[Q] Audio quality? - Streak 5 General

Hi guys,
I had a Streak from probably the very first batch from Carphone Warehouse and ended up on a 2nd unit after the first was faulty. On both, running 1.6 back then, the audio through the headphones was pretty dire when compared to other phones I've had like the Samsung Wave, X10 etc.
I'd like to know what it is like on 2.1, if its been improved or anything, as I noticed the audio feedback on GSMArena is really quite positive.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. I listened to audio through some Bose over-ear headphones. Would this have made any difference, maybe the Dell couldn't drive them fully?
Thanks

I didn't try the headphones on 1.6, but the output seems fine on 2.2...

Three Lines above --> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=838992

Related

[Q] sound quality through headphones

I just spent some time at the local T-Mobile store checking this thing out in person. I'm very seriously thinking about picking one up but I have one thing I want to ask you guys that already have one....How is the sound quality when listening to music? If I get this phone, it will be my second android phone but my first htc. I currently have a samsung moment and I detest a lot of things about it. One of the things that bothers me is that I still carry around my outdated ipod because the sound quality of my moment is brutal. I never noticed with the generic ear buds that came with the phone but once I plugged in some quality cans, I realized the phone doesn't have any balls. My music sounds like I'm listening to cheapo headphones even though I have a pair of $100 dollar grados.
I'm a bit of an audiophile so if the thing can't sound high end, its a big drawback to me. I'm so tired of carrying an ipod in one pocket and the phone in another. Been doing that too many years and the idea of getting a smartphone was supposed to cure that need.
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
I have the JH5's.. will listen to music on my G2 for some time and report back. I'm pretty satisfied with the Galaxy S, that has good SQ. My iPad also has great SQ..
One major problem I have with most android phones is that they aren't loud enough. That's the main reason I still carry around my touch. I hope I am able to solve this soon...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
This question was bugging me, as I have the G2 on my short list of phones I want, so I went back to the T-Mobile store today and asked if I could see their live demo unit and test music playback on it.
They didn't agree, not wanting me to put an sdcard with music on it in the demo phone, but one of the employees had his own G2 with music already on it. He let me plug my headphones in (Head Direct RE2, not the most spectacular, but not cheap $20 earbuds either) and played a few tracks.
It sounded pretty good for an HTC phone.
Now, granted, these MP3s were not very high quality. They were 128kbps encodes, probably not LAME encoded. But I'll say it definitely sounded better than the utterly bass-lacking Nexus One.
It doesn't sound half as decent as the Samsung Vibrant, though.
greengoldmello said:
One major problem I have with most android phones is that they aren't loud enough. That's the main reason I still carry around my touch. I hope I am able to solve this soon...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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that desire hd has dolby srs or whatever, should sound good. really hoping t-mobile brings it to the US.
greengoldmello said:
One major problem I have with most android phones is that they aren't loud enough. That's the main reason I still carry around my touch. I hope I am able to solve this soon...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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Exactly. I know in terms of specs the iPhones don't compare to Androids, but sound quality as I said is a big deal to me. I would tolerate a slightly slower phone for good sound.
