[ECS Dave]

ill be honest man. the MP3 volume doesnt bother me one bit. its the ringer volume that does. part of the reason i bought the phone is because i could be in a loud as **** bar at 1 am with 300 people within 30 feet of me and still hear the phone. now i cant be in a room with 30 people in 300 feet and hear it ring. THAT annoys me.

I believe that they are one and the same. They both use the EXTERNAL speaker,
which is where "my" issue lies, and I'm guessing that's the same issue with the
original poster.

Which particular "cod" file(s) control the volume? Does anyone know? Care to share the info?

Be Well!
ECS Dave

[ECS Dave]

Bump...

Anyone?

Be Well!
ECS Dave

[Cllementine]

My 8320 volume seems fine. I guess the volume could be a little louder on the MP3 player, but its not too bad. My ringer volume is fine also. And I'm in the UK.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[chinkster]

i have a 8320 and a 8310. both had OS 4.2 and both is now upgraded to OS 4.5. YES there is a huge difference in the external speaker volume. for those that don't use the LOUD profile, you probably don't know what we are talking about.

[shriscean]

I believe that they are one and the same. They both use the EXTERNAL speaker,
which is where "my" issue lies, and I'm guessing that's the same issue with the
original poster.

Which particular "cod" file(s) control the volume? Does anyone know? Care to share the info?

Be Well!
ECS Dave

I Second This. If Anyone Figures Out Which Cod File(s) Control Volume Please Post Ur Findings And A How-To On Installing The 4.2 Cod's On A 4.5

[crzynic]

Agreed, the phone is about impossible to hear over any kind of serious background noise. Makes for a rather useless device at times.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[propdad]

Ok I have had he 4.5os for a while now and I work in a repair shop and YUP i am hard of hearing reason 12 or 25 why I got a BB. The ringer volume of the 4.5 os SUCKS........ please help, I dont wanna go back to 4.2. My wife wants me to upgrade hers but she likes the volume. 4.5 on high is equal to 4.2 on low

HELP............. please

[H_D]

I thought I was the only one who noticed the difference. A friend of mine has the TMo 8320 & when it rings on LOW, its louder than my 8330 is on HIGH...Really disappointing. Any fix?

[CatfishSteve]

Hello All

I've spent the better part of today searching and trying to figure out how to get my 4.2 volume back.. I read a lot of complaints, but all scattered here and there.

I like the new task look, Calendar, and email in 4.5 as well as the voice notes, heck, I even used the video recorder.. BUT the volume of my phone is way to low to be useful.

It seems 4.5 has been out in various builds for half a year.. The volume issue is not a bug. It was lowered on purpose or it would have been fixed already.

If we dont all start complaining really hard, it will stay low. there are various reasons among different people why the volume needs to be audible in a noisy environment, people use the calendar notifications to take their medication, their alarm clock to wake up, that important email that could land you an account. whatever it may be.

The device is hardware capable of a louder volume, In fact I bought this phone partly based on its ring volume.

the iphone community is hacking the heck out of iphones .. no one here can make a volume app?? I'd pay $50 for that. Lets stand up!!! That helmets not a chair people... get a hand in!

I'm 100% behind you on this
the alarm won't wake me up!!!
and when i listen to music I want it loud!
if nobody makes a volume app I guess I'm going to have to buy an ipod

[aristile]

@Pete6 - Thanks for the post, that's some really good information. I do have some questions about these restrictions that you may or may not have the answers to. Maybe someone else will know.

I can understand restricting the audio coming out of the headphone jack because, generally speaking, users will use this source to not only listen to audio (mainly music) for a long period of time but also this will be done via headphones in close proximity to the ear drum. I think this restriction is probably a good idea all around to help users protect their ears.

What I do not understand so much is why the speaker on the phone itself is being restricted. For one thing I don't know anyone that listens to music using their phone speaker for hours at a time. On top of that, even if someone does do this, I don't think they hold the phone up to their ear to do so. Generally the speaker on the phone itself is used for two things: hearing your phone ring and speakerphone conversations. The phone ringing is not something that lasts long so I don't think it is an issue that will lead to hearing loss, even if you are using audio files that have a modified dynamic range. The speakerphone is a voice conversation so I wouldn't think its dynamic range would be as large originally as compared to music, even if it is modified similar to how music is - I don't know if voice is modified over a cellular network, but I would think it probably is to some degree.

I guess this would probably need to be addressed with a change in the OS architecture at RIM for Blackberries so that the function used to port audio to the headphone jack would be slightly different from the function that ports audio to the on-board speaker of the device. This change would allow different volume levels to be used to the headphone jack and the speakerphone. Maybe future OS versions will have this change, I don't know.

So I guess my question is why restrict the headphone jack as well as the on-board speaker when they have separate functions?

