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Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

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Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#71

Post by hedora »

crazygringo wrote: post #29
hedora wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss exactly two things from android on iOS. Both involve Bluetooth not sucking. The first one is that the minimum volume on my Bluetooth earbuds is too damn loud on iOS. This is true for every third party set of headphones I have tried. People have been complaining about this online for a decade. The EU even passed a law to make them fix it (spoiler alert: it did not work). FFS, min volume in the UI should map to…

> The first one is that the minimum volume on my Bluetooth earbuds is too damn loud on iOS. This is true for every third party set of headphones I have tried. That's wild. I've never experienced anything like that -- not with AirPods or Bose or a cheap brand TOZO. Are you sure it's not a problem with the earbuds themselves, that their minimum level is higher than it should be? If you've dug into it, what is the range…

I’ve tried dragging the slider. One pixel is louder than the bottom stop from the volume buttons on android. Haven’t tested with bose or no-name stuff. Mostly just midrange audiophile stuff.

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#72

Post by hedora »

aloisklink wrote: post #45
crazygringo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first one is that the minimum volume on my Bluetooth earbuds is too damn loud on iOS. This is true for every third party set of headphones I have tried. That's wild. I've never experienced anything like that -- not with AirPods or Bose or a cheap brand TOZO. Are you sure it's not a problem with the earbuds themselves, that their minimum level is higher than it should be? If you've dug into it, what is the range…

I've had the same issue with some wired IEMs on iOS, using Apple's official USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor. I even have the EU model A2155 of the USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor that's supposed to have half the power of the US model. What I found that helped was to create a custom Shortcut that "Set Media volume to 1%". iOS reports that this is 48 dB when playing pink noise. I managed to hit 47 dB when dragging to volume slider on iO…

You can buy passive inline volume knobs for 3.5mm headphones. They’re just a pair of variable resistors attached to a knob and cost about $10.

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#73

Post by hedora »

jjoonathan wrote: post #30
crazygringo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to commend Apple if they did the right thing and built a database mapping (model,volume_setting)->physical_volume Even if they did, it would be out of date the moment it shipped. But no, there's no reason to believe they'd do anything like that. It would be interesting if headphone manufacturers reported the dB range when connecting with Bluetooth to enable something like that, but I've never heard of such a…

Software updates aren't just for distributing first party malware, you know -- they could also conceivably be used to update a device database. We have the technology. This is probably an "all of the above" situation. Implement on AirPods and push for a standard and make measurements of popular old models and have a fallback that assumes industry averages. On the scale of Apple, this is not much to ask.

Or, they could just make the volume slider run from min to max, instead of loud to louder.

Presumably the manufacturers already calibrated volume range based on the Bluetooth spec.

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#74

Post by StimDeck »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #9
tux3 wrote: post #6

My Sony headset (wh-1000xm4) has the exact same problem, but they apparently encrypt the firmware payloads and decrypt them on device. I've come this close to taking it apart and trying to dump and probe everything, but my shaky hands are too likely to break it. I would pay very good money for a hackable noice-cancelling headset.

> I would pay very good money for a hackable noice-cancelling headset. https://pine64.com/product/pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capabl... ?

Yes, this is cool, but what is this:

> User needs to use the programming tools provided at wiki page. Any device brick caused by hacking or improper programming may void warranty.

And:

> Excessive flashing Pinebuds can potentially brick the device.

It’s hackable or it’s not, choose one.

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#75

Post by Kerbonut »

crazygringo wrote: post #29
hedora wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss exactly two things from android on iOS. Both involve Bluetooth not sucking. The first one is that the minimum volume on my Bluetooth earbuds is too damn loud on iOS. This is true for every third party set of headphones I have tried. People have been complaining about this online for a decade. The EU even passed a law to make them fix it (spoiler alert: it did not work). FFS, min volume in the UI should map to…

> The first one is that the minimum volume on my Bluetooth earbuds is too damn loud on iOS. This is true for every third party set of headphones I have tried. That's wild. I've never experienced anything like that -- not with AirPods or Bose or a cheap brand TOZO. Are you sure it's not a problem with the earbuds themselves, that their minimum level is higher than it should be? If you've dug into it, what is the range…

AirPods Pros and iPhone, same issue with the minimum volume not allowing a low enough volume. I want it to be quieter on the low end. I have a lot of issues with my AirPods and they are some of the best I’ve used, unfortunately.

