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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Click to collapse
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

media player with equalizer?

need one. standard media player is flat as all get out. recommendations?

flat? really. i jam mine in my truck and its bassy as hell lol. have to turn down my sub somtimes to make it sound right.

Will this player handle .wav music files? or is there one that will?

extra bass doesn't mean extra good. perhaps your speaker setup is appropriate for the onboard equalizer. mine isn't. i want adjustability

timothydonohue said:
need one. standard media player is flat as all get out. recommendations?
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I dont think there is anything decent out there as I wouldnt mind an equalizer though I would describe the output from the device as punchy and really quite dynamic. What sort of headphones or system are you plugging into it? The headphones it comes with are somewhat weak....

The Jones said:
I dont think there is anything decent out there as I wouldnt mind an equalizer though I would describe the output from the device as punchy and really quite dynamic. What sort of headphones or system are you plugging into it? The headphones it comes with are somewhat weak....
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Click to collapse
i haven't tried my closed circumaural (sennheiser 280 pro), but my sennheiser in ear buds usually sound decent enough, and are a lot less cumbersome. however, everything on this sounds completely flat. my zen has an equalizer that allows me to set everything up perfectly. much more dynamic, and appropriate for me. i have partial hearing loss :/

No EQ . Not possible with androids sdk from what i understand.
There is one application that tries this but it is horrible.
Definitely ones of my biggest peeves of android.

galaxys said:
Will this player handle .wav music files? or is there one that will?
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Click to collapse
i can confirm that the music app on board the nexus one handles wav files.
until (and if) andless handles flac files, I'm going to listen to wav files. sure, they take up quite a bit of space, but man do they sound sweet.
for what it's worth, i like the sq. that said, i use custom iems and can max out the volume with no discomfort. that definitely means that the n1 isn't the loudest dap ever.

aleitry said:
i can confirm that the music app on board the nexus one handles wav files.
until (and if) andless handles flac files, I'm going to listen to wav files. sure, they take up quite a bit of space, but man do they sound sweet.
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Click to collapse
Very Cool...that makes me a very happy camper!

There is an equalizer program on the market.
It's something like Platinumeq with audio player.
It works very well and has about 15 sliders to adjust as well as 30 or so presets.
However it is £18!! but worth a download and try to see if the sound can be improved, I find it pretty damn good actually.

Amdathlonuk said:
There is an equalizer program on the market.
It's something like Platinumeq with audio player.
It works very well and has about 15 sliders to adjust as well as 30 or so presets.
However it is £18!! but worth a download and try to see if the sound can be improved, I find it pretty damn good actually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean this?
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.jp-cyberfort-audioplayerwithgeqplatinum-ztCm.aspx
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/multimedia/audio-player-witheq-platinum_bdli.html

Rashkae said:
You mean this?
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.jp-cyberfort-audioplayerwithgeqplatinum-ztCm.aspx
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/multimedia/audio-player-witheq-platinum_bdli.html
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Click to collapse
Those are the only ones Im aware of and they most certainly did some ass backwards hack. The sound is absolutely terrible , random skipping in songs , a resource hog even on the N1 after a day or two.
Unless you are just using stock or cheap-o earbuds the sound will get distorted badly.
Anything remotely close to quality headphones and youre going to hear alot of distortion. Wouldnt recommend at all.

dont need EQs. stock headphone are junk (sound flat). use better headphones and it will be like night and day difference in sound quality. i have like $30 dollar headphones which is cheap and they already make huge difference.

That's the one.
I found it worked rather well on my Hero?
Maybe I'm lucky or easily pleased..

kolyan said:
dont need EQs. stock headphone are junk (sound flat). use better headphones and it will be like night and day difference in sound quality. i have like $30 dollar headphones which is cheap and they already make huge difference.
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Quite the contrary.
The better the headphones the more the need for an EQ.
Every headphone (and speakers for that matter) have there own characteristics. The more expansive the sound range becomes the more EQ can come into play. On top of that every user has there own preferences and there own sources of music.
Thats like saying every TV should have the same stock video presets regardless of the source.
For low end and budget headphones theres not much range to work width making EQ barely noticeable.
Amdathlonuk said:
Maybe I'm lucky or easily pleased..
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Click to collapse
lol Perhaps.
Meltus here and the guys from coreplayer among others have been adamant that Google hasnt given access to the sources needed for a proper EQ.
What sucks is that Coreplayer also got shunned by Apple for the same reason. Those guys do great work yet are limited to WinMo.

