Newbie question - Stock vs Lineage vs AOSP (AptX, Equalizer & Spotify) - Sony Xperia XA2 Questions & Answers

Hey there,
I'm trying to not waste your time here. I got the XA2 cheap from a friend. Unfortunately it's Vodafone branded and I would also love to get rid of the pre-installed, uninstallable AVG crap.
Before I try to flash either Lineage or AOSP to it, can you guys tell me of the AptX HD part as well as the Equalizer will work with them. And will I be able to install and use Spotify with them? Or do I have to stick with Stock?
I really don't care if the camera or other functions won't work as good as before. For me, besides the telephone part, the sound and equalizer part is the only thing that matters..
Thanks in advance.

Related

[audio][app] For those that miss Viper4Android... Works on Lollipop!

One root mod/app I miss quite a bit is Viper4Android. It makes a HUGE difference to audio quality. Even more so on a smartphone with a subpar DAC such as our note 4 (the exynos variants are excluded since they have a Wolfson DAC). Due to the lack of root on the ATT note 4, I've been carrying a secondary device with Viper4Android to enjoy my music with headphones. But not anymore. I've found the next best thing and NO ROOT required. Truthfully, it's not as good as V4A; but it's definitely an improvement over everything else I've tried so far on the note 4. It is called Noozxoide EIZO-rewire PRO.
KitKat Setup:
Install from the play store here
Go to Settings>Sound>Music effects and select Noozxoide
You should be good to go
Enjoy
Lollipop Setup:
Install from the play store here
Go to Settings>Application manager
Swipe to the "ALL" tab
Find "SoundAlive" and disable it
(not sure if this is needed but just in case) Now find "Package Adapt Sound" and also disable it
Noozxoide should now work
Enjoy
Tips:
Get rid of persistent icon/notification -
When you see the app's icon in the status bar, pull down the notification shade and select the noozxoide notification. Untick the box for "Show notifications" and voila no more constant icon in status bar.
Sound quality/app settings:
I personally only bother with the "LINE-OUT" option since that's the one that corresponds to the aux jack.
By just having Noozxoide as the default EQ and all options unchecked in the app I noticed an improvement in sound quality.
- Check the box for "Deliver balanced natural soundstage and premium bass" and select one of the digital presets. Different presets give a different sound signature. Try each and select what sounds best to you.
- *Apparently "VE-Engine (Volume Enhancement)" does not work for our Qualcomm DAC so don't use this*
- For more warmth and bass check the box for "Increase the monitor size with added psycho-acoustic" and again select the effect strength. WARNING! The bass can get very strong!
- For wider soundstage and surround sound check the box for "Create VSUR on practical monitors and widen soundstage" and select one of the room sizes.
My personal settings:
I generally only check the first box and select the "Audiophile" preset. That's it. However, when using closed-back over ear headphones and listening to EDM, I pump up a bit of the bass for some eargasmic, soul crushing bass.
A couple of points I'd like to make:
1. Like I previously stated, I only care about the "LINE-OUT" option. I didn't bother checking out the "BUILT-IN" (speaker) or "WIRELESS" (Bluetooth) options.
2. It is recommended to use good headphones/earphones/speakers to get the most out of this app. Otherwise you might not hear a difference compared to the stock SoundAlive.
3. DOES work with ART and Lollipop
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY, audio quality can very subjective so what sounds good to me may not sound good to you. Try different options and hopefully something will sound good to YOU. If you end up agreeing with me that this is the next best thing to V4A, then you are welcome. Enjoy!
One last thing:
You might ask yourself, "why bother with this if I'm happy with the sound quality of -insert favorite music player-?" The answer is simple. Music players like PowerAmp sound great for playing back music located locally on the phone. However, what if you want great sound quality of all audio play back including streaming music apps like Google Play Music, Pandora, Spotify, etc? That's where this gem of an app comes in :highfive:.
I am not the dev of this app. All credit goes to dogsbark.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! Not being able to root sucks man and V4A was one of the biggest things that I missed the most. Again, thank you for sharing this, it works great on my Note. We don't have many options but this for sure is a good one. Good find.
tony5593 said:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! Not being able to root sucks man and V4A was one of the biggest things that I missed the most. Again, thank you for sharing this, it works great on my Note. We don't have many options but this for sure is a good one. Good find.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! I'm glad you're liking it. V4A and xposed are tied for most important things I miss about root.
P.S. Just a heads up, Noozxoide doesn't work with ART runtime so it won't work on Lollipop either until (hopefully) the dev updates the app. Something to keep in mind if you're running the ART runtime or if you take the lollipop update once it's released.
DroidBlaze said:
You're welcome! I'm glad you're liking it. V4A and xposed are tied for most important things I miss about root.
P.S. Just a heads up, Noozxoide doesn't work with ART runtime so it won't work on Lollipop either until (hopefully) the dev updates the app. Something to keep in mind if you're running the ART runtime or if you take the lollipop update once it's released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah man, I'm really liking it, it's working pretty damn good. I've never really used xposed so I can't say I miss it, I was more of a ROM whore, I miss that a lot hahaha.
I haven't done anything to this phone, when I switched to AT&T and got the Note 4 and realized I couldn't root it I stopped checking XDA and now work has kept me extremely busy and out of the loop. I have no idea what ART runtime is :crying: I have to catch up... which is a good thing, I have something to look forward to on my off time.
tony5593 said:
Yeah man, I'm really liking it, it's working pretty damn good. I've never really used xposed so I can't say I miss it, I was more of a ROM whore, I miss that a lot hahaha.
