Stereo Borked. Channels Switched, Speakers Mono.

[skab]

(x-posted to GPH's suggestion board)

Now this is ridiculous.

I was irritated by the distinctive non-stereo sound of the built-in speakers, so I made a test-MP3 that plays a test signal on L-R-L-R-L to check the stereo separation.

There is none.

The speakers are mono. Both get the same signal.

Is that GPH's way of avoiding the switched-channels problem they had with the GP32? Really, that is ridiculous!

But wait, there's more!

We've still got a headphone jack. If that were mono as well, people would have noticed that immediately, wouldn't they?

But they wouldn't notice right away if the channels were switched.

Now guess what? Right, the headphone channels are switched. This is ULTRA-ridiculous.

If both outputs had their channels switched it would be easy to solve that problem in software, just switch the channels again there and be done. Maybe it's just a bug in the Audio Player and it's like that, channels switched everywhere. But I can't say for sure since at least on my GP2X the speakers are simply mono. Maybe it's my really crappy headphone jack (I also get the described contact problem and have to fiddle around a lot to get clear - and stereo - sound) and the speaker lines get shorted in there. Maybe it's designed like that, which would be HYPER-ridiculous and a huge step back from the GP32.

Shouldn't you learn from mistakes made?

Not. Impressed.

 

[Rayek]

oooh... good one... now i'm almost glad i don't have mine yet...

 

[skab]

oooh... good one... now i'm almost glad i don't have mine yet...

​

Oh well, get it now.

It's not like they changed anything on the GP32 and its switched speaker channels, did they?

At least that one was easily fixed. Just a bit of soldering and the channels were fine. But mono speakers? :blink: :angry:

 

[reaper79]

(x-posted to GPH's suggestion board)
Now guess what? Right, the headphone channels are switched. This is ULTRA-ridiculous.

​

Nah, this problem happens a lot. Just turn your headphones around.

 

[gaterooze]

Makes no difference to me, honestly. It's a handheld, sound will never be great anyway. And most of what I'll play on it I've only ever played in mono...

EDIT: I don't plan on using it as a PMP.

 

[Eolair]

(x-posted to GPH's suggestion board)
The speakers are mono. Both get the same signal.

​

Can that really be true? Why on earth would you have mono sound on something that's marketed as a media player? The specs even say "Stereo(L+R)".

 

[Alpha2]

This sounds more like a factory mistake than a mystake by GPH. Hopefully since they;re more hands on than gamepark was this problem will be fixed before too long.

 

[Cbass182]

What?!

Alright...i can deal with getting rechargeable batteries, twisting the joystick, and doing little tweaks here and there, but MONO!? No I am kinda ticked I pre-ordered...actually, I'm more ticked that they just didn't make it stereo to begin with...i'll still keep my pre-order, but this is rediculous...like was said, it's being marketed as a PMP! and it's MONO... :angry:

And how can this be fixed? I don't mind doing a little soldering if that's a possibility...but this better be fixable soon...

 

[Morwynd]

Has someone else with a unit confirmed this?

 

[Robster]

I haven't been able to check this, but if it is true, it will (I'm 98% sure) be a software thing.

The AC97 codec used in the GP2X (Wolfson WM9711L) includes stereo amplifiers for driving speakers and headphones. There's no reason to connect the speakers as mono. Could you just check again that your sound really is coming out in mono? (I did a similar test when I was doing Doom on GP32, and I found it pretty hard to tell when one speaker was making noise and one wasn't).

I'll be playing with (HH-mode) sound in a few days time, and I'll report my findings.

If the headphone jack really is reversed, I'm going to be very annoyed...

 

[Minkoff]

Even if the headphone jack is reversed, that's fixable with software, isn't it?
And who uses the crappy speakers on handhelds anyway? Even on my newer deviced (like my DS), headphones sound about a thousand times btter.

EDIT: Rather than fix my typos in my edit, I will inform you that they are there and that I have noticed them.

 

[reaper79]

Along with what Robster was saying, it could be a channel separation issue. Such that, as far as amplifiers get rated, one channel might only be capable of producing sound a handful of decibels louder than the opposite channel, making it sound mono when it really is stereo.

 

[Digital Awakening]

(x-posted to GPH's suggestion board)
Now guess what? Right, the headphone channels are switched. This is ULTRA-ridiculous.

​

Nah, this problem happens a lot. Just turn your headphones around.

​

Happens a lot? Where?

And many headphones/earbuds are made to fit one way only.

 

[Morwynd]

Even if the headphone jack is reversed, that's fixable with software, isn't it?

Well sure you can switch the channels in software, but with the GP32 (which had reversed speakers) it was always a manual setting to switch the channels in the programs that had that feature, so I assume the headphone jack couldn't be detected automatically, and that this would also be true for the GP2X (I could be wrong about that of course). Having to frequently change a setting (or put up with reversed) again, to be honest would be somewhat dissapointing for v2 of a product.

Mono would be even worse But Robster makes a good point about the chip being stereo, and mono not making any sense from a hardware perspective, so hopefully if this isn't an isolated case, it's just a firmware bug.

 

[whiskthecat]

Whoa. I sure hope my stereo isn't "borked". Just kiding. But seriously somone fix that.

 

[Skitzo]

Since we have an (apparently) open firmware, maybe it can be changed in that so it doesn't have to be done per-program. The switched channels isn't a major problem, and unless the mono speakers is a hardware bug, it probably isn't hard to change it in software either. Fingers crossed

 

[WrongEyedJesus]

(x-posted to GPH's suggestion board)
Now guess what? Right, the headphone channels are switched. This is ULTRA-ridiculous.

​

Nah, this problem happens a lot. Just turn your headphones around.

​

LOL. Top work from the technical dept.

Some people are just looking for faults.

Just play Metal Slug- no sound problems there........

 

[x68000]

i don't think people have to look far for the problems, they keep on popping up, but mostly should be fixable via firmware upgrades.

 

[WrongEyedJesus]

i don't think people have to look far for the problems, they keep on popping up, but mostly should be fixable via firmware upgrades.

​

Thats what I love about it all, it's not a precise science. Wouldn't be any fun if it was.....

 

[darkplayer]

if the headphone jack problem is harware and they switch direction in later unit we got a problem (blu+). But thants fixable too but..