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Hi all, im listen allot to FLAC music, and as you know the built in music app doest support this format, so i downloaded poweramp from google play and the sound was bad, so i search in the app how to improve the sound and i found an option to enable the beats audio,
Open the app, go to settings>audio engine>advanced tweaks> and unselect "direct volume control" and listen again
P.s sorry about my poor english, i really hope you all understand me.
ITAYSHARONI said:
Hi all, im listen allot to FLAC music, and as you know the built in music app doest support this format, so i downloaded poweramp from google play and the sound was bad, so i search in the app how to improve the sound and i found an option to enable the beats audio,
Open the app, go to settings>audio engine>advanced tweaks> and unselect "direct volume control" and listen again
P.s sorry about my poor english, i really hope you all understand me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The built in music app in fact does support FLAC since android 4.0
Why would you use Beats if you're a music enthousiast listening to FLACs?
You found the comprehensive eq in PowerAmp I take it? Always been able to get a decent sound tuned to the headphones I'm using. Beats is just a bass boost from the eighties.
Make sure you don't have the eq AND the tone controls (bass and treble) enabled, else they'll conflict. Chose one or other.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Not sure about the OP, but on my device, Beats and PowerAmp, work right out of the box. The actual setting is only visible when you have a pair of headphones plugged in, then go to Sounds --> Sound Enhancer to select Beats
Quiksilver78 said:
Not sure about the OP, but on my device, Beats and PowerAmp, work right out of the box. The actual setting is only visible when you have a pair of headphones plugged in, then go to Sounds --> Sound Enhancer to select Beats
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOrks samee for me here, too. Can I ask fellow PowerAmp users whether they have sudden dips and peaks in volume when browsing the phone and opening apps? Could you tell me if any advance tweaks you have, buffer size etc?
Thanks
The beats logo is showed from the box, but the sound isn't
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Thank you so much for find this and share with us. I loved Beats with the urBeats but now I can have both and PowerAmp with Beats. What a fantastic phone we have . Even the ICS Lockscreen feature does display Album Art on the HTC Lockscreen.
Hey thanks , that correct , now when I turn beats icon on/off can fill more baSS in sound, before this trick was no reaction.
pinn___________ said:
WOrks samee for me here, too. Can I ask fellow PowerAmp users whether they have sudden dips and peaks in volume when browsing the phone and opening apps? Could you tell me if any advance tweaks you have, buffer size etc?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, haven't noticed that, but in general the handling of notifications is very bad with PowerAmp!
Also, the fading function does not work anymore on One X. I posted about this in their forum and they said it is being looked at and will be fixed in the next update, whenever that is... :-/
I only enable Beats Profile when I need to dislodge ear wax. Otherwise I like being able to make out the words being sung.
pinn___________ said:
WOrks samee for me here, too. Can I ask fellow PowerAmp users whether they have sudden dips and peaks in volume when browsing the phone and opening apps? Could you tell me if any advance tweaks you have, buffer size etc?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny you mention this. I started noticing this after upgrading to 1.28
Also, the sudden pause/gap when listening to songs is also there; whether the next song starts (crossfading) or you fast-forward a song.
I think PowerAmp has not been optimized for the HTC One X yet. I hope the team is working on it. I love PowerAmp!
---------- Post added at 12:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 PM ----------
Planet X said:
Thank you so much for find this and share with us. I loved Beats with the urBeats but now I can have both and PowerAmp with Beats. What a fantastic phone we have . Even the ICS Lockscreen feature does display Album Art on the HTC Lockscreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like that as well. When you select ICS Lockscreen in PowerAmp, it uses the actual HTC music widget on your lockscreen, that is very cool.
geenyous said:
Hmm, haven't noticed that, but in general the handling of notifications is very bad with PowerAmp!
Also, the fading function does not work anymore on One X. I posted about this in their forum and they said it is being looked at and will be fixed in the next update, whenever that is... :-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just noticed that if you change the thread priority to +1 , the dips in volume seem to go away. It's good that they are looking into optimizations tho
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
FLAC, lossless audio with no drop in quality, used by audiophiles to obtain music in exactly the same sound/quality of the original.
