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Audio quality of the Nexus One

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

No one listens to music on their Nexus One!?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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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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.

Audio output reviews and opinions

Im interested in your opinions of the audio output through earphones or headphones.
Post some reviews, personal reviews
Here is a review i found that goes in depth about the M8 audio abilities
http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_m8-review-1062p7.php.
I took some time listening with yamaha eph -100s and the amp is powerful, nice sound stage and very clean. I think it sounds better with boom sound off on some tracks.

Coming from the Lg g2 i am really impressed with the volume and quality of the audio output to earphones

How loud is minimum volume?, I know the max is load but does that mean minimum volume is also high, I like listening to music quietly at night, is the base volume much higher than your other phones?

ryanjsoo said:
How loud is minimum volume?, I know the max is load but does that mean minimum volume is also high, I like listening to music quietly at night, is the base volume much higher than your other phones?
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It is pretty low, from my experience boom sound makes it a lot louder. It might be good to turn it off for night listening.

With my original HTC One M7, one of the speakers was always just a tad louder than the other (same with 1 replacment and an in-shop model I tested).
Has anyone with an M8 encountered this?

I often Played my one (m7) through my docking station via headphone to aux ... it was excellent sound. I tried the M8 today and had to turn down the bass and volume on my Dock. This is not a bad thing though, as the sound quality IMO is better. is has a deeper fuller sound to it. NO complaints from my end. This is just my opinion and hope it helps. The Docking station used is a Kickers iK500 :good:

Xzeven said:
With my original HTC One M7, one of the speakers was always just a tad louder than the other (same with 1 replacment and an in-shop model I tested).
Has anyone with an M8 encountered this?
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I have the m7, have the same ****ty problem, stops me from enjoying the amazing speakers.. Hopefully the m8 will be perfectly balanced..
Sent from my One using Tapatalk

car audio aux
running pandora, audio was clear through the car dock, boomsound EQ overwhelmed my systems bass capabilities with M7 settings on the bose head unit, had to adjust down the bass , if i had a dedicated sub and clipped the low levels to the 6x9's up front i dont think it would have even with max vol. after turning down the base level on the head unit it sounded as good or better than M7, or One-x w/beats EQ. no complaints over all just some re adjusting for the new EQ to match the car.
front speakers were loud and deep for their size, very impressed with their low level capabilities. the low volume was low enough for night listening both through head phones and int speakers.
my only question comes down to the head phones it came with, they sound good but feel like cheap plastic crap and are styled to look like fake beats by dre buds. why even include them in the box? i think its safe to say that if you are going to buy a flag ship device and care about head phones at all, you probably have a favorite pair of head phones already. just seamed pointless to cheapen the included equipment with BS ear buds...

r.wardell2 said:
running pandora, audio was clear through the car dock, boomsound EQ overwhelmed my systems bass capabilities with M7 settings on the bose head unit, had to adjust down the bass , if i had a dedicated sub and clipped the low levels to the 6x9's up front i dont think it would have even with max vol. after turning down the base level on the head unit it sounded as good or better than M7, or One-x w/beats EQ. no complaints over all just some re adjusting for the new EQ to match the car.
front speakers were loud and deep for their size, very impressed with their low level capabilities. the low volume was low enough for night listening both through head phones and int speakers.
my only question comes down to the head phones it came with, they sound good but feel like cheap plastic crap and are styled to look like fake beats by dre buds. why even include them in the box? i think its safe to say that if you are going to buy a flag ship device and care about head phones at all, you probably have a favorite pair of head phones already. just seamed pointless to cheapen the included equipment with BS ear buds...
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Judging by the fact that every review about the stock M7 & M8 buds have been met with nothing but praise seems to disagree with this comment. You'd be surprised how many people use the stock buds, and base their opinion on audio quality having used only the stock sets. It is a good thing in my opinion and I hope HTC continue to include headsets.

Galactus said:
Judging by the fact that every review about the stock M7 & M8 buds have been met with nothing but praise seems to disagree with this comment. You'd be surprised how many people use the stock buds, and base their opinion on audio quality having used only the stock sets. It is a good thing in my
opinion and I hope HTC continue to include headsets.
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I think most will agree that the m8 has great audio quality, but using the stock buds will no doubt greatly limit your ability to fully take advantage.

My Review
I gave my thoughts on audio experience in this video if your interested

daddydark said:
I think most will agree that the m8 has great audio quality, but using the stock buds will no doubt greatly limit your ability to fully take advantage.
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What I'm trying to say is that it is better that HTC supply their ear buds that are half decent, rather than not including ANY. As long as the ones they supply sound better than the majority of the competition then I don't see why anyone would have a problem with that. Better they make the effort rather than not in my opinion

r.wardell2 said:
running pandora, audio was clear through the car dock, boomsound EQ overwhelmed my systems bass capabilities with M7 settings on the bose head unit, had to adjust down the bass , if i had a dedicated sub and clipped the low levels to the 6x9's up front i dont think it would have even with max vol. after turning down the base level on the head unit it sounded as good or better than M7, or One-x w/beats EQ. no complaints over all just some re adjusting for the new EQ to match the car.
front speakers were loud and deep for their size, very impressed with their low level capabilities. the low volume was low enough for night listening both through head phones and int speakers.
my only question comes down to the head phones it came with, they sound good but feel like cheap plastic crap and are styled to look like fake beats by dre buds. why even include them in the box? i think its safe to say that if you are going to buy a flag ship device and care about head phones at all, you probably have a favorite pair of head phones already. just seamed pointless to cheapen the included equipment with BS ear buds...
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You might be the only person who complains about getting free things. I'd rather have the "alright" earbuds (I definitely use better ones) as a backup than not have them at all. I was overall satisfied in the few instances where I used my M7 earbuds considering they're just included earbuds that are typically awful from most other OEMs.

jtc276 said:
You might be the only person who complains about getting free things. I'd rather have the "alright" earbuds (I definitely use better ones) as a backup than not have them at all. I was overall satisfied in the few instances where I used my M7 earbuds considering they're just included earbuds that are typically awful from most other OEMs.
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This

jtc276 said:
You might be the only person who complains about getting free things. I'd rather have the "alright" earbuds (I definitely use better ones) as a backup than not have them at all. I was overall satisfied in the few instances where I used my M7 earbuds considering they're just included earbuds that are typically awful from most other OEMs.
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i agree that its better to have "alright" than none at all but as far as complaining about free... nothing is free, you paid for that **** one way or another. they sounded good in my opinion, detter than most OEM for sure, but they "felt" cheap. if i was a company that rests its worth on making only the highest quality most ascetically pleasing devices and to top that, one of my biggest selling points is my audio, i would have wrapped those drivers in a better quality material, or just left them out entirely and saved my self a few dollars per unit... even the cheapest sounding sealed ear buds you can buy at walmart have higher quality externals. they clearly spent money on the internals for the head phones but went el-cheapo on the feel, just pointless IMO.
did this take away from the device for me? no. but it was the only thing in the box that didn't immediately shout "quality!". presentation means a lot in marketing and how the average consumer feels about the device before they even turn it on. just look at how much companies spend on packaging. HTC probably spent more on the fancy shaped cardboard box than those headphones and the box has nothing to do with the quality of the device. but if that phone their charging $650+ for came out of generic brown box or a bubble pack, you bet your ass that would make people question it before they even turned it on.
if your an xda member you are already more educated in tech then the majority of consumers, and that's why it doesn't matter to you, but if you knew nothing about a device before you walked into the store you might care a little more about presentation.
im not trying to say any one is wrong or argue but thats my opinion, coming from a business and marketing stand point it didn't make sense.
sorry to continue off topic.

r.wardell2 said:
i agree that its better to have "alright" than none at all but as far as complaining about free... nothing is free, you paid for that **** one way or another. they sounded good in my opinion, detter than most OEM for sure, but they "felt" cheap. if i was a company that rests its worth on making only the highest quality most ascetically pleasing devices and to top that, one of my biggest selling points is my audio, i would have wrapped those drivers in a better quality material, or just left them out entirely and saved my self a few dollars per unit... even the cheapest sounding sealed ear buds you can buy at walmart have higher quality externals. they clearly spent money on the internals for the head phones but went el-cheapo on the feel, just pointless IMO.
did this take away from the device for me? no. but it was the only thing in the box that didn't immediately shout "quality!". presentation means a lot in marketing and how the average consumer feels about the device before they even turn it on. just look at how much companies spend on packaging. HTC probably spent more on the fancy shaped cardboard box than those headphones and the box has nothing to do with the quality of the device. but if that phone their charging $650+ for came out of generic brown box or a bubble pack, you bet your ass that would make people question it before they even turned it on.
if your an xda member you are already more educated in tech then the majority of consumers, and that's why it doesn't matter to you, but if you knew nothing about a device before you walked into the store you might care a little more about presentation.
im not trying to say any one is wrong or argue but thats my opinion, coming from a business and marketing stand point it didn't make sense.
sorry to continue off topic.
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I really don't think the average consumer would look at the earbuds and think "Wow. This totally ruins this unboxing experience for me." And, really, who cares what they look like? I own a pair of Sony MDR-V6's that sound better than probably any earbuds out there and let's just say that those things aren't the most aesthetically pleasing accessory in the world. They're made of nice, durable materials, but they're huge, bulky, and have a cord that is almost comically long (they're studio headphones). Did I care about any of that after I listened to music through them? Not at all. And, considering the included HTC earbuds will be the best pair a majority of consumers will ever own (yes, sadly), I'm sure they'll get over them being made of plastic.

jtc276 said:
I really don't think the average consumer would look at the earbuds and think "Wow. This totally ruins this unboxing experience for me." And, really, who cares what they look like? I own a pair of Sony MDR-V6's that sound better than probably any earbuds out there and let's just say that those things aren't the most aesthetically pleasing accessory in the world. They're made of nice, durable materials, but they're huge, bulky, and have a cord that is almost comically long (they're studio headphones). Did I care about any of that after I listened to music through them? Not at all. And, considering the included HTC earbuds will be the best pair a majority of consumers will ever own (yes, sadly), I'm sure they'll get over them being made of plastic.
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your probably right about them being the best the average consumer has ever had, guess i didn't think of it that way. i suppose im just a sucker for aesthetics, and feel. probably why i like HTC's products so much better than Samsung or LG, as capable as they may be.

impressed with the quality of the audio, great device!

Honestly love this phone. I love the front facing speakers. But audio out of BT and the headphone jack leave something to be desired coming from an iPhone5. iOS devices just excel with audio volume and quality. Over Bluetooth the highs don't sound crisp at all and the bass seems over processed or there is too much bass boost or something. Can't put my finger on it but I wish the quality was the same as the iOS devices. Aside from that I love the boom sound when watching movies or videos through the speakers
Sent from my 831C using xda app-developers app

Speakers are great.audio quality through the headphone jack is great especially with beats headphones. Bluetooth I can't speak for since I never use it.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using xda app-developers app

Note 10+ ear buds / HORRIBLE, please advise.

For the first time since I got my Note 10+ I had a rather long phone call to make. For convenience I pulled out the AKG original supplied ear buds. I was horrified to realize the quality was so awful and the volume was so low (even with the hand set maxed out) i could not use them. After the phone call I tried a few media audio files and even connected to Youtube to see if it was a cell issue. IT WASN'T !
What I can hear is Teetsy-fly tinniness, NO base, little or no mids and volume? You would need to be in a closet to carry on any conversation while using these ear buds. They are a total loss !
All I can say is these ear buds are the worst i have EVER tried to use and I can say they are TOTALLY NOT USABLE FOR ANY USE.
Wondering if I have a bad pair (defective in some way) or if others are finding what I have ?
Please advise if you can.......

ohana said:
For the first time since I got my Note 10+ I had a rather long phone call to make. For convenience I pulled out the AKG original supplied ear buds. I was horrified to realize the quality was so awful and the volume was so low (even with the hand set maxed out) i could not use them. After the phone call I tried a few media audio files and even connected to Youtube to see if it was a cell issue. IT WASN'T !
What I can hear is Teetsy-fly tinniness, NO base, little or no mids and volume? You would need to be in a closet to carry on any conversation while using these ear buds. They are a total loss !
All I can say is these ear buds are the worst i have EVER tried to use and I can say they are TOTALLY NOT USABLE FOR ANY USE.
Wondering if I have a bad pair (defective in some way) or if others are finding what I have ?
Please advise if you can.......
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Go play with the equalizer and see if it sounds better to you. Also turn on Dolby Atmos.

ReconDonkey said:
Go play with the equalizer and see if it sounds better to you. Also turn on Dolby Atmos.
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All i can say is that besides what has been suggested above, it looks like it is faulty.
These AKG are imho very good (and i am rather difficult when it comes to sound quality), they are far better at least than the samsung iconX buds that i don't touch anymore.
Probably a problem with yours?? Or maybe you have some 3rd party sound apps ?

I'm very picky when it comes to sound quality, and I think the AKG earbuds sound pretty good (not as good as my Bose earbuds, but still). They get a little crunchy at high volume, but seeing as they get loud as hell, I don't use them maxed out lol.
Definitely sounds like a problem with your set. Probably just faulty, it's bound to happen with mass produced products. Maybe Samsung support can help you out somehow?

