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How are people dealing with the audio problems on the Mi Max? It is affecting the Global MIUI 7&8 and the China MIUI 8 ROM. Xiaomi has done nothing despite many complaining on the MIUI forums for months. Even the latest ROM has the same problems.
The output through the headphone jack is half the volume it should be. You can easily listen to YouTube at full volume and it's not even loud. Also the sound quality is appalling with quiet vocals and heavy bass even without using the system EQ (which crashes anyway in MIUI 7). There is also a noticeable hissing/static though headphones for a few seconds before and after a system sound plays, but listening to music doesn't have the same problem.
Considering its a standard Qualcomm DAC used in many phones its terrible what Xiaomi has done to mess up the output. My Mediatek powered phone from 2012 sounds so superior and with the Mi Max being a media consumption aimed phone it's a real poor effort.
I believe the phone is taking a low internal DAC output (caused by a bug) and amplifying it hence the distorted sound and low max volume. It's the only thing I'm extremely disappointed with and wondered how others are handling the issue?
By ditching MIUI...!?
Does the Mi Max not have these issues running CM etc?
I'm sure many are currently using MIUI and I won't be ditching it at least until the years warranty is up, also want to see what MIUI 9 is like based on Nougat.
F27 said:
Does the Mi Max not have these issues running CM etc?
I'm sure many are currently using MIUI and I won't be ditching it at least until the years warranty is up, also want to see what MIUI 9 is like based on Nougat.
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Except some low volume issues which are fixed now haven't heard of much complains...
nijel8 said:
Except some low volume issues which are fixed now haven't heard of much complains...
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https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=m...i+max+sound+problems+site:en.miui.com&start=0
F27 said:
How are people dealing with the audio problems on the Mi Max? It is affecting the Global MIUI 7&8 and the China MIUI 8 ROM. Xiaomi has done nothing despite many complaining on the MIUI forums for months. Even the latest ROM has the same problems.
The output through the headphone jack is half the volume it should be. You can easily listen to YouTube at full volume and it's not even loud. Also the sound quality is appalling with quiet vocals and heavy bass even without using the system EQ (which crashes anyway in MIUI 7). There is also a noticeable hissing/static though headphones for a few seconds before and after a system sound plays, but listening to music doesn't have the same problem.
Considering its a standard Qualcomm DAC used in many phones its terrible what Xiaomi has done to mess up the output. My Mediatek powered phone from 2012 sounds so superior and with the Mi Max being a media consumption aimed phone it's a real poor effort.
I believe the phone is taking a low internal DAC output (caused by a bug) and amplifying it hence the distorted sound and low max volume. It's the only thing I'm extremely disappointed with and wondered how others are handling the issue?
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I can confirm the low headphone volume bug exists for some media/music player apps on the miui 8 global rom. However, there's an easy workaround. Open Google play music app and play an audio file in that app. Increase the headphone volume from that app beyond the 'Warning: high volume can damage hearing' volume level. Leave the headphone volume at the highest setting. Close Google play music app. The next time you play audio in your preferred media player (other than Google play music), it should already be fixed. If you don't have Google play music, you can download it from Google Play store.
F27 said:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=m...i+max+sound+problems+site:en.miui.com&start=0
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That wasn't necessary... I am well aware of all things about Mi Max from day one.
And you were asking about CM so...
I thought my new earphones were faulty when I used them in my Mi Max. I was going to give them away but then I read about sound problems on Mi Max. Both my xiaomi phones have poor sound quality, mi4 always had poor quiet sound.
The low volume has been fixed for me on g8
There's some cracking but that's sorted by clean cache in the play music app there's also a equaliser in the app settings
This is a workaround for get high volume during listening to music by using IEM/Headphone. Only work with poweramp v3 alpha build 703/704
(Please Google it for APK. It's free in Poweramp forum)
Install poweramp v3 alpha, go to setting > resampler.
Select resampler type > SoX
Resampler cutoff frequency ratio > 97% ~ 99%
Dither > Improved e-weighted noise shaping (Poweramp indicate it slow but actually it fast enough)
Tap back button and select Hi-Res Output and then turn on Wired headset/aux (it will upsampled lossy format thus higher volume and audio quality improved a little bit. Another thing is make sure the 24-bit Snapdragon DAC is activated during listening session).
WARNING: Lower the volume at 20% or lower before activating Hi-Res output during playback. Trust me you'll thanks me later xD
If you can hear distorted sound at high volume, go to replay gain (RG), set preamp for songs without RG info to -7dB. (Just to make sure the sound is not clipping).
The Mi Max audio quality is pretty good even the DAC is just an integrated DAC.
In the screenshot is DSD128 playback. Working but it was downsampled. As for 24bit/96kHz source, it will upsampled to 192kHz.
Thank you for the replies. I have tried upping to volume in Google Play Music and it did increase the volume in other apps by around 20% so it's a start and thank you for the tip but it's still not really near the quality and loudness it should be for a stock Qualcomm 652 DAC. I will give the V3 Poweramp beta trick a try. I am currently using the Poweramp Pro to listen to music and the Mi Max sounds poor.
Basically Xiaomi need to go through how MIUI is handling audio and overhaul it imo, and hopefully version 9 won't need any of these work arounds because I've never had trouble on other budget phones... or I'm off to another ROM!
F27 said:
Thank you for the replies. I have tried upping to volume in Google Play Music and it did increase the volume in other apps by around 20% so it's a start and thank you for the tip but it's still not really near the quality and loudness it should be for a stock Qualcomm 652 DAC. I will give the V3 Poweramp beta trick a try. I am currently using the Poweramp Pro to listen to music and the Mi Max sounds poor.
Basically Xiaomi need to go through how MIUI is handling audio and overhaul it imo, and hopefully version 9 won't need any of these work arounds because I've never had trouble on other budget phones... or I'm off to another ROM!
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If you want more loudness still, louder than what the stock MIUI 8 can give you, I suggest you install music players with a 'pre-amp'. Neutron is one of my favorites among 'audiophile' grade music players (though I like BSPlayer more due to its multimedia capabilities). You can download the trial version of 'Neutron' at Google playstore (or purchase the full version if you are satisfied with the player.) Here are screenshots of Neutron music player where the pre-amp was adjusted (above zero) so as to increase the Mi Max's maximum attainable headphone volume (without buying an external portable headphone amp). Please note that too high a pre-amp setting can cause audio clipping which results to bad sound quality.
As to sound quality, yes the Mi Max headphone sound quality is really poor out of the box (MIUI 8). I have an Audio technica ATH-M50s/LE headphones which I used to listen to FLAC music on my previous Huawei Mate 7 phone. The sound quality was just ethereal. It's like listening to live musicians. I missed the headphone sound quality on my Mate 7 [DTS enabled] using the Audio technica as my headphones and BSPlayer as my preferred player (highlights the Audio Technica's strengths). Anyway, when I changed to the Mi Max, I used the same Audio Technica headphones only to be disappointed. I found out the Mi Max can't quite match the Mate 7's music reproduction [headphone DTS enabled] using the same music player (BSPlayer) or any music player for that matter. Fortunately, the Mi Max comes with headphone settings and a built in equalizer. Did a little experimentation and came up with the following settings that managed to somehow 'resemble' what my previous Mate 7 phone was able to deliver with regard to sound quality. Please note your mileage may vary depending on the quality of the headphones you use and your preferred media or music player:
1. Set Mi sound enhancer to 'ON'. Choose 'Mi headphones'.
2. Set the equalizer as follows:
These settings should improve the Mi Max's sound quality tremendously... Well, at least from my experience --- using the same Audio technica headphones and BSPlayer music player as audio player. I've saved the custom equalizer settings above as 'Mate7' because it reminds me of the sound quality of my previous Mate 7 phone. It's not a perfect match, but at least it comes close. Please note you really need good quality over-the-ear headphones if you want to overcome the Mi Max's 'poor headphone audio' shortcomings. Alternate headphones that I have thoroughly listened to and would also highly recommend are the B&W P7 and Sennheiser Momentums. I would have bought the B&W P7 had I not auditioned the Audio Technica side-by-side it and the Sennheiser Momentums. If you are serious about audio but can't give up the Mi Max for another phone with better audio components, then the recommendations above are about as good as the Mi Max can get.
don brian said:
If you want more loudness still, louder than what the stock MIUI 8 can give you, I suggest you install music players with a 'pre-amp'. Neutron is one of my favorites among 'audiophile' grade music players (though I like BSPlayer more due to its multimedia capabilities). You can download the trial version of 'Neutron' at Google playstore (or purchase the full version if you are satisfied with the player.) Here are screenshots of Neutron music player where the pre-amp was adjusted (above zero) so as to increase the Mi Max's maximum attainable headphone volume (without buying an external portable headphone amp). Please note that too high a pre-amp setting can cause audio clipping which results to bad sound quality.
As to sound quality, yes the Mi Max headphone sound quality is really poor out of the box (MIUI 8). I have an Audio technica ATH-M50s/LE headphones which I used to listen to FLAC music on my previous Huawei Mate 7 phone. The sound quality was just ethereal. It's like listening to live musicians. I missed the headphone sound quality on my Mate 7 [DTS enabled] using the Audio technica as my headphones and BSPlayer as my preferred player (highlights the Audio Technica's strengths). Anyway, when I changed to the Mi Max, I used the same Audio Technica headphones only to be disappointed. I found out the Mi Max can't quite match the Mate 7's music reproduction [headphone DTS enabled] using the same music player (BSPlayer) or any music player for that matter. Fortunately, the Mi Max comes with headphone settings and a built in equalizer. Did a little experimentation and came up with the following settings that managed to somehow 'resemble' what my previous Mate 7 phone was able to deliver with regard to sound quality. Please note your mileage may vary depending on the quality of the headphones you use and your preferred media or music player:
1. Set Mi sound enhancer to 'ON'. Choose 'Mi headphones'.
2. Set the equalizer as follows:
These settings should improve the Mi Max's sound quality tremendously... Well, at least from my experience --- using the same Audio technica headphones and BSPlayer music player as audio player. I've saved the custom equalizer settings above as 'Mate7' because it reminds me of the sound quality of my previous Mate 7 phone. It's not a perfect match, but at least it comes close. Please note you really need good quality over-the-ear headphones if you want to overcome the Mi Max's 'poor headphone audio' shortcomings. Alternate headphones that I have thoroughly listened to and would also highly recommend are the B&W P7 and Sennheiser Momentums. I would have bought the B&W P7 had I not auditioned the Audio Technica side-by-side it and the Sennheiser Momentums. If you are serious about audio but can't give up the Mi Max for another phone with better audio components, then the recommendations above are about as good as the Mi Max can get.
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FYI, the audio quality pretty impressive with IEM (Audio Technica ATH-IM50 and Trinity Audio Engineering Delta). You feel the sound is not quite loud enough because of internal amp suck. Mi Max can't handle high impedance headphone like yours (ATH-M50X). To overcome your problem, you have to pair your Mi Max with portable amp such as fiio e11k.
btw, didnt you noticed your source is clipping too much across low freq??
Actually the 'Neutron' screenshots did not show any headphones attached. The music was played on Mi Max's loudspeakers which can't reproduce low frequency so you can't hear the clipped low frequency sounds. The recording is actually only piano, vocals and cymbals. The low frequency is from instrument feedback (low frequency hum). On my ATH-M50s/LE headphones, that volume level would have been half as much since 100% is already too loud, eliminating the low frequency clipping. I don't need an external amp for my headphones. They're loud enough for me except for some Chesky recordings.
At the end of the day we shouldn't need to do any of these fixes and tweaks to make the sound from the Mi Max reasonable, Xiaomi should fix it but it seems they have very poor customer service when it comes to feedback and bugs. This Qualcomm DAC chipset is in many phones yet they don't have sound quality and loudness issues. I don't expect perfection but the Mi Max out of the box sounds worse than by budget Mediatek powered phone from 4 years ago!
i modded the mixer_paths files to make the sound louder. My roms all include this already. You need to make sure in your build.prop that fluence is enabled by making sure there is a line that says ro.qc.sdk.audio.fluencetype=fluence and make sure the two lines persist.audio.fluence.voicecall and persist.audio.fluence.speaker are set to true. Then flash this in twrp or replace your three mixer paths files in system/etc with the ones in the zip file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5I_q70mNuR4c1pxODNpTk12Y2M/view?usp=sharing
AeroMiku said:
FYI, the audio quality pretty impressive with IEM (Audio Technica ATH-IM50 and Trinity Audio Engineering Delta). You feel the sound is not quite loud enough because of internal amp suck. Mi Max can't handle high impedance headphone like yours (ATH-M50X). To overcome your problem, you have to pair your Mi Max with portable amp such as fiio e11k.
btw, didnt you noticed your source is clipping too much across low freq??
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Try out Foobar2000 (available on the Play Store, free & open source) instead of Neutron & you can skip the entire default sound processing with usage of the Open SL sound output & you will find a built in DSP section mostly sufficient. I am against modifying sound picture to much & as much as I sow in GSM Arena review the output sound picture is almost perfect & thick behind iPhone 6s (I plan to buy Max now). Rest is mostly influenced by quality of sound source & used headphones. For more well use dedicated external DAC & Amp.
---------- Post added at 11:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------
ajsmsg78 said:
i modded the mixer_paths files to make the sound louder. My roms all include this already. You need to make sure in your build.prop that fluence is enabled by making sure there is a line that says ro.qc.sdk.audio.fluencetype=fluence and make sure the two lines persist.audio.fluence.voicecall and persist.audio.fluence.speaker are set to true. Then flash this in twrp or replace your three mixer paths files in system/etc with the ones in the zip file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5I_q70mNuR4c1pxODNpTk12Y2M/view?usp=sharing
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Would actually rather increase (in small steps) output volume
In <!-- Play Scenario --> section for headphones & speaker if I whose you.
Don't exaggerate with it!
Best regards.
I did the opposite and reduced headphone volume to get rid of the hissing. I had the same problem on the Note 3 Pro, on MIUI 8 and CM13/CM14, so it's down to how the Qualcomm mixers are configured. By reducing gain and turning off companders you're dropping the noise floor. The drawback is that headphone volume is low, so this hack only works well with low impedance IEMs like Xiaomi Pistons.
1. Get rooted, open up all mixer_path_*.xml files in /system/etc.
2. Change HPHL Volume and HPHR Volume to a low value like 2.
3. Change any Comp* Switch values to 0.
4. Change RX HPH Mode to CLS_H_HIFI
5. Reboot and enjoy.
My own solution - Use VLC. Fixes the volume problem well - after you set the Audio Output to ES
skerry2006aj said:
My own solution - Use VLC. Fixes the volume problem well - after you set the Audio Output to ES
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Use Foobar2000 instead, VLC is bad when it comes to music.
There was a post where someone suggested using the AIMP player, I haven't been able to find it again (to give the proper credit), but it started because someone noticed how sound played different depending on what app played the sound or music.
It seems AIMP uses the Snapdragon 24-bit DSP (or DAC?) , which delivers a high quality output, I was actually surprised when I heard the difference.
My question is where or what could be changed so the default audio output uses the high quality DSP? So videos games and even ringtones and notifications (seriously it sounds much better) use it as well.
There is a great mod that activates the headspeaker when playing media, and even allows using both speakers with a stereo configuration, so perhaps using the DSP by default is also doable.
it was me who suggested the AIMP player in a previous post. i would however like to inform you that audio output using the OpenSL ES API instead of the default AudioTrack output will give you the raw audio of the DAC. Media Players which have this option will definitely sound much better. To my knowledge i have seen only VLC media player to support this feature (you have to change the output in setting unlike in AIMP). Custom sound mods are software level implementations which will just give you an amplified sound irrespective of quality. PowerAMP and MX has this option too but doesnt seem to work.
For better audio quality through speakers the default AudioTrack API works better.
asrone96 said:
it was me who suggested the AIMP player in a previous post. i would however like to inform you that audio output using the OpenSL ES API instead of the default AudioTrack output will give you the raw audio of the DAC. Media Players which have this option will definitely sound much better. To my knowledge i have seen only VLC media player to support this feature (you have to change the output in setting unlike in AIMP). Custom sound mods are software level implementations which will just give you an amplified sound irrespective of quality. PowerAMP and MX has this option too but doesnt seem to work.
For better audio quality through speakers the default AudioTrack API works better.
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Oh it was you, awesome recommendation indeed! Now normal audio output sounds muffled to me, the DAC audio quality is certainly much better.
Thank you, will look into it!
Avan7 said:
Oh it was you, awesome recommendation indeed! Now normal audio output sounds muffled to me, the DAC audio quality is certainly much better.
Thank you, will look into it!
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Sure man, ZUK has done something which modifies the audio quality before getting into our ears. I am sure its the audio driver. If someone can change that we should get a better audio quality.
Ummm I'm so unlucky, I've my JACK bricked :silly:. And I'm finding some way to route audio through USB using "USB-C to 3.5mm converter", same as Le2. I could not find a decent type-C headphone. I use Bluetooth reciever, and it's not even close to 3.5 mm jack. Any clue ? I'VE bought Poweramp, and it's useless now.
For those who use PowerAmp, update to latest build, i.e. 704 from official forum. Zuk Z2 does support HiRes Audio Output. Latest Play Store beta channel only have 703 build, which doesn't support HiRes Audio output in N.
kima09 said:
For those who use PowerAmp, update to latest build, i.e. 704 from official forum. Zuk Z2 does support HiRes Audio Output. Latest Play Store beta channel only have 703 build, which doesn't support HiRes Audio output in N.
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When I enable hi-res output, it fails. I don't think it is working.
kima09 said:
For those who use PowerAmp, update to latest build, i.e. 704 from official forum. Zuk Z2 does support HiRes Audio Output. Latest Play Store beta channel only have 703 build, which doesn't support HiRes Audio output in N.