Beats Audio - DSP EQ tuner software to alter the sound of the music, like using a crap DSP effect/EQ on a pc soundcard or ancient 1980's midi system
the 2 don't go together, you may as well use mp3 and save on storage space
zombiefly said:
FLAC, lossless audio with no drop in quality, used by audiophiles to obtain music in exactly the same sound/quality of the original.
Beats Audio - DSP EQ tuner software to alter the sound of the music, like using a crap DSP effect/EQ on a pc soundcard or ancient 1980's midi system
the 2 don't go together, you may as well use mp3 and save on storage space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesn't matter, let's music
I love to go to my company with playing music by 1X in my pocket. The quality of lossless music is acceptable
P/s : I'm using Pk2 earphone, not beat
zombiefly said:
FLAC, lossless audio with no drop in quality, used by audiophiles to obtain music in exactly the same sound/quality of the original.
Beats Audio - DSP EQ tuner software to alter the sound of the music, like using a crap DSP effect/EQ on a pc soundcard or ancient 1980's midi system
the 2 don't go together, you may as well use mp3 and save on storage space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think this is quite accurate, and furthermore do not understand the hate for Beats. I am not a fan by any means, but I really dislike it when people bash something because they read it elsewhere or someone else told them about it.
I am not saying that you are that person, Zombiefly
Reminds me of Windows Vista and people's perpetual dislike for the OS strictly from word of mouth when a lot of the bugs were squashed with SP1 (and subsequent SPs) ... but I digress
If some people like it, let them be. It just seems that every time someone expresses a certain preference for Beats or just ask a question about Beats in general, a lot of people jump on the hate bandwagon while not addressing anyone's questions; worse they say they prefer DSP Manager.
The irony here is that NONE OF THAT MATTERS if these so-called 'purists' are using Poweramp with the DVC option ticked on LOL; they're not even using Beats except for the notification icon haha.
Apologies for the rant - again, it has nothing to do with you specifically Zombiefly, just wanted to get that off my chest.
Errr, I might be being stupid here but where in Poweramp is the Sounds option?! I see the BeatAudio icon at the top when I plug headphones in and play music in Poweramp but turning Beats off or on in the notification bar makes no difference.
I cannot find an option for Beats anywhere in the Poweramp settings.
Thanks.
iouk said:
Errr, I might be being stupid here but where in Poweramp is the Sounds option?! I see the BeatAudio icon at the top when I plug headphones in and play music in Poweramp but turning Beats off or on in the notification bar makes no difference.
I cannot find an option for Beats anywhere in the Poweramp settings.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beats audio is a system feature not Poweramp. you can toggle it on/off from notification bar
iouk said:
Errr, I might be being stupid here but where in Poweramp is the Sounds option?! I see the BeatAudio icon at the top when I plug headphones in and play music in Poweramp but turning Beats off or on in the notification bar makes no difference.
I cannot find an option for Beats anywhere in the Poweramp settings.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to click on 'Settings'
If you have the default three dots button (tap on that)
Click on Settings
Click on Audio Engine
Click on Advanced Tweaks
Disable Volume Control
pinn___________ said:
Beats audio is a system feature not Poweramp. you can toggle it on/off from notification bar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did say turning it off and on in the notification bar makes no difference.
Thanks Quiksilver78, that does the trick.
Hi guys...
I've used Beats Audio Installer (from Play Store), Nexus Louder and Modified DSP with Beats on my phone.
All of them are fairly decent enhancements of our Defy's already nice audio output.
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But then I flashed AC!D SoundMOD, which I came across in one of the Galaxy S3 forums.
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IT IS AWESOME.
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There's a major improvement in sound...
I noticed that even complex background rhythms are very noticeable when using the phones speaker.
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Earphones and external speakers improved by whole orders of magnitude!!!
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I'd like more of my fellow Defy users to be able to enjoy this great sound package, and hence I'm making this post.
Please keep in mind that I'm just reposting this here, all work on AC!D SoundMOD was done by r-ikfoot, Rizal Lovins and Knight47 and any other associated devs.
