Never had anybody complain either. I think its more or less the carrier then it is the phone/technology.

SunCom just has done a great job around here in building there network and that can't be said for some of the others. I know in my local area I've always had trouble hearing people on Sprint PCS phone's there outgoing call quality sucks.

[DougR]

Hi... may I ask - do you have a Nokia 6360, or a 5165? Might make a difference. I might demo a new Audiovox on Verizon, and let you know how it turns out. Thanks.

[ronin]

I have the 6360, and I have not experienced the problem you are referring too. After reading your post, I called my own voice mail and left a message, as well as calling my own answering machine on my landline phone. Voice quality was just as good if not better than any other TDMA phone I have used.

No one has ever complained during conversations with me either.

[TNDan21]

Nokia 5165 to answer your question.

[bobolito]

Then again, what some people classify as good audio may be classified as poor audio by others. In any case, people may still not complain about the audio quality because to a certain degree we have unconsciously learned to tolerate cellphone audio quality.

[Airb330]

Well I do think it is Verizon (CDMA maybe....) and my mom's answering machine. If anyone from Verizon leaves a message.......sounds like CRAP! It is an older model, maybe the tape just doesn't pick up sound as well now....who knows.

[TNDan21]

It could be the machine, I have a old answering machine at my house that uses a tape and the audio quality on it is poor. My mom's answering machine is fully digital though and the messages sound so clear on it.

[bobolito]

I have a BellSouth digital answering machine (no tape) and the sound is so poor, people sound like robots.

[TNDan21]

That's proabely why, BellSouth phone's and answering machines are crap.

[Jack]

Its the brand bellsouth phones are not very good quality

Jack

[DougR]

Hi ... into the debate over answering machine quality and how it might have affected my tests, I should inject: These sound quality tests were conducted using 1) a corporate voicemail system; and 2) the phone company's voicemail system. No cheap digital machines or tape-machines were involved.

But... leave it to my wife to suggest the ultimate test: she said, "why don't I take your 6360 and call you on a land-line? Then you can hear it real-time, just the way everyone else does, and make your decision..."

All I could say was: "Duh!"

I'll post my findings here when done. I'm also getting my hands on an Audiovox 9155 GPX to test on Verizon's CDMA system. I'll include those results, too.

[bobolito]

Of course, why didn't I think of that?...lol

[chefofthefuture]

I think a lot of us come from the angle of using our cels as our primary phone. Well, recently, I have been on a land line more often when people are calling me from their celphones, and I've realized exactly how bad the TDMA phones sound! I don't think it's purely the Nokia phones at fault. My g/f has a super banged up Nokia 5190 (GSM) phone on Cingular that sounds absolutely flawless. She'll call me from the car while driving and I think she's still at work -- it's that good. Meanwhile, a friend of mine calls me from her ATT v60 (previously 5160) while in her car and it's impossible to hear her -- all I hear is road noise!

[TNDan21]

Well thats 2 different technologies, one of those phones is GSM and another is TDMA. In my personal opinion GSM has better voice quality then TDMA and I think most users will agree with me.

[bobolito]

I agree too, but what I don't understand is how you hear a lot of road noise from your friend's TDMA phone and not from your girlfriend's GSM phone. GSM as well as TDMA do not cancel background noise. Maybe your girlfriend drives a Lincoln Continental or a Cadillac Denville and your friend an old pickup truck with the windows open...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] big difference in the background noise there.

[chefofthefuture]

Originally posted by: bobolito
I agree too, but what I don't understand is how you hear a lot of road noise from your friend's TDMA phone and not from your girlfriend's GSM phone. GSM as well as TDMA do not cancel background noise. Maybe your girlfriend drives a Lincoln Continental or a Cadillac Denville and your friend an old pickup truck with the windows open...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] big difference in the background noise there.

Naw. Sadly, my g/f has less of a fly ride than my friend -- an M3 vs. my friend's S55 AMG [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img].

Even though there's nothing inherent about GSM cancelling noise, maybe Cingular has put in noise reduction equipment and ATT hasn't in this area (SF Bay Area)? Check it:

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