Xperia 10: Crackle glitch noise when playing music

[adamrdrew]

I just bought an Xperia 10 yeasterday. It is my first Sony phone and I specifically bought it because of its music features as I have been getting into HiRes music. Unfortunately my enjoyment has been dampered due to glitchy cracling noises that happen intermittently when playing music.

The crackling sound sounds like a buffer underrun, like if you configure a DAW with too low of a buffer. I'm an audio engineer and have heard the same sound on music production systems many times over the years. Its a very specific sound. It is definitely not an analog noise, its not like a bad jack or cable or headphones - it is a digital sound glitch, I'm sure of it.

I tried a bunch of troubleshooting and can find no pattern to it and no way to stop it. When it starts happening the only solution is just to reboot and hope it wont happen again. Eventually, it'll start happening. I tried all of the different combinations of turning on and off DSEE, ClearSound+, etc. None of the options have changed the behavior or stopped it.

I have all of my music on an SD card, so I thought maybe it was too slow or had problems but I moved some of the songs to the internal storage and the issue persisted. Most of my music is in FLAC - home rips from CDs, but I also have some 24/96 FLACs I bought and one album of DSD. The problem seems to happen regadless of format. I am playing my music files with the Sony music app that came with the phone.

I'm not doing anything with my phone while listening - I usually just have the Sony Music app open and my screen off. I have almost no apps installed on my phone - I'm not really a phone person, I just use it to text and listen to music. Because I don't have much software and I'm not doing anything I don't think the phone is busy working on something. Also, I have all updates installed.

So, that's it really. I found other threads on here of people complaining about cracking sounds but non solutions as far as I can tell. I'm as positive as I can be that it is a software issue so I don't think exchanging it for another unit would do much good. Does anyone have solutions for this? Is there somewhere I can maybe turn up a buffer setting or something so that it wont underrun? If I use a different music player will it go away, and if I do will I lose the sound enhacements? Any help is appreciated. I was very excited about this phone and when the problem isn't happening it is truly the best sounding thing I've ever heard. I hope someone can help me out with it.

[adamrdrew]

I tried a couple more music apps and they all have the same exact sound glitch, so it seems to be something OS level not just the Sony Music app. I also noticed that when it happens I can force it to happen more agressively by turning the volyme up and down.

[adamrdrew · Accepted solution]

I'm going to have to return this phone if there's nothing I can do. It has been unlistenable today. There are constant glitch digital noises while listening to music. It makes it impossible to use as a music player.

I confirmed that it happens with any headphones or 1/8th inch cord. I've tried 5 or 6 at this point and the issue is there. However, I did discover it doesn't happen on Bluetooth, only on headphone jack.

I really hope someone has some kind of solution. This is ruining the primary purpose I got this phone for. 

[adamrdrew]

I broke down and braved Black Friday to exchange my Xperia 10 for a new one. I'm happy to report that the new one does not have the audio crackle problem at all. Not only that, it is significantly louder. My defective phone was very quiet. I thought it was a limiter put on for hearing protection but it seemed way too quiet. It turned out that was part of the problem too. My new phone sounds like a dream and I am very happy. I will leave this up just in case anyone gets a similar defective unit. If you do just exchange it.