• V20: 3CX Re-engineered. Get V20 for increased security, better call management, a new admin console and Windows softphone. Learn More.

SPA504G Tone Quality

Status
Not open for further replies.

dcline97

Customer
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
24
Reaction score
2
Hi everyone,

I have about 20 SPA504G Sip phones and 4 Grandstream BudgetTone 201 phones. Believe it or not but the Grandstream phones sound a LOT better. All of the Cisco phones have a real muffled tone quality - it like turning up the bass and turning down the treble on a radio. They simply are not crisp. In fact we often have to ask callers to repeat what they were saying. Is this a 3CX thing or a Cisco thing? We are running version 8.0.10116 and I have provisioned all the phones using the standard 3CX templates.

Any suggestions on what changes may improve our tone quality?
 
dcline97 said:
Hi everyone,

I have about 20 SPA504G Sip phones and 4 Grandstream BudgetTone 201 phones. Believe it or not but the Grandstream phones sound a LOT better. All of the Cisco phones have a real muffled tone quality - it like turning up the bass and turning down the treble on a radio. They simply are not crisp. In fact we often have to ask callers to repeat what they were saying. Is this a 3CX thing or a Cisco thing? We are running version 8.0.10116 and I have provisioned all the phones using the standard 3CX templates.

Any suggestions on what changes may improve our tone quality?

Could you please provide information as requested in http://www.3cx.com/forums/forum-rules-read-to-get-answers-93.html?

Then we will be able to start a discussion about the reasons why Grandstream appeared in your prelude but didn't appear in your question ;)
 
Sorry for not providing the logs and my question is directed to the Cisco phones as the Grandstream phone quality is acceptable.

This is just a simple call to check my voice mail - even the VM prompts sound muffled on the Cisco phones. I forgot to mention that there does not seem to be any difference in voice quality between making internal extension-to-extension calls or talking to outside parties. Our external calls go through a Patton 4114 FXO gateway.

Code:
15:21:16.578  [CM503008]: Call(3429): Call is terminated
15:21:10.031  [CM503007]: Call(3429): Device joined: sip:[email protected]:40600;rinstance=28e6be242f393e80
15:21:10.031  [CM503007]: Call(3429): Device joined: sip:[email protected]:5060
15:21:10.015  [CM505001]: Ext.999: Device info: Device Identified: [Man: 3CX Ltd.;Mod: Voice Mail Menu;Rev: General] Capabilities:[reinvite, replaces, able-no-sdp, recvonly] UserAgent: [3CX Voice Mail Menu] PBX contact: [sip:[email protected]:5060]
15:21:10.015  [CM503002]: Call(3429): Alerting sip:[email protected]:40600;rinstance=28e6be242f393e80
15:21:09.875  [CM503025]: Call(3429): Calling Ext:Ext.999@[Dev:sip:[email protected]:40600;rinstance=28e6be242f393e80]
15:21:09.828  [CM503004]: Call(3429): Route 1: Ext:Ext.999@[Dev:sip:[email protected]:40600;rinstance=28e6be242f393e80]
15:21:09.828  [CM503010]: Making route(s) to "Voice Mail"<sip:[email protected]>
15:21:09.828  [CM505001]: Ext.105: Device info: Device Not Identified: User Agent not matched; Capabilities:[reinvite, replaces, able-no-sdp, recvonly] UserAgent: [Cisco/SPA504G-7.4.3] PBX contact: [sip:[email protected]:5060]
15:21:09.812  [CM503001]: Call(3429): Incoming call from Ext.105 to "Voice Mail"<sip:[email protected]>

Does the "Device info: Device Not Identified: User Agent not matched" play into this? What causes this?

Thanks for your help,

Dave
 
Dave,

About log message:
You can find article on wiki.3cx.com. Just search for "Device Info:" string

About sound.
Do you compare them in speaker mode or using handset/headset?

Quality of sound generated by PBX is the same and independent on phone but depends on codec negotiated.
If your phone use G729 or GSM, sound quality will be worse then in case of PCMA/PCMU

Thanks
 
I searched like you suggested, but only found one article titled "Analyzing a successful call setup between extensions within 3CX ". It says "3CX Phone System analyses requests from “Extension”-type devices, and attempts to identify the Make and Model", but it does not explain specifically what it is looking for in the request. I have been searching using a variety of terms but not finding anything. Still have no idea on how to correct this.