>
AC!D contains all this audio technology:
- Beats Audio by Dr Dre (Powerful bass)
- Clearbass Sound by Sony (Clear Bass)
- Xloud by SonyEricsson (higher sound
volume and clearer sound on speaker)
- Dolby Digital Sound (Equalizer enhancer
bass setting and Surround setting)
- Surround Sound (Deeper bass and
reduction of bass distortion plus EQ setting
support)
- Alsa by Walkman (Audio resampling and
driver activation for android phone)
- Dynamic Bass by Walkman (more Bass
frequency and better bass support)
- DSP Manager by Cyanogen Team (EQ
setting support overall more powerful sound)
- Audio resampling from Sony Xperia T
(NEW!)
- Clearbass audio setting from Xperia
T (NEW! Bass even clearer and deeper
than before!)
- Sony Walkman Player ( NEW! now
with Xperia V style!)
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So without further ado, here are the links for AC!D SoundMOD.
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Flashable zip: http://www.mediafire.com/?ujfj1azabcw1ibw
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PLEASE NOTE THAT IT ONLY WORKS ON ICS AND JB- MIUI, AOKP, CM9 & CM10
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DON'T FLASH IF YOURE RUNNING FROYO OR GINGERBREAD ROMS
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Original Thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1883317
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1. After downloading the zip, first make sure your System partition has at least 20MB free space. (That's quite a bit, I know, but we'll talk about reducing that later in the post.)
2. Place the downloaded zip on your SD card in your folder of choice, and reboot the phone into recovery.
3. Clear the cache partition.
4. Now choose 'Install zip from sdcard'.
5. Choose your zip file from its location and confirm that you want to flash it.
6. Wait for the zip to get installed.
7. Wipe cache again. [I just like doing this a lot ]
8. Reboot and rejoice!
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>
[HOW TO] Free up some memory after flashing AC!D:
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Now this zip is 18 MB, but 8MB out of that is Walkman visualiser. The Walkman Google and Facebook plugins are ~2MB.
All these apps are no use as system apps, so go to Titanium Backup or whatever app backup/ manipulation software you use, and convert VISUALISER to user app.
This won't affect visualiser functionality, just free up some memory.
Similarly, you can move or uninstall the Google Images, Facebook and other plugins.
Only the WALKMAN player won't move to user storage.
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Open your ears to a whole new world of music.
Have fun!!!
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Moved to General section.
Sounds interesting... Thinking of trying... Downloading
Thanks! (will click after testing )
Tried no luck stuck at moto logo using latest aokp job
Sent from my MB526 using xda app-developers app
**** in -> **** out.
All those audio mods for android are useless, everything you need is an equalizer and a trained ear.
Even if you put 10 plugins modifying the bass frequencies on there, that won't change the fact that you're plugging 1/2 inch headphones into your ears.
The AD/DA converters will still be as bad as they were when being manufactured.
You won't get the same bass response like from a subwoofer (which isn't really audible anyway, most of it you feel in your stomache area) and you won't have ANY crosstalk like from regular speakers.. and bear in mind that this is the setup your music is being created on.
There are two ways to improve your listening experience on your Android phone:
1) Don't use those ****ty earphones
2) Use those ****ty earphones but try to recreate a linear frequency curve by listening to music on a better setup and then use an equalizer to match it at least a little
If you've been listening to your music as MP3s then this whole operation is stupid anyway.
Buy (!) your music, and rip it in a lossless format like FLAC. This will increase the size of your rips, but it might be worth your while.
dog121 said:
Tried no luck stuck at moto logo using latest aokp job
Sent from my MB526 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works great for me.... did you have enough free space?
Kaffeekranz said:
**** in -> **** out.
All those audio mods for android are useless, everything you need is an equalizer and a trained ear.
Even if you put 10 plugins modifying the bass frequencies on there, that won't change the fact that you're plugging 1/2 inch headphones into your ears.
The AD/DA converters will still be as bad as they were when being manufactured.
You won't get the same bass response like from a subwoofer (which isn't really audible anyway, most of it you feel in your stomache area) and you won't have ANY crosstalk like from regular speakers.. and bear in mind that this is the setup your music is being created on.
There are two ways to improve your listening experience on your Android phone:
1) Don't use those ****ty earphones
2) Use those ****ty earphones but try to recreate a linear frequency curve by listening to music on a better setup and then use an equalizer to match it at least a little
If you've been listening to your music as MP3s then this whole operation is stupid anyway.
