Awful Sound Recording Quality - Xperia 5 iii

[neilladavies]

I have an Xperia 5 iii and bought it on the premise it's supposed to be a media oriented phone! But as others have said, when things get loud recorded sounds are dreadful! I don't know whether it's the mics or internal processing but live music comes out with unacceptable levels of distortion, and heavy bass gets compressed to the point where volume levels jump wildly! The kicker is, my old Xperia XZs was MUCH better in this department - as long as you set mic sensitivity to LOW, most recordings came out clean and clear with good stereo spread. But no matter how you tweak level adjustment on the new Cinema Pro app, the problem cannot be fixed - it's either too quiet and distorted or peaking and very distorted! How the hell can a company like Sony go so far backwards on sound quality in a couple of years? It doesn't make sense! And why haven't they realised this and attempted to release a fix? Very disappointing because in most other ways the phone is decent enough ☹️ Any ideas please?

[EUSupport_EN]

Hey @neilladavies

Does that only happens on Cinema Pro app? And was it like this since you first got it?

[neilladavies]

Hi,

It's not just the Cinema Pro app, but that's the only app I have that lets you adjust the audio input level. On my old Xperia XZs there was an option in the accessory settings that let you adjust the mic level (high, medium or low) and it worked really well, but I can't find that anywhere in the latest OS. I take a lot of videos of loud bands so it's disappointing to experience such distortion! If I use the default camera app to record, the sound is just as distorted as Cinema Pro. And yes I've experienced this ever since I got the phone, plus I've seen Reddit threads with other users reporting exactly the same issue. One person said compared to a friend's iPhone, the recorded sound was noticeably inferior. Don't get me wrong, if I record speech or ambient sounds the quality is acceptable, but for some reason this phone cannot handle higher decibel levels... and it loses all detail when recording heavy bass - something my old Sony coped with really well! Shame because it spoils all my videos. Don't know if it's the quality of the mics or the internal processing.

[Piscie]

Hi @neilladavies, that is really frustrating! You can try clearing the camera's cache (Settings - Applications - Camera app - Storage - Clear cache & data), you can also do the same for the phone's storage (Settings - Storage - Internal storage - Clear cache & data).

You can also test the camera in safe mode to see if the distortion is still there or not.

[SB_sony]

Any news from Sony on this?

I've got the Xperia 5 iii and get the same poor audio when recording gigs.

I've been a constant user of Sony phones for years now but am seriously thinking of changing to something else because of this limitation.

This phone cannot be classed as a top multimedia device given the audio recording quality of gigs. 

[HannahEd01]

Hey SB_sony, did you try the fix posted above by Pixie? You can also try the steps here: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/mobile-phones-tablets/articles/00232845

[SB_sony]

Which fix?

Clearing cache etc? 

They aren't fixes, they are hopeful suggestions that are posted for any issue. 

This issue won't be caused by cached data etc. It is related to either software or hardware design choices made for this device. 

[HannahEd01]

Hey SB_sony, I think we are all here to help each other, as this is a user based community. If you'd like to report the issue directly to Sony, you can contact them. 

https://services.sony.co.uk/supportmvc/en/Contact/Email?cat=mobile&tab=Tips

[SB_sony]

Thanks Hannah, I will contact Sony as per your suggestion.

Your reply is much appreciated.