For many years, I have noticed a slight audio imbalance on Xiaomi smartphones. The right channel seems to be slightly brighter/louder.
I recently tested this on my Mi 11 running the Xiaomi.eu ROM and noticed that sounds on the right side are slightly higher in pitch. I also experience distortion or crackling more quickly at higher volume levels when playing audio through Bluetooth speakers.
It makes no difference whether I use wired headphones or play audio through speakers or Bluetooth.
I then installed the official Global ROM on the Mi 11, and the audio quality was noticeably better. The crackling at high volume was gone, although a very slight channel imbalance was still present.
After that, I installed a custom ROM based on LineageOS, and the imbalance disappeared completely. The audio quality was also the best of all the ROMs I tested.
I have observed the same behavior on my Xiaomi 15 Ultra. At higher volume levels (for example, in a car), I can hear crackling or distortion on the right side, that seems to be related to audio quality.
When using the official ROM, this crackling is no longer present.
I have been able to reproduce this with different headphones and different car audio systems, regardless of whether they were connected via cable or Bluetooth.
And no, there is nothing wrong with my hearing. I have to undergo a hearing test every year as part of my profession, and my hearing is perfectly normal.
I recently tested this on my Mi 11 running the Xiaomi.eu ROM and noticed that sounds on the right side are slightly higher in pitch. I also experience distortion or crackling more quickly at higher volume levels when playing audio through Bluetooth speakers.
It makes no difference whether I use wired headphones or play audio through speakers or Bluetooth.
I then installed the official Global ROM on the Mi 11, and the audio quality was noticeably better. The crackling at high volume was gone, although a very slight channel imbalance was still present.
After that, I installed a custom ROM based on LineageOS, and the imbalance disappeared completely. The audio quality was also the best of all the ROMs I tested.
I have observed the same behavior on my Xiaomi 15 Ultra. At higher volume levels (for example, in a car), I can hear crackling or distortion on the right side, that seems to be related to audio quality.
When using the official ROM, this crackling is no longer present.
I have been able to reproduce this with different headphones and different car audio systems, regardless of whether they were connected via cable or Bluetooth.
And no, there is nothing wrong with my hearing. I have to undergo a hearing test every year as part of my profession, and my hearing is perfectly normal.