As far as people noting that newer Samsung phones have good sound...that's nice to know but I've already decided I can never buy another Samsung phone for as long as I live. I'll spare you all the self-righteous diatribe but suffice it to say my Moment's lack of sound quality is only one of a number of issues I have with it.
That's why I have a Ipod touch 4G
Unfortunately this is all opinion so our opinion of good may not mesh with yours, however I use Klipsch S4s which have been reviewed by many different people as the best in the price range and better than many that cost twice as much...
I listen to FLAC all day on my G2 with these earphones at work and am happy with the quality.
Using the JH5's, the G2 sounds decent for average listening. Not as good as the iPad or iPhone 4, but good enough. It doesn't make the music sound bad, just the bass performance is not as good and its a bit focused on treble.
Kind of like the speaker for the phone.. sounds good but a little quiet.
Plenty loud IMO :/
I have to admit that my blackberry bold 9700 earphone jack yielded better results as far as pandora is concerned to my auxiliary port of my head unit (even with high quality)
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I don't know about the G2, but the Vibrant has amazing sound quality through its headphone jack. When tested by gsmarena.com, it beat the iphone on a few sound quality tests and was about the same on all the others. I've never heard better sound quality on a phone and its very customizable and pretty loud.
It's decent. The bundled earphones are pretty good quality, and the controls work flawless, without any lag. Perfect for gym. IMHO if you're using your phone for listening to music anywhere else, you're doing it wrong. At home a hi-fi system is obviously better, in the car... why bother. Unless you have a non-existent (or super ****ty) system in the car, why would you listen to music using your phone?
clivo360 said:
I don't know about the G2, but the Vibrant has amazing sound quality through its headphone jack. When tested by gsmarena.com, it beat the iphone on a few sound quality tests and was about the same on all the others. I've never heard better sound quality on a phone and its very customizable and pretty loud.
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Yup, the Vibrant/Galaxy S uses a discrete Wolfson DSP ; thus its Sound Quality is superb. The iPhone 4 uses a discrete Cirrus Logic DSP, whereas HTC phones/Qualcomm do not have a discrete DSP, its integrated into the SoC.
So to answer his question, He's still going to have to carry around the iPod.
I've been using the included headset and am very happy with the sound quality and volume.
I haven't tested any other earphones yet.
On a related note, the speaker is only adequate. I wouldn't rely on it. Samsung phones seem to be much better in this regard.
Included headset sucks compared to the S4s, but to be realistic you can't expect HTC to waste money including a "good" headset when 95% of the buyers can't tell a difference or don't care. I hope they continue to include cheap headsets so I'm not paying a premium for a phone with a mediocre pair that I won't use anyway.
Are you using the stock music player to listen to FLAC? It doesn't seem to work for me. Neither does the cube player.
Audio quality isn't the best on this phone. I have a pair of Senn's CX500's and the bass gets distorted when listening to the default player. The mid's are okay and sometimes the highs get distorted also. This btw is coming from music with at least 192kbps bitrate on them.
But still love the phone!

