iPhone 4 - V-Moda headphones won't work correctly

[jjphoto]

I have a new iPhone 4, and a pair of V-Moda Vibe Duo headphones that I've been using for ages on my iPhone 3GS. It's a nice pair of headphones with the click-mic for music control and phone calls.

When plugged into my new iPhone 4, the music sounds generally fine, but the click-mic doesn't reliably play/pause - and it sometimes just turns the volume up and down. When I try to use them in a phone call, I get a regular "blipping" sound in my ear, and the person on the far end can't hear me.

To troubleshoot today, I've plugged the headphones into an iPhone 3GS and they work fine. I also plugged the stock headphones that came with the new iPhone 4 into the iPhone 4, and they work fine.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[theothergeoff]

ditto ditto

2 iPhone 4s here

2 SkullCandy FMJs with mics

See the same problem. Sound is good, however in voice recorder mode, here a 'thwat-thwat....thwat-thwat... and snippets of the voice in between.

verified mics work fine on 3Gs phones. I've slated an Apple Expert Call in 30 minutes to verify. if this is a) HW or b) SW (a future release of iOS may fix this).

Personally, i'm leaning towards the latter, as I think it's an overaggressive sound cancellation algorithm that shouldn't be on when external mics (with their own noise cancellation) are in place. Some how they should be able to sense sound cancellation is being done, and either drop off or do something else.

But It's in Apple's court.

 

[jjphoto]

Ah, noise cancellation mic

You know, I didn't think of the built-in noise cancellation mic as the cause. That's a very valid point. Hopefully you're right, and it can be a SW fix. I would HATE to lose the use of my V-Modas.

Please keep me posted on what you hear!

-jesse

 

[stoli]

Has anyone had any luck with 3rd party headphone/mic units? I have the same problem as described with v-moda vibe duo's.

thanks,
-stoli-

 

[BrianJL]

I have one pair of duo's that cause the popping sound at the slightest hint of audio at the mic. Another pair works almost flawless - no problems unless the audio is really loud, i.e. blowing directly into the mic. Not sure if it's just a lucky pair.

To me the behavior sounds like it is some sort of automatic gain control on the iPhone 4. A overly sensitive or high gain mic could be triggering a poorly implemented AGC circuit/algorithm driving it to an overflow instead of just limiting or backing off. Just a guess...

Still waiting for @theothergeoff to give us the juicy details of their conversation with Apple...

 

[guiambros]

2 iPhones 4 here (let's call A and B), with 2 Vibe Duo (one Black, one Chrome) and 1 Vibe II. I'm having the exact same problems as reported here: buttons don't always work, click-click-click sound when on a call.

Here's the conclusions of my tests:

Vibe II
- Works perfectly with both iPhones. No clicking sound, buttons stop/start music properly, hang-up calls, etc.
- Yet, v-moda says Vibe II is not compatible with iPhone 4 (see comments on forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=950554). Maybe I just got a lucky pair?

Tests with Vibe Duo Black:
- Worked flawlessly on iPhone A - no clicking, button working as expected.
- Fails miserably on iPhone B. Button randomly changes volume or skips music, phone calls with clicking sound.
- Interestingly, on the same iPhone B the clicking sound stops when I pull the plug a tiny bit. Initially I thought it could be something with the metal on the end of the plug touching the antenna, but upon close inspection I noticed it doesn't seem to be the case. It has no effect over the buttons (ie, pulling a bit doesn't help).

Tests with Vibe Duo Chrome:
- Failed miserably on iPhone A.
- Button doesn't work on iPhone B, but doesn't have the clicking sound.
- on iPhone A, same as above: pulling off a bit stopped the clicking sound.


My takeaways so far:

1) seems the headphone button circuitry is pushing the limits of tolerance on the iPhone 4, and that's why it works on some combinations of headphone/iPhone but not others.

2) the click-click sound is clearly a problem on the design of the headphone plug on v-moda and/or the socket on the iPhone. That's why pulling off a bit stops the clicking bug. Absolutely nothing to do with noise cancellation mic as some other users pointed out.


Next step would be to do some electrical tests to understand what's the difference between the two headphones to figure out why it works on one but doesn't on the other. Anyone has the hardware specs for a headphone? What exactly is the signal that is sent when someone presses the button?


** UPDATE: Seems I spoke too soon. Upon further testing I discovered that despite not hearing the click-click when using the Vibe Duo with iPhone A, in fact the other person could still hear the noise and the voice sounded really bad. So, bottom line is: neither Vibe Duo work. The only functional is really the Vibe II, and seems to be pure luck. Impressive.