Buy (!) your music, and rip it in a lossless format like FLAC. This will increase the size of your rips, but it might be worth your while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree except maybe for the flac part, on blind test almost anybody can't tell the difference between flac and mp3 @ 320kbps
Kaffeekranz said:
**** in -> **** out.
All those audio mods for android are useless, everything you need is an equalizer and a trained ear.
Even if you put 10 plugins modifying the bass frequencies on there, that won't change the fact that you're plugging 1/2 inch headphones into your ears.
The AD/DA converters will still be as bad as they were when being manufactured.
You won't get the same bass response like from a subwoofer (which isn't really audible anyway, most of it you feel in your stomache area) and you won't have ANY crosstalk like from regular speakers.. and bear in mind that this is the setup your music is being created on.
There are two ways to improve your listening experience on your Android phone:
1) Don't use those ****ty earphones
2) Use those ****ty earphones but try to recreate a linear frequency curve by listening to music on a better setup and then use an equalizer to match it at least a little
If you've been listening to your music as MP3s then this whole operation is stupid anyway.
Buy (!) your music, and rip it in a lossless format like FLAC. This will increase the size of your rips, but it might be worth your while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that with crappy speakers, there's no way to improve the sound experience.
As I say in the OP, most of the improvement was over EXTERNAL SPEAKERS.
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I know you hate these packages, but at least try it out before passing judgement.
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And I'm not talking just bass boosts here. To be honest most plugins end up over emphasizing the bass, and end up distorting the music.
YaPeL said:
Agree except maybe for the flac part, on blind test almost anybody can't tell the difference between flac and mp3 @ 320kbps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you're right, I was a bit exaggerating.
But when I have a look at my friends computers I still see 128kbps *.wmas lying around.
It's at least something you should pay attention to.
TeeJay3800 said:
Moved to General section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should have been moved to themes and apps . General is too abstract .
Between , I can't really make out any difference in audio quality .
I have disabled dsp by renaming it and then rebooting .
Using Sennheiser CX 680 in ear .
Work fine. Also Acid Mod for Sony. I tried and works well ^^
there is no need for audio mods, an equalizer is more than enough... its all about the headset, not the software.
im using a thermaltake esports isurus headset and have 320kbps mp3 files, highly doubt that anyone would need better sound quality than this...
Have tried today for a couple minutes....poweramp is much better than this mod....
Sent from my MB525 using xda app-developers app
DSP Manager with 10hz bass unlock is significantly better
but ty anyways.
Thanks.
So I can't seem to find a good all to control my bass and sound effects for music.. Back on my evo 4G (the original) there was this really good working one called dsps manager, but I can't seem to find it and I doubt it supports jb. Can anyone give me some tips of good apps to control that stuff?
I also noticed my s3 has some bass coming from its speakers but it's so quiet you can barely tell
Bump. Sorry really want to know
use the music player in the music hub it gives you the best sound with the original head phones the phone came with. make sure you enable it in settings
I’m using a Jedi Rom with Awesome Beats preinstalled and find that the EQ only affects the music app (in my case Sony Walkman). Not satisfied with that, I installed the Equalizer app from the play store because it is supposed to be a system wide EQ. Indeed, I did for some moments in time get it to work that way, ie it affected the sound in phone calls, audio streaming apps (like NPR News) as well as music. But somewhere along the line what with updating Rom versions it all came apart and now I am getting conflicts and errors (Equalizer fcs when I try to use it on phone calls in particular). I think it wants to be the only audio EQ effects package.
Further complicating the mix is MusicFX, which is apparently an EQ for the Google Music app (which I don’t have installed - Walkman is currently my only audio app). Having made my Xda searches, I know mine is not a new problem – variations have turned up with different phones and EQs. I have tried uninstalling Beats (various methods) and MusicFX, freezing and unfreezing one or both, reinstalling Equalizer between reboots after doing the former, etc but unfortunately, nothing has gotten me back to my goal of a single system wide EQ, maybe because I’ve had botched uninstalls every time. (Some of the errors I’ve gotten are: “Sound Effects Currently Not Available”, “Unfortunately MusicFX has stopped”, and Equalizer audio effect not available.)
Given that every audio app seems to install its own EQ (ex. PlayerPro and PowerAmp), how do you get a system wide EQ to work, much less remain stable when trying out new players? Do you have better luck with Roms that start out with no EQ (is there such an animal)? If anyone can shed any light on the subject (ie, how to set up and keep a system wide EQ working), I’d be grateful…
Eh, i don't believe it was supposed to be system-wide. You probably wouldn't want to EQ calls or your ringtone though for the safety of the small speakers.
You can go flash Ac!d 5.0 which works great on the GN2. Disable Awesome Beats and any other EQ app you have and let Ac!d do the job. It's system-wide, and works as soon as headphones are plugged in. You can also flash the volume mod, maybe the one that goes to 58db, if getting it louder is a concern.
>silentecho13, thanks for your response!
Actually I do want to EQ calls, or minimum I want to be able to if I need it. What brought it up in the first place was I had some really terrible earphones that needed a huge amount of EQ in order to use them for calls (it was like a tin can on a string lol). I've ditched those earphones, and I have already applied volume edits to my default_gain.conf which helps somewhat. Still, using EQ I find helps the sound in a better, controllable way than just upping the volume, and I still would like to apply it to phone calls, especially when the person on the other line is using a poor phone. When the EQ cut out and stopped working I really could tell the difference and I didn't like it.
As for the question of whether EQ was supposed to be system wide I don't know. Judging from the posts I found, it appears to me that the subject was more discussed a couple years ago than recently. I don't know why this is, or if I just don't know where to look. Was Android changed in a way since GB that makes it harder to implement? Did people give up on it as a goal? Or am I just doing it wrong? Well, I'm sure I am doing it wrong, but I was hoping to hear from someone who knows how the OS handles it and understands the issues of conflicting EQ app installs.
In any case, I just tried your suggestion of flashing AC!D Audio (5.0 for Samsung along with their redo of the Walkman player) and it was more of the same ("Unfortunately, Sound enhancements has stopped") except now I don't have access to any EQ settings. If I re-enable the Awesome Beats, its EQ will load, but the controls have no effect on music. I think I need to start with a Rom that has no sound enhancements or EQs preinstalled. Or perhaps I could make Acid or Equalizer work if I could just successfully clean the Awesome Beats Audio off my system. I guess I'll just try that again and see...
Alright, some new info and theories...
I managed to uninstall Beats Audio from my Jedi 6.1 system. I followed TEKHD's method in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2003153&page=3, except that I got the replacement files off the CleanRom 3.0.1 zip. This was to make sure that the files are from JB 4.1.2. I didn't flash, I just manually added the files and changed their permissions. The other change from TEKHD's method was I had to put back in the MusicFX.apk that I'd deleted, also from CR3 in order to get AC!D working later.
I tried to reinstall the Equalizer app but that was a no go. I'm starting to think it might have a problem with 4.1.2 - the same conflicts as before no matter what I did, and when I had it working before it was on a 4.1.1 base. Anyway I uninstalled that and installed the AC!D Audio 5.0 for Samsung and the Noozxoide equalizer. That I finally got working, I think, as designed. Unfortunately it is not a complete system wide EQ, or at least, it didn't affect phone calls for me. It did work for music and an NPR news stream, just as Beats did. I also tested it with the stock video player and it was able to alter its sound too (didn't try with Beats on that one).
What I do wonder though is how different any of the EQs I have tried can be from one another? They all clearly have the same interface to what I guess are Android system level controls: Compression, Bass Boost, EQ, Virtualization, perhaps the same audio controls that the STweaks utility also exposes. They (Equalizer, Beats, Noozxoide, etc...) all look the same. Why doesn't Android just have its own stock EQ to use those presumed controls? As far as AC!D goes, it appears to have put back the same files that I had to delete to get rid of Beats, though I have to believe that the AC!D folks have changed plenty of settings in those files.
Still wondering what it takes to get an EQ to handle the phone audio and hoping someone comes along who actually knows this stuff so I don't have to keep guessing...
Having been almost in some sort of heaven with this new tab the last days. However one big problem I just noticed when today bringing the device outdoors for music-listening: the audio quality is terrible.
Now tested with different flac's, 320 kbps MP3's and mp4-video's with sound from the internal speaker or connected to headphones (Sehnheisser and Philips), Technics amplifier, Logitech PC-speakers (two different types,one cheap other expensive). Sound quality is bad on all of them. Compared to my Galaxy phone it is like the difference between a Rols Royce and a Trawant car. Very unnatural metallic sound. And also very quickly (hardly extra bass and/or gain) distrorting. While bass of equalizer (different apps) and not too loud volume one speaker-side of my Sehnheiser headphone blew out..
Anyone else also not happy about audio-quality? Or is there a solution? And what is a good audio-manager for rooted stock Android 4.3? On my phone DSP-Manager for instance works perfectly, but that is not avaible for Nexus 7/2.
Thanks in advance,
Juul
I rooted my n7.2 2 days after getting it. But didn't get a chance to try out the audio quality until I flashed AwesomeBeats. With correct parameters for my satisfaction, the sound quality was awesome, more than my ol HTC Desire. So the suggestion is to flash an audio mod, and see to the parameters for better audio results. The best profile for internal speakers is higher treble, and low, or almost no bass.
I am a huge fan of sound, and have extensively customised all my audio devices, from my pc's internal speakers, to my home-made amplifier and woofer system. ViperFX seems better for my external speaker system, due a larger equalizer, while AwesomeBeats is better for my earphones(also my own)
Another suggestion is to tweak all audio parameters for the audio mod you flash.
try fauxsound app to make it LOUDER, i know it works good but it distorts the sound
or try that viper4 mod for headphone sound quality
The DAC is perfectly fine. The headphone amp has a very high output impedance (38 Ohm), so you may get frequency shifts with headphones. I have a Galaxy S i9000 with Voodoo sound and IMO, the difference between the DACs is very small (there is a big difference driving headphones directly).
You may have a mixer/equalizer setting somewhere that causes clipping and the metallic sound.
The Cyanogenmod based ROMs should come with DSP Manager. I'm fairly sure the CM10.2 nightlies include it; Slim Bean definitely does.
Thanks for reply's.
I have i9000 too and sometimes use DSP other times I activate Voodoo. With eather one, but also with both turned off the sound of the i9000 is very superior. On the Nexus I have only tried equalizer within music player apps and without. Also I read a lot more complaints about dissappointing audio quality of new Nexus around the web and also on some reviews and included discussions on major tech-sites.
I am plannimg on adding DSP to my rooted Nexus 7 Flo with original bootloader. Topic about adding DSP is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45638957#post45638957 . I also asked a question there concerning keeping OTA-functionality after adding DSP.
Same here, it just doesnt sound as good as my nexus 10 from samsung. Im using earphone audeo 323 something like that. But did u try with poweramp, works for me at least. This is making me less likely to listen to music lol. Getting nexus 5 to replace it for music.
I have tried a lot of music players, PowerAmp Trial included. Not any (or that big) difference in quality compared to different other music players as far I can remember. The user interface is great, but PowerAmp and almost very other music players lack one for me very important feature: samba (smb) support to stream music from my NAS/WDTV Live and Windows Shares.
Found only three musicplayers with very stable smb-stream support: Neutron (trial), XenoAmp and ArmAmp. All the only few other music players with smb were not good enough because of unstable stream or missing features such as lockscreen-support, etc. Neutron and especially XenoAmp are terrible to use concerning their user interface.
ArmAmp is not as fancy as some other music players, but it excels in user friendlyness. Has the for me major important features such as eq and lockscreen-support. And last but not least outstanding quality of smb-streaming from my NAS/WDTV Live. So I bought the ad remover from that app. It streams my music from my Google Drive also perfectly by the way.
(BS Player not so nice interface and misses lockscreen and equalizer (eq) but streams smb great also. Media Players of ES Explorer and Total Commander stream smb-shares also very good but are way too limited in options also).
But I have tried a lot of music players with only local play-support on my Nex7/2. Even too much to mention. They don't fix poor audio quality of device.
A reason to buy PowerAmp by the way might be if stock Android 4.3 had Cifs-support, so you can open all files of NAS/Windows Shares as if they were locally on Android device. Works great on my Galaxy S1 with Slim Bean 4.2.2. Google however broke support for Cifs in recent Android version(s). How I miss that...Looking forward to someone having a solution for that. It makes me even consider a custom rom while one of the major great things of the Nexus is the possibility of OTA-updates.