audioquality - really that bad? will 2.2 bring some improvements?

Hey Folks!!
I´ve read a lot about the very poor audio quality with the streak...what do you "initiated" guys can tell me about this (aside from the fact that they have positioned the audiojack on the SIDE of the device )? How would you rate the possibility to use this device as my no.1 mp3 player?
Will the update that everybody is waiting for compensate this issue?
Hi brooon
Well i don't know why you think the Streak has poor audio quality as that most certainly isn't my experience of using it to play my Music on and whilst i was on 1.6 i was more than happy using the Music player that was built into the Streak as i liked the Music Widget that came with it. Since moving to 2.1 and 2.2 Custom Roms i am using Lithium Player as like the Widget options it gives and i have no need for an EQ as have never used one on any device i use.
What is far more important IMO is how well you encode your Music as using low bit rates are never going to give you great results however good the hardware may be its restricted by to little information to work with when decoding it. All my Music is kept in iTunes although bought on Cd's and then transferred to it @256kbps AAC. The second most important factor is then your in ear phones as the supplied ones with any equipment are adequate at best IMO so dependant on your budget and the sound you like to hear upgrading your in ear or head phones is the other thing that will effect the quality of what you are listening to.
I listen to at least 2 hrs a day of Music either with my Shure EC2g's in ear phones plugged directly into my Streak or using my Nokia BH-500 and streaming the Stereo via Bluetooth to the same in ear phones and the sound is nothing short of stunning IMO. It produces a rich and full sound with good separation and sound stage with no need to use an EQ as IMO you shouldn't need to boost any frequencies as thats what a producer does when recording the Music for you to listen to in the recording studio.
So in answer to your question do nothing as I'm already running 2.2 and despite now using Lithium Player for the Widget options i have no issues with the sound quality my Streak delivers whilst listening to music or watching Videos.
Marc
brooon said:
I´ve read a lot about the very poor audio quality with the streak...[...]
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Where have you read it?
Streak has the best audio quality of all the devices I owned during last years. I was amazed when I first plugged the earphones and played some tunes.
Theres a lot of fud around.....
I'd agree with smoku it's the best (although the speaker isn't great maybe that's what he read)
I'm now using power amp for all my music needs, the eq in there really brings out the best of the sound quality on the streak... It even plays m4a and wma and can boost the sound level out of the rear speaker
This is a valid thread, thanks for starting it.
For my part I am interested in portable audiophile gear, Sennheiser IE8 with custom moulds, iBasso D10, iRiver H140, that sort of thing.
My music is encoded in FLAC and I haven’t yet tried the Streak as a music player. Possibly in part so as not to be disappointed and also I am waiting on final 2.2 or maybe even 2.3 so as to bring the platform to maturity and with it good quality media apps. The original 1.6 just seemed to be rough around the edges and with poor app support.
So the responses from Dogmann, smoku and fards are very encouraging and I shall give it go sooner rather than later.
i use the hf2,s from emotec and you need a diff player to play flac but the sound quality is ok just the standared head set that come with its pants
I think 2.2 has increased the sound quality for the speaker but still not good as HTC tilt2. The sound from earphone jack is good on both 1.6 and 2.2 for me.
im using a pair of klipsch images and the sound on my streak sounds horrible. I hear alot of popping and noise. You can even hear when the internal amp comes on when its about to start playing sound, and you can hear it turn off when sounds go off its rather noticable. I recently installed poweramp and the inbuilt eq does make the sound alot better. Maybe all our streaks aren't created equal id love to hear one that sounds good.
hi @all!!
Thanks for the comments and experiences, your impressions are really helping a lot here guys
shigga said:
I hear alot of popping and noise. You can even hear when the internal amp comes on when its about to start playing sound, and you can hear it turn off when sounds go off its rather noticable.
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That´s what i´ve read several times in reports that i´ve found during my googletrip ...it seems like you´re not the only one suffering under these (audio)circumstances. I must say, Im very surprised about the positive impressions here (although I´m happy to read such things )?!?
Don´t you guys hear those "poppings" and noises, too? What could be the reason for such a variety of impressions? Any idea?
This thread comes straight from the android knockers over at ilounge! i've owned both, there's no difference! i read the same stuff before i got android.
