How to: Make your speaker louder and clearer

[bobturismo]

I decided to make my speaker louder and clearer after examining the back cover and noticing how much it blocks the speaker. Playing music while replacing and removing the back cover confirms it's effectiveness in reducing sound quality. The speaker actually sounds pretty damn good without the cover on it.

Tools: Your fingernail and or a razor-blade

There are actually two things you can do, the simplest one you can do with your fingernail or a razor-blade, the second you need a razor-blade or dremel or something else to cut the plastic.

(This is for a Sprint phone, but I'm sure you can do something similar for other phones)

Fingernail mod:

When you take the back cover off, on the inside of it, you have a black plastic backing with the metal mesh screen under it. The mesh screen is what you see through the holes on the back of the cover. (In my case it's orange because I have sprint)

If you examine the hole where the speaker is and you'll notice that it's not near as big as the speaker hole. You can actually take your finger nail and dig under the edge of the black adhesive backing and pick at it enough to clear away an opening for the speaker. You could also use a razorblade to score the backing material before peeling it off.



After I took that pic, I peeled up a little of the bottom and cut it off to make it more level on the bottom. Not that it mattered, because all the holes where exposed anywho.

If you want to see what it looks like when you score it and peel it off, scroll down to JohnMcD348's post at #19.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showpost.p...8&postcount=19

Mod #2: Cutting the back cover.

I probably should have used a dremel, but decided to use a slightly dull razorblade, because I had one right here.

Basically, you cut out some of the plastic to expose the metal mesh in front of the speaker. I just scored the plastic and kept cutting untill it was close enough that I pried the middle section out. Making sure that I only pried it from the middle hole as not to mar the edges of the back cover.




As you can see there is residue in the middle from the adhesive on the metal mesh, it peels off easy like rubber cement off of your skin. After I paint the mesh black, you won't notice the edges or where the plastic used to be.


It still doesn't sound quite as good or as loud as no back cover, but it sounds a lot better than before. It's possible they use the same black backing on all the different brand TP2's in which case they don't have holes over the speaker like the Sprint one does. So I'll take the louder speaker, thanks.


If you're worried about your warranty. Scroll to post 22

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showpost.p...0&postcount=22


search terms: audio booster louder volume speakerphone ringer hear

[ooxteme]

just did it without cutting the plastic off and then superglued a fine screen were the mesh was. Works great and way louder!!! took a whole 5 mins at that too!!

[bobturismo]

Originally Posted by ooxteme

just did it without cutting the plastic off and then superglued a fine screen were the mesh was. Works great and way louder!!! took a whole 5 mins at that too!!

Nice, what did you use for the fine screen mesh? That was something I had contemplated, but I would probably have to salvage some screen from something else...

[ooxteme]

some old speaker screen i had layin around

[rain1177]

Dont think i want to void my warranty, although i could say i lost my phone : ) thanks might try when i get home

[kern417]

you could probably use stocking material

they have vids of how to do this on youtube as well

[ooxteme]

void warrenty? do it the way bob did, his way looks like is just tore the backing a lil bit putting the back cover on

[GhettoBSD]

Yeah I saw this when I first got the phone. I don't know WHY it's there, but I figured if you remove all of it, not only will you get better sound but will also cool the battery down since there will be improved ventilation. I can only think of 2 things why it's there: 1) to protect from water exposure, 2) for a resonator chamber (think of a bandpass box for your 12"s).

[ooxteme]

resonator didnt even think of that!!!!

[GhettoBSD]

Yeah, I started peeling from the bottom to see how cleanly it would come off, and then looked at it a little better... So that's my BEST guess. As for to why would you want to peel it all off? Keeping the battery cooler = lasting longer (right?)