Are phone manufacturers deliberately nerfing headphone output volume?

November 29, 2014 4:56 PM

I just got an lg g2 and ended up rooting it to install viper4android just so I can listen to my podcasts at a decent volume through full sized headphones. And the headphones I use to listen to podcasts with aren't even that special of headphones just a $40-50 pair of sennheiser hd 419s. I ended up rooting my nexus 7 yesterday and modifying the mixer_paths.xml files just to get the volume louder. My old s3 is slightly better in this repsect but i don't want to use 2 separate phones when I could just use one. So is it my imagination or are phone manufacturers treating us like babys and nerfing the output level of the headphone jack? Or has my hearing just gone to crap from listening to music too loud for too long?
posted by mamamia88 to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

I know iPods had a feature that could be enabled to limit the output level, for one's kids perhaps. According to audiologists, loud headphone listening levels, especially with earbuds, can damage hearing fairly quickly. So it's possible that some manufacturers are enabling a limiter of some kind by default, in response to those concerns.
posted by thelonius at 5:03 PM on November 29, 2014

Partly, yes - my Nexus used to go "Are you sure you want to turn it up that high?" or somesuch. The other reason is that they have tiny little preamps, so driving 419s is going to be fairly quiet anyway.
posted by scruss at 5:10 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Your profile doesn't reveal where you are but most phones and mp3 players have built in volume restriction enabled within the EU. My android phone constantly warns me when I increase the volume past a certain point to protect my hearing ( I like this feature and would like to set it up to cap my volume on my phone without a dialog each time but not on my tablet which I use at the gym and need loud to hear over the treadmill). Setting your location to US can override the volume limit. On my nexus tablet to get MX video player to go up past 15 in volume I had to enable either HW or SW audio mode. I can't remember which.
posted by srboisvert at 5:15 PM on November 29, 2014

You might try a lower impedance headphone. Yours are 32 ohm. Typical headphones for portable devices will work better with 16 ohms. Higher impedance headphones need more voltage to produce the same audio power. Phone batteries don't provide a lot of voltage headroom.
posted by JackFlash at 5:24 PM on November 29, 2014 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I can look on amazon for something that might suffice that category. I do have 3 pairs of decent headphones though. Any chance bluetooth might be louder?
posted by mamamia88 at 5:35 PM on November 29, 2014

You could first try the cheapest pair of $5 earbuds that are 16 ohms just to see if that makes a noticeable volume difference. If so, then you can look for a higher quality set of 16-ohm headphones.
posted by JackFlash at 5:43 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Are your Sennheisers noise-canceling? If not, perhaps looking into those kinds of headphones would help you. Because you're not competing against external sound, quiet sounds appear louder.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:00 PM on November 29, 2014

There are iPhone-sized amp-DACs that have the power to drive larger headphones. They probably work okay with Google phones. You might explore that option.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 8:03 PM on November 29, 2014

>I just got an lg g2

My nexus 5, which is essentially a modified g2, and it has the crappiest output level of any mobile device i've used since the 1st gen ipod(which was holy shit, wow, quiet).

the g3 has that crazy 1w speaker and has a much bigger amp, as do phones like the HTC M8, iphone(to an extent), and some other flagships.

Mostly though, i was just shocked at how quiet the n5 was compared to my iphones 1/3g/4/4s/5. Even when i plug it into an amplifier/mixer/other powered output device it's just WAY quiet compared to anything else i regularly use.

Pretty much, i think it's your *specific* phone and LG crapped this up. Not that it's all phones.

For what it's worth, i own one of these and have been totally happy with it for years. It drives anything up to big hungry headphones like my AKG K240s(old ones, and the 600ohm amp annihilator variety), sennheiser hd280s, etc.

amazon seems to not have them now, but they were like ~$20. i'm sure there's a newer version out there.

Also, it looks like this is a popular search and there's several software mods/solutions. I might look in to that myself...
posted by emptythought at 8:12 PM on November 29, 2014

Response by poster: I do have an amp I just don't feel like using it just for podcasts. Or do I feel like carrying around with me. i might have some cheap earbuds lying around i can test just to be sure. The only 16ohm headphones i see are the momentums. Is there anything else in the category?
posted by mamamia88 at 10:16 PM on November 29, 2014

There may be... but for your continued aural health, your best bet most likely is to look at putting the lowest volume into your ears as possible. That means noise cancellation, not earphones that can go louder.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:34 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

are phone manufacturers treating us like babys and nerfing the output level of the headphone jack? Or has my hearing just gone to crap from listening to music too loud for too long?

Both can be true.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:29 AM on November 30, 2014