The only thing about the stereo system on the streak is the incredibly stupid placement of the headphone jack on the side of the device, meaning it sticks out sideways when in your pocket, the 'designers' even thought that you would carry the streak around in your pocket in landscape mode
tbh I'm not an audiophile, I've been a musician for way too long
never heard popping or buzz... except intentional as part of whatever I'm listening to..
My Streak does sound real good, even when listening to classical music. And I am using it straight out of the box.
Crap statement. It's not spectacular, but for a mobile phone device it's very satisfactory. I use it as a player both in my car and when I'm on the train and it sounds phenomenal.
Obviously it is not spectacular, lol. How could the sound on such a small device ever be spectacular? I was comparing it to other mobile devices (my wife's iPhone 3G, my old HTCs) and I am pleasantly surprised.
I switched to bluetooth headphones and they deliver much better sound quality, than the original streak's earplugs.
HansTWN said:
Obviously it is not spectacular, lol. How could the sound on such a small device ever be spectacular? I was comparing it to other mobile devices (my wife's iPhone 3G, my old HTCs) and I am pleasantly surprised.
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Didn't mean to directly attack your statement . I'm actually agreeing with you, I think the sound quality is good on the Streak, and I'm calling the "reviewers" who said that the sound is bad on the Streak crap.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Its weird there is such differing opinions on it.
I've owned two and returned both for bad audio. I even had an email from the executive support team saying they're aware of an audio issue!
I just wondered whether maybe, as mine were both from the very first Carphone Warehouse batch in Brighton that I got a bum lot!?
Just tried the demo display at my local best buy and brought my earbuds and it sounded equally as bad as mine. My captivate, aria and nexus sound so much better.
shigga said:
im using a pair of klipsch images and the sound on my streak sounds horrible. I hear alot of popping and noise. You can even hear when the internal amp comes on when its about to start playing sound, and you can hear it turn off when sounds go off its rather noticable. I recently installed poweramp and the inbuilt eq does make the sound alot better. Maybe all our streaks aren't created equal id love to hear one that sounds good.
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Click to collapse
This is my only gripe with the audio quality. If you listen at low volumes, you can hear fuzz/hiss sounds. I also can hear the amp/DAC/whatever it is turning on and off when I start/stop my music. Course, you can crank up the music to drown out the noise, but I like to be able to hear what's going on around me when i listen to music (so the yard gnomes et al can't sneak up on me.)
If you're in a reasonably quiet room, try playing some music with headphones and the volume turned all the way down to 0 (yes, zero). I can hear audio noise over the sound of my apartment heater blowing air around.
side note: I've confirmed this with the earbuds that came with the streak, as well as a set that came with my old iphone. i'm guessing if you have less sensitive headphones, this will be less of a problem cause you'll be pushing the audio out at higher volume levels.
After the encouraging observations here I decided to finally check out the sound quality for myself. My reference portable rig is a pair of Sennheiser IE8’s with custom ear moulds, iBasso D10 Headphone amplifier with an optical digital interconnect to an iRiver H140.
The music I like tends to be recorded as low-fi, e.g. The National, Bon Iver, Cymbals Eat Guitars. Last night I loaded up a selection of Calexico on both the Streak and iRiver. While these are clean recordings they are certainly not Hi-Fi reference standard, you know, the sort of stuff that is used to demonstrate high end audiophile equipment.
Basically my subjective comparison is just me listening to the sort of music that appeals. The cognoscenti over at Head-Fi may well have finer tuned ears and a more analytical framework and disagree of course.
I approached this with some trepidation bracing myself for a degree of disappointment in the Streak as a music player. No way did I expect what I found.
To summarise, given the choice of listening to the iRiver/iBasso rig or the Streak I would probably select the former. However I would be hard pressed to actually explain why. Perhaps because it has the ability to go louder - though the Streak is quite loud enough.
TBH after a couple of hours listening to the same tracks back and forth on both devices, I couldn’t discern any difference. Dell has really come through on this device in so many ways.
Kudos also to PowerAmp which is a joy to use and a bargain at $5.
For reference, the last time I performed this exercise was to compare with my old iPhone 3GS and there was no doubt then that the iRiver/iBasso was superior. I can’t say the same with the Streak, the best I can manage is ‘neck and neck’.
I am sorry for those who are having audio problems but this shouldn’t be so and your device could be faulty.

