Stock music player versus poweramp for sound signature - Nexus S General

Man....I can't tell... with the stock music player versus power amp, is there a difference between sound quality? This comparison is with eq and tone controls off in poweramp.
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dman777 said:
Man....I can't tell... with the stock music player versus power amp, is there a difference between sound quality? This comparison is with eq and tone controls off in poweramp.
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there might be.. Try them out and see.
Edit: oops.. I guess if you can't tell it doesn't matter
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if you want differences in sound quality, try a kernel with Voodoo Sound. I recommend Netarchy's 1.2.5a/1.2.8 BFS or CFS. when you flash this kernel, get Voodoo Control from the market

I love the sound quality I get out of powersmp. But then again I haven't tried messing with the voodoo sound stuff.
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zephiK said:
if you want differences in sound quality, try a kernel with Voodoo Sound. I recommend Netarchy's 1.2.5a/1.2.8 BFS or CFS. when you flash this kernel, get Voodoo Control from the market
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^this. Voodoo sound will blow you away.
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ya'll didn't see my signature? can there be a voodoo patched kernel with color only? no.
i wasn't asking for a better sounding qaulity media player. i was asking if there is an actual diff. between sound quality/personality with stock media player versus poweramp(with it's tone and eq settings off).

Voodoo and poweramp is AWESOME. Non voodoo i like lithium player best

dman777 said:
ya'll didn't see my signature? can there be a voodoo patched kernel with color only? no.
i wasn't asking for a better sounding qaulity media player. i was asking if there is an actual diff. between sound quality/personality with stock media player versus poweramp(with it's tone and eq settings off).
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And I wasn't being out of relevance but helping you by telling you to get Voodoo Sound.
Voodoo sound + Poweramp will make cause a eargasm.
So get it. If you don't like the kernel.. you can disable it or revert back to your previous kernel.

How did this topic become "Is Voodoo sound good"? I already have voodoo sound! I have had voodoo sound! THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH VOODOO SOUND. I just want to know if there is a diff. in sound personality between the 2 media players: Poweramp and Stock Media player

Poweramp is much better. It actually has an EQ plus a ton of other settings.
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This still ignores the OP's very good question - we know Power Amp has better eq and interface than the stock player, but does it actually sound better than stock with eq switched off? I tried to compare the two using my Etymotic Research ER4 earphones which are very revealing - for me the stock player sounded a bit muddier than Power Amp with slightly less detail coming through , but saying that it was a smoother sound easier on the ears which may benefit earphones with less bass. Winamp seems somewhere in between but I need to do more comparisons with different music. However good Power amp's eq may be, it is always better to have this switched off if your earphones and source material are up to it.
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Is there really a difference? Aren't they both (all music players for that matter) using hardware deciding and/or Android sound stream api? They should sound the same as if I wrote my own player in a dozen lines, right?
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I think the difference is in how the players are configured for flat response - the stock player, not having any built in eq seems warmer than power amp - this gives it good alround compabilty with a variety of earphones. Power amp on the other hand is less coloured to my ears resulting in a flatter spectrum - I think this is actually more accurate, but less forgiving of poor sources and earphones. Personally I get a better sound from power amp. Voodoo makes both sound fantastic though - easily as good if not better than my X series Sony Walkman.
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I find Power Amp to have a fuller sound (without tone or eq) than stock. It also seems to highlight treble sounds a little better. (I'm no audiophile) Just my opinion that's probably wrong
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phillevy said:
This still ignores the OP's very good question - we know Power Amp has better eq and interface than the stock player, but does it actually sound better than stock with eq switched off? I tried to compare the two using my Etymotic Research ER4 earphones which are very revealing - for me the stock player sounded a bit muddier than Power Amp with slightly less detail coming through , but saying that it was a smoother sound easier on the ears which may benefit earphones with less bass. Winamp seems somewhere in between but I need to do more comparisons with different music. However good Power amp's eq may be, it is always better to have this switched off if your earphones and source material are up to it.
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Yes, thank you.
Here are my findings so far...this is with using only the eq in cm7 rc2. Not using any tone adjustments in the players:
1) Stock- Has the best sound stage and mids. Meaning stereo seperation is really good. However, bass is not as tight as the others and highs not as sharp as the others. The sound signature did have a more full sound(all instruments were fully present without some being muted). This player had the best natural non colored sound also. Missing Que option...big burden for me.
2) PowerAmp- Had the punchiest tightest bass and the sharpest and cleanest highs. Mids were so so. Sound stage(stereo seperation) was the worse of the three. lestioning to regage some detail on instruments were muted since the mids were recessed and sound stage was minimal. The sound signature was the most colored...unnatural(this was with the eq and tone settings off). This had the best GUI interface.
3) Winamp- inbetween the stock player and Poweramp. Although the stock player still had a significantly better sound stage. Interface was ugly. But had good functionality like Poweramp(like que option).
If the stock player had a que option I would just stick with that. Wish it did
I used Super hi pro inner cannal buds to test. I will test again with Shure headphones which will be a better test.

