Boost audio when playing media - Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A

Is there any way to boost sound on the N7? I have been watching movies and with the sound turned up all the way, it was just barely loud enough to be acceptable. BTW, I was using medium (not cheap, not high end) quality earbuds.

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[Q] Does the Desire hiss on low-impedance audiophile headphones?

Oh come on guys... I was pretty much dediced to dump my Galaxy S for the Desire because of need of a functional GPS... but I want the mobile device to have good audio quality with audiophile headphones (mostly low-impedance IEMs) and have heard some users say that the Desire has an audible hiss.
So no black, dark, flat silence and great sound? The Galaxy S has pretty amazing sound quality on the 3.5mm except if you use high impedance gear that really need and extra amp... but with more gentle stuff like Mylars, RE0 or Koss PortaPros it sings amazingly.
Can anyone confirm this?
I am now reduced to two options
1) Return my SGS and get a Desire + a good audio player
2) Keep my SGS and get a dedicated GPS unit
*sigh*
I find there is hiss on my desire when paired with low impedance IEMs (UE11). It's fine with higher impedance phones like RE2 and KSC75s, but bear in mind, I usually listen at low volumes.
If you're looking for a good audio player that works well with low impedance IEMs, I can recommend the Sansa Fuze and Sansa Clip from personal experience.
Hope that helps

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.

[Q] Hiss while sound playing?

Anyone else noticing hiss through the headphone jack when sound is played?
Steps to reproduce:
Use earphones
Get sound to play shortly or at low volume (a notification works fine)
I'm hearing a good amount of hiss through earphones (loudness depends on headphone sensitivity: much less audible on my stock ipod earphones, much more noticeable on my Shure IEMs)
ronandi said:
Anyone else noticing hiss through the headphone jack when sound is played?
Steps to reproduce:
Use earphones
Get sound to play shortly or at low volume (a notification works fine)
I'm hearing a good amount of hiss through earphones (loudness depends on headphone sensitivity: much less audible on my stock ipod earphones, much more noticeable on my Shure IEMs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope...sitting here as I write this listening to music using Samsung Focus S buds. NO hiss at high or low volume.
I tried a koss headset this morning and my phone rebooted.....but no hiss.
I have also noticed the hiss whenever watching movies or listening to music. Depending on volume, it can be pretty strong sometimes.
Sent from my Lumia 900
alodar1 said:
I tried a koss headset this morning and my phone rebooted.....but no hiss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd reboot myself too, if you plugged Koss headphones into me...
Cuz you hava a good ear piece, lmao
Yup, my senn IE8s and Ety ER4p are both producing noticeable hiss at low volumes, sounds like the gain is way up and the line level is low.
There were some amazing KOSS headsets back in the day, especially known for their electrostats. I'd pick a KOSS ESP950 over a dr. dre beats, BOSE, HK, or whatever else is popular out there these days.
+1 on the Koss. I used to use Radio Shack Optimus - those were all Koss - and some of the best sound headphones under $50 I have ever owned.
I have Sennheiser CX300-II's and they are quiet compared to other headsets and bass response is sub-par (compared to what they sounded like in my iphone). My Klipsh Image One's sound awesome, but the mic/volume don't work (and the AHJ detects and then disables the phone's mics, so lots of features 'break' with it, trying a Fiio LU1 adapter in a few days). My rocket fish cheapos work the best, and sound the most 'normal' with good bass response, general sound - however they hiss - which is less noticeable at higher volume!

sennheiser HD 518

Guys i am planing to buy sennheiser HD 518 and i have a confusion that these headphones will work great with our S3 or do i need an external amp for sound quality issues. thanks for ur help guys!!!
They should sound good. I have a pair of Audio Technica M50's and they sound great. Plenty of bass and the highs are just perfect. I also have the AC!D mod installed, and it makes a very big difference. The only two problems that I have is that at a low volume you can hear a hiss, but that's due to the amplifier in the phone. The second problem is that I have to download only high quality music. Anything besides high quality sounds like crap.
I just bought these last week and I'm no expert on head phones and such, but I can tell you straight they sound almost perfect to me, I don't think you'll be needing any external amplifier for it as they sound pretty great to me.
I have Sennheiser HD555 and I can say the sound quality is exceptional (very detailed and clear with 192kbps ogg). Don't worry the sensitivity because I only need to turn half way.

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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 =_(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

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