Develop Bugs

[Q] music on the htc desire HD. SRS or Dolby mobile?

hey guys,
I am a happy owner of the new HTC DHD (about 5 days now and never had problems like the sensor) and I love to listen to music on my phone, but when you listen you (kinda must) choose between SRS and Dolby mobile. I don't know what tecnical is better but (on the standard htc earphones) I like the SRS more (it's has more bass in my oppinion) but I was wondering what you guys think of it.
greetz, niels
(keep up the good work on developing!!)

Not using the bundled headphones but SRS is definitely my preference!!

If it sounds better with either of those on than just stock with no EQ, its sound quality must be truly terrible, and I'll await the GSMarena review with interest for objective measures.

NZtechfreak said:
If it sounds better with either of those on than just stock with no EQ, its sound quality must be truly terrible, and I'll await the GSMarena review with interest for objective measures.
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I have to be honest and say that I was surprised at how poor the 'stock' sound quality was considering the marketing spiel regarding the Dolby/SRS enhancements. My cynical mind led me to the thought they purposely left the standard sound so unrefined as to make you laud the qualities of the Dolby/SRS enhancements!

i never used the stock earbuds but i can say for sure that with dolby mobile my music (hardstyle) sounds a lot better, i have really great bass!!

Are the headphones that come with it better than iphone/ipod headphones?
I'm don't want to walk around in public with my Sennheiser HD555s

I may have overstated the lack of quality of the enhancement free playback setting, tried it out a little longer today and it's not that bad. Guess listening to the enhanced sound constantly made it seem that way!

NZtechfreak said:
If it sounds better with either of those on than just stock with no EQ, its sound quality must be truly terrible, and I'll await the GSMarena review with interest for objective measures.
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**Mod edit - insulting content removed***The sound quality with SRS on is EXCELLENT, the other modes are quite rubbish. I'm using Sennheiser HD 555's with a Auzentech Forte 7.1 soundcard with a very good headphone amplifier and the quality on DHD with SRS on is comparable to the computer, even when playing FLAC files.
E: Only with max volume the DHD clearly lacks the required power output to run the Sennheisers, but at that level you're seriously risking your ability to hear so it is quite sufficient in overall.

mazzuli said:
**Mod edit - insulting content removed***The sound quality with SRS on is EXCELLENT...
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Ahum... I use the Shure SE 500 series - in my opinion the best earphone on the market today - but I have to say that SRS Wow HD (like Dolby) on the DHD is not an option for me. Although I like the surround effect, the bass is way (and I mean way) to loud. Pitty that there's not an option to change the bass setting (like there was/is on the good old WinMo devices).
I think SRS and Dolby really aren't an option for head- or earphones with a pronounced bass. HTC should look into this. The SRS/Dolby option on their WP 7 devices has the same problem btw.
For me the only option is the EQ ...

appelflap said:
Ahum... I use the Shure SE 500 series - in my opinion the best earphone on the market today - but I have to say that SRS Wow HD (like Dolby) on the DHD is not an option for me. Although I like the surround effect, the bass is way (and I mean way) to loud. Pitty that there's not an option to change the bass setting (like there was/is on the good old WinMo devices).
I think SRS and Dolby really aren't an option for head- or earphones with a pronounced bass. HTC should look into this. The SRS/Dolby option on their WP 7 devices has the same problem btw.
For me the only option is the EQ ...
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Yeah the DHD could use an EQ while SRS is enabled, but that doesn't change the fact that with my HD 555's the quality is excellent. The HD 555's have a very neutral sound so I think they are quite good for comparing amplifiers. Maybe SRS on the DHD originally outputs way more bass than it should, but on my headphones it sounds perfect, possibly because not enough power is output from the phone to make that over loud bass. I mean surely a fine headset requires way more power to run than two earplugs.
If HTC adds an EQ while SRS is enabled it will be perfect, but even if I don't it's still perfect for _me_.