Your earbuds must indeed be defective, the ones that came with my note are good, not excellent, but good enough, as for max volume, you could try volume booster in playstore from developer goodev, it really works, system-wide, wired and bluetooth

Or buy the Samsung adapter and use your old ones

I agree with the OP, I was shocked how bad these were coming form AKG. I assumed since there were no comments on them here, that it was just accepted that they were crap. I don't really care as I only use my Icon X's and my Sony M3s but was surprised at the poor quality. I've turned on Dolby A, and adjusted bass up on the equalizer and there is no bass, the highs are soooooo tinny. I would never actually use these to listen to music except as last resort on a plane if my M3's died. Even my Icons are 100X better sounding than the AKG included.

gottahavit said:
I agree with the OP, I was shocked how bad these were coming form AKG. I assumed since there were no comments on them here, that it was just accepted that they were crap. I don't really care as I only use my Icon X's and my Sony M3s but was surprised at the poor quality. I've turned on Dolby A, and adjusted bass up on the equalizer and there is no bass, the highs are soooooo tinny. I would never actually use these to listen to music except as last resort on a plane if my M3's died. Even my Icons are 100X better sounding than the AKG included.
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I think yours are faulty OR 3rd party sound app messes with it, or a soft update that has not been done or whatever...
I'm a long time musician, i truely pay attention to sound quality and i think they are pretty good (for in-ears small earphones). I have the iconX 2018 and AKG are miles above them for sound quality.
Always thought iconX were crap btw... i like them because i can feel free, no wires, but your statement seems rather strange to me

Most likely you need to use the larger ear tips. No seal = no bass

mafy31 said:
I think yours are faulty OR 3rd party sound app messes with it, or a soft update that has not been done or whatever...
I'm a long time musician, i truely pay attention to sound quality and i think they are pretty good (for in-ears small earphones). I have the iconX 2018 and AKG are miles above them for sound quality.
Always thought iconX were crap btw... i like them because i can feel free, no wires, but your statement seems rather strange to me
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Icon X are not great sound, that's my point. The AKGs SUCK. My backup workout BT headphones,(wireless Jelly's) are better than these things.
BTW Icons sound much better with on board mp3 than over BT, which is how I use most of the time as I use my M3s when not in the gym
Ear caps have same seal as my icons, and I ran all the firmware upgrades. Defective? maybe, but that just shows poor QC from AKG.
again, I don't care as I don't use wired headphones EVER, just expected them to sound better.

ohana said:
For the first time since I got my Note 10+ I had a rather long phone call to make. For convenience I pulled out the AKG original supplied ear buds. I was horrified to realize the quality was so awful and the volume was so low (even with the hand set maxed out) i could not use them. After the phone call I tried a few media audio files and even connected to Youtube to see if it was a cell issue. IT WASN'T !
What I can hear is Teetsy-fly tinniness, NO base, little or no mids and volume? You would need to be in a closet to carry on any conversation while using these ear buds. They are a total loss !
All I can say is these ear buds are the worst i have EVER tried to use and I can say they are TOTALLY NOT USABLE FOR ANY USE.
Wondering if I have a bad pair (defective in some way) or if others are finding what I have ?
Please advise if you can.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably have a defective piece. Mine sound great out of the box. I have Galaxy Buds the wireless ones and to be honest, the AKG wired ones sound WAY better than my buds. I have Dolby Atmos on and tweaked the equalizer a bit.

eagleone1 said:
You probably have a defective piece. Mine sound great out of the box. I have Galaxy Buds the wireless ones and to be honest, the AKG wired ones sound WAY better than my buds. I have Dolby Atmos on and tweaked the equalizer a bit.
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Yep... I have been very surprised at the great sound these little AKG pull out. It is balanced and much details can be heard, miles better than my gear iconx 2018.
They are also way better as well as any piece of headset that came stock with my previous smartphones inc. samsungs.
Sound on youtube with AKG is very nice too, so is netflix etc. No problem with them, so you probably have faulty ones.

I think they sound decent I honestly prefer the AKGs I got with my S9+ however.

I think these ones soumd better than those my note8 came with, even the quality of materials feels a little better

To be honest, I feel the AKG earphones that come included are actually pretty good. Are they the best? No. Are they the worst? No.
Like others mentioned, probably a defective pair, software/config issue, source of music or even type of music can be causing the issue of poor sound quality. People who want to spend $50 or more for better sound quality, that great...but the included earphones are more than enough for the the general public. Yes, Samsung can include better earphones, but then they would probably increase the price of the Note 10. I would rather Samsung not include any earphones and give me a $10 discount, I'm sure the general public wouldn't agree with me on that.
To advise you...all accessories do have manufacturer warranty. IF they sound as HORRIBLE as you are describing, contact Samsung and they will replace with a new pair. Or you can spend money buying a better pair.