With regard to sound, we are measuring audio quality at the handset, not the speaker. I believe the phones are using the G711u codec. How can I determine which codec is being used for a specific call? Finally - I'm confused as to whether the tone issues we are experiencing are PBX related or phone specific.

Not sure where to go from here.
 
dcline97 said:
I searched like you suggested, but only found one article titled "Analyzing a successful call setup between extensions within 3CX ". It says "3CX Phone System analyses requests from “Extension”-type devices, and attempts to identify the Make and Model", but it does not explain specifically what it is looking for in the request. I have been searching using a variety of terms but not finding anything. Still have no idea on how to correct this.
The description is:
3CX Phone System analyses requests from “Extension”-type devices, and attempts to identify the Make and Model. This allows the PBX to improve interaction with Extension devices by working around shortcomings in the device’s design.

It is related to call signaling only.

dcline97 said:
With regard to sound, we are measuring audio quality at the handset, not the speaker. I believe the phones are using the G711u codec. How can I determine which codec is being used for a specific call? Finally - I'm confused as to whether the tone issues we are experiencing are PBX related or phone specific.

Not sure where to go from here.

Audio stream provided by PBX can be captured and analized using wireshark.
I can just specify that the quality of signal (provided by PBX) is always the same for specific codec (I'm talking about audio provided by IVR)

Quality of playback is the job of the phone as well as in case of CD player. The CD is the same, but quality provided by different CD players can vary dramatically (for the same headphones), as well as may be influenced by headphones connected to your CD player :)
 
Re: SPA504G Tone Quality - PROBLEM SOLVED!

On a lark I replaced the handset on one of the Cisco phones with a handset from one of our old Panasonic phones and guess what - everything is crystal clear. I then tried a handset from a Linksys SPA941 phone on the Cisco phone and guess what - it was also crystal clear. I'm now going to try and get Cisco to replace all my handsets - these are brand new phones.
 
Please post the results of your discussion with Cisco. We just bought 60+ of these phones and are having the exact same problem...
 
Nope - nada, no replacements from Cisco. Fortunately most of our users have Plantronics headsets which work really well. Our President just uses his handset so I purchased a Linksys SPA402 and he now uses that - nice and clear.

If I could replace them all I'd do it, but for now we are just going to live with it.

Dave
 
Urgh, we're also having the muffled problem with our 509Gs. So the only way to get a good handset that fits is to look for one from an SPA?
 
Just an update, Cisco released their latest 7.4.6 firmware 2-3 days ago. Two notable entries in the changelog are:

• Increased maximum speaker volume.

• A deep bass audio setting for handsets was added in the web-based configuration utility and the phone user interface. There are three choices:
- Default—Enables deep bass on the phone.
- HiDef—Enables a redesigned equalizer that has improved high frequency.
- Standard—Enables an equalizer that emulates a narrow-band handset.

I'm just about to install it, hopefully that'll take care of the complaints!

Direct link for the 509G (all the 50x models use the same firmware)

http://tools.cisco.com/support/downloads/pub/ImageList.x?relVer=7.4.6&mdfid=282724734&sftType=IP+Telephone+Firmware&optPlat=&nodecount=2&edesignator=null&modelName=Cisco+SPA+509G+12-Line+IP+Phone&treeMdfId=278875240&treeName=Voice+and+Unified+Communications&modifmdfid=null&imname=&hybrid=Y&imst=N&lr=Y


edit: I just tried it out and there's a very noticeable difference. The setting can be accessed on the phone itself (Menu, Preferences, DeepBass), or through the web interface under the User tab.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Getting Started - Admin

Latest Posts

Members Online Now

Forum statistics

Threads
141,622
Messages
748,858
Members
144,737
Latest member
damiano giannini
Get 3CX - Absolutely Free!

Link up your team and customers Phone System Live Chat Video Conferencing

Hosted or Self-managed. Up to 10 users free forever. No credit card. Try risk free.

3CX
A 3CX Account with that email already exists. You will be redirected to the Customer Portal to sign in or reset your password if you've forgotten it.