Database Users

Audio quality of the Nexus One

Hi guys,
I am a iPhone convert (have used the 2G, 3G and the 3GS currently.)
Could you guys please give objective and subjective comments about the 'line out' of the Nexus One? I hope it doesn't blow as that will be sad.
Regards,
Karan Misra

No one listens to music on their Nexus One!?

it is a mono speaker not a stereo speaker.
if you listen you should use the earbuds.

cuitao said:
it is a mono speake no a stereo speaker. so quality is not good,
if you listen you should use the earbuds.
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I am talking about the 'line out' of the phone, i.e. using good to high end ear phones (like Shure, Sennheiser CX500, etc) through the 3.5 mm jack.

I'm waiting for mine to get in today so I can sink my Etymotic hf5 canalphones into it.

student.driver said:
I'm waiting for mine to get in today so I can sink my Etymotic hf5 canalphones into it.
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Eagerly waiting for your feedback.

I hope it is not bad like the HD2 though HD2 scores a 10 out of 100 with 100 given to the 3GS. Speaking from personal experience (corroborating by http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hd2-review-418p8.php... scroll down to the audio quality comparision)

KiD0M4N said:
Hi guys,
I am a iPhone convert (have used the 2G, 3G and the 3GS currently.)
Could you guys please give objective and subjective comments about the 'line out' of the Nexus One? I hope it doesn't blow as that will be sad.
Regards,
Karan Misra
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not too bad for music, I don't know what you would expect from it but as I listen to music only on the train, it's pretty good for me. one thing: the overall volume is a bit low...
Also the stock earphones suck pretty bad. they are barely good for phone calls and no bass at all.

wow fail sorry this post was BS just technical difficulties. but FYI the included headphones, tho not sounding or feeling spectacular, have a remote that has a mic and play/pause/end call and forward/backward. so that's neat .

Regular headphones that use a 3.5mm headphone connector (common to various media players, etc) will work just fine with Nexus One.

cboy007 said:
OMG BIG ISSUE. headphone dont work. like this is like the iphone or whatever. you need special headphone i think? my zune headphones wont work. the ones that come with it have the like remote thing like the iphone and so my normal headhpones wont work. i mean these headphones arent horrible quality but still my comfy zune squishy ones! ah! can anyone confirm this? btw the ones that come have THREE black bands along the connector instead of the regular 2...
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Something's wrong at your end bro... a issue like that won't go past Q/A you know.
swetland said:
Regular headphones that use a 3.5mm headphone connector (common to various media players, etc) will work just fine with Nexus One.
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Have you tried the playback? Hows the clarity, bass, and noise level?

WOW FAIL WHAT THE HECK NOW IT WORKS. htat was weird. it was defienitely in all the way before too. maybe it was because i put them in before i opened up music app...idk that was weird. anyways now my zune ones work and sound beautiful and bass-y. . i'm not an audiophile but i think these sound just as good as with my zune. woo

cboy007 said:
WOW FAIL WHAT THE HECK NOW IT WORKS. htat was weird. it was defienitely in all the way before too. maybe it was because i put them in before i opened up music app...idk that was weird. anyways now my zune ones work and sound beautiful and bass-y. . i'm not an audiophile but i think these sound just as good as with my zune. woo
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Thats a good indicator. Any comparisons to the 3GS/HD2?
Surely geeks also listen to music

cboy007 said:
wow fail sorry this post was BS just technical difficulties. but FYI the included headphones, tho not sounding or feeling spectacular, have a remote that has a mic and play/pause/end call and forward/backward. so that's neat .
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Tried a pair of Shure SE530s, Sony V700s and my Zune buds...all work just fine.

kido...since it seems on par with my zune as far as i can tell i'm assuming it's just as good as the 3gs...but again i'm not at all an audiophile.

I hooked my N1 up to a pair beyerdynamic DT880s and ran through a few musical styles with MP3s ripped using lame with vbr -q 0.
The jack provided enough power to power the DT880s reasonably well without an amp but I probably would not try high impedance headphones. Anything "in ear" will be fine and by the time you get to the point you would need an amp it would be a waste to use them on a phone. Sound range is fine, perhaps a bit neutral, it is not weighted heavily towards bass which some cheaper mp3 players do.
Treble is clean but perhaps a bit thin. As you get into the high end of mid range it is a little muddy (the guitar felt fuzzy in Imperfectly as an example). Over all the sound is better than the G1, the only other phone I have handy to compare real time.
Rest of the mid range down to bass is good. The bass is not overpowering but solid. Against a neutral rig I would say that the Nexus probably accentuates the lower range but not a lot. If you really want a driving beat (the physical feel) in techno then you probably would need some form of equalizer but other than that it is fine, though not powerful.
Songs used:
Reactivate by DJ Akira
Jet Pilot by System of a Down
Metabolic by Slipknot
Imperfectly by Ani DiFranco
Glory O' by Blood or Whiskey (note: lower bitrate MP3. Really did not like the blend but on ear buds it would probably be fine)
Dulaman by Clannad
Machine Screw by Type O Negative ( )
Black Box Recording by Firewater
I did not have any classical with me but if need be I can add some (or other musical style that you are interested in).
As an addendum I would note that the included earbuds are utterly craptastic. If you want to listen to music for any reason other than to drown out the background I would suggest getting better.
EDIT: for the heck of it I put in a amp and it helped the bass a bit, the rest seemed about the same. The difference was not remarkable but noticeable.