I'd be interested if supercurio had a take on this?
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Really? I'd love a developer's explanation if there is an actual difference in audio stream playback. I just can't imagine any of the devs reinventing the wheel for decoding mp3.
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I feel like PowerAMP has some issues with flat non-EQ playback. Def sounds way off compared to any other players, and devices as well. I can play the same file off PowerAMP, Winamp, stock player, and an MP3-CD, and the latter 3 will sound relatively the same. PowerAMP, on the other hand, sounds quiet, completely lacking mid and bass, and too heavy on the highs

To restate the op's observation that they can't tell the difference, I would still love to hear some objective comparison. With eq off, shouldn't poweramp sound exactly the same?
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I have a very faint memory of hearing something about PowerAmp uses its own decoder? If that's the case, then I can imagine it would sound different. I personally use Rockbox, it uses its own highly efficient and quality decoder. Though, I've not really compared the sound quality to the stock player, can't really say which sounds better.

Related

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.
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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.
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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?
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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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music now sounding very good on my note

Hello
I thought i would share my music experience on the note so far. LIke most i was gutted with the sound quality of the note compared to SGS1 and voodoo sound and poweramp
I still have my sgs1 and have been using it when i know i will be stuck on a train for a while or somewhere where i know i will be listening to music for an extended period. The difference to me when listening to the sgs was that almost every other song made you sit up and notice it rather then just listen to it. Which to me made it significantly better as i just enjoyed listening more.
Long story short. i am on rooted stock firmware 4.04. I have installed the beats audio files and i believe this did make the phone sound marginally better. I have also now installed the voodoo louder app which again has made a difference to the sound(presume because its just made it louder)
The final piece of the jigsaw was neutron music player. I have tweaked eq to my liking to suit my headphones, switched dither on, set resampling mode and switched 64 bit processing on.
Now i think the sound is actually preferable to my sgs. (blasphemy i know ) I wont bore you with exotic description about soundstage and presence and seperation. It just sounds good and i am now prepared to leave my sgs1 at home when i am listening to music.
Obviously the above requires a rooted phone and buying voodoo louder. you can download a trial of neutron player. but if you follow the above then i am pretty sure that you will end up buying it. I did pretty quick.
tested with sennheiser hd595, sennheiser HD215, and Audio Technica ATH-WS50. Its made the latter particulary pleasing sounding as they are my usual travelling headphones.
What kind of audio files do you use?
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[REQ] Volume Boost App

Hi there guys.
First of all apologies if this post will cause any confusion or if someone has asked before.
The volume output on nexus 4 make me feel like I'm actually deaf because of its LOW VOLUME.
Is there any volume boost apps such as the ones used on GNEX?
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slimldj said:
Hi there guys.
First of all apologies if this post will cause any confusion or if someone has asked before.
The volume output on nexus 4 make me feel like I'm actually deaf because of its LOW VOLUME.
Is there any volume boost apps such as the ones used on GNEX?
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Just flash this equalizer and turn up the equalizer settings and you will get louder sounds.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2012575
Compared to the GNex, I thought the N4 was super loud! lol
The equalizer is more of a software side fix. I think the op is referring to something that actually sets the hardware output higher similar to what the voodoo apps do. This results in a cleaner non distorted sound compared to just boosting eq levels.
Volume+?
PaisanNYC said:
Compared to the GNex, I thought the N4 was super loud! lol
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Speaker is actually loud. Tried different sets of top ear pieces and headphones and it was real low.
The DSP manager prescribed above helped tho.
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Smoothface said:
The equalizer is more of a software side fix. I think the op is referring to something that actually sets the hardware output higher similar to what the voodoo apps do. This results in a cleaner non distorted sound compared to just boosting eq levels.
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voodoo works because the inbuilt AMP can be controlled on a wolfson; other software that is universal on all hardware audio solutions like volume+ and others more than likely just adjusts gain.
the DSP manager fix is probably the best all round software based solution as it can be boosted via EQ ( not great cause it can cause clipping), gain adjustments and DRC.
software solutions are not ideal however and i would suggest an external portable amp if your headphones require a hifi level power source, but for most portable gear (Even high end) the N4 is perfectly fine.
The output of the speaker is fine but I definitely notice the volume is lower with headphones then the Gnex. I personally don't like DSP etc as it always makes things sound distorted. The NS with Voodoo was like the best ever sound I got on my headphones.
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coming from a galaxy S II the N4 volume seems much lower for certain things. The in call volume is louder however things like notifications seem lower even at the highest level. Not stoked about it.
Haven't tried it but saw this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34921922
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slimldj said:
Speaker is actually loud. Tried different sets of top ear pieces and headphones and it was real low.
The DSP manager prescribed above helped tho.
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Agreed, notifications are loud, music listening not so much
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Temporary fix for Low Volume
I just received my Nexus a few days ago, and noticed the low volume.THe speakerphone is ok, but music and youtube a bit low. It's funny how the "professional" reviewers say the speaker is loud.
Anyway, I found a temporary fix for the music volume,until Google gets off their a__es and fixes the problem.Download Player Pro Trial from the Play Store.
On the effects menu,crank up the bass and volume knobs ,leave the EQ off. When you turn on the reverb button the volume bumps up a few notches.It works on headphone and speaker volume and it's a nice music player too.I think the full version is 5 bucks.
i think this paid $1 app works, even on franco kernel to increase speaker volume, in my bathroom, music is pretty loud!
its made for faux kernels
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...sMSwxLDEsImNvbS50ZWFta2FuZy5mYXV4c3BlYWtlciJd
I like this app better, It works with a large number of kernels.. even stock
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=aperture.ezekeel.experiencepro
Its been working well for me, also has the added ability to touchwake, for those times when the screen times out.
edit: It will boost speaker and headphones volume. You can also adjust mic gain and a number of other cool shizz. Seriously Check it out
cobyman7035 said:
i think this paid $1 app works, even on franco kernel to increase speaker volume, in my bathroom, music is pretty loud!
its made for faux kernels
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...sMSwxLDEsImNvbS50ZWFta2FuZy5mYXV4c3BlYWtlciJd
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Love this one
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How to boost audio volume?

