Static heard on all Google Voice calls on OBi202
LotharX:
I have a new OBi202 that I bought 3 weeks ago, that I have been using with Google Voice. I have been disappointed with the voice quality on all of the calls (either incoming or outgoing) that I've been making on that device.
The problem is that there is a faint static-y or "buzzy" quality to what I hear when I am on a call. The best way I can describe it is that the voice quality sounds electronic, not natural like a landline phone should sound. I am not experiencing any delays or choppy sound though.
The dial tone sounds very clear--it's just the person's voice that is static-y.
I have a Panasonic KX-TGE470 cordless landline phone plugged into the OBi202's Phone1 port. This is a very high-rated telephone that is supposed to have excellent voice quality.
To rule out the telephone as being the problem though, I later went and bought a cheap AT&T TR1909 corded phone, and plugged it into the OBi202's Phone2 port (leaving the Panasonic phone plugged into the Phone1 port).
The call quality is slightly better on the AT&T phone, but I can still hear the static-y quality of voice call. It's just not quite as pronounced as with the Panasonic phone.
With either phone, the subtle static is enough to make the phone calls slightly annoying. The voice quality is better when using my smartphone to make calls, and I've never been that impressed with my smartphone's voice quality. The whole reason why I bought the OBi202 is so that I wouldn't have to use my smartphone inside the house.
My OBi202 is plugged directly into my router, an Asus RT-AC68U, via a cat6 ethernet cable.
I've played around with the QoS settings in my router, trying various ways to assign highest priority to the OBi202, but nothing has helped.
I've attached test results I ran today from Phonepower.com. I tried running the test first using a laptop computer via a 5.0 GHz WiFi connection that consistently gives me 300 Mbps download / 30 Mbps upload speeds, using Comcast's speed test website.
Then I ran the test using another laptop computer via an ethernet connection. The latter computer doesn't have a great network card in it, and is always far slower than my WiFi connection on the other laptop (weird, I know).
The attached results are from the WiFi-connected laptop.
When I re-ran the test using the Ethernet-connected laptop, the results were similar, but with a slightly lower Estimated MOS score of 4.0 (vs. 4.2 over WiFi), but a somewhat higher Download Consistency of Service of 49% (vs. 34% over WiFi). On either the WiFi or the Ethernet computer, the test returned green (acceptable) icons for all of the summary test areas.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
drgeoff:
Dial **9 222 222 222 and listen to the announcement from 'Obiman'. How does he sound compared to the voices on your incoming calls?
Your stats are all good and would have no influence on voice quality?
SteveInWA:
Hi, and welcome to OBi-land!
Typically, the kind of noise you are hearing is unrelated to your internet connection's quality, unless the quality is really bad (below MOS 3.5 or so). Think of it like HDTV or HD Radio: it sounds and looks perfect, until it seriously degrades and/or quits completely.
It's more likely to be coming from your cordless phone, or some nearby electronic equipment, or, rarely, from a bad 12V power supply (the "wall wart").
You said that you tried a corded phone, but you left the cordless attached. Try completely unplugging the cordless phone base station's power brick, and unplug its phone cord from the OBi. Then, try some calls with only the corded phone plugged in. You can also try relocating the OBi a few meters away from whatever else is now next to it. Occasionally, people put the cordless phone base station right on top of, or right next to the OBi and/or their router, which can inject noise, too. Don't do that.
To bypass Google Voice, try calling the OBi echo test number **9 222 222 222 and listen for the noise.
Google Voice uses the G.711u PCM CODEC, on the "leg" between your OBi and their servers, which is lossless and should sound better than the best copper telephone line. There are other carriers in the call path. Sometimes, those carriers will start out the connection using a lower-quality CODEC, e.g. G.729, and then negotiate up to G.711 after a few seconds or more. In those cases, you may hear distortion for a while, and then it gets better. Try calling different locations around the country, (e.g. friends or numbers like the library or city hall or a local grocery store), and see if the call quality varies.
LotharX:
Thanks very much for the suggestions, guys.
I originally had my OBi202 inside a stereo system cabinet that has a lot of stereo components in it (though they have all been powered off while making phone calls). The cordless phone's base station was sitting on a different shelf in that cabinet. Both units were plugged into the same power strip, which had a lot of other things plugged into it.
So today I tried using a longer Ethernet cable, so that I could move both units to the opposite end of the room, about 12 feet away. I then plugged both units into a different wall outlet that has nothing else plugged into it. I then tried plugging in each phone--the cordless and the corded--into the OBi202 (separately, one at a time), and calling the OBi echo test number.
I made sure the cordless phone was unplugged--both from its power brick and from the OBi202--before trying the corded phone, as you suggested.
With the cordless phone, I still hear that static, and it's just as pronounced. I'm trying to think of a better way to describe the noise--it's not exactly static, but sort of a "scratchy" quality to the sound. It's very annoying.
Then I tried the corded phone. The sound is much clearer than with the cordless phone (like it was before, when it was located inside the stereo cabinet), but I do hear a sort of very faint screeching sound in the background behind "OBi Man's" voice. I am curious if any of you can tell me if that is what you hear on your own phones, or if you instead hear dead silence in the background, in between his words?
Returning the cordless phone to Amazon, to try exchanging it for a different model, will be a pain, so I don't want to do that until we rule out anything else that could be the cause of the problem.
I'm wondering if the noise is actually present on both the corded and the cordless phones, but the cordless phone is somehow amplifying the noise so that it is more perceptible on that phone?
Any other suggestions would be appreciated!
drgeoff:
Dial **0 and let it ring until the Auto Attendant ('Obiwoman') answers. How does she sound on your two handsets? I hear less background "noise" on her than him.
You may be able to mitigate the static by reducing the level of the audio signal sent from the 202 to the handset. Physical Interfaces, Phone1 (or 2) Port, Port Settings, ChannelTxGain. Reducing the value there (more negative if already negative) gives lower volume from the handset earpiece
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