Develop Bugs

[Q] MP3 sound quality issue

It could just be my phone, but has anyone noticed their music sounding like it have really really small breaks in the sound, almost like the music is crackling? I've even found this when listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio app.
Though I may have found a fix, at least for the music. Originally my music was 320bit and i had just copied a few songs to my GN. When I started to listen to the music i would get crackling like sound or where the music would have almost a stuttering factor. Well i was getting annoyed enough with the crackling I almost went back to my MP3 player. Though I decided to try it one last time but i wanted my entire playlist. Now my playlist was about 200 songs and across many directories so I wasn't going to try search the whole thing for individual songs. Using winamp I copied them all into one directory, unfortunately when Winamp does this it converts them all back down to wav files so I had to reconvert them.
My software for converting back to MP3 is older and only able to convert up to 256bit. I was thinking it was going to be just as annoying, but low and behold my music plays without a glitch, or crackle or break or what ever.
It's almost like the phone can't handle the higher quality of music. Now again this could just be me so I thought I would ask. Unfortunately my Sirius Satellite Radio app still crackles.
Anyone else find this?

also if u have used an app like volume+ to increase your speaker volume, or modify your volume that could be the issue

Good thought, though i never actually got around to installing the app so we can eliminate that as a cause.

Oh no, lossy to lossy transcoding! Those poor files.
I haven't had any issues playing 320kbps MP3 CBR or MP3 V0. If anything they sound better than on my old iPhone 3GS, especially with DSPManager.
Do they play without any distortion on your PC? Are you using the same headphones?
Perhaps playing around with the equaliser settings in DSPManager would improve the output.

Have had the same problem but only with one album so far, it is 320bit but I also have other albums at 320bits that play ok. Strangely the problem doesn't occur if the screen is on!

Give me to this weekend and let me hoot the phone up to my input on my PC maybe i can let you all hear what I hear.

rajathiraja said:
I agree with first answer..........
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I would agree too if I had actually installed volume+

I don't think it's to do with the bit rate as such but the encoder, or at least the encoding settings, that you used. Almost all my mp3 are in 320 kbps, CBR and VBR, and they all play fine.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

the phone seems to clip a lot when the volume is at the top two levels. sounds bad. setting it to 3rd highest level or less makes it sound normal and smooth

Not sure if they fixed this with 4.0.3 yet, but it's a known issue that any SAMPLE RATE (not bit rate) other than 44.1KHz can cause stuttering when the phone is in screen-off low power mode. Some EQs that cause the cpu to work have been known to fix it. Also changing the buffer size in PowerAmp has also I think. There are a few threads about it. I have recreated it with another persons 48KHz sample rate mp3. All mine are 44.1KHz and I've never had a problem with any of them, they all sound fantastic.
Sent from my GSM Galaxy Nexus on TMoUS using Tapatalk

Problems with Equalizer

Hi,
most of the time, I'm using my phone for listening to music, and since I own Galaxy S4 Mini (GT-I9195), I'm thinking about throwing my 320€ worth smartphone in trash. Mostly I'm listening to rock music where basses are very important. When I was using stock firmware, everytime I increased the bass level, the music volume diminished. It came so far, that when I was traveling from work to home by bus, I could hear what people around me were talking to, even though my volume level was on 100%. Then I somehow increased the volume of my phone (I found a thread how to do that here on xda), but then the next problem became annoying. Almost every time I skipped the song, the equalizer settings went back to default. So every time i had to press menu button --> settings --> equalizer, and then basses went back to normal. Sometimes equalizer doesn't work at all, until I reboot my phone.
So I tried with Cyanogenmod today, and I'm even more disappointed with music quality. Every time I try to turn on bass boost, the music starts to crackle, even though bass level is only on slight. I'm using 120€ worth Sony headphones, which work great on any other device, so the problem definitely isn't in headphones.
Does anyone deal with the same problem? I just don't know what to do anymore ...
Thanks in advance & sorry for bad English.