Thanks for the detailed reply my friend.
Waiting for comparoes to the iPhone line up.

So mine is finally shipped....
I will let you all know... since no one evidently listens to music here

I would rate it as just okay compared to my 3GS, not bad but not great either....

I had similar results to JP up there, i used the HD555's that i have and got a fair sound out of it... again bass wasnt overpowering but produced enough to get my head bobbin (deadmau5 was my primary artist of choice)...
i would like to see a quality equalizer app/widget/phone integration in the future since i prolly wont need to carry my ipod around anymore now that i have a phone with a proper jack

External Speaker Quality ?

Hello,
I was just reading a review on Hemorrdroids.
http://hemorrdroids.net/htc-desire-hd-review/
in the review it is quoted that the external speaker was something your mates will laugh at as the quality is that poor ?
I am hoping to upgrade to this phone in a couple of weeks. I was just wondering if that is that statement true ? I do use my external speaker sharing you tube videos with my mates at work. I can't imagine it being that bad.
Cheers for your help !!!

themonkster said:
Hello,
I was just reading a review on Hemorrdroids.
http://hemorrdroids.net/htc-desire-hd-review/
in the review it is quoted that the external speaker was something your mates will laugh at as the quality is that poor ?
I am hoping to upgrade to this phone in a couple of weeks. I was just wondering if that is that statement true ? I do use my external speaker sharing you tube videos with my mates at work. I can't imagine it being that bad.
Cheers for your help !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you are familiar with the other HTC phones such as the Desire and Nexus One, then this is pretty much the same on the HD. Quality is "bearable", but it is simply not loud enough. Max setting on the Desire HD is approx60-70& of Milestone Speaker loudness.

Yep, its the worst I have had...but the quality of the phone makes up for it.

Well its not good but to say its really bad.. when you use dolby mobile its okay.. and when you use dolby mobile on headset its AWESOME!! best i've ever heard on any phone / mp3 player

Yes I can confirm that. I just got mine, first thing I tested is external speaker volume, media playback sound, ringtones, etc. For the so called media abilities touted for the DHD I have to say the exernal speakers for both sound quality & more importantly loudness is pathetic.
I have a normal Desire, a iPhone 4 & a Samsung Galaxy S to compare it to right here I'm afraid to say its definately not in the same league as the latter 2 & even the Desire which I find quite tinny seems to go louder.

Maybe someone will make an audio hack so it goes louder!
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

zen123 said:
Yes I can confirm that. I just got mine, first thing I tested is external speaker volume, media playback sound, ringtones, etc. For the so called media abilities touted for the DHD I have to say the exernal speakers for both sound quality & more importantly loudness is pathetic.
I have a normal Desire, a iPhone 4 & a Samsung Galaxy S to compare it to right here I'm afraid to say its definately not in the same league as the latter 2 & even the Desire which I find quite tinny seems to go louder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for me i don't care about listening to music through the external speaker, my concern is could i hear the phone when it rings?

NoEnd said:
for me i don't care about listening to music through the external speaker, my concern is could i hear the phone when it rings?
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Ring volume is not that great I'm afraid.

I'm the reviewer...
I just find it so annoying, look at the San Fran, £99 and it's speaker is FAR better. Come on HTC!!!

The speaker is rubbish, it's just not loud enough. You can't even hear the GPS talking in a car lol.

If you want to see how sad it is, ive just updated the video thread with it in the bugs/problems sections a guy had some laugh with it.

to be honest the sound quality through the headphones is far more important to me. I guess it depends how you use the phone. Im just glad that people say the quality through a good pair of headphones is awesome!

SupremeBeaver said:
to be honest the sound quality through the headphones is far more important to me. I guess it depends how you use the phone. Im just glad that people say the quality through a good pair of headphones is awesome!
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im skeptical of how awesome it is, ive been spoiled with sound quality with my cowon S9 and Q-jays IEM's, im hoping that the DHD will sound on par with the cowon however i doubt it will be
awesome compared to iphone/ipod ....now that i can see

Speaker is woeful
I can also confirm that the external speaker is really disappointing. I criticised the original Desire for poor speaker volume and the promise of Dolby Mobile and SRS was one of the deal breakers in choosing to upgrade to the HD.
The ringtone selection is limited because you need to look for ones that are naturally loud. Forget watching some videos on the awesome screen when you can't hear the audio. I guess SatNav is going to be difficult too.
I use MixZing to improve speaker output for music when earphones are not nearby. But unless a hack appears to increase native volume, it's going to be a problem for a lot of people.
As a plus point, sound through ear/headphones is very impressive. Still needs a volume boost but perfectly acceptable for music playback.

