Volume problem on UC560

[Michel Savard]

Hi,

I'll open a ticket with SBSC or TAC, but I'm taking chance here for my problem.

I have a customer who is complaining about volume too low on his handset and speaker, notably when using the 6 FXO ports.

No choppy sound, no delay, not a great echo issue, it's really the low volume and it sound like if you're on a tunnel (but a small, no echo ).

Here's what the system is :

UC560 version 8.2 (uc500-advipservicesk9-mz.151-2.T4)

Almost all the phones are SPA504G  Firmware Version 7.4.8A

Some SPA501G, SPA502G and SPA508G

The speaker volume is at 15.

Troubleshooting :

1. First, I've done the "Analog Voice Port Best Match Impedance Setting Choice :http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk701/technologies_tech_note09186a0080477a06.shtml

It was recommended to use complex5 as the impedance.

2. After that, I've tried the Deep Bass adjustment on the SPA Phone. There was still having problem.

3. I've tried the handset audio gain, speaker audio gain on the web page device settings, with no good result.

4. I've change the input gain on the FXO at 10 dB. The customer is happy that it's louder but he hears static now on the line has I was suspecting would happen, but they prefer it than not hearing people.

• I'm at the step to test the firmware 7.4.9C if there were any progress...
• Testing for a PRI...
• Testing 79XX phones...

Any idea would be great.

[David Trad]

Hi Michael,

This is a known issue by the wider community, I have last year gone through multiple processes of even replacing every single phone within an organization with still the same outcome.

Frankly speaking, the SPA-500 series phone are just not high enough quality as compared to their more expensive counterparts (Or slightly more expensive counter parts like the 6900 series phones)... To be honest with you the phones are total disappointment to me, I love the design and LOVE how little desk space they take up, but their quality is just not on part with what you would expect from Cisco typically.

Some things you can do but none of them will either be what you want or even still make your customer happy.

• Change from FXO to PRI, there is a much better performance value with the SPA-500 series on a PRI circuit, the FXO circuits really bring the issue of audio quality to light, I promise you on a SIP trunk or PRI/BRI circuit the audio is MUCH better
• Consider using the 6900 series phones they are fantastic and work well with the UC's
• Consider a more updated version of the phone load, I am sure there is a newer version for them which does give them a slight improvement.

Now I know some within Cisco will debate my supposition on the quality issue, but I know I am right, have done hundreds of deployments and have had far too many complaints to be wrong

Cheers,

David.

[Alexander Maroukian]

Hi Michel,

Does the customer have the same problem when he is calling between the internal phones?

If you connect regular phone to the lines of the fxo ports what is quality of the signal?

Best regards,

Alexander

[majid omeir]

the best solution is to update the phone load it will give ok quality that make customer stop complaining but for sure

not happy spa500 is not yet mature phone (my humble opinion)

[Michel Savard]

Here's the update :

Updating to the latest firmware of the SPA doesn't change anything. After doing some test with the customer, it seems that the problem is mainly when making external calls.

We'll check the line, right now everything seems fine on the line itself, but the sweep tone test failed when terminating at the CO, that's not good.

[David Trad]

Hi Michael,

We'll check the line, right now everything seems fine on the line  itself, but the sweep tone test failed when terminating at the CO,  that's not good.

That pretty normal with FXO/Analogue lines

Test it a couple of times and you will see varied results.

Cheers,

David.