m_010411 said:
Hi,
most of the time, I'm using my phone for listening to music, and since I own Galaxy S4 Mini (GT-I9195), I'm thinking about throwing my 320€ worth smartphone in trash. Mostly I'm listening to rock music where basses are very important. When I was using stock firmware, everytime I increased the bass level, the music volume diminished. It came so far, that when I was traveling from work to home by bus, I could hear what people around me were talking to, even though my volume level was on 100%. Then I somehow increased the volume of my phone (I found a thread how to do that here on xda), but then the next problem became annoying. Almost every time I skipped the song, the equalizer settings went back to default. So every time i had to press menu button --> settings --> equalizer, and then basses went back to normal. Sometimes equalizer doesn't work at all, until I reboot my phone.
So I tried with Cyanogenmod today, and I'm even more disappointed with music quality. Every time I try to turn on bass boost, the music starts to crackle, even though bass level is only on slight. I'm using 120€ worth Sony headphones, which work great on any other device, so the problem definitely isn't in headphones.
Does anyone deal with the same problem? I just don't know what to do anymore ...
Thanks in advance & sorry for bad English.
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Click to collapse
Hello there.
First off, if you are going to throw S4 mini into trash, you can instead send it to me and I'll pay for the delivery, as I simply love the phone.
Secondly, I think the problem is you and not the phone. I have S4 mini and I love listening to music. As anyone who loves music (proffesionaly or unproffesionaly) knows, basses ARE NOT THE ONLY (and most) important thing, even in rock music. And as far as basses goes S4 mini does a very good job, as it does in other spectrums of music playback. The volume decreases a bit if you set it to bass, because the equalizer decreases the treble value, thus you get the perception of decreased laudnes. Although I would recommend you get your hearing checked, as the laudness of S4 mini seems to be laud enough for others.
If you really like to listen to high quality music and are a true audiophile, than you wouln't be listening to the music on S4 mini on the first place, but would go for a high quality professional grade mp3 (or FLAC) player with an external amplifier.
Therefore I conclude that you are just a bass freak who wants to complain, but please feel free to prove me wrong.

My opinion and advice may not matter since I don't own a s4 mini (would love to have it)
But did you tried sound alive from Samsung?
Just increase the bass and some clarity then reverb and room size (if you like) then the bass is on a good level, wanting more bass than that would only get in the way of the guitars part!!
Or try viper4android if you're on a desperate situation...
Can I ask something here?? Is the smart volume feature any good??

@Shiningb
Firstly, thanks for your answer. I realized that everything works perfectly with stock Samsung Music app (which doesn't use build-in equalizer, but uses it's own one). The quality of sound is really great.
Only problem is that I prefer Google Play Music which is much clearer, easyer to navigate and overall has nicer interface. But there I deal with equalizer problem; the sound is great at the moment, the equalizer is set the way I want, basses are great, but then suddenly (without particual reason) equalizer just goes flat and the volume increases for about 30% rapidly which is a great way to go deaf. Then I have to restart equalizer app, and it starts working normally again for about next 10 minutes. Until I won't find the solution, I have to use stock music app, ok, i can get along with this
I googled about the issue and I found that it is quite common with S4 users. I heard about ViPER4Android today, and I'm going to try it right now, thaniks for your advice !
And sorry, I don't know if smart volume feature works good, I use mp3gain app on my PC which equalizes volumes of all tracks on the same level and works perfectly.

m_010411 said:
@Shiningb
Firstly, thanks for your answer. I realized that everything works perfectly with stock Samsung Music app (which doesn't use build-in equalizer, but uses it's own one). The quality of sound is really great.
Only problem is that I prefer Google Play Music which is much clearer, easyer to navigate and overall has nicer interface. But there I deal with equalizer problem; the sound is great at the moment, the equalizer is set the way I want, basses are great, but then suddenly (without particual reason) equalizer just goes flat and the volume increases for about 30% rapidly which is a great way to go deaf. Then I have to restart equalizer app, and it starts working normally again for about next 10 minutes. Until I won't find the solution, I have to use stock music app, ok, i can get along with this
I googled about the issue and I found that it is quite common with S4 users. I heard about ViPER4Android today, and I'm going to try it right now, thaniks for your advice !
And sorry, I don't know if smart volume feature works good, I use mp3gain app on my PC which equalizes volumes of all tracks on the same level and works perfectly.
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This happens with equalizer because the system kills it from the ram
So a great solution is to use viper...
But you need root and put the apk of viper into system/app set permissions to rw-r-r
Like this it won't be killed, because it will make part of the system app
By the way what kind of music do you hear??
I'm a sound freak with viper, I tunr things like crazy until I reach the perfect sound (for a time!)
I really wanted to know how the smart volume works since the I9070 won't have a official 4.2.2 update :'(

Thanks for fast answer.
I installed ViPER4Android, but everything I try to change, doesn't have any effect on sound. I don't know what is wrong ...
Could you help me with Viper? I know how to put a file in system/app and set permissions.
My phone is rooted I'm using CWM and stock android from Samsung.
My favorite artists are 30 Seconds to Mars, Billy Idol, Bring me the Horizon, Foo Fighters, HIM, Kings of Leon, Oasis, RHCP, etc.
Sry, probably really won't. I owned I9000 before I9195 and it was the best phone i ever had, even better with Cyanogenmod

[Q] Crackling/Popping sound coming from my galaxy tab pro's speaker.HELP!

So i bought my wife a tablet for school. However we keep hearing this crackling sound/popping sound coming from the speaker when playing youtube videos, playing games such as jungle heat. It is really annoying because when we are watching videos we can hear the sound. If anyone could help us, I really appreciate it. This is the 3rd time we exchange this device but the result is still the same. I dont know if its just me. Thank You!

Can you post some music or a movie from youtube where you ARE sure you hear a lot of crackling? Just so we can check it out ourselves?
I have yet to experience this at all. It is weird if you have had that issue on 3 devices now. Do you have bass boosts or equalizer on?
/CuraeL

CuraeL said:
Can you post some music or a movie from youtube where you ARE sure you hear a lot of crackling? Just so we can check it out ourselves?
I have yet to experience this at all. It is weird if you have had that issue on 3 devices now. Do you have bass boosts or equalizer on?
/CuraeL
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, If i make a video of it you wont be able hear it. Here is the link were people having the same problem. I cant post a link because im still new to this forum but if you go to google and type random noise coming from speaker. Just click the first one and those people having the same problem as me
I can make a video but like i said you wont be ablet to hear it. Its just a random popping sound coming from the speaker. If i record it, you wont be able to hear it because the sound of the game. The popping sound comes from playing intense video games such as jungle heat and wathing youtube videos. Thanks for you reply and i really appreciate it

krabbster said:
Thanks for the reply, If i make a video of it you wont be able hear it. Here is the link were people having the same problem. I cant post a link because im still new to this forum but if you go to google and type random noise coming from speaker. Just click the first one and those people having the same problem as me
I can make a video but like i said you wont be ablet to hear it. Its just a random popping sound coming from the speaker. If i record it, you wont be able to hear it because the sound of the game. The popping sound comes from playing intense video games such as jungle heat and wathing youtube videos. Thanks for you reply and i really appreciate it
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Give me a youtube movie or clip of music. Not your recording mate. Just something original that makes it pop. A name of a song or a video. Doesn't matter. Do the people you talk about have the same tablet as you? Or random?

CuraeL said:
Give me a youtube movie or clip of music. Not your recording mate. Just something original that makes it pop. A name of a song or a video. Doesn't matter. Do the people you talk about have the same tablet as you? Or random?
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oh sorry lol. Any movies on youtube. Transfomer 1080p. Any 1080p videos. Also intense games like jungle heat,yugioh game. Yea they have the same problem also. I also check the one in bestbuy and still having the popping sound.

krabbster said:
oh sorry lol. Any movies on youtube. Transfomer 1080p. Any 1080p videos. Also intense games like jungle heat,yugioh game. Yea they have the same problem also. I also check the one in bestbuy and still having the popping sound.
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Had to go to work, I'll get back to ya in roughly 8 hours, sorry, lol.
/CuraeL

CuraeL said:
Had to go to work, I'll get back to ya in roughly 8 hours, sorry, lol.
/CuraeL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok no problem

If it is a hardware issue then Samsung should repair it if it is within the year warranty. Best buy should cover it if it is pretty new as well.
Are you running stock System? Have you checked to make sure you are up to date? Install Kies3 on your computer and see if it finds any updates.

bowserm said:
If it is a hardware issue then Samsung should repair it if it is within the year warranty. Best buy should cover it if it is pretty new as well.
Are you running stock System? Have you checked to make sure you are up to date? Install Kies3 on your computer and see if it finds any updates.
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I replace my tablet 3 times already and its still doing the same thing. I sent my device to samsung and they replace the hardware and still doing the same thing. The device is also updated to the latest firmware. Im really really sad because whenever watching a video and playing games, i can hear the popping sound. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much!!!

krabbster said:
I replace my tablet 3 times already and its still doing the same thing. I sent my device to samsung and they replace the hardware and still doing the same thing. The device is also updated to the latest firmware. Im really really sad because whenever watching a video and playing games, i can hear the popping sound. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much!!!
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I don't hear any popping or crackling sounds from my tab pro 8.4 I have tested with its internal Speakers, The Headphone jack, and using a bluetooth headset / headphones.
Does it have this problem when you plugin headphones or is it only the speakers? if it does it on all audio outputs then its most likely some kind of interference happening first try the headphone jack which is analog like the speakers.., bluetooth is digital with a2dp so it probably won't happen on that (though this could also be a temporary solution to use bluetooth external speaker or headphones)-
If it is interference then you need to find the source and hope it is coming from your own house , best way to find interference is to either unplug everything you can find or go to the house circuit breaker box and switch off the main switch this will turn off all electric in your house then use the tablet and play back a video /audio you have saved to the internal memory and see if it still happens.

Many people have this problem (including me). Any time the app you are using has something that emits sounds (even if you have muted your sound), you can hear crackling based on how heavy the CPU is working. It is most likely interference coming from the CPU. Not much anyone can do about it, except for Samsung. It would probably need a rework of the components though, that's why a simple replacement of the speakers will most likely not work. As soon as you put something in your 3.5mm jack though, the crackling should stop. (Most likely because the speakers get turned off physically instead of just being digitally muted) So really, the best we can hope for is we can find someone who may be able to create an app that emulates the headphone jack being used whenever the sound is muted. At least the crackling stops when the sound is muted then.

otyg said:
I don't hear any popping or crackling sounds from my tab pro 8.4 I have tested with its internal Speakers, The Headphone jack, and using a bluetooth headset / headphones.
Does it have this problem when you plugin headphones or is it only the speakers? if it does it on all audio outputs then its most likely some kind of interference happening first try the headphone jack which is analog like the speakers.., bluetooth is digital with a2dp so it probably won't happen on that (though this could also be a temporary solution to use bluetooth external speaker or headphones)-
If it is interference then you need to find the source and hope it is coming from your own house , best way to find interference is to either unplug everything you can find or go to the house circuit breaker box and switch off the main switch this will turn off all electric in your house then use the tablet and play back a video /audio you have saved to the internal memory and see if it still happens.
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It happens when im playing intense gaming such as jungle heat. Whenever i play jungle heat for 15 mins straight pop sound comes. When i plug an earphone i dont hear anything.
Trya playing jungle heat for 15 mins you might hear a popping sound coming from the speaker.

I have Samsung tab s5 e .. I have similar issue whenever watching netflix ,hotstar ,or some spotify songs ..I'm hearing like a cracking sound at one of the top left speaker ..I tried going to safe mode ..but still able to hear it ,,did a factory reset ,for a while it was good but later on it started .I'm not hearing this sounds in headphones ,it's really annoying ..while watching videos with intense music ..