Reminds me of the streak when i got it on 1.6 the speaker was quiet and made odd noises when put up full then came 2.1 its louder and clearer....Quite possibly a retarded software safety limit implemented.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

this is a deal breaker for me!
i thought with the SRS and all other crap they advertised that the speakers would be a bit decent! i have the n1 and the loud speaker and earpiece just total crap even with the hack to make them louder...
been missing a lot of calls cuz can't hear the phone (don't like vibration) ringing and when listening to the other side i try to find a quite place to listen to them as if i raise the volume the sound become very high pitched ..
damn you HTC i though the loud speaker would be at least like the ones in the EVO which is quite good!
a 50 bucks Chinese phone has far way better speaker than this crappy 700+ phone
hmm maybe most HTC's employees are bats! use high pitched frequencies to communicate

Can anyone compare the loudspeaker with HD2 ? HD2 seems even too loud for me.

What a amazing sound the htc one has! No other phone sounds like this listen!!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZkq2uYePWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hIYvsrH1OE

Re: What a amazing sound the htc one has listen!
It sounds as amazing as my phone lets is sound, lol!
Sent from a galaxy far away!

JesseMT4G said:
It sounds as amazing as my phone lets is sound, lol!
Sent from a galaxy far away!
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+1 lol! Posting a video on how loud the sound is useless. Cause it would still depend on the max volume of the device you're playing it
I could play a chirping bird sound in my sound system and it would pump the heart out of anyone who passes by it lol!
Anyways yeah the sound of the HTC One is superb nobody can deny it. With 2 large speakers it can't be comparable to other smartphones who have only like a tiny one on the back.

john291 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZkq2uYePWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hIYvsrH1OE
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Makes me laugh. That is clearly a great sound yet the guy from the Phones4u review said it was nothing more than " loud but tinny ".
As opposed to what, the amazing speakers on the Iphone or the fantastic bass on the Samsung S3...................

I listen these demos and more of them that are recorded with a great mic through my studio monitors..
And then you hear the great frequency respons vs the other phones....
more bass etc..
its so much better....

[Solved!! Read 1st post] Who else isnt satisfied by 5.0 sound quality

Maybe it's too much to ask for DSEE-HX
But, seriously, sounds like sh*t on headphone mode
much worse than stock 4.4.4
and speaker is worse as well
edit:
It seems fixed after "walkman" is updated to "music"
Try update it and take a reboot
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonyericsson.music&hl=en
"Music" update may not be available for you if u are not a beta tester
Then download it here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2ONZFOkl3m7aDY1aUpCSVdDZVU/view
thanks @ImAnurag for sharing
hope it helps

KWOKSFUNG said:
Maybe it's too much to ask for DSEE-HX
But, seriously, sounds like sh*t on headphone mode
much worse than stock 4.4.4
and speaker is worse as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very soft speaker and i am yet to test the headphones. We need to wait on some mods like dreamingonmusic. To be honest the Z1 never had good sound quality anyway.

mikailmohammed said:
Very soft speaker and i am yet to test the headphones. We need to wait on some mods like dreamingonmusic. To be honest the Z1 never had good sound quality anyway.
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Click to collapse
Yeah never been good without mod, known to be worse than Xperia Z
Big drop as i used to use Dreamingonmusic
but 4.4.4 without mod seems still better than 5.0
I feel that sony just copy and paste 90% files from Z2 and Z3 690 so..... not well calibrated

Honestly, I find that music with headphones sounds great. I just make sure to turn on studio surround sound and adjust the equalizer based on what headphones I use.

Zerousen said:
Honestly, I find that music with headphones sounds great. I just make sure to turn on studio surround sound and adjust the equalizer based on what headphones I use.
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Just feel no detail :'(
Using EX650AP, u?

It's funny how I made a post asking about the sound quality on the Q&A section. I guess no one visits the the Q&A section anymore

LeParkour012 said:
It's funny how I made a post asking about the sound quality on the Q&A section. I guess no one visits the the Q&A section anymore
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KKKK sorry bro

KWOKSFUNG said:
KKKK sorry bro
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Click to collapse
No need for an apology. At least you got the attention of others for the same problem I'm wondering about.
Now isn't there anyway we can increase the loudness of the speaker? Maybe even the clarity too. Because the Audio mods for Kitkat are able to do that. I'm sure we can do the same on Lollipop

So…
KWOKSFUNG said:
Just feel no detail :'(
Using EX650AP, u?
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Click to collapse
So what is your detail? You just complaint with your feeling too, aren't you?

