Kindle Fire Bluetooth sounds horrible - confused

Paperbackstash · 07-23-2020, 07:52 PM

I have been using old phones that do not have service for various uses. My Echo Show has great speakers in my small kitchen that have worked great with both of the old phones. For Scribd Audiobooks I use the bluetooth from a small phone.

One of the phones I mainly use for my Spotify library, it has a bad tendency to abruptly stop media, which can get irritating, but again these were phones I "replaced" because they were older and buggier. For audio, I've been using a small, old phone to bluetooth to the Echo Show sometimes for speakers and it's worked out very well --- until the small phone finally kicked the bucket. It has a weird message when I turn it on saying not to unplug from USB while firmware updates and that it's unrooted. No matter what I've tried, this same message has stayed on for a week. This phone was incredibly old so it's not a big surprise it may have finally died.

So, to replace this for the meantime today, I used my Kindle Fire with bluetooth headphones for a bit, which worked like normal.

When I came home and hooked the Fire for the first time to the Echo Show - the sound quality is horrible. Absolutely awful. Of course Fires don't have good speakers, and neither do any of my phones, but that shouldn't matter at all when bluetooth broadcasting to external speakers.

I cannot improve the quality by messing with audio. I know it is not the Scribd app on the Fire because they sound the same as using anything else with my bluetooth headphones from the device -- it's only with the echo that it's a problem. There isn't pausing, stuttering, or anything like that --- the sound keeps coming across tinny and just awful, kind of like it's coming out half a speaker instead of a full one.

Anyone know why this is? It's only like this with the Fire, but only when the Fire is hooked up to an external speaker and not headphones.

Deskisamess · 07-23-2020, 07:54 PM

The Alexa app has a basic equalizer.

Devices, tap the one you're using, tap Audio Settings, you get Midrange, Bass, and Treble.

The words "Audio Settings" don't look like a button, tap it anyway.

Paperbackstash · 07-23-2020, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

The Alexa app has a basic equalizer.

Devices, tap the one you're using, tap Audio Settings, you get Midrange, Bass, and Treble.

The words "Audio Settings" don't look like a button, tap it anyway.

Thank you, will try messing with those settings

haertig · 07-24-2020, 12:38 AM

My Fire HD8 seems to work fine with bluetooth to my Echo Dot. The sound quality is as good as one would expect from a Dot. It sounds better when connected to better speakers (duh!)

I assume you checked the obvious - playing different music files on the Fire to make sure you just don't have one bad file that you ended up testing with? Also, moving your Echo Show and Fire tablet to a different location to check if there was any kind of local interference causing the problem? Do you have a different power adapter that you could plug into the Echo Show as a test - you might have a switching power supply powering the Echo Show that is beginning to fail. Try moving the Fire and the Show farther apart (counter intuitive, I know, but we're trying to see if one may be causing interference to the other). Does the Show have a corded audio input (I don't have one so I don't know)? If so, do you have the appropriate cord to connect your Fire to the Show (therefore bypassing bluetooth)?

What we're trying to do is isolate things. Is it the Fire? Is it the Show? Is it the connection between them (bluetooth)? Is it interference caused by other nearby devices? Is it a bad audio file? Is it a bad power supply?

Just this last Tuesday we were having a roundtable discussion among us ham radio operators, "Have you ever had to deal with interference? Have you ever created interference?" Some of the stories about electronics affecting each other were pretty humorous. One guy could key up his 5 watt handheld (transmit with it) and his computer monitor would turn off. 5 watts isn't much power, and a bluetooth radio is far far less. But you never know. LED lightbulbs are notorious for creating radio interference and noise. If your Fire, Show and an LED table lamp are all right together they might be having this little interference party between themselves that is causing you fits. Throw in a noisy power supply to the Show (maybe you accidentally mowed over the power cord with a vacuum and nicked it) and now you have a four-way noise and interference party going on.

Paperbackstash · 07-24-2020, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haertig

I assume you checked the obvious - playing different music files on the Fire to make sure you just don't have one bad file that you ended up testing with? Also, moving your Echo Show and Fire tablet to a different location to check if there was any kind of local interference causing the problem? Do you have a different power adapter that you could plug into the Echo Show as a test - you might have a switching power supply powering the Echo Show that is beginning to fail. Try moving the Fire and the Show farther apart (counter intuitive, I know, but we're trying to see if one may be causing interference to the other). Does the Show have a corded audio input (I don't have one so I don't know)? If so, do you have the appropriate cord to connect your Fire to the Show (therefore bypassing bluetooth)?

