Xperia Active :: Played With The Built-in Sound Recorder Application?

Several people have complained that it is difficult to hear my voice during GSM calls (3G disabled and in a silent environment, for what it is worth). This could be related to the upgrade to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwhich) a couple of weeks ago. Before the upgrade, I do not remember any such complaints (except when I was holding the phonehands-free between shoulder and cheek).Today, I played with the built-in Sound Recorder application. To access it, I installed the SoundRecorder wrapper. I checked the sound levelVU meter while speaking. I had to really shout to reach the maximum level of the meter. Without me shouting, the playback (on the back-side loudspeaker) was very quiet. I also tested this with the wired headset-microphone that was bundled with the phone, and I got the same result. I had to either shout or put the microphone inside my mouth to get loud sound.

Did the Android upgrade (firmware 4.1.B.0.431) make the microphone insensitive? As far as I understand, mobile phones usually have some sort of adaptive gain in the microphone amplifier.explanation is that I had enabled noise suppression in the call settings after upgrading to ICS. I have now disabled it again. In Sound Recorder, I did not notice any significant difference with or without it.