[Q] Popping Sound when using head phone amp

I get a popping sound when I'm using my headphone amp. It happens when I switch to a different Youtube video or skip forward or back when using the Dish Anywhere App. It also happens when starting a video or switching apps. It doesn't while playing a video, just when you switch to a different video or forwarding a video in certain apps.
It's very annoying because it sort of loud and lowering the volume doesn't lower the popping sound. I watch sports on my tablet via Dish Anywhere app and every time I do a 30sec skip to skip the commercial I get a popping sound. Without the amp, you can hear the pop faintly but it's so low it's not annoying.
If never used an headphone amp, get one. It makes the sound experience awesome. Music sounds great, movies sounds great and you would have no idea how much bass can come out of an earphones. You can feel the bass in your ears like you had subwoofers hooked up. I have a Fiio amp.
btw, I just got my Tab pro 8.4 upgrading from a Nexus 7 2013 for a bigger screen and did not have this problem at all.
Anyone had this problem, if yes, where you able to fix it. I have my sound configured not to make any sounds when touching the screen and tried turning off the system sound.
Thanks in advance.

Deca4 said:
I get a popping sound when I'm using my headphone amp. It happens when I switch to a different Youtube video or skip forward or back when using the Dish Anywhere App. It also happens when starting a video or switching apps. It doesn't while playing a video, just when you switch to a different video or forwarding a video in certain apps.
It's very annoying because it sort of loud and lowering the volume doesn't lower the popping sound. I watch sports on my tablet via Dish Anywhere app and every time I do a 30sec skip to skip the commercial I get a popping sound. Without the amp, you can hear the pop faintly but it's so low it's not annoying.
If never used an headphone amp, get one. It makes the sound experience awesome. Music sounds great, movies sounds great and you would have no idea how much bass can come out of an earphones. You can feel the bass in your ears like you had subwoofers hooked up. I have a Fiio amp.
btw, I just got my Tab pro 8.4 upgrading from a Nexus 7 2013 for a bigger screen and did not have this problem at all.
Anyone had this problem, if yes, where you able to fix it. I have my sound configured not to make any sounds when touching the screen and tried turning off the system sound.
Thanks in advance.
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Maybe it's the device itself..., I also have terrible sound quality when I connect it to my car via the audio-jack. (CM12 with PowerAMP)

DAC Fix - Use the HI-FI DAC Everywhere!

Hi everyone! I've just developed an app that should fix the issue of the DAC only being usable in some apps.
Now the ESS DAC/AMP can be used in any app on your phone, including Google Play Music, YouTube, Spotify, and probably many more that I haven't tested yet.
Here's the Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phascinate.lgv10.dacfix
It can be set to automatically turn on when the phone boots up. My goal was to make this a "set it and forget it" kind of fix. All you have to do is enable it once, and it should be fixed for good. Of course, I've only just released it so it may have some bugs. But so far it's working fine on my end.
If you have any issues or it's not working correctly, feel free to tell me here! Hope it works for you guys! I'm really loving the sound quality on this phone.

doing back up now so I can try this, very exciting news if this works
Seems like it's working in Neutron amp which has been my pain point ever since buying the phone.
Thanks!
*tested with youtube and DI.fm both seem working with the DAC with the fix

wow big deal, thanks

Tested with YouTube and XiiaLive Pro and the volume definitely changes when toggling the hifi option on and off.

It is working on Poweramp. Thanks.
Sent from my LG-H961N using Tapatalk

Interesting... Can the developer tell us a little more about how this works? I really didn't think it would be as simple as an app like this making it work.

jasonb1985 said:
Interesting... Can the developer tell us a little more about how this works? I really didn't think it would be as simple as an app like this making it work.
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The concept is actually quite simple! Immediately when music starts playing, it plays some completely (and I mean completely! We don't want any background noise, do we?) silent media which tricks the phone into turning the DAC on.

Phascinate said:
The concept is actually quite simple! Immediately when music starts playing, it plays some completely (and I mean completely! We don't want any background noise, do we?) silent media which tricks the phone into turning the DAC on.
Click to expand...
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Assuming things were bit perfect to begin with, will the signal still be bit perfect?

jasonb1985 said:
Assuming things were bit perfect to begin with, will the signal still be bit perfect?
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Click to collapse
In theory, it should be. Because it's set to be silent, Android should simply completely skip over the silent media. In my own testing it doesn't seem to have had any negative effect whatsoever on sound quality. Though I'd love to see the frequency output in something like Audacity if anyone wants to test it.