I haven't done anything to this phone, when I switched to AT&T and got the Note 4 and realized I couldn't root it I stopped checking XDA and now work has kept me extremely busy and out of the loop. I have no idea what ART runtime is :crying: I have to catch up... which is a good thing, I have something to look forward to on my off time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh me too man! I'm a recovering ROM & kernel-holic lol. I would be on the lookout for a ROM and kernel combo that had all the features I needed/wanted plus battery life and performance. Once I found a combo I liked, I would just flash ROM and kernel updates though... until there was a new ROM or kernel to try out lol. Plus I would do a bunch of tweaks that is only possible with root. Ugh I know I could be getting SO MUCH more from this phone with root...
ART is the new runtime, instead of Dalvik, introduced by Google in kitkat. You have the option to run either Dalvik or ART in developer options. It was experimental in kitkat but its the only runtime available in lollipop. It is suppose to improve performance and battery life. Here's more info if you want to read more about ART. LINK
DroidBlaze said:
Oh me too man! I'm a recovering ROM & kernel-holic lol. I would be on the lookout for a ROM and kernel combo that had all the features I needed/wanted plus battery life and performance. Once I found a combo I liked, I would just flash ROM and kernel updates though... until there was a new ROM or kernel to try out lol. Plus I would do a bunch of tweaks that is only possible with root. Ugh I know I could be getting SO MUCH more from this phone with root...
ART is the new runtime, instead of Dalvik, introduced by Google in kitkat. You have the option to run either Dalvik or ART in developer options. It was experimental in kitkat but its the only runtime available in lollipop. It is suppose to improve performance and battery life. Here's more info if you want to read more about ART. LINK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like me! And I agree... this phone could be able to do soooo much more with root.
I remember being able to run either Dalvik or ART vaguely... I can't remember what phone I did that with. Thanks for the link, it's something else I can look forward to on my freetime. I just wish I could tinker with this amazing phone.
In addition, I've tried poweramp, neutron, and jet audio. And I feel like Jet audio with the dsp enabled sounds louder than the rest. I'd go Jet, neutron, poweramp.
omair2005 said:
In addition, I've tried poweramp, neutron, and jet audio. And I feel like Jet audio with the dsp enabled sounds louder than the rest. I'd go Jet, neutron, poweramp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow really? Neutron is praised as the best player on android by audiophiles. I use poweramp even though I know the sound quality is better on neutron. I just couldn't deal with the archaic ui of neutron. Looks horrible IMO. But I had not heard of jet audio. Something new to try. Thanks!
Maybe I am blind, but I no longer see a music effect option in the sound menu since the OTA update last night.
Edit: saw your post up above about not working on ART runtime which 5.0.1 makes use of. Wish I would have seen this before moving up.
CamFlawless said:
Maybe I am blind, but I no longer see a music effect option in the sound menu since the OTA update last night.
Edit: saw your post up above about not working on ART runtime which 5.0.1 makes use of. Wish I would have seen this before moving up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check the OP again
I jumped the gun by claiming incompatibility with ART. I was convinced by reviews in the play store and posts I later found on xda about this app. They were wrong though. Only Noozxoide EIZO-rewire E (not PRO) is incompatible with ART.
I found this out by accident when I took the Lollipop update (didn't format data/factory reset) and noticed Noozxoide was still working :victory:. I looked for the reason why and remembered I had disabled SoundAlive before the update and after the update it was still disabled. So even though you can no longer select Noozxoide manually through Settings>Sound>Music effects, you can enable it by disabling all other dsp's/eq's.
Thank you for taking the time to figure all this out. I tried it the first time and wondered why it wouldn't "work" properly, but seems you figured out the Lollipop side effects. Trying it out now and it seems to be working much better.
I miss root and viper4android soo much and this is the cure to hold me over till then.
Seems to be working fine for me on Lollipop and I installed PRO not E. Incompatibility with ART would stop it from running correct? Not let it load and run, but fail to operate... However If I use NOOZY media player which has M built in, it says that M is incompatible with the DAC and has to run in debugging mode, So I switch to external DFX and PRO kicks in.
lexbian said:
Seems to be working fine for me on Lollipop and I installed PRO not E. Incompatibility with ART would stop it from running correct? Not let it load and run, but fail to operate... However If I use NOOZY media player which has M built in, it says that M is incompatible with the DAC and has to run in debugging mode, So I switch to external DFX and PRO kicks in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah Pro works fine with art and lollipop, it's E that doesn't. From what I remember M is the best compared to PRO and E; however, it was very limited to the dacs it's compatible with (Sabre and burr brown only I believe). I think the plan originally was to make M separate from noozy and make it compatible with more dacs, just like PRO/E, but it seems like development has stopped unfortunately .
Doesn't work with spotify
It works with the stock music player, however, when attempting to use it with Spotify I can't hear any difference no matter what settings i change in Noozxoide, even though when i touch the Equalizer button in spotify settings it still opens the Noozxoide app.
My android version is Lollipop
GalaxyDia said:
It works with the stock music player, however, when attempting to use it with Spotify I can't hear any difference no matter what settings i change in Noozxoide, even though when i touch the Equalizer button in spotify settings it still opens the Noozxoide app.
My android version is Lollipop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey sorry I didn't reply sooner. I'll install Spotify and see if I have the same issue. I currently only use GPM and Tidal but I did get the subscription to Spotify premium since they have/had the promotion of 3 months for 99ยข and they have an app for my ps4. I'll let you know what I find out.
Thanks Bro... it's the sound solution for my device, alcatel flash2
Hi guys! Would this work in conjunction with an EQ?
I love Viper4Android, unfortunately we can't get it to work for our device as we haven't got root. Noozxoide works great, however, I don't have high-end Headphones..Viper used to compensate for the loss in some audio spectrum, but I can't do that with Nooz, so I'd love to tweak it a bit using another EQ.
TIA
Does this work with Marshmallow? I'm gonna try it tomorrow