A2DP Quality issues

I'm not entirely sure about that one, but I've used my sgs2 about 1 hour in my car now and audio quality appears to be inferior in comparison to the N1 I previously used. Did anyone else notice quality issues on A2DP?
I am going to get out my N1 again later today and do a head to head comparison to confirm this.
XebozZ said:
I'm not entirely sure about that one, but I've used my sgs2 about 1 hour in my car now and audio quality appears to be inferior in comparison to the N1 I previously used. Did anyone else notice quality issues on A2DP?
I am going to get out my N1 again later today and do a head to head comparison to confirm this.
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Click to collapse
I've been using A2DP daily in the car since I picked up my SGS2 and compared to my Milestone it's not noticeably different.
I'm using Spotify though, I know the default media player has it's own EQ so it could be related to that.

Gtab 10.1's Bluetooth is Amazing for Hifi Audio

I'm not sure exactly what Bluetooth chip is in the tablet but it's way superior than my HTC Inspire 4G's BT. I recently bought the Sennheiser MM550 which is one of the best BT stereo headphones out there. The Sennheiser website says you need apt-X codec support to fully enjoy audiophile-grade lossless sound wirelessly. Though I don't know what's in the Gtab 10.1 since the Samsung website only says BT 2.1 EDR, I can say the sound is amazing compare to what gets outputted from my HTC phone with the same song. The HTC phone also gives a little hiss and clicks here and there but the Gtab 10.1 is just flawless even at 30 feet out. Funny thing for lower end BT stereo headphones the HTC phone is fine. I have tried few others like the Sennheiser MM 200, motorola S9 and few Sonys. They all sound the same through both HTC phone or the Gtab 10.1.
I'm not too experienced on the Apt-X codec thing. Maybe someone with more knowledge in this area can comment on it, but now I'm re-encoding all my songs in 320kb or AAC just to fully enjoy the music. Awesomeness!!!
gordec said:
I'm not sure exactly what Bluetooth chip is in the tablet but it's way superior than my HTC Inspire 4G's BT.
...
Awesomeness!!!
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A2DP is done in the software BT stack (bluez), not in the BT chipset's firmware. Last I checked, bluez doesn't support apt-X, though I suppose it's possible that Samsung added that as a proprietary feature.
Haven't tried BT anything with mine. I would love to find a pair of stereo BT earbuds that are as comfortable as the wired Sennheisers I use with my phone. I can sleep with those in (fall asleep listening to podcasts via Google Listen) but it would be awesome not to have the frigging phone (or iPod) in bed with me.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
millemots said:
Haven't tried BT anything with mine. I would love to find a pair of stereo BT earbuds that are as comfortable as the wired Sennheisers I use with my phone. I can sleep with those in (fall asleep listening to podcasts via Google Listen) but it would be awesome not to have the frigging phone (or iPod) in bed with me.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
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Buy one of the many Bluetooth units that let you use your own 3.5mm headphones and jack the Sennheisers into that. The "dongles" run pretty small too these days, and are good for 6-8 hours on a charge.
Croak said:
Buy one of the many Bluetooth units that let you use your own 3.5mm headphones and jack the Sennheisers into that. The "dongles" run pretty small too these days, and are good for 6-8 hours on a charge.
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I had no idea anything like that even existed. :O Thanks for the tip! I know what I'll be doing at work this morning. ;-)
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
I agree that the sound is good. I have the Tab connected to my car stereo using Microsoft Sync in my Ford Edge and the sound is outstanding.
millemots said:
I had no idea anything like that even existed. :O Thanks for the tip! I know what I'll be doing at work this morning. ;-)
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
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I suggest this pretty little wonder: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Ericsson...1DCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313509936&sr=8-1
Strong points compared to my Jabra BT3030 (The Dog Tag one):
1. Longer battery life, significantly.. My MW600 can last the whole day (morning, afternoon and night!) but my Jabra's dead by 6pm, just before nightfall
2. Louder output. The Jabra is significantly softer compared to the MW600. I tried listening through the 3.5mm jack and compared it with listening through the Jabra and I can say the Jabra is quieter. The MW600 sounds roughly as loud as when wired to the 3.5mm directly
3. Can remember up to 3 devices. I saved my Laptop, my Asus transformer, and my Bluetooth transmitter (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PU9U0E/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_6). I use the bluetooth transmitter when i want to listen from any music player with a 3.5mm output jack. The Jabra can only remember 1 device so it's a hassle switching audio sources.
4. Can pair media audio and phone audio to separate devices. This means that i can listen to music on my Asus transformer (connected via media) and still receive calls from my Galaxy S (connected via phone) all from one headset. I don't know how to achieve this on the Jabra.