I tried my set of high quality headphones with my N1, and the N1's sound is simply terrible no matter what music player is used. No dynamic range, incredibly flat sounding, no bass what so ever. This is in desperate need of an EQ no matter what. At least bluetooth stereo is better.

told ya, lol

I agree the nexus one isn't fantastic with my Ultimate Ear triple FI's, but hey it's a phone. The iphone is horrid too. When i am home I just use my Sansa Fuze to get some solid sound. If i use the nexus one(which I do), I just remember it's a phone and tolerate the worse sound. I honestly tend to use my cheaper headphones to compensate as well.
If you care about sound this much, I am sure you already have a high quality mp3 player. If you not, 75 bux will get you a 8gb fuze+16gb micro sd card, and this should suffice with limited pocket space taken!

Tried to listen to some music for the first time now, just to check out the horrid flat sound with no bass.
Launched Spotify, put on my Boss Quietcomfort 2's (granted, not the most neutral headphones around...) and selected a song with some bass etc.
Plenty of bass for my ears, even with Spotify which doesn't exactly have the highest bitrate around (160kbps mp3 or ogg, can't remember). Decent sound which couldn't be called flat even if you threw a rock at it.
Might be pre-EQ'ed a bit for all I know, but it doesn't sound bad at all.
Couldn't check out the built in media player since I deleted all the mp3's that were pre-installed on the SD-card

Even the G1 sounds better over headphones than the N1. Kinda sad.

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.

[Q] How is the audio quality with headphones?

Hi,
can anybody say anything about the audio quality with decent headphones? I have pretty good Shure headphones, which don't work very well with my current phone, which is one of the reasons I consider buying the U8800. I'd change my mind if I knew the quality was bad.
So, how are the quality overall and how loud does it get (I usually don't listen very loudly).
Thanks!

I can't make comaparisons with other smartphones and in the month I have had the IDEOS X5 I find the sound quality pretty good through the headphones.
I've used different headphones that I have lying around. All were better than the headphones that came with the phone.
At home I use an old Koss full padded headphones that I normally use on the PC or when watching TV late at night. (It has a very long cable). I find the qality pretty good, warm bass without it being too punchy.
I also bought a set of cheap (AUD$3.50) stereo headphones from e-bay. The sound was crisp, perhaps a little too much treble but you can balance it out depending on the music app you use.
I recently bought a Sony Bluetooth stereo MW600 headset which work nicely with the IDEOS X5 using the stock music player. Sound is clear and well balanced.
Neither of these are very loud but I've had it turn it down a little depending on the outside noise level.
Having said all that there is a huge difference to sound quality depending on the type of bit rate used on the MP3's. The higher the bit rate the better the sound quality and volume...but I think that goes without saying but music listeners possibly don't allow for the quality of the re-encoding.
AND...the quality of audio is about 100 x better than through the speakers

The sound quality is bad. The bass is good but it also "spreads" out and muffles other sounds so it all sounds hazy. My PC/cowon I7 does not suffer from this.
The headphones I use daily are IE7's. Shure SE420 also sounded hazy with U8800. Tested with FLAC and MP3's with similar results on both.

Thanks for your answers.
Varatesh: Considering what high quality earphones you use, I guess your expectations might be somewhat higher than mine.
Sadly I don't know own anybody withe an U8800 so I can't test the audio quality and it's rarely tested in reviews, so no "objective" info there.

pragmatick said:
Hi,
can anybody say anything about the audio quality with decent headphones? I have pretty good Shure headphones, which don't work very well with my current phone, which is one of the reasons I consider buying the U8800. I'd change my mind if I knew the quality was bad.
So, how are the quality overall and how loud does it get (I usually don't listen very loudly).
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't now if I help w/ my case:
I only use the U8800 heaphones/mic and I must not change because the pinout is different (begining by the point):
Sound.L/Sound.R/Mic/Ground.
The others like Samsung, LG, etc. the pinout is:
Sound.L/Sound.R/Ground/Mic.
If we chage it the sound is bad because it return by Mic, not by ground. And the Mic also work bad.

