Develop Bugs

[Q] Sound quality of HTC vs dedicated MP3 player

Now I am an audiophile first of all, and I love my music very much.
All my songs are at least 320 kbps.
I have a dedicated mp3 for my music, the Samsung YP-P2.
That thing has lasted me like 5 years and the sound is still superb, thanks to the Samsung DNSE 2.0.
Now I have never tried to compare my G2 to my samsung, because I don't have an HTC headset that is matching the quality of my Samsung Bose earbuds, so I don't think it is fair to judge the quality of the sound from the low quality stock earphones HTC gives you.
Now, before I drop another 100 bucks for earphones that are compatible with my HTC, can anyone tell me if I should stick to my Samsung if I want good quality music or is the HTC also very very good?

Ummm why arnt your bose earbuds compatible? I thought any 3.5mm headphone would work?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

What size jack do your bose have? G2 has a standard 3.5mm jack and you can pick up an adapter if your cans are a different size cheaply.
With a pair of jvc's phone sounds at least as good a an ipod classic...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

you might want to download poweramp music player from the market to make your music experience alot better, customize the bass and sound effects just like a dj i love it

According to this thread, sound quality on the G2/DZ is indeed very good - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=848985

androidFTW718 said:
you might want to download poweramp music player from the market to make your music experience alot better, customize the bass and sound effects just like a dj i love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this. Before PowerAmp i found the music to just be "ok" using stock player and even winamp. After i got PowerAmp, and i could actually make tweaks to the eq it works perfectly for me! Definitely worth checking out.

I third this. I was dissapointed with the volume on this device, as I have been with most htc devices, and poweramp helped alleviate this issue.

Gingerbread brings audio api's FINALLY

Sorry to take the other side, but I don't find the Vision as a player to that great. That said, my regulars have been Cowon players (A2, O2, D2), so I'm looking for something better.
With low-impedance IEMs (e.g. my Westones), you'll hear significant base noise when audio playback starts and stops. It's obviously not as bad with rock/pop, but with classical, it's somewhat distracting.
Playback of most music doesn't sound as musical as I'd want it to. It might take some getting used to, and I haven't listened too much to different players. The noise is just a bit distracting... ):
That said, I came from the HD2; the Vision's some improvement over that!
Edit: To be clear, I'm not being excessively snobby; I did use the HD2 for most of my train rides at home, when I forgot to bring a dedicated player back. But, if you're used to your Samsung, chances may be good that you won't like the Vision that much. You don't know until you try it!

linj said:
Edit: To be clear, I'm not being excessively snobby; I did use the HD2 for most of my train rides at home, when I forgot to bring a dedicated player back. But, if you're used to your Samsung, chances may be good that you won't like the Vision that much. You don't know until you try it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried headphone amps? I'm not audiophile at all; as long as it doesn't sound like it's recorded underwater I'll probably be OK with it... so I've never invested in a separate amp. I hear they can make a huge difference though. Of course, it's yet another thing to take along. Perhaps only for longish trips, I guess.

The sound quality used to be just okay on stock but with cm6 and dsp manager, it really made a huge difference. Download it, try it, and you'll love it. With subsonic and this, dropped my zune a long time ago
Sent from my HTC Vision

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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

DAC part of Tegra 3 Chipset?

Im thinking about buying the new LG optimus 4x. But I cant find a single review, that mentions the audio quality on this phone. But it has the Tegra 3 chipset, so if the DAC is part of this, I could check a one x, to get an idea of the audio quality. Would be great, if someone could help me out
Sent from my R800i using XDA

I'm sure if you asked in a phone shop they might let you plug your headphones in and listen to some of the pre loaded music files.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Hmmm, well then I need a good headset first here in Germany they never have the phones in shops, I am interested in so I have to rely on what the internet says
Sent from my R800i using XDA

the GS3 have a wolfsonn,no one know what have the HOX?

I don't know what's in the HOX but it pretty much sucks balls. You can even hear a *poof* when the music starts and a few seconds after it stops, not to mention the crappy sound itself.