I’ve also experienced the other issues in this thread about headsets switching modes when the microphone is activated. I had a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones and original they worked nearly perfectly but after a firmware update the bug I updated for was fixed but it made the loopback from microphone to headphones always on. Why can’t they make any “perfect” headphones and why is this stuff seemingly so hard?

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#76

Post by wholinator2 »

Fnoord wrote: post #70
stavros wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> completely depleted batteries can get permanently damaged This never happens, though. Every device nowadays has a controller that doesn't let the batteries deplete to a dangerous level.

My WF1000XM4 had a bug where this occurred.

But that's still a bug, obviously not intended behavior. I think i would rather have unobtrusive battery notifications than worry about the possibility of a specific type of unintended behavior that can be easily and routinely prevented by the manufactured. There's all kinds of excessive and annoying safety behaviors we could be putting into our devices but most of us get by on at least a minimum of trust.

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#77

Post by galleywest200 »

Kerbonut wrote: post #75
crazygringo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first one is that the minimum volume on my Bluetooth earbuds is too damn loud on iOS. This is true for every third party set of headphones I have tried. That's wild. I've never experienced anything like that -- not with AirPods or Bose or a cheap brand TOZO. Are you sure it's not a problem with the earbuds themselves, that their minimum level is higher than it should be? If you've dug into it, what is the range…

AirPods Pros and iPhone, same issue with the minimum volume not allowing a low enough volume. I want it to be quieter on the low end. I have a lot of issues with my AirPods and they are some of the best I’ve used, unfortunately. I’ve also experienced the other issues in this thread about headsets switching modes when the microphone is activated. I had a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones and original they worke…

You can press and hold on the volume in the control panel on the iOS menu screen to get a fine-grained volume control and go lower than "minimum". Is even that too loud?

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#79

Post by aloisklink »

hedora wrote: post #72
aloisklink wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the same issue with some wired IEMs on iOS, using Apple's official USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor. I even have the EU model A2155 of the USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor that's supposed to have half the power of the US model. What I found that helped was to create a custom Shortcut that "Set Media volume to 1%". iOS reports that this is 48 dB when playing pink noise. I managed to hit 47 dB when dragging to volume slider on iO…

You can buy passive inline volume knobs for 3.5mm headphones. They’re just a pair of variable resistors attached to a knob and cost about $10.

Unfortunately, they're not great to use with a phone in your pocket, since then the motion of walking around will adjust the knob and change the volume.

Although, come to think of it, I could probably just glue the knob into a fixed −10 dB of attenuation and then use software volume control to change the volume.

I have also noticed that those passive inline volume knobs tend to adjust the right and left channels by different levels, especially with low-impedance outputs like IEMs, but that might because the ones I've bought cost ~US$2 from AliExpress.

I could probably also fix the issue by buying a worse/less-powerful USB-C to 3.5mm DAC. The official Apple one is pretty well liked by the audiophile community, since it's powerful for the price, which is great if you have high-end headphones, but horrible if you have earbuds/IEMs.

Weirdly enough, the same Apple USB-C to 3.5mm DAC is much quieter on Android, since it defaults to a low hardware volume on the DAC, and Android then only uses software volume control to lower the volume, see https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/242221770.

Re: Fixing the volume on my Bluetooth earbuds

#80

Post by Vicinity9635 »

Fnoord wrote: post #35
Vicinity9635 wrote: post #4

Man I wish someone would do this for my bluetooth sleep mask. It's pretty great except for one thing: When the battery is low or it's going to power off it announces it to you at full volume. On a sleep mask.

You really do not want to deplete batteries on devices where they're difficult to replace. Whether that is true for your sleep mask, I HAVE NO IDEA. A better way to deal with it is have them disable themselves after a timer. Maybe you can enforce that from the other side (I assume that is your smartphone?). Like, you can do some device automation with e.g. MacroDroid.

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