I got SRS on, it has the most bass in my opinion, I use the Apple earphones for it.
I mostly listen Hardstyle, euro/harddance, and music like coldplay on my DHD, and SRS is definitely the best! my earphones even vibrate of the bass lol

mazzuli said:
You should just shut up when you don't know what you're talking about. The sound quality with SRS on is EXCELLENT, the other modes are quite rubbish. I'm using Sennheiser HD 555's with a Auzentech Forte 7.1 soundcard with a very good headphone amplifier and the quality on DHD with SRS on is comparable to the computer, even when playing FLAC files. So please, just be quiet when you clearly don't know anything about it.
E: Only with max volume the DHD clearly lacks the required power output to run the Sennheisers, but at that level you're seriously risking your ability to hear so it is quite sufficient in overall.
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Wow, you're really aggressive and rude. You might want to check that attitude if you plan on being a member of the community here for any length of time.

I prefer the SRS over the Dolby Mobile, but I don't really like either that much.
The Dolby does some really weird things that make music sound completely different and artificial. It does wonders for bass, but at the risk of completely distorting the rest of the sound (particularly vocals).
SRS is a good "enhancer" of sound, but again it alters the music in a way I'm not really comfortable with.
Much prefer the Equaliser at this point.

Really like the Dolby Mobile because at the moment there are no seperate enhancements that match the atmospheric enhancements this gives when watching films or music Gives it depth IMO)
Still waiting for an Android Dev to attempt to transfer over Sony's "MegaBass" or "Clear Bass" enhancements.

my friend says SRS for music, Dolby for videos.

i tried both, and honestly they give unrealistic sound imo. i keep them off.

SRS is best for music

Umm where can I find these settings? Looked all over my phone, sorry for been noob!
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

power amp is the way forward

cattleprod said:
power amp is the way forward
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Maybe you can help me out here?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=867053

Bad music quality

So, I recently got my wildfire S and I've been having fun with it.
The only problem I found was the sound quality of music which I play on my headphones. There is COMPLETLY no bass, like it would have been filtered.
You cant hear drums nor bass on it.
Does anyone have any ideas why?
thanks in advance

Sounds all good to me. Get some decent headphones/earphones. That's what makes the main difference. Also using a music player with an equalizer helps.

Its sound good to me as well, even with supplied headphone.
manage to change your headphone to got a better quality! however I think gain of output power is not very high in WS. But quality is quite well.

The music quality is *ok*. It's not the best, and the maximum volume is very low, but it's good enough. I had to install an Equalizer to get a decent max volume, and that improved things a lot.
Though why the hell the default music player doesn't have a built in EQ is beyond me. Android/HTC is really pretty crap when compared to the usability of the iPhone. If companies using Android don't start stepping up their game, Apple is going to steamroll them all.

Apple has already been steamrolled by Android. HTC will start using beats technology. Which will be good because I have the beats studio and I can't reach the best quality with the phone. That's the point where the bass actually moves the headphones on my head haha.

music audio processor

what chip is in this phone? i've heard it sounds better than the Yamaha in the GS II. is it Wolfson or anything people say is good like that? i get mine in 10 hours, but i don't want to take it apart. i will be turning off Beats Audio and listening to lossless files with normal sound through expensive headphones, so i'm wondering if i will be happy. if i'm not, i will add another name to my bad list with the Yamaha chip. thanks!

brent8577 said:
what chip is in this phone? i've heard it sounds better than the Yamaha in the GS II. is it Wolfson or anything people say is good like that? i get mine in 10 hours, but i don't want to take it apart. i will be turning off Beats Audio and listening to lossless files with normal sound through expensive headphones, so i'm wondering if i will be happy. if i'm not, i will add another name to my bad list with the Yamaha chip. thanks!
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One google it to find out what chipset your phone has. Second using beats audio is the whole point of listening to music. And without that it still gives you good sound. Do your research first before getting a phone
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

It uses the on board audio on the tegra as I've seen on the files for example is alsa files been given a tegra name but could be something else but just assume it's a nvidia chipset.
Sound is ok not bad maybe slightly better than the Yamaha but not as good as the Wolfson.
Also this phone had aptX for high quality streaming via Bluetooth. I've got my Bluetooth receiver yesterday which also has aptX and will be testing it over the next few days with my iems which are pricey themselves.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

NoobTerminator said:
One google it to find out what chipset your phone has. Second using beats audio is the whole point of listening to music. And without that it still gives you good sound. Do your research first before getting a phone
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
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Beats Audio is not a panacea for sound quality. All it does is essentially bass the boost and volume a bit. As a result, mids and highs suffer from the 'enhancement.' Just because its from the 'Beats' brand doesn't mean it has to boost sound quality. Beats headphones in general aren't exactly spectacular, and are insanely overpriced for what they offer as it is.
Its more of a marketing gimmick which equates to little more than a preset equalizer.
Many audiophiles prefer to disable the 'sound enhancements' these vendors provide, so that they can listen to their music as it should sound originally, or with their own equalizer tweaks.
So no, 'listening to beats audio' isn't the whole point of listening to music.

poofish said:
Beats Audio is not a panacea for sound quality. All it does is essentially bass the boost and volume a bit. As a result, mids and highs suffer from the 'enhancement.' Just because its from the 'Beats' brand doesn't mean it has to boost sound quality. Beats headphones in general aren't exactly spectacular, and are insanely overpriced for what they offer as it is.
Its more of a marketing gimmick which equates to little more than a preset equalizer.
Many audiophiles prefer to disable the 'sound enhancements' these vendors provide, so that they can listen to their music as it should sound originally, or with their own equalizer tweaks.
So no, 'listening to beats audio' isn't the whole point of listening to music.
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Yes you are right in what you say. It is just another equalizer. But still a good one to have and another reason in why this is a good phone to have. So for me at least Beats does make the phone sound better. Hence why i advised to use it. But my apologies sometimes i fall for the marketing gimmick instead of using common sense

Poor Music Quality

Just came from the S3 and loving this phone .....except for the audio. The sound is a bit boomy and not as crisp as the S3. Tried DSP enhancements on Player Pro but no good.
Are there any software mods or apps without root to improve the audio quality?
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app

Acid mod!
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sandshrimp said:
Just came from the S3 and loving this phone .....except for the audio. The sound is a bit boomy and not as crisp as the S3. Tried DSP enhancements on Player Pro but no good.
Are there any software mods or apps without root to improve the audio quality?
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app
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^^Acid mod
dsp manager
beats audio
or try a market app called music volume eq
that my frnd actually works

Soul reaper said:
^^Acid mod
dsp manager
beats audio
or try a market app called music volume eq
that my frnd actually works
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Starting the rooting process. Will try those mods. Just hope its not a hardware issue.
Thanks

Just installed the Beats Mod off the market and it helps tremendously.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium

He wants crispness, not artificially added bass that distorts the actual music. Stop recommending beats for clarity. I can't believe how horribly marketed Bests is to the point where people actually believe it produces studio quality sounds. If anything, Bests will make the sound even MORE boomy, which OP says he doesn't want.
OP, have you tried Poweramp? Its a great music player, I find the EQ adjustments there to be better than DPS manager. You can use some of the presets if you don't want to manually adjust them.
What headphones are you using? It helps to know what you have this connected to; the clarity issue may be there.
I don't use my phone to listen to music, but I haven't had any clarity issues the times I decided to test some songs on it here and there. I already have a Rockboxed Sansa clip that's portable enough that I don't particularly care about saving space by having my phone play music as well.

Acid mod causes a few problems with audio. At least the one I flashed. It made my speakerphone button during calls mute them even after ending them and a reboot was required. I feel it might have been the build.prop edits causing this but I didn't bother checking.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium

WASSHOI said:
He wants crispness, not artificially added bass that distorts the actual music. Stop recommending beats for clarity. I can't believe how horribly marketed Bests is to the point where people actually believe it produces studio quality sounds. If anything, Bests will make the sound even MORE boomy, which OP says he doesn't want.
OP, have you tried Poweramp? Its a great music player, I find the amp adjustments there to be better than DPS manager. You can use some of the presets if you don't want to manually adjust them.
What headphones are you using? It helps to know what you have this connected to; the clarity issue may be there.
I don't use my phone to music, but I haven't had any clarity issues the times I decided to test some songs on it here and there. I already have a Rockboxed Sansa clip that's portable enough that I don't particularly care about saving space by having my phone play music as well.
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See the thing is, its my OPINION!! I can recommend Beats but he does NOT have to use it. In MY phone it produces a really good quality without too much bass. Some speakers in some phones may be different. Sorry for touching a nerve on the Beats mod but its an opinion.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium

Doing some research for you, I'll test out a little myself. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noozxoidelabs.eizo.rewirepro&hl=en Noozcoidelabs seems pretty decent so far, but you may need a lot of adjusting to get it to sound the way you want it to. I'll test it a little more and give you my opinion on it.
Looking more into it, does anyone know what Beats audio mod actually does to the sound? I was under the assumption and previously saw it simply slapped on a pre EQ'd sound signature that gave the overly bassy sound the Beats headphones give out; but looking into it, it doesn't seem like anyone is really sure what it does other than "makes things sound better"
Anyone know what it actually tweaks? From a technical standpoint. If it's not just an EQ slapped onto your sound system-wide then I'm not sure what it's doing. I can try it myself to test how it sounds, but I'm skeptical due to Beats being notoriously bass heavy and the marketing technique being to throw out buzz words and use celebrities to give the illusion to ill informed customers that you're actually getting the best quality you can find for you cash. They do spent a lot in designing things to look pretty though.
Spoiler: Monster is the company that makes Beats, that same company that tried to sell you $100 4 foot HDMI cables back when HDTVs were coming out and becoming more affordable. They always do this kind of marketing to lure in suckers to buying their overpriced products that don't actually give the quality people are marketed to believe.
Edit: Still testing Noozxoide, it does a lot for sound stage, and clarity. Setting the Surrouundsound ES Processor to the highest levels makes it a bit off, but picking Studio or Studio II works just fine for it. Don't go too wild with the tweaks, keeping them at moderate seems to give the best results. I'm still tweaking around with it.
Vfan23 said:
See the thing is, its my OPINION!! I can recommend Beats but he does NOT have to use it. In MY phone it produces a really good quality without too much bass. Some speakers in some phones may be different. Sorry for touching a nerve on the Beats mod but its an opinion.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium
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It's nice to have an opinion, but looking at it from a technical standpoint the sound produced from it can still be inferior even if you think it isn't. I'm sorry I touched a nerve on your opinion by trying to give the OP advice from a non-opinionated standpoint. Regardless if someone thinks a pair of $300 Beats cans offers the best sound; looking at the specs it's easy to see that they're outperformed by headphones that are at a fraction of their price.
If the OP asked for a sweet gaming rig and you told him to get a horrible GPU that would have difficulty handling many modern games; and said "well it worked for me, and the games look just fine to me" that'd be accurate as an opinion, but it wouldn't be accurate from a technical standpoint at all. You may find the 9 FPS to be better than the 60 FPS he'd get elsewhere, but it doesn't mean that it's a good recommendation. If I went against your recommendation, pointed out the flaw in why it was a bad recommendation, and then provided an alternative that would better suit his needs, it'd be pointless to backlash at me. Telling him your pre-built Dell works wonders for you in your gaming endeavors doesn't help lead him in the right direction if it isn't what he's looking for.
Of course he doesn't have to use it, but if he's asking what to use and everyone is telling him the same thing; of course he's going to give it a shot. I'm trying to save him some time by giving him insight into alternatives. If he asks what my alternatives do, I'll give him specific details so he can come up to a conclusion on his own.
Your speakers on your phone? Are you using your phone speakers to listen to music? I'm pretty sure the manufacturer is using the same speakers on all of our phones if we're all using the Sprint LGOG. Are you using the Sprint LGOG? That aside, you're most likely not going to get good music quality from the built in speakers regardless of what tweaks you do.
Although I did more research on the Beats audio mod after my post. It doesn't modify sound in the way I previously believed it did, but at the same time I don't know how it modifies sound, so I for now I'll withhold any thoughts on it since anything I say about it at this point will be opinionated. If it really did just throw in the Beats EQ signature system wide, then even if you think it sounds more clear, it wouldn't be more clear. Since it doesn't, I have no idea if what it does actually does improve sound quality anymore. Given Dr.Dre's previous track record with audio "enhancement," I'm skeptical to even give it a shot. If I learn what it actually does and how, I'd be able to provide better insight into it. I'll do my own individual tests on it after, but for now my focus is elsewhere.

See GPU won't change across the boards, that's invalid. Speakers on the other hand CAN sound different. My wife and I both had brand new iPhone 5's from sprint, my speaker sounded clearly better than hers. The point I'm making is there could be something physically wrong with his speaker because first, the sound quality on mine after using the Beats Mod (not the headphones) is clearly better. Comparing a piece of silicone (gpu) to a physical speaker is not a good comparison. The Adreno 320 are going to perform 99% the same on all the LG Optimus G phones, the speaker may vary upwards to 15-20% difference from what I've gathered by comparing a few of our phones.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium
---------- Post added at 03:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:46 PM ----------
Regardless, we gave our advice for the OP and we should quit before this turns into a flame war. I recommended Beats because it didn't just add bass and you said to stay away from Beats because of their popularity and the fact that they are too marketed and overpriced (which has nothing to do with the mod). But goodluck OP and try a few different mods.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium

Vfan23 said:
the speaker may vary upwards to 15-20% difference from what I've gathered by comparing a few of our phones.
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I can't imagine what would cause such a discrepancy if LG is using the same hardware in all of their phones. The only thing I could think of would be physical damage to the speakers altering its sound performance. I don't see how comparing a GPU is too different. They're both physical parts manufactured with set specs. II doubt LG has a batch of different speakers they're using, or that their speakers are being made differently. I'd assume they're all uniformly assembled, with uniform parts.
If you're comparing headphones, you look at their specs just as you would for computer parts. A pair of Sony MDR-V6's should sound the same across the board unless you have a faulty pair. Any difference in sound between them would more than likely be caused by burn in rather than them simply sounding different despite being made of the same things using the same methods.
Regardless, you're most likely not going to get studio sound quality and clarity from the built in speakers anyway, so I was assuming OP was talking about making it sound better with headphones. Even if he is talking about the speakers, any changes with audio should affect the phone system-wide and be useful for both the built in speaker and external headphones.
I'm not trying to provoke a flame war, but I see nothing wrong with discussing the differences between audio modifications on the device. Debating =/= flaming, it's only flaming when the discussion devolves into what's essentially just a bunch of posters throwing ad hominems at each other.
Indeed it is up to OP to decide, but the best way to decide is to have more information.

Well I've given my personal advice. So good luck OP. Hopefully you don't have a borked speaker bud.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda premium

With any audio mod, the output has to be tuned to the output device. You could have a $10K audio rig and if it's not tuned to your speakers or headset it can sound like junk. Even if it is tuned, your audio source has an affect on quality as well. Tuned $10k rig + 15kbps source = garbage.
Change the speakers/headset/source and the game starts all over again. This doesn't even take into consideration the environment or how everybody hears things differently. This still doesn't address that issue that not all devices reproduce sound the same and not all audio mods are created equal.
If I can find it, there was a write up where a Beats Audio phone was run through a spectrum analyzer. Straight from the jack or matching Beats headphones it looked good but try a set of Sennheiser headphones and garbage quality.

Which is why it would be better to have an audio mod where you can adjust and tweak things more to your liking. Using something that has a lot of options to tweak may be a little intimidating, but in the end it's the best way to get the most out of your sound experience. If you can find a spectrum analyzer that'd be great.
Edit: Looked it up more, it seems my initial assumptions were correct. Most sources are telling me "'Beats Audio' is a branded equalizer that boosts the bass, among other things."
Essentially this could be done with any EQ. If it's just their own bass heavy EQ thrown over, then that doesn't exactly boost clarity and may actually drown the sound in bass (listen to a nice piano piece with bass turned up and hear how muddy it gets). As of now I've only found one source that stated it does something different, but hasn't stated what exactly it does, while every other source points to it being a preset EQ.

Try Awesome BEATS for me is Awesome
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Wasshoi, you are correct. The beats audio software is no more than preset compression, eq, and delay. All these combined alter the source material. These same settings can be achieved through any audio manager if those settings are available and adjustable. However, beats claim that it will be heard "as the artist intended" is a complete farse. In order to listen to music as the artist intended you would need to utilize software that gave a completely flat frequency response with no compression or "widening" affect which is created by phase cancelation and stereo delays.
As Loki said above, even with a flat frequency response in a device, headphones also have hyped or altered frequency responses (usually show on higher end head phone packaging). So if you bump up 5k by 10db to compensate for insane amount of low end on your beats headphones and listen to the same track on a different pair of flat headphones. The second pair would sound thin and tinny as a result of the increases level of 5k not because of the lack of low end.
I really love Ac!d v5 because the noxide manger that is flashed allows you to mix the affected signal with the original using a parallel processing technique that gives you the best of both dry and affected signal. However, i was able to get the same results with beats mod that Loki included in imperium 2.0.1.
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I'm curious to know why they got rid of Dolby from ics to jb
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foxsdaddy67 said:
I'm curious to know why they got rid of Dolby from ics to jb
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app
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Dolby is something they probably paid a licensing fee for. Just like Beats. Maybe the contract was up. That is just a wild guess though.
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I installed Jellylifeless ROM that came with Beats. The audio is 10X better than before. The boomy went away with Bluetooth streaming, though it seems to still be there with 3.5 audio jack. No matter. I use the Bluetooth audio streaming and am satisfied with the output. Much better than the S3 now.
Have to say that I was never a big fan of Beats Audio mods on the S3. But this one sounds great.
Thanks for the all advice.

sandshrimp said:
I installed Jellylifeless ROM that came with Beats. The audio is 10X better than before. The boomy went away with Bluetooth streaming, though it seems to still be there with 3.5 audio jack. No matter. I use the Bluetooth audio streaming and am satisfied with the output. Much better than the S3 now.
Have to say that I was never a big fan of Beats Audio mods on the S3. But this one sounds great.
Thanks for the all advice.
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lol im on lifeless n didnt even realize it! i have tried almost all audio mods on my sgs2 (before upgrading) and awesome beats/beats audio if n e thing made it slightly more clear (could be placebo effect) but second the person who mentioned nooz! its awesome. try it! and acid audio does have issues with certain devices.. and to the person that mentioned dolby.. its still lingering in some audio mod i cant remember right now. possibly sony xloud and clear audio soundmod with walkman player? could be wrong.. as far as without roit, i think there are a few (volume+) but they just make the phone sound louder by increasing volume but still stock sounding if not worse.. it does also depend in the audio file your listening to, your headphones or whatever your listening to it on and even the device itself
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app

Help! my old M7 Sounds better than my new HTC 10, whats going on?

Hello I am new to the forums.
I am very obsessed with good audio quality, this was the main reason why I got this new phone, but so far I have been very disappointed by its audio capabilities while listening with Bose Sound True earphones.
The first thing I did on my 10 was to download poweramp, configured my equalizer to a standard warm sound signature, then set bass to medium and sparkle to a little pass medium. Basically the same sound equalization I have on my m7. Next, I configured the headphone profile; in this case I end it up with the volume at the the lowest for all frequencies, as I was able to faintly hear all of them from the low to the highs at the lowest volume. Afterwards, I set up the dobly headphone effects to HTC ear buds.
I was very disappointed by the outcome, the low frequencies have a small distortion and the highs sound washed off. I no longer hear all the instruments playing as the lows drown more subtle instruments and the highs have very little clarity to them, they just sound loud and obnoxious. My m7 with Beats on picked up all the subtleties in my music and the lows had this pleasant fullness to them. The 10 is louder but that's about it, it now even hurts my ears when I listen past medium volume. How is this possible? Isn't the DAC on the 10 way better than that of the m7? Could this be faulty hardware? or could it be a software related issue?
Please help me figure out whats going on, I can't believe that my old phone sounds better. I almost feel like asking for a refund at this point. I have also tried using a plain sound player such as google music that has no EQ on it, but I can still pick a slight distortion, the m7 doesn't sound as loud in this case but it just sounds much cleaner.
PS. Just for reference all my tracks are 320kbs and I listen to mostly Metal.
Thanks for your help!

Try lossless flac, you'll probably find the DAC up converting 320mp3's hightlights the defects
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

Turn off BoomSound/beats if you're really obsessed with audio. They absolutely destroy the balance to the point of it sounding like I'm listening with a beats headphone.
The 10 drives my cans better than any phone or tablet that I have/had. I listen to EVERYTHING and it handles every genre perfectly.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

richii0207 said:
Turn off BoomSound/beats if you're really obsessed with audio. They absolutely destroy the balance to the point of it sounding like I'm listening with beats headphone.
The 10 drives my cans better than any phone or tablet that I have/had.
What are you using to listen?
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
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Eh, I know many say that it is better to leave the EQ alone, but that is hard to do for me because 1) I most have 320 mp3s and very flew Flacs, some are even at 192k and 128k but thats because I have a very old and extensive library. 2) I do love warm sound signatures XD.
By the way, I am listening right now to Talos principle - Sanctuary in flac and at 0:25 when there are all those low frecuencies it just sound a little distorted, I would say it sounds abnormally loud on my 10, and it sounds clear on my m7. Check out The Talos Principle OST - Sanctuary on youtube for reference, I am prevented from posting outside links due to my newb status.
I use Bose true sound earphones, they are just mid-range phones nothing too special, but they do sound better with my old phone. Could it be this earphones can't handle the 10's frequencies?

Sugetsu1 said:
By the way, I am listening right now to Talos principle - Sanctuary in flac and at 0:25 when there are all those low frecuencies it just sound a little distorted, I would say it sounds abnormally loud on my 10, and it sounds clear on my m7. Check out The Talos Principle OST - Sanctuary on youtube for reference, I am prevented from posting outside links due to my newb status.
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Just had a listen to Sanctuary on Spotify and it sounds very impressive to me.
I'm using Shure 535 and everything sounds crystal clear to me.

There are two settings when headphones are plugged in under the boomsound setting. One is the Dolby headphone effects setting, the other is the custom profile you set up with your headphones. Try turning off the Dolby headphones effects. My HTC 10 can drive headphones like no other HTC product I have owned in the past, and it sounds better to me with the Dolby effects turned off.

Dunno man.... mine sounds freaking amazing.
using a custom EQ (set up with the frequency thing) and I'm just using a cheap set of Skull Candy headphones I use mostly for gaming

@isnoc I think that did away with the distortion! disabling the dobly effects has a positive impact on sound reproduction, the music doesn't sound as loud. However, the m7s bass sounds a little cleaner. It could be matter of sound signatures at this point. Where I really hear the difference is in the song Machine Gunn Eddie by Nitro. The m7 seems to sound slightly better due to the cleaner bass. I was expecting a night and day difference between these 2 phones =_(

Out of curiosity what mods are you running on the m7? When I had mine (still looking for where I left it...) I had zeroinfinity's and some extra buildprop changes and a kernel that supported the audio changes lol. I don't them side by side to test, but in my car and my porta-pro's from the sound I remember the 10 sounds a lot better to me.

Sugetsu1 said:
@isnoc I think that did away with the distortion! disabling the dobly effects has a positive impact on sound reproduction, the music doesn't sound as loud. However, the m7s bass sounds a little cleaner. It could be matter of sound signatures at this point. Where I really hear the difference is in the song Machine Gunn Eddie by Nitro. The m7 seems to sound slightly better due to the cleaner bass. I was expecting a night and day difference between these 2 phones =_(
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You mentioned using beats on your M7. The beats eq exaggerates the bass which is probably what you're hearing. Have you tried turning it off and hearing the difference?
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

Ok I just noticed that my phone distorts at higher volumes, namely anything on medium high or above, no matter the bit rate of the song. This is where bass and highs start to suffer. My m7 plays music beautifully with 0 distortion at all levels. Does anyone else here suffer from distortion problems with the 10? Do I have a faulty phone?
@joeyrushlow I never bothered rooting or isntalling a custom rom on my m7, never saw the need for it. All I use for sound is the included beats audio dsp and poweramp and plays everything beautifully with distortion of any kind.
@richii0207 The m7 without beats audio does sound very flat, it is true that the main characteristic of Beats is enhancing the bass, but it also increase the volume across the spectrum in a more subtle way, in any case I get no distortion and everything sounds crystal clear.

I wonder, other than the EQ setup on the 10, and the potential of the quality of the DAC, there might not actually be a significant difference between DACs. Subtle definitely. Discernable for sure. But a significant difference that the 10 has over past phones is the amplifier driving the headphones. Could you be overdriving your headphones on the 10, and not on the M7? There are many things to consider that I do not have the skill to properly discuss like impedance for example. Or it could be a slight difference in your EQ settings.
I can say this, comparing my M9 to my 10. The sound is very very similar to my ears (disappointing I know right?) with two exceptions. One, the 10's sound is more expansive, or I should say there is more separation, so I know that with better recordings the 10 will sound better than my M9. Two, the 10 has more power at volume. I don't want to say louder, but it is louder, but clearer as well, as the volume goes up. It has more juice than my M9 does. I could dig out my M7, but I expect a similar experience. I like my 10. Perhaps you could listen to one in a store, a live demo one, to see if your phone has an issue.