[Asterisk-Users] RE: Sipura SPA-841 Volume Oscillation Problem

[Dan Perik]

Craig wrote:

>Greetings,
>
>We installed a number of SPA-841 in a office environment, originally
>firmware was 0.9 something and the audio in the headsets worked really
>well, with virtually no muting of received audio.
>
>When I first upgraded a couple of the phones to 3.1.2 the headset audio
>went to crap, muting incoming audio with any sort of background noise in
>the room. Speaker phone is totally useless (any sort of room
>noise-including incoming audio mutes the speaker) so I disconnected the
>internal microphone and just use the speakerphone mode as a monitor for
>off hook dialing.
>
>Recently upgraded to the new release of 3.1.3 didn't make the headset
>audio any better (but also didn't seem to make it any worse as some
>people on the list seem to have observed) 
>
>We where using the couple of units with 0.9 something for the
>telephonists with headsets, but the phones crashed a number of times & I
>had to update to the latest firmware now their headsets are pretty much
>un-usable.
>
>I was going to make up an adapter to hook the headset through the
>handset port as handset audio doesn't seem to go through the same muting
>problems, but this sort of defeats the purpose of having a simple phone,
>with speaker (monitor) mode, handset and headset modes built in.
>
>Suspect if the put in an option to turn off the audio muting for the
>headset it would fix our problem, but we are probably going to have to
>bite the bullet and put a couple of Cisco 7960 in for the headset
>wearers.
>
>cr 
>
>  
>
Wow!  This is all very interesting.  I had a SPA-841 for about a few
days.  When I first got it, the headset port worked fine.  A few days
later it was like the headset port mic connection didn't work anymore. 
That and the handset mic was problematic, like what you and others have
been describing.  I sent it back for a refund.  Now I wonder if it
upgraded its firmware by itself (I didn't do it manually), which would
explain why it worked fine in the first place, but then stop working
properly. 

I now have a Polycom 501 on my desk.  It's a beautiful phone. The audio
quality is the best I've heard in a phone, both from the handset and the
speaker phone!  I haven't tried the headset port yet, since it's an
RJ-11 style, and I only have the 2.5 style headset.  I'd be interested
to know if the 30x has the same audio quality.  I would highly recommend
the Polycom to anyone looking at a high-quality VoIP phone.

- Dan