That's interesting, ValenteL. So that means it would be possible to solder an adapter? It's just a matter of switching two channels.

pragmatick said:
That's interesting, ValenteL. So that means it would be possible to solder an adapter? It's just a matter of switching two channels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Helo
It's possible. For music only, no problem, I use one w/ 3 contacts.
W/ Mic I encountered only one same the U8800, is the ZTE Blade one.
Cumps.

Using ideos x5 + poweramp (it uses ffmpeg's codecs = better quality than the stock android codecs) + sony mw600 = eargasm.
Deep bass, rich high's and great fidelity, even on low bit rate HEAAC files. Although one thing to note, i had problems and dropouts using by bluetooth handset over a2dp with the stock froyo roms. That problem vanished as soon as i moved to the 2.3.5 roms floating around here (My personal favorite is MIUI and i'm waiting for an official cm7 nightly )
I'm not an audiophile or something - i wouldn't use my smartphone for music if i was one - but for the price tag and the hardware we get, music quality is superb, especially compared to the crappy sound output my previous htc wildfire had.

pragmatick said:
Hi,
can anybody say anything about the audio quality with decent headphones? I have pretty good Shure headphones, which don't work very well with my current phone, which is one of the reasons I consider buying the U8800. I'd change my mind if I knew the quality was bad.
So, how are the quality overall and how loud does it get (I usually don't listen very loudly).
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sound is normal but you always can hear empty noise..the current noise.. there is no silence when there is no audio (yes it shuts down audio after 5secs of no audio) but it always have noise if you listen at more then 25% of volume then you will not hear it but if you listen at night you can clearly hear it.

Tommixoft said:
Sound is normal but you always can hear empty noise..the current noise.. there is no silence when there is no audio (yes it shuts down audio after 5secs of no audio) but it always have noise if you listen at more then 25% of volume then you will not hear it but if you listen at night you can clearly hear it.
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I agree with this. It's very apparent when listening to audiobooks, not a big problem with music though.

I can confirm the "current" noise too....

wolfson chip or not, the s4 sgs3 has great sound quality

I know there is a big question as to whether the American gs3 has the wolfson audio chip. I can tell you right away that using poweramp with the rock preset produces some of the best audio I have heard out of any media player. Just so you understand my level of audio history I currently own Shure e500 pth, Phonak audeo pfe 232, klipsch x10, velodyne vpulse, ultimate ears super fi .5 eb, klipsch s4, shure se535, klipsch image one, audio technica m800. I have owned cowon d3, j3, ipod touch ipod classic, toshiba gigabeat s60. I am just giving you guys a heads up that it also is powerful enough to drive all the headphones (except for th Audio technica) without an amp. Hopefully this post helps a music fanatic like myself.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda premium
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda premium

That's good to hear. My exynos version is very soft driving my Akg monitors directly.

Yes it sounds great except the noise floor is high. A lot of noise on quiet music. Great dynamic range though.

stonew5082 said:
Yes it sounds great except the noise floor is high. A lot of noise on quiet music. Great dynamic range though.
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Yeah, it's almost obscenely noisy. With rock music I'm not sure I'd ever notice, but anything with quiet parts drives me batty. Hopefully it is an internal amp setting that can be tweaked in software (my volume level is often at 2 or 3 so trading volume for reduced noise is an easy choice).

Even the speaker is nice and crisp! Also the APT-X on this phone and my Bluetooth dongle...is great!

I do like the audio output, it sounds great in my car. I didn't realize how bad my SGS2 was until I tried this! I'm actually NOT disappointed by the earbuds Sammy bundled with the phone! They deliver a surprisingly punchy bass. They are a warmer tone I think, so they don't sound as crisp as they could. I just don't feel like the music is *right there*, it's like it's behind a small film or wall. It's close, just not going directly into my ear. It's like it's going through a filter. Anyway. Good quality output in my opinion, as least much better than it could have been.