Phascinate said:
In theory, it should be. Because it's set to be silent, Android should simply completely skip over the silent media. In my own testing it doesn't seem to have had any negarive effect whatsoever on sound quality. Though I'd love to see the frequency output in something like Audacity if anyone wants to test it.
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Alrighty. Right now I'm on my lunch break at work listening with a Brainwavz HM5. Things seem good here, but I'll test tonight with my AKG Q701.
I really only use the stock music app and TIDAL which both worked without your fix, but I'll test everything out more tonight. My only concern would be a possible negative effect with apps that already worked fine, for example a silent track playing along with the regular music making things possibly no longer bit perfect, or extra battery drain for some odd reason. I'll test sound quality with my Q701 tonight and see if I notice any extra battery drain. All I can confirm at the moment is that toggling hifi on and off definitely changed the volume with apps that it didn't before.
Good work.

jasonb1985 said:
Alrighty. Right now I'm on my lunch break at work listening with a Brainwavz HM5. Things seem good here, but I'll test tonight with my AKG Q701.
I really only use the stock music app and TIDAL which both worked without your fix, but I'll test everything out more tonight. My only concern would be a possible negative effect with apps that already worked fine, for example a silent track playing along with the regular music making things possibly no longer bit perfect, or extra battery drain for some odd reason. I'll test sound quality with my Q701 tonight and see if I notice any extra battery drain. All I can confirm at the moment is that toggling hifi on and off definitely changed the volume with apps that it didn't before.
Good work.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, that was my concern too. But everything seems to be working fine.
Feel free to post your results with the Q701's as soon as you test them!

Good job, works as intended. Thanks.
Few suggestions: Show status of app running in background from top pull down menu. Also the ability to enable disable from there. Otherwise still 5 out 5. :thumbup:

man you are a genious and this is the best ever app i appreciated this year

Does this app need root permission?
Edit: nvm. Just installed and gonna test..

Thanks for the effort mate. I'll also give it a try though as a non-audiophile person, I fail to notice Hi-Fi DAC effect anyway.
for those who can distinguish the difference between DAC enabled/disabled, can you tell that's even distinguishable with the QuadBeat headphones? I'm trying with some FLAC and various music players but other than then "higher volume" I cannot notice an improvement sound wise.
I do try with the QuadBeat and Bose QC25. I also just purchased a Piston 3. Do you think it's my headphones who are not enough to make a difference?
Can you maybe recommend a song where you can clearly distinguish the performance between DAC enabled or disabled?

Amazing app, thank you very much.
Now I challenge you to check the other audio limitation of the phone.
The normal and high gain mode of the Amp depending the impedance of the headphones at the moment is completely automatic.
That's OK with IEM but there are problems with big headphones with low impedance. In those cases the normal gain mode delivers not enough power (volume) and being able to select or force the high gain mode would be a perfect solution.
At this moment the high gain mode is triggered with headphones with an Impedance over 50ohm.
Thanks anyway for this app.

Phascinate said:
Yeah, that was my concern too. But everything seems to be working fine.
Feel free to post your results with the Q701's as soon as you test them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be no negative effects on SQ. Not sure on any change in battery life yet. Good so far.

Fantastic! At first I thought there would be a big battery impact since there is silent media playing, but then I remembered that only happens when there is actually music playing - fantastic implementation. Hopefully there is no battery drain. Works here for Google Play Music, so thank you very much!!!

it is working great with spotify here
I do notice the clarity with dac on and off.. however i'm using free spotify so the music stream is not high quality.
I only did notice a bug not sure because of this app or not but it never happen before.
So today i plug my phone to aux in my car in the morning everything work great.
in the afternoon i plug aux again to my car and this time my 4G or 3G writing on my signal bar is gone until i restart. This never happen before i install your apps, but seems i can't repeat this bug.

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to make this app. I just tested it with Player Pro and it seems to be working (Player Pro did work before but only if you didn't install the DSP pack). I did have one question. I noticed that the EQ is not working in Player Pro. You can open the EQ, but changing any of the frequencies or selecting a preset has no effect on the audio. Does that mean that the other audio features like Replay Gain also won't work with the app installed?