5. MW600 has FM built in. IDK though if you'd want that.
gordec said:
I'm not sure exactly what Bluetooth chip is in the tablet but it's way superior than my HTC Inspire 4G's BT. I recently bought the Sennheiser MM550 which is one of the best BT stereo headphones out there. The Sennheiser website says you need apt-X codec support to fully enjoy audiophile-grade lossless sound wirelessly. Though I don't know what's in the Gtab 10.1 since the Samsung website only says BT 2.1 EDR, I can say the sound is amazing compare to what gets outputted from my HTC phone with the same song. The HTC phone also gives a little hiss and clicks here and there but the Gtab 10.1 is just flawless even at 30 feet out. Funny thing for lower end BT stereo headphones the HTC phone is fine. I have tried few others like the Sennheiser MM 200, motorola S9 and few Sonys. They all sound the same through both HTC phone or the Gtab 10.1.
I'm not too experienced on the Apt-X codec thing. Maybe someone with more knowledge in this area can comment on it, but now I'm re-encoding all my songs in 320kb or AAC just to fully enjoy the music. Awesomeness!!!
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Good to hear.. The bluetooth stack on my Galaxy S was horrible.. Lots of hissing and metallic noise.. It's good that they implemented a different bluetooth stack on the tablets.. I hope they did the same on the SGS2
gordec said:
I'm not sure exactly what Bluetooth chip is in the tablet but it's way superior than my HTC Inspire 4G's BT. I recently bought the Sennheiser MM550 which is one of the best BT stereo headphones out there. The Sennheiser website says you need apt-X codec support to fully enjoy audiophile-grade lossless sound wirelessly. Though I don't know what's in the Gtab 10.1 since the Samsung website only says BT 2.1 EDR, I can say the sound is amazing compare to what gets outputted from my HTC phone with the same song. The HTC phone also gives a little hiss and clicks here and there but the Gtab 10.1 is just flawless even at 30 feet out. Funny thing for lower end BT stereo headphones the HTC phone is fine. I have tried few others like the Sennheiser MM 200, motorola S9 and few Sonys. They all sound the same through both HTC phone or the Gtab 10.1.
I'm not too experienced on the Apt-X codec thing. Maybe someone with more knowledge in this area can comment on it, but now I'm re-encoding all my songs in 320kb or AAC just to fully enjoy the music. Awesomeness!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 full_ack
gordec said:
I'm not sure exactly what Bluetooth chip is in the tablet but it's way superior than my HTC Inspire 4G's BT. I recently bought the Sennheiser MM550 which is one of the best BT stereo headphones out there. The Sennheiser website says you need apt-X codec support to fully enjoy audiophile-grade lossless sound wirelessly. Though I don't know what's in the Gtab 10.1 since the Samsung website only says BT 2.1 EDR, I can say the sound is amazing compare to what gets outputted from my HTC phone with the same song. The HTC phone also gives a little hiss and clicks here and there but the Gtab 10.1 is just flawless even at 30 feet out. Funny thing for lower end BT stereo headphones the HTC phone is fine. I have tried few others like the Sennheiser MM 200, motorola S9 and few Sonys. They all sound the same through both HTC phone or the Gtab 10.1.
I'm not too experienced on the Apt-X codec thing. Maybe someone with more knowledge in this area can comment on it, but now I'm re-encoding all my songs in 320kb or AAC just to fully enjoy the music. Awesomeness!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I was looking for some good BT headphones & I looked into how much your HF cost & $400s. Wow! Can you recommend a cheap HF? Tops 200s & is it really worth the price? I don't have an ear for audio so I'm not sure, a top of the line HF will benefit me or not.
RMXO said:
Man, I was looking for some good BT headphones & I looked into how much your HF cost & $400s. Wow! Can you recommend a cheap HF? Tops 200s & is it really worth the price? I don't have an ear for audio so I'm not sure, a top of the line HF will benefit me or not.
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Click to collapse
Depends on how much you want to spend. If you want the top of the line bluetooth, you are best bet is Sennheiser. You can also get the PX 360 BT which is the same as the MM 550 I have except without active noise cancelling (ANC) and microphone for calls. If you want ANC without calling feature, you can get PXC 360 BT. The former ones are circumaural meaning covers your ears. If you want smaller over the ear, AKA supraaural, you can get MM 400, PXC 310 BT, or MM 450. Differences is BT, BT+ANC, BT+ANC+Calling. You can get these on Ebay for cheap. I tried out the MM 550 at Apple store and bought a 2 month old pair from Ebay for 280.
Another great choice is Nokia BH-905i which is about $170 on Amazon, it has BT, ANC, and calling features. I almost got it except it's silver ear mugs are too overthetop for me.
Sony DRBT50 is also circumaural with great reviews. I almost got it except I really wanted top of the line with ANC.
If you want decent quality, not audiophile quality, go with any of the Sony Bluetooth earbuds. They are all great. I have tried 3 of them. It's nice to hide your headphones in your short with Sony's form factor.
Always check out Ebay for great deals .