[Pete6]

I'm not sure about any of this either. I can see why the speaker volume would be limited for 4 reasons.

• to stop ear damage should people hold the phone close to their ears whilst on speaker
• they use a low power device to save money or one that just does not make much noise
• the speaker and the headphone output share a common audio output stage and the amount of power available is limited [by whatever] and this keeps the speaker volume down
• internal vibration could damage the phone (possible but unlikely)

I tend towards the phone just not having enough audio output power as the real reason for low speaker volume but, I really do not know for sure.

[aristile]

I guess you're probably right on the money. It is either a cost or quality control issue, or both. Its also probably cheaper and more profitable to keep the phone volume to safe levels and then have consumers purchase additional products to boost their sound if they like (boostaroo, hands-free kit, etc).

[aristile]

Speaking of additional products:

Review: BlueAnt Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Speakerphone | CrackBerry.com

[H_D]

I'm not sure about any of this either. I can see why the speaker volume would be limited for 4 reasons.

• to stop ear damage should people hold the phone close to their ears whilst on speaker
• they use a low power device to save money or one that just does not make much noise
• the speaker and the headphone output share a common audio output stage and the amount of power available is limited [by whatever] and this keeps the speaker volume down
• internal vibration could damage the phone (possible but unlikely)

I tend towards the phone just not having enough audio output power as the real reason for low speaker volume but, I really do not know for sure.

I understand your points but on my co-workers T-Mo 8320 OS 4.2, her external speaker is MUCH louder than my 8330. IMO its a firmware issue. They could easily release an OS update that would increase our external speakers volume. The external speaker volume was the 1st (and ONLY) issue that annoyed me & still does....

[Pete6]

I understand your points but on my co-workers T-Mo 8320 OS 4.2, her external speaker is MUCH louder than my 8330. IMO its a firmware issue. They could easily release an OS update that would increase our external speakers volume. The external speaker volume was the 1st (and ONLY) issue that annoyed me & still does....

Re-read my posts #4 and #9. You will need to folow the link in post #4 - sorry.

It is a firmware issue and the low volume on OS 4.5 is quite deliberate. We saw the levels go up and down quite a bit across various OS releases before it was set at its present level. This is a planned decision from RIM who have now set the output level of their devices at below lawsuit levels for all new phones and OSs.

That's the way of thrld right now, I'm afraid. If you want it louder, you need to externally amp the signal. I have a BoostaRoo which does the job just fine for headphones. Of yeah, I also connected my 8310 up to my 5000 Watt PA system as an outdoor gig last summer. That made it quite a bit louder .

[aristile]

... Of yeah, I also connected my 8310 up to my 5000 Watt PA system as an outdoor gig last summer. That made it quite a bit louder .

That's freakin sweet! I wish I could have been there to see that!

[Pete6]

That's freakin sweet! I wish I could have been there to see that!

It was just a 3.5mm jack into the 32 channel desk. Move the slider and WOW!

[CatfishSteve]

the way I look at it. it's my hearing if I want to screw it up thats my business

Soooo...... Anybody know where or how you can crank the volume

[Jazzi-Rocks]

My issue is with hearing people when they call me on the phone! I have to have the phone pressed tightly against my ear and the volume all the way up and I still have problems. I know I am not losing my hearing as it was checked already.

I understand for playing music too loud....even though I love it loud, however I just want to hear the other person I'm talking to on the phone for crying out loud. I had a phone call today on my BB and I am home and the TV is low and I still had trouble hearing the person talking with the volume all the way up and the phone pressed almost into my head.

For me this is just not right. I'm tempted to go back to 4.2 however I don't want to miss out on all the other things available on 4.5.

~Jazzi~

[Dominiking212]

I downgraded to 4.2....my ringers are back to normal....honestly i rather have the old os because of this...if you wish to downgrade just search how to downgrade to older os.

[justin_lilly]

Huge difference in 4.2 to 4.5 volume.
I use my 8310 (AT&T) to play mp3's while i'm riding on my motorcycle. I could hear it great up to 45mph with 4.2 OS which is perfect for riding around the city. NOW...with the 4.5 I can hear it up around 20 - 25 MPH and then nothing after that.
External speakers and AMP would be great, but there is a VERY limited space on a bike for this stuff. I know they make small amp's for bike, but you have to be really creative when mounting anything.

IMHO: reason for lowering the volume on speaker mode in case someone holds the phone to their ear is ********.

I'm not going to d-load audacity and edit 4GB of mp3s. I'll wait a bit and see if there is an alternative like masking the 4.2 player over 4.5 then either downgrade or figure out how to install speaker / amp on the bike.

Pro: pandora avail, video recorder, e-mails are easier to read.
Cons: audio volume

I'll weigh the differences after a couple weeks if there are no other options.