The LG V20 was released in the fourth quarter of 2016 as a flagship phone with audio capabilities far superior to that of anything else on the market—but only if you have your headphones connected. The single bottom-firing speaker, on the other hand, is just unpleasant to listen to. At first, it was believed there was a software issue with the speaker. However, it turned out to be an issue with the speaker grille impeding sound.
While the speaker does sound much better after removing that speaker grille, we're left with another problem: It's still a single speaker, and many other OEMs, like Apple, HTC, and ZTE, have opted for a dual speaker setup in their 2016 handsets. So to put the V20 on par with other flagships, developer freeza modified the mixer_paths_tasha.xml file to force the earpiece to fire at the same time as the built-in speaker, producing true stereo sound.
Prerequisites
Step 1: Download the Modified XML File
This mod works by replacing a system audio configuration file with a modified version. While freeza created the initial mod, the developer has since abandoned the project, so I went ahead and updated his mod to make it compatible with the V20's latest firmware versions. So to begin, tap on the following link to download the file.
Step 2: Create a Back Up of Your Stock XML File
Next, you'll want to open up your root-enabled file explorer and navigate to the /system/etc folder from the root partition of your device. From here, find the mixer_paths_tasha.xml file and copy it to a location on your SD card as a backup in case you ever want to revert the mod.
Step 3: Copy the Modified XML File
From here, go to your Download folder to copy the modified XML file you grabbed in Step 1, then paste it into the /system/etc folder. You'll be asked if you want to replace the existing file with the same name, so tap "Yes" or "Replace File."
Step 4: Reboot to Try It Out
Once you've replaced the stock XML file with the modified one, reboot your phone so that it'll kick into effect. When you get back up, you'll immediately notice that you have true stereo sound on your LG V20. Since the earpiece was never intended to get as loud as the bottom-firing speaker, it will have slightly lower volume. On that note, it's probably best not to max out the volume while listening to music, since we're not sure what the earpiece is capable of.
Besides that, enjoy the mod and be sure to let us know if it's something you're happy to have done. Share your thoughts and comments with us in the section below!
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1 Comment
It boggles my mind why all phones don't build this functionality right into the device... The speaker is already there, why not use it?
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