Since voodoo isn't compatible with the N4 how do I boost the volume?
Is there something similar to voodoo sound?
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asphantix said:
Since voodoo isn't compatible with the N4 how do I boost the volume?
Is there something similar to voodoo sound?
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here
makes my volume considerably louder. It works great.
ADJack said:
here
makes my volume considerably louder. It works great.
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The nexus louder audio mod shown in that thread doesn't work. It just adds an app and changes some equaliser settings and generally makes the sound quality a lot worse.
What we need is something at kernel level to simply increase the volume of the phone like they did on the sgs3.
I wish kernel and ROM Devs would focus on this issue a.little bit because speed and battery life and other placebos aren't the only things people care about. The audio on this phone is Far far too quiet although it is good quality.
biffsmash said:
The nexus louder audio mod shown in that thread doesn't work. It just adds an app and changes some equaliser settings and generally makes the sound quality a lot worse.
What we need is something at kernel level to simply increase the volume of the phone like they did on the sgs3.
I wish kernel and ROM Devs would focus on this issue a.little bit because speed and battery life and other placebos aren't the only things people care about. The audio on this phone is Far far too quiet although it is good quality.
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I feel that the audio coming out on the N4 is much quieter than on any of my previous devices. If you have an N7, you can test this out by setting both devices to the loudest volume setting, setting them to play the same song, and then play the first song while plugged in to your car, then unplug the first device and plug in the second device and play the same song. I have to crank up my car volume double do get the same sound quality. Its really annoying. Is there a fix somewhere that just lets you boost the volume like changing something in the system? I like the native equalizer fine, but the sound is so quiet when plugged into a headphone jack!!

Output volume sucks

So I've recently been using my tablet to play music onto my nice dj style headphones. But output volume and quality is absolutely horrendous. I have to be at full volume to get and reasonably level sound, and then when I'm at that level, everything is very distorted. On my one X which has some beats eq thing, sound is wonderful and much louder. Maybe this is just a problem with stock Android, but I need to find some way to get much higher quality and more importantly louder music. I've tried a few mods available here but they don't seem to do much.
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What mods have you tried. I use awesome beats on my galaxy nexus. If not that trickster mod app has a setting to make the volume high. (Correct me if I'm wrong) I have my galaxy nexus stock and rooted.
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I have tried awesome beats and it doesn't seem to do much. I also tried AC!D mod and for some reason, whenever I started to play audio, my tablet would freeze up
mikel.canovas said:
So I've recently been using my tablet to play music onto my nice dj style headphones. But output volume and quality is absolutely horrendous. I have to be at full volume to get and reasonably level sound, and then when I'm at that level, everything is very distorted. On my one X which has some beats eq thing, sound is wonderful and much louder. Maybe this is just a problem with stock Android, but I need to find some way to get much higher quality and more importantly louder music. I've tried a few mods available here but they don't seem to do much.
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I haven't used much except for DSP, but the audio is just difficult to have it loud. I've found external speakers BT or through audio jack is the only way to go.
Be careful what you try because I've read about people blowing their speaker trying to increase volume. That being said volume+ from the play store worked when it wasn't fighting the other sound mods I had installed. Pimp my ROM app. has some flashable zips that helped. Bottom line its one of the sacrifices that kept the price of the N7 low. Better the speaker to be mediocre rather than the screen. I bought some ear buds and if I want to play it loud for the neighbors I jack in to a stereo. Also a set of desktop computer speakers (sub and two bookshelf) work great with tablets
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I use my N7 speaker to listen to music and get quite surprised and how loud it gets and don't notice any distortion. So I'm not experiencing what you are. Maybe I'm just easily pleased and aren't as passionate about audio quality as others
Sorry to say this but, it will never sound good. Not even with sound mods. The sound chip inside the N7 is just really, really bad. I've tried it with a pair of $900 Shure headphones and nothing can save this thing.

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