LeParkour012 said:
No need for an apology. At least you got the attention of others for the same problem I'm wondering about.
Now isn't there anyway we can increase the loudness of the speaker? Maybe even the clarity too. Because the Audio mods for Kitkat are able to do that. I'm sure we can do the same on Lollipop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend in the dreamingonmusic team is trying out to make mods soon, really looking forward for it
If no good mods are made I am probably going back to 4.4.4 just for the music.
XDAample said:
So what is your detail? You just complaint with your feeling too, aren't you?
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I mean the resolution of the music.... pretty low that i cant hear the detail of the songs

KWOKSFUNG said:
My friend in the dreamingonmusic team is trying out to make mods soon, really looking forward for it
If no good mods are made I am probably going back to 4.4.4 just for the music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah let's hope your friend will be able to do it. Because I am not going back to 4.4.4

I notice a better quality of sound in headphones louder and better bass, but in speaker it sucks!!! There are no option for XLoud and the sound is ?

favinho said:
I notice a better quality of sound in headphones louder and better bass, but in speaker it sucks!!! There are no option for XLoud and the sound is
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Is it? how can it be better headphones?
which headphone u using? did u use those default given headphones settings?

KWOKSFUNG said:
Is it? how can it be better headphones?
which headphone u using? did u use those default given headphones settings?
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Yeah kind of, I have the default given and I tested in mi SBH20 and I notice a lil improvement in Bass and Loudness, what really sucks is in Speaker, I can't even hear my message notifications

count me in ! I have Sony MDR-XB950BT headphones and i listen a lot ! instantly noticed huge difference when updated... sound is too low and settings doesnt change much anymore... whats up with that sony ?!

favinho said:
Yeah kind of, I have the default given and I tested in mi SBH20 and I notice a lil improvement in Bass and Loudness, what really sucks is in Speaker, I can't even hear my message notifications
Click to expand...
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migidid said:
count me in ! I have Sony MDR-XB950BT headphones and i listen a lot ! instantly noticed huge difference when updated... sound is too low and settings doesnt change much anymore... whats up with that sony ?!
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Click to collapse
I actually found the headphone volume is lowered too, maybe tends to be a bit more bass by its decrease of clearity. Yeah the speaker sucks and suffer feature loss x_x
Low volume isnt problem for me as i dont need high volume, just give me more clearity and resolution!!!!!!

Here's a quote from me on the Q&A Section:
LeParkour012 said:
Updated to Lollipop yesterday. Of course I'm using Sony's official update and not CM12. So yeah I didn't bother to.watch any videos or listen to music because I updated my phone very late at night. But today, I realised the Audio seems broken. How is it broken? Well, I play a YouTube video at max volume. Seems fine but a little soft for being at max. As soon as I drag it down just a bit, it's like impossible to hear anything. When it reaches half volume, it feels like the minumum volume and the minimum volume feels like it's muted. Anyone have the same problem?
Tl;dr: Can't hear jack **** on near max volume
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing you guys are facing the same issues? The speakers are WAY too soft. The difference in volume from Max to 3/4 is just too big. Too quiet on 3/4 and just average on max.

LeParkour012 said:
Here's a quote from me on the Q&A Section:
I'm guessing you guys are facing the same issues? The speakers are WAY too soft. The difference in volume from Max to 3/4 is just too big. Too quiet on 3/4 and just average on max.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, only the last two steps are a bit louder
Sony is getting lazy to calibrate the Z1

Me too guys. Sound quality is bad, sony is getting lazy as f*ck for z1 because they want to sell their z2/z3...

BlackSoulxxx said:
Me too guys. Sound quality is bad, sony is getting lazy as f*ck for z1 because they want to sell their z2/z3...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seriously, not responsible to nerf our phone just becoz they want to sell the new one.
Maybe not hseehx but at least give us back what we used to have

Included Headphones any good?

Just curious before I take them out of there packaging..how do you guys like the Headphones that are included ? Bass any good ? Thanks ! I'm assuming there hi-fi ?

They are Apple earpods clones...which means they don't stay in my ear. They sound pretty good though, cable is a bit short.

zowpow said:
They are Apple earpods clones...which means they don't stay in my ear. They sound pretty good though, cable is a bit short.
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Click to collapse
Do they sound better then apple earpods ?

jordy787 said:
Do they sound better then apple earpods ?
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Click to collapse
About the same.

The quality of the earphone is pretty bad though, i can see a crack after few days

Wow I just started using them and with my Dolby profile I made ..geez they sound great ! Good bass..better then my Sol republic tracks air

.....I'm getting the Monster headphones as a pre-order bonus with mine from NewEgg... hopefully those sound decent.