The Nexus 5 speaker performance is downright unimpressive. It lacks loudness, and completely lacks treble and bass. Even the lows are awfully missing when playing back music from the speaker.
Compared to the Nexus 4, the Nexus 5 speaker is a step down in almost every department. The performance via earphones/headphones is also nothing to talk about, with the volume being extremely low. What’s the point of good sound quality if the music itself is barely audible?
Thankfully, the above issues have been solved by a simple mod from XDA senior member – Drummerjed. The flashable ZIP file from the member replaces a couple of files with a modified one, that greatly increases the speaker and earphones volume.
How big of a improvement are we talking about here? I tried the mod on my Nexus 5, and the increase in volume for the headphones is staggering. I actually had to reduce the volume down to 80% to prevent my ears from bursting. The increase in volume for the speaker is at a similar level as well. However, at higher volumes there is a bit of crackling, and the lack of bass, treble and lows from the speaker does not make listening to music from it very pleasing. Anyways, the mod will make sure that you won’t miss any notifications from your Nexus 5 if you are a few feet away from it.
As always, the mod requires root access with a custom recovery installed on your Nexus 5. You can download the flashable ZIP file from XDA forums.
Do drop in a comment and let us know how big of a improvement did you notice after flashing the mod.