Low audio volume on 3,5mm jack

[lukasz_szabelsk]

Hi there,
Is it normal that audio on Zf8 while playing mp3 in some player is quite silent even on max volume setting? There is huge difference comparing to my old LG G7 even when I'm turinng off DAC on LG. Apparently there is some DAC on Zenfone? I cannot find any settings where to turn it on. On LG it could be controlled in stock mp3 player. As there is no stock audio player, there are no equalizer, dac settings etc. Quite disappointing. Also I can hear some crackles when listening to music on 3,5mm headphones/speaker. No such issue on other phone with the same headphones/speaker.
I've tried several mp3 players from play store, but all of them are just shi**y. It sucks that Asus didn't developed any simple stock player.
For now 3,5 mm jack is just useless on ZF8.

[Irene2_ASUS]

Hi @lukasz.szabelski,
We use Snapdragon Acoustic DAC.
We use Audio Wizard that enables different scenario effects and 10 band equalizer.
You can find more info about it on this thread;
Audio Wizard - 3.5mm frequency response — ZenTalk (asus.com)

[Cyslawo]

In my opinion audio quality on 3,5mm is good, but I can confirm it's quite silent compared to LG G8.

[mrda1981]

Turn off the equalizer on whatever music app you're using; this helps remove the grating crackliness.
Go into Settings> Sound> Audio Wizard whilst earphones are in; tap the headphone icon and select from the sound profiles on offer until you find one to your liking (ROG Cetra Core works for me); adjust treble and bass to your preferences. The sound should be notably cleaner, louder, more immersive, and altogether more pleasing to the ear.

[erik_paladin]

If you bought the phone inside the EU, max volume is probably limited because of hearing protection regulations.
Also, it depends on the sensitivity of the headphones you are using. For example, I'm using Sennheiser HD-25 which have 70 ohm impedance. Since that is a bit too high for most phones, I switched to using a Bluetooth DAC, and the sound quality is much better than from the phone.