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Since starting to use USB-C headphones (my new phone has no audio jack), I notice this (to my ears) very annoying issue: during playback of any audio, the sound output will be cut during moments of (very) low volume in the audio stream. For example: listening to an audio book, after every sentence, when the narrator pauses, you will hear a noticeable cut of all sound output, where normally there's always a little white noise in the background. I guess it's an optimization of not sending any audio signal when there is nothing to be heard, but to me these constant breaks in the background white noise are very annoying. As reference: this did not happen when using the audio jack on my old phone. The background white noise was just always present during playback.

I tried to research this issue, but it seems to be either almost impossible to set the right search terms or no one else is complaining about this. Although I find the latter hard to believe, since my partner experiences the same. Also in the Android settings I cannot find anything related to this.

Still I hope there is a way to resolve this. Either by applying a certain (advanced) setting or maybe by using some other workaround trick. Any insight and/or help in this matter is much appreciated, thanks!

PS: I assume this is standard Android behavior for USB-C headphones and not headphone specific. Please enlighten me if I'm wrong.

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    Android knows when audio playback is active or not so stopping audio transmission via USB-C on low volume doesn't make sense in my opinion. Therefore my guess is that it is caused by the headphones. May the the headphones use an integrated digital-analog converter which is shut down on low volume.
    – Robert
    Feb 26 at 11:26
  • FYI there has been reports of this since early days of Android: 1 2 and there is an issue for AOSP: 3
    – Zhe
    Mar 25 at 16:34
  • @Robert It is not caused by the headphone. (1) This issue has already been reported by many people (2) You can try using the same headphone but attached it to a Windows device, or with an iPad (that comes with USB-C) using the same adapter. You won't get any sound cut off.
    – Zhe
    Mar 25 at 16:37
  • I have the exact same issue with two pairs of USB-C headphones on my brandnew smartphone, while my old one with analog audio jack does not show that problem. I am not so much annoyed by the cut out silence but by the missing beginning of each sentence after a brief silence in podcasts or songs. There really is missing information, half or full syllables being cut off ten times per minute. I am so annoyed, I could scream instead of fall asleep with my podcasts. How can this be left unaddressed in Android?!?
    – kriegaex
    Nov 10 at 15:56

2 Answers 2

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From what I know this is not easily achievable. There is no built-in setting for this, although you may get around the issue using (1) a ROM with a patched kernel (2) a third-party app.

This has been reported since early days of Android 1 2, and there is an issue on AOSP that is marked as "won't fix", although I don't agree with that assessment. This might get more traction and get addressed if someone can confirm that (1) This is indeed a problem in AOSP (2) creates an issue that clearly states that this is not a problem in custom ROMs.

This may also be related to the fact that the output volume for USB-C headphone/headphone using USB-C adapters is applied by software rather than using DAC hardware volume. In other words, Android applies the system media volume to the sound signal and then sends it to USB-C, during which the sound may be distorted/filtered. 1 2. There are reports that you can use the Hiby app or USB Audio Player PRO app to control the volume of the DAC, which may help fix this issue. (I did not have luck there.)

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I was happy to come across your post as I have had the same issue on multiple android devices. Initially I thought it was the specific device, but after having the issue reproduce itsself on a new device later on, I re-initiated a search on this. Unfortunately I agree towards the same conclusion in that either no one experiences the issue or simoly finds another alternative (non USB-C headphones if possible etc) or simply loves with is (as I have had to do on occasion). It is annoying though as I either have to bump the volume so that even the quiet parts have the background noise fuzz loud enough for the audio to not cut out or simply deal with the cut-outs.

The issue is not related to the headphones as the issue does not exist when used on windows devices for example.

The only solution I have found is to use a frequency generator, put it on a low Hz so that you only have the white noise remain and then play whatever audio you wish to play on a low volume (I too fall asleep with audio books etc and the cutting out is annoying).

Yet to look into whether specific frequencies are a bad idea in terms of sleep etc, but thought I'd give you a potential work around if you have not yet found one or wish to consider it.

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  • Hi Sheldon, thanks for your reply. Indeed such an annoying issue that should not be too hard to solve on the Android side I'd say. I also recently found the workaround you described. You can also set it to a very high (non-audible) frequency. As long as something is playing in the background, the system will keep the audio channel 'open'. Not ideal but at least it works. Thanks for taking the time to write your answer!
    – Erik Mulder
    May 14 at 22:05

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