Audio Quality Thoughts

So I just got my HTC U11 today and spent a few hours setting it up. I finally got around to trying out the phone's audio capabilities.
USonic - they sound good for out of the box earphones, but they're definitely not as good as my V-Moda Forza's. I could tell immediately. I doubt I'll use this.
DAC adapter - I'm conflicted. I'm still trying to decide whether or not the adapter sounds as good as my HTC 10. My initial impression is that it's not as good. The 10 has a cleaner, fuller soundstage. I'm really bummed about the BoomSound Dolby and tuning mode not being present on the U11. I've never really listened to the 10 without that mode on, so maybe that's the reason. The U11 doesn't sound bad though.
What do you guys think?
Good enough for 90%
Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
richteralan said:
Good enough for 90%
Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Pretty much this, most people will love it but I think anyone who had a HTC 10, an Axon 7, S7 Edge (Exynos, volume modded) will notice a bit of a step down. More so the AMP is weak rather than the DAC being bad (although Juan at PocketNow numbers show the DAC to be worse than the HTC 10, Axon 7, S7 Edge, iPhone 7).
I'm contemplating getting a Fiio K1
I just compared the sound quality between my 10 (without BoomSound on) and the U11, and they do sound quite similar.
This leads me to my disappointment -- why did they remove the BoomSound frequency tuning from the U11? It's nice that they have it for the USonic earphones, but why would you need to create multiple audio profiles for those earphones, if there's literally only one pair of earphones that can take advantage of that feature.
I'll have my thoughts later today using a dt770 as my comparison between the 10 and 11. They normally require more power than my HD600. I don't use high impedance/low sensitivity HPs with phones anyway but I figured I'd test.
djbutter said:
I just compared the sound quality between my 10 (without BoomSound on) and the U11, and they do sound quite similar.
This leads me to my disappointment -- why did they remove the BoomSound frequency tuning from the U11? It's nice that they have it for the USonic earphones, but why would you need to create multiple audio profiles for those earphones, if there's literally only one pair of earphones that can take advantage of that feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wondering this as well, you can't edit the audio profiles anyway so what is the point in having more than one profile
I've been happy about the audio quality so far. The problem I have is that we only get 1 of the DAC to 3.5mm adapter cables included. Now in order to use my music at home, in car, and at work I now have to carry the cable around with me. It is not ideal to have to carry around an adapter. Getting the included earphones is cool (sound okay) but would rather received a total of 4 adapter cables.
I went to order 4 more and found out that they are in pre-order status. I'll just have to wait until they come in. Once I have an adapter everywhere then I won't be so pissy about it. Really wish they would have kept the 3.5mm, then phone would be considered my best phone ever.
psawjack said:
I've been happy about the audio quality so far. The problem I have is that we only get 1 of the DAC to 3.5mm adapter cables included. Now in order to use my music at home, in car, and at work I now have to carry the cable around with me. It is not ideal to have to carry around an adapter. Getting the included earphones is cool (sound okay) but would rather received a total of 4 adapter cables.
I went to order 4 more and found out that they are in pre-order status. I'll just have to wait until they come in. Once I have an adapter everywhere then I won't be so pissy about it. Really wish they would have kept the 3.5mm, then phone would be considered my best phone ever.
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Click to collapse
There really was no need to remove it, only to use a worse DAC/AMP in the adaptor.
GSM spoke highly of the headphone output. (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_u_11-review-1620p6.php)
Great audio output
The HTC U11 did splendidly in the first part of our audio test. When hooked to an active external amplifier it delivered very loud and perfectly accurate output.
When headphones come into play the volume remains nicely high and the only reading to take a hit is stereo crosstalk. It's a moderate amount of damage there and will all the other aspects of the performance remaining excellent, it's a great showing overall.
HTC U11 (headphones attached)
Frequency response: +0.05, -0.11 (+0.05, -0.02)
Noise Level: -94.1 (-93.7)
Dynamic Range: -94.1 (93.8)
THD: 0.0017 (0.0018)
IMD + Noise: 0.0067 (0.105)
Stereo crosstalk: -94.5 (-53.7)
HTC 10 (headphones attached)
Frequency response: +0.01, -0.03 (+0.06, -0.09)
Noise Level: -93.2 (-92.8)
Dynamic Range: -93.2 (93.0)
THD: 0.0022 (0.014)
IMD + Noise: 0.071 (0.141)
Stereo crosstalk: -92.8 (-77.9)
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Click to collapse
My own personal experience, I found my DT770 to sound great but was 2 notches of volume below the 10. The 10 at volume 13/15 was the U11 at 15/15. I definitely can hear the crosstalk difference GSM has measured. Heard that before I saw the measurements. Overall, I can definitely live with this. Just hope I don't put myself in situations where I need to charge and listen.
My first impressions are that I'm not particularly impressed by the Usonic earphones - but then I don't usually use the earbuds that come with a phone.