Base Setting For Audio?

When watching videos through the browser...there is hardly any bass(using the speaker). Is there a way to add base? Like if a guy is talking on the video his voice sounds tiny rather than full.
This tab has very very poor default sound settings, If you are not using viperfx or a modified kernel which has some eq settings it sound very poor in terms of bass
Not a lot you can with such tiny speakers, the speakers stereo on my HTC M7 phone are amazing so it can be done.
You can try Viper as mentioned above as long as you are not on android 5+ , A few Tab S owners say it works great.
http://vipersaudio.com/blog/?page_id=25
John
I'm on Android 5.0.2 and I have Viper installed and working.
Yeah, I know it can be done, but it`s supposed to be a bit more difficult to do than with pre 5.0 , if you have a guide, can you post it for other owners, unless it`s wildly known.
John.
vibecatalin said:
I'm on Android 5.0.2 and I have Viper installed and working.
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Click to collapse

Which is the best Custom Rom for audio quality?

I am using lineage 14.1 with Poweramp and Viper4Android atm. (HTC ONE M8, S-OFF). After making calls and writing messages audio playback is the most important task of my HTC One M8.
This was the reason why I choose the M8.
I am wondering if I get the best performance with this settings from my M8 or if I am missing something and if there is a better sounding ROM.
I am just talking about the output of the 3,5mm port: for headphone or to a receiver...the sound of the speakers is not so important.
Is Boomsound, Beats, Harman Kardon ...mainly for the speakers or is this also important when it comes to headphones?
For example: with the alpha test version(704) of poweramp I can't use the new HiRes Output via headphones with Lineage 14.1.
When I try it then the flac will be sampled down to 16bit/48khz
I tested S.Team JW 7.5.0. with the Harman Kardon option selected, now I could play a 24bit/96KHz Flac file which was processed via DAC.
But most time I would not use this bitrate as most of my music are flac files with 16bit 44,1khz or 48khz, but i have about 400songs in 24/96.
Are there differences that one can hear with a good pair of earphones between different ROMs? Has anyone tested the ROMs for this and can tell me what was the result?
of course with same settings(standard audio player without EQ) and same flac file with 16bit/44.1KHz, if there are no differences with the standard player,then there will also be none with poweramp+viper and the other way)
Lineage14.1 runs really really smooth, no problems that I could not solve with some research by myself.
I had the impression that S.team JW 7.5.0 sometimes had delays and stops when opening or scrolling lists, not so smooth...
on the other hand I really liked the cam (dual cam, slowmo ...)and lineage has no theme engine atm and samples down HR audio files...
I had 1 day between the playbacks and it was very hard to tell if there was a difference...I hope someone can shed some light one this topic.
Really? No one? Have I posted this question in the wrong forum? Maybe the M8 General would have been better?
I don't want to post the same question again there. Would it be possible to move this thread there?
I have reinstalled the S.Team JW ROM. The sound had more punch, but I don't know how this was created...but I am used to CM since 5 years and there are so many apps and stuff that I don't use and can't remove...
I will try CM13 because of theme engine which I miss in Lineage 14.1
Thanks in advance
omnitox said:
Really? No one? Have I posted this question in the wrong forum? Maybe the M8 General would have been better?
I don't want to post the same question again there. Would it be possible to move this thread there?
I have reinstalled the S.Team JW ROM. The sound had more punch, but I don't know how this was created...but I am used to CM since 5 years and there are so many apps and stuff that I don't use and can't remove...
I will try CM13 because of theme engine which I miss in Lineage 14.1
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Audio isn't exactly ROM dependent. AOSP ROMs will have AOSP audio. Sense based ROMs will have BoomSound. If you are S-Off, you can flash the Harman/Kardon audio.lib files plus the ADSP that the Sprint H/K model had, which is a part of firmware not ROM (you need the ADSP to make the H/K mod work properly).
S-Rom does some ADSP/firmware modifications that often affects audio quality, so you might have to (probably will have to) re-flash you current firmware version to fix that up.