@Gibeon - you must have a faulty phone as I don't get any of that
OP - Really is very reliant on the quality of your audio files I find, poor quality mp3's will sound TERRIBLE, worse than on some other phones. If it's high quality FLAC rips then the sound quality is really very good for a phone, better than the Desire I used to have for example and miles better than the iPod I used to have.
I have Denon in ear for going out and about with and a couple of quite high end (full size over ear) headphones and good quality files sound really good through them. The one thing I would say is that the output volume is not as high as some other phones I have tried, so you do need quite sensitive headphones if you like your music loud.
No idea what the DAC is but for me it's a great portable music player. No such thing as audiophile in any phone but it's definitely one of the better ones i have tried.

SartoriXX said:
@Gibeon - you must have a faulty phone as I don't get any of that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? I've heard several cases of this behavior so I guessed it a widespread problem.
GSMarena has put the real specs to the test, here they are.

I also find the OneX sound much worse than on the desire. Beats only changes it from tinny to plasticky. It is so much worse, actually (both on stock earphones and via car stereo) that I no longer enjoy listening to music from the phone in my car, the sound gets on my nerves.
Instead of shelling out gazillions for having the name of a makebelieve gangster on their stuff, htc could have bought millions of decent audio chips and still give them a catchy name That would be the htc spirit I always liked.

Gibeon said:
Really? I've heard several cases of this behavior so I guessed it a widespread problem.
GSMarena has put the real specs to the test, here they are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen the GSM Arena article, and I can only talk from personal experience based on my phone not yours. I do not have the issues you mention at all. Could be a bad batch of components hence why some are better than others. I've seen plenty of people say it's great quality, plenty of people say it's crap, so would seem to point towards that logically.

Gibeon said:
Really? I've heard several cases of this behavior so I guessed it a widespread problem.
GSMarena has put the real specs to the test, here they are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is due to the player you're using. I swear by neutron. The ui might be a bit overwhelming for non audiophiles, but I'm getting some great sound with this app and beats disabled.
After some time with this phone, I'm finding the hox's sound to be quite different, but not necessarily of lesser quality compared to my old sgs1 with voodoo.
My advice would be to just change your music app and if you don't like neutron as I proposed, you could go with power amp or player pro with dsp pack.
On a final note, make sure you get your hands on a decent pair of headphones before commenting on the quality of a Dac. You can't really make any assumptions about these kinds of things if your basing your experience on a free or a $30 pair of ear buds.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

mr_pio said:
I also find the OneX sound much worse than on the desire. Beats only changes it from tinny to plasticky. It is so much worse, actually (both on stock earphones and via car stereo) that I no longer enjoy listening to music from the phone in my car, the sound gets on my nerves.
Instead of shelling out gazillions for having the name of a makebelieve gangster on their stuff, htc could have bought millions of decent audio chips and still give them a catchy name That would be the htc spirit I always liked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well mine has perfect sound , you either have a faulty phone or your expectations were unrealistically high.

Hydrony said:
Im thinking about buying the new LG optimus 4x. But I cant find a single review, that mentions the audio quality on this phone. But it has the Tegra 3 chipset, so if the DAC is part of this, I could check a one x, to get an idea of the audio quality. Would be great, if someone could help me out
Sent from my R800i using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sound is not the best in the world but its much much better then Galaxy S with voodoo sound while playing at the highest volume, at highest its just awesome stable with this beatsaudio thingy tested using Sennheiser HD 555, mind you galaxy S3 has a cheaper version of op amp used in S1.
The HTC One X have the very best sound in every angle: microphone/speaker/headphones/ear speaker

The volume and quality through the headset is good, unfortunately the loudspeaker is rather poor and doesn't go very loud. Typical HTC though, their speaker components tend to be rather low quality.
LG tend to have alright speakers (The Optimus 2X went fairly loud), but I can't say whether the 4X's will be any good or not
EDIT: I realise you were specifically asking about the quality rather than the volume. The quality is pretty good, you wont be disappointed by it. The Galaxy S III supposedly has fantastic audio quality though, which is likely to be better than the One X's due to the fact that the One X uses 'Beats' (which sucks) and the SIII has a Wolfson Micro WM1811 which is apparently pretty awesome (http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/products/audio_hubs/WM1811/).

yeah right "ultra-low power" is just rubbish

schiphol said:
This is due to the player you're using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not. I've tried a number of different music players, different EQ's, different thread priority for the audio. All exhibit the same fundamental problems arising from a poor quality DAC. Heck, even the volume up/down sound causes the pop/crackle issue.
schiphol said:
On a final note, make sure you get your hands on a decent pair of headphones before commenting on the quality of a Dac. You can't really make any assumptions about these kinds of things if your basing your experience on a free or a $30 pair of ear buds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried 5 different sets of headphones on my One X, some in ear, some open back, one Bluetooth. The same problems could be heard on all of them in varying degrees.

If your guys phones are rooted, flash the latest dspequalizer on this phone. Helps tremendously with sound quality. I agree with the person talking about flac files. You don't even need to have flac, just try to get high bitrate mp3s. I listen with Beyerdynamic headphones which take more power to drive, but it's enough for me and sounds great.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Nos0x said:
It's not. I've tried a number of different music players, different EQ's, different thread priority for the audio. All exhibit the same fundamental problems arising from a poor quality DAC. Heck, even the volume up/down sound causes the pop/crackle issue.
I've tried 5 different sets of headphones on my One X, some in ear, some open back, one Bluetooth. The same problems could be heard on all of them in varying degrees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree and I don't think my Grado SR60i's or Shure SE215's are to blame. Really, the quality just sucks on the HOX I own.
No biggie for me though, since I have a PMP for music.

Gibeon said:
I totally agree and I don't think my Grado SR60i's or Shure SE215's are to blame. Really, the quality just sucks on the HOX I own.
No biggie for me though, since I have a PMP for music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course the dac is not the best. The point I was trying to make is that I was able to eliminate most of the hissing and strange pops upon volume changes etc by switching to the neutron player leading me to be believe that these are not necessarily related to the Dac itself.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

With my beats headsets i have excellent audio quality, didnt try the original one...and the sound from the speaker? Well i dont know what you expect, in my eyes it is good enough (i dont listen to music over it) ... and BTW, i use well ripped mp3s because over the beats headset you can hear every single detail in songs ... youtube is also great ...
I dont know, but probably i have a special OneX i dont have any single issue the guys so far had reported ... i am just confused now why i dont get a S-OFF device

As far as I know, the beats audio plugin is only a peace of software, isn't it? It has nothing to do with special hardware, its just an equalizer setting. But I'm confused some sites say, the one x's audio chip is the same, that is build in the one s, but the explanation of the Tegra 3 chipset says, that it is able to handle 7.1 surround sound, which means it includes an audio chip. I think I have to wait for reviews of the optimus 4x to solve this problem
Sent from my R800i using XDA

[All Carriers]Hiss, signal to noise ratio through headphone jack

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the audio through the headphone jack has massive noise. Its maddening when listening to music quietly. Worst I've ever heard on a portable device, although the audio quality is pretty decent. What we need to fix this is control over the headphone amplifier (voodoo sound offers this on other devices fingers crossed) to lower the level and reduce noise. SO my question is, does anyone know how to lower the headphone amplifier volume with a hack? We can also use this thread to beg supercurio to support our usa versions with voodoo sound
On a related note, if anyone wants to list what eq program they use that could be interesting. They all suck in my opinion. The one CM uses is pretty good, so I'm looking forward to that.
Edit: here is the answer to the problem. Lower the app volume using this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teamkang.fauxsound

I was going to retire my nexus S with voodoo(and get the SG3-have the 32 GB pre order) until the info came out about the difference between the US version and International in regards to audio. Disturbing to learn about the hiss. The US version has basically the same hardware, audio wise as the HTC Evo LTE. Certainly nothing to brag about unless anyone has info to the contrary. Waiting for voodoo may be a long time.
My nexus S is absolutely quiet between tracks, no hiss, pops.

bjrmd said:
I was going to retire my nexus S with voodoo(and get the SG3-have the 32 GB pre order) until the info came out about the difference between the US version and International in regards to audio. Disturbing to learn about the hiss. The US version has basically the same hardware, audio wise as the HTC Evo LTE. Certainly nothing to brag about unless anyone has info to the contrary. Waiting for voodoo may be a long time.
My nexus S is absolutely quiet between tracks, no hiss, pops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I had the nexus s too. I'm not exaggerating about the hiss. The amp is way too high. I think I'll see a significant improvement with reduced amp volume. Just need to figure out how.

HOXL isn't great in this area either.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

I would love it if this could be fixed. Its driving me ocd!

I installed AwesomeBeats and use my Beats Solo headphones and dont have that problem... not sure if my setup makes any difference though because i never use OEM headphones
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Indeed, I have the same problem on my unit and attribute it to the analog gain that is too high. I'm also looking for a way to turn down the headphone amplifier. Note that I also have an HTC One XL which uses the same audio hardware. On that phone, the amplifier isn't turned up as much (overall volume is lower), and the hiss is lower, though still perceptible.
However, I've found a thread with info that suggests that not all GS3 units exhibit this problem.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...sign-fault-audio-buzz-hiss-crackle-noise.html
Therefore I'm really curious: does anyone not hear noise/hiss at low volume levels?
Note that you will only hear the noise with ear buds or low-impedance headphones. Bigger headphones aren't sensitive enough.

I do not hear the noise you speak of on any of my headphones or earbuds.
I tried the stock music player and Power Amp. Power Amp is my main choice of listening to music. I also tried different EQ settings. Nothing.

i dont hear the hiss through my headphones but when I have it hooked up in my car through AUX, i get the hiss =/

Listen to a song that is very quiet, with lower impedance headphones (16 ohms). Classical music or music with areas that are bit more quiet will exhibit this. Also if you listen close, you can even hear the hiss/white noise when you push a capacitive button for a few seconds until they stop the lighting effect.
I think this problem exists on all phones, just some people cant hear it and some listen to their music at louder volumes. I have tested this across a few roms and players, it shows up on everything. I believe it is the amplifier inside this thing being cranked too loud as well.

onebelo said:
i dont hear the hiss through my headphones but when I have it hooked up in my car through AUX, i get the hiss =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By chance, do you have the phone plugged in when you get the hiss? And does the hiss only appear when nothing is playing? If it's plugged in to the car charger, try unplugging it and seeing if the hiss goes away. My phone makes all sorts of noise through aux when nothing is playing (like between podcasts or if I'm searching for a song). I noticed that if I unplug the charger, all the noise goes away.

Docks said:
Listen to a song that is very quiet, with lower impedance headphones (16 ohms). Classical music or music with areas that are bit more quiet will exhibit this. Also if you listen close, you can even hear the hiss/white noise when you push a capacitive button for a few seconds until they stop the lighting effect.
I think this problem exists on all phones, just some people cant hear it and some listen to their music at louder volumes. I have tested this across a few roms and players, it shows up on everything. I believe it is the amplifier inside this thing being cranked too loud as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I'm a loud music listener. Will try with OEM earphones to see.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

people who say there's no hiss either have earbuds that rest outside the ear, or are deaf/dumb. There are no units that don't have the problem. If there is I'll eat my hat. We need to find a way to lower the analogue headphone volume. Supercurio is the only person capable, to my knowledge. He doesn't seem thrilled to try the US model. I feel like starting a bounty or something.

stonew5082 said:
people who say there's no hiss either have earbuds that rest outside the ear, or are deaf/dumb. There are no units that don't have the problem. If there is I'll eat my hat. We need to find a way to lower the analogue headphone volume. Supercurio is the only person capable, to my knowledge. He doesn't seem thrilled to try the US model. I feel like starting a bounty or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have a pair of Ultimate Ears $1,500 In Ear Monitors, and when listening to Flac, or streaming from Google Music, there is absolutely no noise more than any other phone. Listening to Jazz, Classical, Soul for the most part. Actually aside from iPhone (doesn't do Flac), my Verizon SGS3 performs much better (In the noise, and balance department) than any of my previous Android phones: Verizon or GSM Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, AT&T's HTC One X to name a few.
HTC's One X actually blew up my right bass driver on my UE18's because of the retarded "Beats" moniker crappy EQ which I was very pissed about, and no one should be using EVER with a pair of good headphones... good thing I ended up getting IEM rebuilt for free by peeps at Ultimate Ears.
Moral of the story, you shouldn't be throwing the assumptions, you haven't tried the entire inventory of SGS3...
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

stonew5082 said:
I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the audio through the headphone jack has massive noise. Its maddening when listening to music quietly. Worst I've ever heard on a portable device, although the audio quality is pretty decent. What we need to fix this is control over the headphone amplifier (voodoo sound offers this on other devices fingers crossed) to lower the level and reduce noise. SO my question is, does anyone know how to lower the headphone amplifier volume with a hack? We can also use this thread to beg supercurio to support our usa versions with voodoo sound
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been through 3 different android devices and countless headphones and I know exactly what you mean. This background noise is simply unbearable. Some people either don't mind or listen to volumes high enough to drown out the hiss. Personally, it is driving me nuts and I've tried everything I could to solve this problem and came to 2 solutions that will help you out.
1. Jack up phone's volume to max and use a passive dual potentiometer to lower volume back to desired level effectively lowering the background noise as well. At loud volumes the SNR is great so turning volume to max and then lowering it with an external device will lower the both the volume of music AND the background noise to exactly what you want, low volume music with great SNR. The only downside is you'll have to buy/build that external volume control device. I built mine from scratch and it looked something like: http://beavishifi.com/articles/Volume_Control/
2. Get an external DAC to effectively bypass phone's crappy audio DAC altogether. I bought a FiiO E7 external DAC and an OTG cable. SGS3 supports them both right out of the box. Fiio E7 is built around Wolfson WM8740 DAC and the sound quality it produces is simply mind blowing. At night, in a room with everything turned off, using in-ear (canal) headphones with all volumes set lowest and I still have to listen very hard in order to hear the background noise. And of course, the audio is crystal clear as well. If you care about audio quality, this will be the best $71 you'll ever spend.

KreepyKen said:
By chance, do you have the phone plugged in when you get the hiss? And does the hiss only appear when nothing is playing? If it's plugged in to the car charger, try unplugging it and seeing if the hiss goes away. My phone makes all sorts of noise through aux when nothing is playing (like between podcasts or if I'm searching for a song). I noticed that if I unplug the charger, all the noise goes away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm you're right. I tested this morning on drive to work and only hear the loud hiss when charging cable is plugged in. Volume is lower though compared to playing from other sources (usb, sd) on my head unit. Seems like I have to up the volume by like +5 to get similar loudness.
I'll test it again with my car dock i have (Infuse 4g dock) and see if its similar. I'll also test with my old Evo and Zune player through AUX to hear hte sound difference.

milan03 said:
Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have a pair of Ultimate Ears $1,500 In Ear Monitors, and when listening to Flac, or streaming from Google Music, there is absolutely no noise more than any other phone. Listening to Jazz, Classical, Soul for the most part. Actually aside from iPhone (doesn't do Flac), my Verizon SGS3 performs much better (In the noise, and balance department) than any of my previous Android phones: Verizon or GSM Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, AT&T's HTC One X to name a few.
HTC's One X actually blew up my right bass driver on my UE18's because of the retarded "Beats" moniker crappy EQ which I was very pissed about, and no one should be using EVER with a pair of good headphones... good thing I ended up getting IEM rebuilt for free by peeps at Ultimate Ears.
Moral of the story, you shouldn't be throwing the assumptions, you haven't tried the entire inventory of SGS3...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you've made me second guess myself. But it just seems so unlikely. Maybe some units have a lower default amp volume? I hate you. :banghead:
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

frifox said:
Been through 3 different android devices and countless headphones and I know exactly what you mean. This background noise is simply unbearable. Some people either don't mind or listen to volumes high enough to drown out the hiss. Personally, it is driving me nuts and I've tried everything I could to solve this problem and came to 2 solutions that will help you out.
1. Jack up phone's volume to max and use a passive dual potentiometer to lower volume back to desired level effectively lowering the background noise as well. At loud volumes the SNR is great so turning volume to max and then lowering it with an external device will lower the both the volume of music AND the background noise to exactly what you want, low volume music with great SNR. The only downside is you'll have to buy/build that external volume control device. I built mine from scratch and it looked something like: http://beavishifi.com/articles/Volume_Control/
2. Get an external DAC to effectively bypass phone's crappy audio DAC altogether. I bought a FiiO E7 external DAC and an OTG cable. SGS3 supports them both right out of the box. Fiio E7 is built around Wolfson WM8740 DAC and the sound quality it produces is simply mind blowing. At night, in a room with everything turned off, using in-ear (canal) headphones with all volumes set lowest and I still have to listen very hard in order to hear the background noise. And of course, the audio is crystal clear as well. If you care about audio quality, this will be the best $71 you'll ever spend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice. Not sure it's worth it as I have a cowon j3 with a similar chip in it. What do you think? I like only carrying 1 device and listening to Pandora, that's why I don't usually carry the cowon. I use 1964 ears quads too. The device you made is intriguing.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

Anybody try this?

motohip said:
Anybody try this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that will eliminate noise usually caused by unshielded wires and noisy power sources (such as crappy car chargers) but won't improve SGS3 DAC's SNR. I didn't actually experiment with one of those so I'm just speculating.

Good audio question with gnex...

Hi peeps...
Had a GNex for bout 3 months or so from a Optimus V... and things are awesome... almost. Having played around with modding it and messing around with it for a good 3 months has me noticing its biggest(and really, only) flaw. The audio sucks, it's horrible, my Optimus V was WAY better, and that was a crappy $200 3.2" dumb-smartphone.
I'm going to assume phones use hardware audio processing chips... which means that Samsung either skimped on something or I'm doing something horribly wrong with my whole setup, or something can patch either of these two causes. Granted, the sound quality isn't exactly BAD, but it's nowhere near as good as it could be. I notice a very obvious quality and fidelity difference playing from both my Creative X-Fi card and my old phone compared to my gnex, both 320kbps mp3.
I've made it bearable through DSP manager EQ and post-process EQ, but it clips at higher volumes now(due to dsp manager)... has anybody made a real software audio fix for the GNex?(assuming I'm not crazy and other people have noticed that it sucks too) Even good post processing doesn't really help if the DSP was crappy...
Just for kicks, here's my car setup(I notice even larger differences with my headset/earbuds in, and I don't even use enthusiast stuff)
GNex streams 320kbps mp3 over a2dp to my Bluetooth head unit, I thought leaving the DAC stuff to my car would help... assuming my car does better DAC than a phone ever could.
Miracle settings, anyone? XD

Enabling the EQ and adjusting the settings in the stock player goes a long way towards what you are looking for. Many say the volume is still too low but I don't think so. I also use Pandora and that is not anywhere near loud enough at times due to it's rather limited player. There are some apps in the market for boosting volume although not all work with JB.

If you get the car dock, and gut it, then put an led(smd preferable) between that center pin and ground, you get spdif. If your looking to hook it to your stereo and are worried about audio quality that spdif signal would be translated straight. I was lucky enough to get a desk dock, and as far as getting the spdif, that's all they did.

You sir are correct in that the only flaw this phone has is mediocre sound. The DAC is just average. Since the audio issues are hardware related, theres not much that can be done. As stated earlier, EQing is really the only option. I cant beleive these "Superphones" have such bad DAC's, when my $30 Sansa Clip+ has hardware that satisfies most audiophiles! End of rant.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Headset or just speaker?
I'm getting a nexus on Tuesday and with the audio mods I use on my Droid incredible right now I can make it sound like a small studio.
I'll let you know what I experience when I'm rooted and let my phone rest etc.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

withbloodskies said:
Headset or just speaker?
I'm getting a nexus on Tuesday and with the audio mods I use on my Droid incredible right now I can make it sound like a small studio.
I'll let you know what I experience when I'm rooted and let my phone rest etc.
bOx Stash -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm comparing with earbuds and headset(bose IE/QC15, not the best but doesnt matter), and with my car(stock Honda system with after market head unit that supports 5 band EQ, bluetooth and aux input)
Through the headphone output, the GNex is embarrassingly bad. My $60 creative X-Fi Pro card beats it, and my $200 crappy prepaid old phone beats it, as well, in both quality, and fidelity.
THROUGH BLUETOOTH, the GNex isn't quite as bad(due to the fact that bluetooth audio is digital, DAC done by my car bluetooth circuitry). This way, I can set the DSP EQ from the GNex through DSP Manager... awesome(the dev) did make that Beats DSP Manager for AOKP GNex, but for the life of me I couldn't hear a bit of a difference... so I'm using vanilla DSP Manager(certainly makes a difference). The GNex is still worse over a2dp than my old phone, and my laptop... since DSP is still being done by my phone. It screws up the signal somehow... because no matter how much post-processing I do on the anolog side(car stereo), I can't restore it to what simple EQ did on my aforementioned devices... and the CLIPPING is just such a shame, my old phone didn't clip nearly as badly with the same settings.
Do let me know if you find a perfect setup... I'm seriously considering spending money on extra car signal processing to compensate for the poor quality, but the signal coming out of my PHONE should be of high enough quality that I don't need to spend hundreds on a car system lol.
ps. recaptcha is impossible.

rpg711 said:
I'm comparing with earbuds and headset(bose IE/QC15, not the best but doesnt matter), and with my car(stock Honda system with after market head unit that supports 5 band EQ, bluetooth and aux input)
Through the headphone output, the GNex is embarrassingly bad. My $60 creative X-Fi Pro card beats it, and my $200 crappy prepaid old phone beats it, as well, in both quality, and fidelity.
THROUGH BLUETOOTH, the GNex isn't quite as bad(due to the fact that bluetooth audio is digital, DAC done by my car bluetooth circuitry). This way, I can set the DSP EQ from the GNex through DSP Manager... awesome(the dev) did make that Beats DSP Manager for AOKP GNex, but for the life of me I couldn't hear a bit of a difference... so I'm using vanilla DSP Manager(certainly makes a difference). The GNex is still worse over a2dp than my old phone, and my laptop... since DSP is still being done by my phone. It screws up the signal somehow... because no matter how much post-processing I do on the anolog side(car stereo), I can't restore it to what simple EQ did on my aforementioned devices.
Do let me know if you find a perfect setup... I'm seriously considering spending money on extra car signal processing to compensate for the poor quality, but the signal coming out of my PHONE should be of high enough quality that I don't need to spend hundreds on a car system lol.
ps. recaptcha is impossible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you physically used an audio "changing libs/audio libraries" that good stuff? I'm a audiophile freak and I'm hoping that even if these are applied it will make the audio better. From the way you guys mention this is sounds like its horrible lol
Give me a second I'll show you the audio mods I use.
Abeit I'd use a different music player but this enables me to use the eq on the fly without me having to close the program to activate the eq settings.
Here are two images of what I use -
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Here are the threads with the mods -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525226
Now with this mod I'd definitely nandroid because its made for Xperia devices but my HTC Droid incredible can use it.
So it does with work other phones/roms I'd just be careful. This is the best mod but one specifically made for Xperia, that just seems to work with an odd number of devices.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1609868 using these will drastically improve audio and give your audio loudness and better bass and overall clarity. I'm hoping they work for the nexus..
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1

withbloodskies said:
Have you physically used an audio "changing libs/audio libraries" that good stuff? I'm a audiophile freak and I'm hoping that even if these are applied it will make the audio better. From the way you guys mention this is sounds like its horrible lol
Give me a second I'll show you the audio mods I use.
Abeit I'd use a different music player but this enables me to use the eq on the fly without me having to close the program to activate the eq settings.
Here are two images of what I use -
Here are the threads with the mods -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525226
Now with this mod I'd definitely nandroid because its made for Xperia devices but my HTC Droid incredible can use it.
So it does with work other phones/roms I'd just be careful. This is the best mod but one specifically made for Xperia, that just seems to work with an odd number of devices.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1609868 using these will drastically improve audio and give your audio loudness and better bass and overall clarity. I'm hoping they work for the nexus..
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a nightmare to simply get DSP Manager to work nicely with AOKP, I had to do endless prodding just to find one that actually WORKED and didn't cause boot loops. I suppose using CM9 would be the easy way to ensure compatibility.
My kernel has this tweak by Ezeekel or however you spell it for "better quality audio" or some crap like that, no idea if it actually works.
I can say with confidence that if you used those settings on the GNex, you would hear crazy clipping every time you hit the high gain sections of your EQ steps.
The Nexus is awesome in just about every other aspect besides audio fidelity.
Do let everyone know if that mod works for the Nexus... because then I would question why it was ever necessary for people to specifically port Beats to Nexus.

How does using the EQ fix sound fidelity or quality issues? Are you insisting the frequency response of the output isn't linear? EQ is used to correct a pair of non-linear headphones or speakers, and not any issue inherent with the output device.
When setting up an EQ, you want to never raise any bar above 0db. So take those settings, and lower each bar by 15db if the highest setting is at +15. That will eliminate the distortion.
The LG G2x had real audio issues - these was a humming/buzzing noise on the 3.5mm output. Try to explain exactly whats up with this phone

Okay.. so I'm back. Rooted and working. Take this with a grain of salt because I'm using new headphones and pandora..
I'm using audio master pro, its an equalizer that doesn't work well with the nexus lol. Anyway.. before I did anything I heard the quality "which I'm highly disappointed" and then did the mod, this is not what I use nor condone because it doesn't give me the audio I desire although clear.
When I finish transferring my 10gbs of music I'll let you know how things work.
With hip-hop And rap it works fine with these settings, great bass and clarity. Could be better but again when I finish all my transfers I'll let you know.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

flashed AOKP JB M1 and everything went to hell again... darn wonder when JB will get DSP support