Topic: 3DS Low Sound Volume Problem?

Many of you likely saw me post about the uncommonly low sound volume while playing Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Ridge Racer. Well I can safely say that this is likely a software issue as the sound volume in Super Monkey Ball 3D is quite loud. Even at the halfway setting it's comfortable to listen to and probably very near the sound level of SSFIV 3D turned all the way up.

Just wanted to clear that up, as it's obviously not a hardware issue but rather developers using lower setting, perhaps in an attempt to conserve battery life. Who knows.

great

That's good. The energy required for sound should be negligible compared with everything else, so I doubt they lowered the volume to conserve battery life though.

Thank goodness. Thanks so much for easing what little worries I had about the system, Corbs.

@iphys - Actually the volume setting had a great deal of effect on the battery life tests I performed, so I think volume has a lot more to do with battery life than you think.

Uh, Corbs, will using earphones save battery life? Like, because the 3DS won't have to physically produce the sound itself, but just send the information to the earphones?

interesting at least it sounds like it will have wide range of volume.

The earphones don't magically produce the energy to blare out the sounds, tristen. 'course it doesn't have to be as loud either. :3

Aw. Well, it was worth a try.

The energy should be negligible for sound, unless they actually put powerful speakers on the 3DS, which seems kind of unnecessary for a handheld, but they may have wanted it to sound beefier I suppose. I've always tended to use earphones with handhelds, because the speakers don't sound great, and yes, using earphones should save a bit of energy over using the speakers, especially if the 3DS does use powerful speakers.

@Corbs DS and DSi speaker suck battery life like an starving vampire. LOL

looks like i'll be outputting to my tiny speaker still....not a problem, as I like a well-rounded sound experience for my portable gaming. Still--not having the option to have a bit more sound at the expense of some battery power is kinda frustrating, but nothing I haven't gotten used to with portable devices. iPhone games are wildly inconsistent volume-wise. If only everything had the PSP's built-in speakers

Wow, I just compared my DS Lite with my DSi, and the DSi speakers are way louder. The DS Lite sounds similar to my GBA SP, and my GBC is the quietest of all. Man, I feel sorry for parents these days.

@Corbs could you test and offer an opinion on the volume of music played on the 3DS? Also this is less relevant, but I haven't heard anyone talk about how well the 3DS works as a music player. I'm at least interested to know whether you can play music with the console closed.

you can play music with it. you can play it when its closed, i do it everyday since a week. cause i lsot my ipod.

but be warned, the sound is terribly low. LOW. its far from what my ipod nano could produce.
the 3DS must be at full and yet, it doesnt sound very high. when walking outside in montreal, i hear the cars, people talking. annoying.
i tried multiple headphones and earphones, nothing works. even my Sennheiser studio headphones.
and volume is variable from games to another. sadly, the music application is LOW.
At least, the quality of the sound is great. its jsut LOW. (yeah, i repeat myself, but i wanna be sure you get it right)

ill consider finding another ipod soon enough, the 3ds just dont do it.

Actually, it requires less enery from the battery to use headphones. Blaring it from the speakers does take up more battery life, if only by 10 minutes.