Sound MOD for Non-Rooted Device?

Hi fellows,
Is there any sound MOD app for non-rooted mi A2?
A real sound enhancement needs root, but you can try one of the quadrillions of equalizers in the Play Store.
The equalizer is just equalizer! no great sound enhancement, this is why I'm asking about MODs!
There are also Music Players with Equalizers inbuilt, but they're never so good like real Sound-Mods
Did you used previously JetAudio !? if not i recommend to try it and i'm pretty sure u will like it.
What about rooted devices?
For rooted devices I strongly suggest the Viper4Android Magisk module.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/module-viper4android-fx-2-5-0-5-t3577058
Thanks for your reply, i already use Viper4Android, it works very well, i wanted to know why dual speakers mod doesnt work on mi a2 lite.... Im still on Oreo because i dont feel like to change right now, since the phone performance are great and battery life is fantastic, and i used an app that makes the radio works (spirit 2) ... so Now oreo just fit my needs.
If you don't care about security patches, there is no need to switch to Pie.
A real sound enhancement doesn't need root, it needs just the right programming. Try the Noozxoide Eizo Rewire Pro. It's an old project here on XDA, works like a charm on non-rooted devices with absolutely all audio sources and individual output sinks. You can still find this app on the store, and I can confirm that it works like a charm on Mi A2 Lite.

Question Can you improve the sound of the speakers / emulate Huawei's "Stereo+"?

Hi,
I recently got a S21 FE and while I'm pretty happy with it, I feel like the speakers are far below acceptable.
Up until now I owned an, by now 5 years old, Huawei mate 10 plus. It was a middle class phone with normal speakers - nothing fancy. However the sound quality is still much better. It got some "Stereo+" setting that only activates in landscape + certain volume but it improves it a lot.
Since there is no additional hardware build into it, it has to be done by software. Is there a way to get a similar effect on Samsung phones? I tried the build in equalizer but it didn't do much nor did it really improve things.
Bomber293 said:
Hi,
I recently got a S21 FE and while I'm pretty happy with it, I feel like the speakers are far below acceptable.
Up until now I owned an, by now 5 years old, Huawei mate 10 plus. It was a middle class phone with normal speakers - nothing fancy. However the sound quality is still much better. It got some "Stereo+" setting that only activates in landscape + certain volume but it improves it a lot.
Since there is no additional hardware build into it, it has to be done by software. Is there a way to get a similar effect on Samsung phones? I tried the build in equalizer but it didn't do much nor did it really improve things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whiteout root no
Could you explain why not? I do not need the exact feature, I just want a similar sound which should be possible with equalizers or something similar, or not?
Bomber293 said:
Could you explain why not? I do not need the exact feature, I just want a similar sound which should be possible with equalizers or something similar, or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Codecs , replacement and tweaks like this I know. Equaliser settings not enough https://github.com/Briclyaz/NLSound_module_QCom example
In the settings for the tone:
Switch off "Dolby Atmos"
Set the Equalizer to "Jazz"
Like this you will have a much more warm speaker sound.
Additionally you can try Poweramp Equalizer from google play store. It's got a load of features for the equalizer.
I'm using Wavelet https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pittvandewitt.wavelet
It's a good alternative to Viper without root
Also jetAudio player has a lot of audio settings
jetAudio HD Music Player Plus - Apps on Google Play
Network/Cloud Streaming, Visualization, Graphic Equalizer and Sound Effects.
play.google.com

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