With poweramp and my IEM's (Earsonic SM-3) I don't notice any background noise at all. This is the best portable digital player I've had, and I can't wait to get a 64gb card for it. Definitely beats spending $200 on 64gb of permanent storage from apple.
gary

yokken said:
I do like the audio output, it sounds great in my car. I didn't realize how bad my SGS2 was until I tried this! I'm actually NOT disappointed by the earbuds Sammy bundled with the phone! They deliver a surprisingly punchy bass. They are a warmer tone I think, so they don't sound as crisp as they could. I just don't feel like the music is *right there*, it's like it's behind a small film or wall. It's close, just not going directly into my ear. It's like it's going through a filter. Anyway. Good quality output in my opinion, as least much better than it could have been.
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I agree the included headphones aren't bad at all. I installed awesome beats app on mine via the diet ics rom and the music sounds wonderful!

I used my Sennheiser HD280s with and without my Fiio E5 amp and it sounded relatively the same. But for some reason, it sounded somewhat empty, lacking body... Almost translating what I noticed with the earbuds to the headphones. Maybe the DAC really isn't that good.

cloudyphiz said:
With poweramp and my IEM's (Earsonic SM-3) I don't notice any background noise at all. This is the best portable digital player I've had, and I can't wait to get a 64gb card for it. Definitely beats spending $200 on 64gb of permanent storage from apple.
gary
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See I'm the opposite. I noticed more background noise (mostly during quiet parts of songs) with poweramp than the stock player, but the eq and interface in poweramp is just so much better that I can't leave it.

Voltage Spike said:
Yeah, it's almost obscenely noisy. With rock music I'm not sure I'd ever notice, but anything with quiet parts drives me batty. Hopefully it is an internal amp setting that can be tweaked in software (my volume level is often at 2 or 3 so trading volume for reduced noise is an easy choice).
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We need headphone amp control. If Supercurio doesn't support us gs3 I'm going to kill myself or write a control app.

stonew5082 said:
We need headphone amp control. If Supercurio doesn't support us gs3 I'm going to kill myself or write a control app.
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You're making me want to pull down Samsung's kernel source to see if I can identify what is bound to be an initialization problem...
Actually, just tried the phone on a less-sensitive set of earbuds, and the noise is much less noticeable. I'll have to give the in-box earbuds a try for comparison.

My iem's are relatively efficient and with aiff files the sound is fantastic. I'm using poweramp with eq off. Clarity, resolution, inner detail and fidelity in spades.this is going to make me buy a 64gb card. Or four.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

poweramp with DVC (direct volume control) enabled gives distortion, especially with the tone adjustments such as the bass control, so far the best sound i have heard is the stock player with the rock setting or custom with the rock settings and bass turned up a bit, i hope poweramp devs resolve the distortion as i really don't think the problem is the phone itself, and for what its worth i am very picky with my music and have tested the settings with high end audio technica headphones and my competition subs in my car.

BlazingBeast7 said:
poweramp with DVC (direct volume control) enabled gives distortion, especially with the tone adjustments such as the bass control, so far the best sound i have heard is the stock player with the rock setting or custom with the rock settings and bass turned up a bit, i hope poweramp devs resolve the distortion as i really don't think the problem is the phone itself, and for what its worth i am very picky with my music and have tested the settings with high end audio technica headphones and my competition subs in my car.
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turning off DVC did help some

sure turning dvc off helps but at that point using the stock player produces better sound so as of now poweramp is a no go for me.

Could be lounder
The sound quality is great, was pleasantly surprised with the included earbuds and fit kit. Big improvement from the S-II.
One gripe is the volume. While louder than the S-II it is still a little quieter than I refer. Anyone know how to boost the volume?

I still slightly prefer the GS1 with voodoo sound, but this phone does better than I was expecting and absolutely rapes the GS2 on audio quality. Great for what I use it for.

toiler1 said:
The sound quality is great, was pleasantly surprised with the included earbuds and fit kit. Big improvement from the S-II.
One gripe is the volume. While louder than the S-II it is still a little quieter than I refer. Anyone know how to boost the volume?
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hearing aids?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

Good tip on the stock music player. I never even thought of trying it. Much better sound than my other apps.
Looking for a hearing aid app after I find my bifocals.
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Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium