Audio quality poor on iPhone

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Make a call
2. any call
3. always the same

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expect clear good quality audio on calls, quality is generally poor.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
Ver 2.0.1 on iPhone 3G ver 2.2

Please provide any additional information below.
Love this app. Great SIP client. My only gripe as I've stated is the quality of 
the call audio at my 
end. The person I'm talking to gets great quality audio but to me their voice 
sounds distorted or 
at best like they're talking through a tin can. IF not for this the app would 
be perfect.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 18 Jan 2009 at 4:52

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Could you tell us which network did you use ? Wi-Fi, 3G or Edge ?

Original comment by samuelv0...@gmail.com on 21 Jan 2009 at 12:28

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This is on Wi-Fi. My provider doesn't support SIP over 3G or Edge.

Original comment by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 21 Jan 2009 at 10:28

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Could you test on another wifi network ?

Original comment by samuelv0...@gmail.com on 21 Jan 2009 at 9:56

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Will do. Will let you know how I get on.

Original comment by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 21 Jan 2009 at 11:48

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Finally got to try it on another WiFi network. Much the same results, still 
sounds distorted like the bandwidth is 
being overly compressed. 

To be fair I should say I'm comparing it to the quality I get from my analogue 
handset through a Grandstream 
ATA and also my old Nokia N95. I get near landline quality from both 99% of the 
time. Am I expecting too much?

Original comment by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 23 Jan 2009 at 11:33

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Should add...

Not very familiar with the tech involved, so I'm kinda guessing here. Don't 
know if it's a codec issue as per #129. 
Grandstream uses PMCU(?) as it's first choice vocoder, not sure about the Nokia 
N95.

Also, my router has WPA2 enables as well as MAC filtering, without any port 
forwarding.

Original comment by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 23 Jan 2009 at 11:46

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agreed, the quality of the audio on iphone end is not great, but end user 
reports
decent quality

Original comment by sissy.ar...@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 6:30

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Could you tell us is iPod function ran when you launched Siphon ?
If yes, could you stop iPod, and after run Siphon. Do you have the same issue 
or the
quality is better ? 

Original comment by samuelv0...@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 3:46

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Same problem. Forced the mobile music player app to quit using backgrouder and 
made a call. Sounds the same. 

From my own experience working in audio and video production for years now, it 
sounds like the audio is too 
heavily compressed at the iPhone end. Like the results you get when compressing 
a song to mp3 using 8 bit 
resolution and a very low data rate. If it is this and it's designed this way 
for edge connections, maybe an option 
to select compression settings for preferred use, in my case WiFi allowing much 
more bandwidth?

Just a thought.

Original comment by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 4:06

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What is your SIP provider ?
I tries several without problem :
  French providers: free, ippi, annatel (the two last you can take an account)
  German provider: voipbuster.com (you can create an account too)
Could you test with one of these by calling from (to) iphone to (from) landline?

Original comment by samuelv0...@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 4:17

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for me, not using iPod when loading Siphon

the provider is 2talk.co.nz

im comparing the quality of the call, with the Linksys SPA unit, on the same 
network,
the iphone sip call quality is not as good, but still usable. 

i believe the SPA uses G729a as the default codec

Original comment by sissy.ar...@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 10:36

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I'm using blueface.ie. I changed to them from another provider (freespeech.ie) 
due to the poor audio quality 
from frespeech. The quality through my current provider is as good as a 
landline even on my old N95. So I'm 
not so sure the problem is with my provider however I'll look into one of your 
suggestions to make the 
comparison and eliminate this possibility.

The quality from your app is usable as sissy.archive says, just not as good as 
I feel it can be. I've also tried 
iTalk and Siax and the quality is a little better but still disappointing 
compared to my N95. The interface and 
integration of your app is far better and that's why I think it would be 
perfect if the reception quality could be 
improved above that of the competing apps. 

Looking like I should have flagged this as an enhancement and not a defect...

I'll report back

Original comment by damien.hickey1@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2009 at 11:22

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I think we really need to know what codec you are using. GSM sounds pretty poor
quality to me (worse that a normal GSM mobile and much worse than a landline), 
but
G711 sounds fine on the iPhone.

The newest version (2.0.6) lets you select codec so maybe you can select G711 
and see
if you still think the quality is poor.

Original comment by neilbags@gmail.com on 9 Mar 2009 at 11:55

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On further investigation I agree that this is a real issue.

Regardless of codec, the sound coming out of the iphone when using SIP is of 
poor
quality (sounds 'tinny') compared to my DECT phone and compared to a regular 
cellular
phone call. 

The sound from the iphone's microphone is good quality, it sounds just like a 
normal
call at the other end, its just the sound coming out of the iphone that sounds 
poor.

Original comment by neilbags@gmail.com on 13 Mar 2009 at 1:07

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Hello Neibgas,
I second your observation. it would improve the quality if we can raise the 
volume more.

Original comment by mhalawah@gmail.com on 28 Sep 2009 at 1:30

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I agree- I have tested on uLaw/aLaw on perfect bandwidth. Latency is low, 
quality is
"good" but there is a slight distortion that overlays all inbound audio 
(outbound
audio is fine).

The same problem is found on sIAX. It's clearly an iphone audio path issue. 
Perhaps
deliberate?

Original comment by acumen....@gmail.com on 23 Oct 2009 at 12:07

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I have also encountered the same problem,the inbound audio has a slight 
distortion
regularly. I tested on uLaw, OS 3.0, wifi.

I captured the RTP pocket, it's OK when I played on PC.So I think the reason 
may be
the iphone sound driver.

Anyone can help me?
Thank you in advance.

Original comment by baixg...@gmail.com on 12 Mar 2010 at 8:07

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Try using a headset. This is what i do and i'm pretty happy with the sound, 
it's 
better than when using twinkle on my linux pc !
So, just a guess, it might just be the crappy iphone speaker.

Original comment by kungfut...@gmail.com on 21 Apr 2010 at 8:28