What we're trying to do is isolate things. Is it the Fire? Is it the Show? Is it the connection between them (bluetooth)? Is it interference caused by other nearby devices? Is it a bad audio file? Is it a bad power supply?
.

I know the Echo Show isn't the issue since this has only happened with this device. It is from an audio on the Scribd app. I can try another file on the Fire to see if it has the same sound quality issue, I hadn't tried that (yet). I can also try it streaming instead of as a downloaded file and see if that makes a difference.

Strangely, my small phone suddenly started working again. It had drained its battery when stuck in the "unroot" menu so I charged it. I don't see this phone lasting much longer in general but at least there's apparently still life in it.

07-23-2020, 07:52 PM	#1
Paperbackstash Wizard Posts: 1,597 Karma: 20086276 Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: Central Florida Device: Oasis 3, PW 3, 4, 5, Fire HD 2012, Fire HD 8 (8th Gen)	Kindle Fire Bluetooth sounds horrible - confused I have been using old phones that do not have service for various uses. My Echo Show has great speakers in my small kitchen that have worked great with both of the old phones. For Scribd Audiobooks I use the bluetooth from a small phone. One of the phones I mainly use for my Spotify library, it has a bad tendency to abruptly stop media, which can get irritating, but again these were phones I "replaced" because they were older and buggier. For audio, I've been using a small, old phone to bluetooth to the Echo Show sometimes for speakers and it's worked out very well --- until the small phone finally kicked the bucket. It has a weird message when I turn it on saying not to unplug from USB while firmware updates and that it's unrooted. No matter what I've tried, this same message has stayed on for a week. This phone was incredibly old so it's not a big surprise it may have finally died. So, to replace this for the meantime today, I used my Kindle Fire with bluetooth headphones for a bit, which worked like normal. When I came home and hooked the Fire for the first time to the Echo Show - the sound quality is horrible. Absolutely awful. Of course Fires don't have good speakers, and neither do any of my phones, but that shouldn't matter at all when bluetooth broadcasting to external speakers. I cannot improve the quality by messing with audio. I know it is not the Scribd app on the Fire because they sound the same as using anything else with my bluetooth headphones from the device -- it's only with the echo that it's a problem. There isn't pausing, stuttering, or anything like that --- the sound keeps coming across tinny and just awful, kind of like it's coming out half a speaker instead of a full one. Anyone know why this is? It's only like this with the Fire, but only when the Fire is hooked up to an external speaker and not headphones.

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07-23-2020, 07:54 PM	#2
Deskisamess Wizard Posts: 2,623 Karma: 42699665 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Ohio Device: iPhone 7+, iPad mini, 2021 iPad Pro 12.9",Paperwhite 6.8"	The Alexa app has a basic equalizer. Devices, tap the one you're using, tap Audio Settings, you get Midrange, Bass, and Treble. The words "Audio Settings" don't look like a button, tap it anyway.

07-24-2020, 12:38 AM	#4
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,757 Karma: 26012554 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	My Fire HD8 seems to work fine with bluetooth to my Echo Dot. The sound quality is as good as one would expect from a Dot. It sounds better when connected to better speakers (duh!) I assume you checked the obvious - playing different music files on the Fire to make sure you just don't have one bad file that you ended up testing with? Also, moving your Echo Show and Fire tablet to a different location to check if there was any kind of local interference causing the problem? Do you have a different power adapter that you could plug into the Echo Show as a test - you might have a switching power supply powering the Echo Show that is beginning to fail. Try moving the Fire and the Show farther apart (counter intuitive, I know, but we're trying to see if one may be causing interference to the other). Does the Show have a corded audio input (I don't have one so I don't know)? If so, do you have the appropriate cord to connect your Fire to the Show (therefore bypassing bluetooth)? What we're trying to do is isolate things. Is it the Fire? Is it the Show? Is it the connection between them (bluetooth)? Is it interference caused by other nearby devices? Is it a bad audio file? Is it a bad power supply? Just this last Tuesday we were having a roundtable discussion among us ham radio operators, "Have you ever had to deal with interference? Have you ever created interference?" Some of the stories about electronics affecting each other were pretty humorous. One guy could key up his 5 watt handheld (transmit with it) and his computer monitor would turn off. 5 watts isn't much power, and a bluetooth radio is far far less. But you never know. LED lightbulbs are notorious for creating radio interference and noise. If your Fire, Show and an LED table lamp are all right together they might be having this little interference party between themselves that is causing you fits. Throw in a noisy power supply to the Show (maybe you accidentally mowed over the power cord with a vacuum and nicked it) and now you have a four-way noise and interference party going on.