Cisco 8800 IP Phone Speakerphone Issue

[Joshua Fontenot]

Just want to create a post to see if anyone else has noticed this issue.

Issue #1: Audio quality out of the speakerphone of 8800 series phone is noticeably worse than 7900 phones.

Issue#2: I am having users report of a popping/crackling noise during calls out of the speakerphone.  I have also experienced this myself on my 8861 phone.

Issue#3: There is a subtle buzz/vibration noise coming from the speakerphone when going off-hook and just listening to the dial tone of 8800 phone.

I suspect that there is a hardware issue with the actual speaker of the speakerphone of the 8800 series phone.  I have 8851 and 8861 phones deployed and have had this reported on both models.

See attachment of what the popping noise actually sounds like which I recorded with an iPhone while it was occurring on my 8861 phone.

The popping noise is pure random and I am unable to reproduce it on demand.

I am currently running sip88xx.10-3-1-20 and UCM 10.5.1.11900-13

[toormehdi]

Thanks. We have opened TAC case SR# 680145319  and thanks for sharing yours. will include in the case notes. This is not looking good. Hopefully we can get a resolution soon. I will update the form as I hear back.

[Joshua Fontenot]

UPDATE 9/28/2015

I have loaded sip88xx.10-3-1ES-8 on a few phones as per TAC and here are the results:

Issue #1: Audio quality out of the speakerphone of 8800 series phone is noticeably worse than 7900 phones.

- There is still a noticeable vibration/humming/buzzing background noise when going offhook vs a 79xx phone.

Issue#2: I am having users report of a popping/crackling noise during calls out of the speakerphone.  I have also experienced this myself on my 8861 phone.

- Only time will tell as the issue is not reproducible on demand.

[Clifford McGlamry]

Have you found that the audio on the speaker phone is noticeably lower (at max volume) than a 7900? 

I've been dealing with this on 8861's, and wondered if you found/addressed this in what you're doing.

[Joshua Fontenot]

I don't find it sounds lower.  Just that there is some noise in the background that is subtle that sounds like a vibration/buzzing noise.

[mawtel3663]

I recently did a site conversion from Nortel PBX to Cisco with 8841 phones. So I did some comparison tests. Here are the results. Keep in mind I am also a musician and an audiophile.

The 8841 phones have a lower volume level than the Nortel digital phones.

The 8841 phones have a lower volume level than the 7965 phones.

an 8841 and an 8811 phone are real close but I did notice that the hiss heard between dialing and call connect is a little louder on the 8841.

I have not experienced any popping or crackling issues.

8841 and 8811 phones are on load sip88XX.11-5-1SR1-1

I believe that this issue is a comparative issue for the users going from a Nortel PBX environment to a Cisco IP environment. I have been in Telephony for 30 years and with each technology shift there are differences. Especially when comparing pure analog to IP and also digital to IP. After awhile the users will most likely adapt to the new sound level as long as the majority of the user accept it.