Given the reviews here, I was a bit surprised to find the sound from the U11 adapter sounds better on first hearing than I was getting from the HTC 10, but then I haven't yet done a proper A-B comparison - it could be I was playing it a bit louder, or 'new device' enthusiasm...
As I said it already the 3.5mm adapter lacks Boomsound and this make a big difference with HTC 10, HTC can implement it in the FW of the adapter but we need to let them know we want it.
mosincredible said:
GSM spoke highly of the headphone output. (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_u_11-review-1620p6.php)
My own personal experience, I found my DT770 to sound great but was 2 notches of volume below the 10. The 10 at volume 13/15 was the U11 at 15/15. I definitely can hear the crosstalk difference GSM has measured. Heard that before I saw the measurements. Overall, I can definitely live with this. Just hope I don't put myself in situations where I need to charge and listen.
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Agreed. I can see the logic behind HTC's decision, and I actually don't disagree with it. They dropped the headphone jack but added noise cancellation and a decent pair of earphones. This targets that iPhone userbase that only uses the awful in-box white ear buds. It's definitely better value for the money for the average user.
Perhaps they needed to compromise on sound quality, but it still sounds pretty fantastic with the adapter. It may not sound as good as the 10 (honestly though it's pretty close), but I'm not mad about it.
Which Boomsound speaker mode do you guys prefer? Music it theater mode? I feel like music more is crisper while tester is a bit longer but muddier.
MinimalistChris said:
Which Boomsound speaker mode do you guys prefer? Music it theater mode? I feel like music more is crisper while tester is a bit longer but muddier.
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I use theatre mode all the time but yes it is muddier than music mode which sacrifices volume for better audio quality
About stereo crosstalk can you ''fix'' it with V4A?
Or there are no way to enhance stereo?
MinimalistChris said:
Which Boomsound speaker mode do you guys prefer? Music it theater mode? I feel like music more is crisper while tester is a bit longer but muddier.
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Click to collapse
I usually use theatre mode. If I'm playing through the speakers, volume is more important to me.
On another note, I'm having this horrible issue with BT audio. When playing music in google play music through BT earphones (jaybird x2) or my home speaker (LG soundbar), occasionally there's a really loud, awful screeching noise!
Anyone else have this issue?
Otherwise, BT audio is noticeably improved over the 10!
djbutter said:
On another note, I'm having this horrible issue with BT audio. When playing music in google play music through BT earphones (jaybird x2) or my home speaker (LG soundbar), occasionally there's a really loud, awful screeching noise!
Anyone else have this issue?
Otherwise, BT audio is noticeably improved over the 10!
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Click to collapse
Was listening with aptX in my car for a while today and I had no issues along with noticing no difference. Same volume level when connected to an Audioengine B1 that has a 2 volt output to my Audison bit-Ten. Wish I could do a quicker back and forth test with my 10 but I'd have to sync the Bluetooth over and over.
I have to admit that I'm a little bit worried about the sound quality on the u11. One of the things that I really enjoyed on the m8 m9 and the 10 was the Dolby audio enhancement. I have been using that in combination with power amp music player for years and you'd be surprised what kind of sound quality I get out of my Sennheiser HD 558's. I can hear the bass in music the way it is meant to be heard, almost felt, I don't hear that distorted bass sound that you tend to hear on lower end devices.
This may sound stupid to some people but if the sound quality is not at least the same as what I get on my 10 then I'm going to send the phone back. I just got done trying out a $300 pair of Bluetooth headphones with my 10 and I was not impressed, they were close in some areas but for $300 I want more than close. There is a cheaper pair that I have been thinking about trying with the 11 but I'm not sure that I'm going to want to invest all of this money just to be able to say I own the new flagship, and get half decent sound out of it with headphones, especially when for all intents and purposes I'm perfectly happy with my 10.
Right before the phone ended up shipping out to me I was debating on canceling my order because once the feeling of new shiny device wore off I started the question what about the new phone actually got me excited and to be perfectly honest the answer for me is really nothing. I think edge sense could be cool but the apparent lack of support from case manufacturers has me a bit scared as well. I have never owned an all glass phone before and I don't think you could pay me enough to use this phone without any full-body protection I understand that the camera is much better but honestly I don't see a problem with the one that I have. So this could be the first year that I actually hang on to my phone.
I just paired this phone with the Fiio K1 DAC. Much better audio experience. The HTC 10 apparently was better than the K1 by about 10% so the fact that the K1 sounds so good compared to the adapter is quite telling

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