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Can't find build 704. Will you please post a link?
asrone96 said:
it was me who suggested the AIMP player in a previous post. i would however like to inform you that audio output using the OpenSL ES API instead of the default AudioTrack output will give you the raw audio of the DAC. Media Players which have this option will definitely sound much better. To my knowledge i have seen only VLC media player to support this feature (you have to change the output in setting unlike in AIMP). Custom sound mods are software level implementations which will just give you an amplified sound irrespective of quality. PowerAMP and MX has this option too but doesnt seem to work.
For better audio quality through speakers the default AudioTrack API works better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Latest version of MX Player (1.9.5 & 1.9.7) support change of audio output method. Although no big difference with movie files, maybe difference can be felt when listening to flac audio.
Incrovantilist said:
Latest version of MX Player (1.9.5 & 1.9.7) support change of audio output method. Although no big difference with movie files, maybe difference can be felt when listening to flac audio.
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MX player doent work. it works with vlc and aimp only
asrone96 said:
MX player doent work. it works with vlc and aimp only
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Maybe true, coz I found no difference even in movies with uncompressed 6 channel & 5.1 audio. But option exists, so we have hope for it to be working in future releases.
Update for Poweramp 704_universal - Doesn't work properly yet. No observable difference in quality even with flac. I've been using the 704 version for quite a while now, also on 3 different phones. None of the three have supported high res properly. On my OPX it usually caused the app to crash. Maybe with the long awaited update to v3 might make it work properly.
Incrovantilist said:
Maybe true, coz I found no difference even in movies with uncompressed 6 channel & 5.1 audio. But option exists, so we have hope for it to be working in future releases.
Update for Poweramp 704_universal - Doesn't work properly yet. No observable difference in quality even with flac. I've been using the 704 version for quite a while now, also on 3 different phones. None of the three have supported high res properly. On my OPX it usually caused the app to crash. Maybe with the long awaited update to v3 might make it work properly.
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yeah...those options make no difference ...only AIMP works for now...in the beta release of AIMP there is an option to change audio output too
d3vyarth said:
Can't find build 704. Will you please post a link?
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If, like me, your preferred player is Poweramp, you can make it sound like AIMP's OpenSL output. besides enabling OpenSL as output method, open this file /data/data/com.maxmpz.audioplayer/shared_prefs/com.maxmpz.audioplayer_preferences.xml, find the string osl_headset_float and set its value to true and save it.Then force close PowerAMP and open again, the audio quality will match that of AIMP. But anyways, if you are really a audiophile, using VLC (opensl output ofc) gives the best possible quality, just saying
samsungrockz said:
If, like me, your preferred player is Poweramp, you can make it sound like AIMP's OpenSL output. besides enabling OpenSL as output method, open this file /data/data/com.maxmpz.audioplayer/shared_prefs/com.maxmpz.audioplayer_preferences.xml, find the string osl_headset_float and set its value to true and save it.Then force close PowerAMP and open again, the audio quality will match that of AIMP. But anyways, if you are really a audiophile, using VLC (opensl output ofc) gives the best possible quality, just saying
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Yes I use Poweramp, thanks for the workaround
Audio breaks when i use open sl audio output. Do you ever face this problem or my mobile is defective.
@abhishek said:
Audio breaks when i use open sl audio output. Do you ever face this problem or my mobile is defective.
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force stop vlc and open again... It works...
d3vyarth said:
Ummm I'm so unlucky, I've my JACK bricked :silly:. And I'm finding some way to route audio through USB using "USB-C to 3.5mm converter", same as Le2. I could not find a decent type-C headphone. I use Bluetooth reciever, and it's not even close to 3.5 mm jack. Any clue ? I'VE bought Poweramp, and it's useless now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the converter as well as ZUK Z2 (with my wife), I'll check if audio through USB-C works and if the hardware output works or not (provided my wife doesn't get cranky over my testing )
In v29a the audio no longer works as before, although it reproduces the high resolution formats, does a resampling at 48 kHz, I reviewed it by capturing the audio from the headphone output to the computer. In Marshmallow it supported up to 24 bit 192 kHz.
Can anyone play high resolution audio with all the quality and check it?
Thank you
Is Hi-Res Audio output available in redmi note 8?
192khz/24bit??
BUMP.
Nobody uses Poweramp here?
mobihack said:
BUMP.
Nobody uses Poweramp here?
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I don't use Poweramp, but I could check with another player. I have some FLAC files but at 96 kHz
Heard from telegram group that it was outputting at 24bit/48khz.
I feel that the output with headphones is a bit loose using the stock equalizer in both MiUI 10 and 11, instead using the equalizer of my personal player in Android (Blackplayer EX) gives better clarity to the headphones that I use, so is the DAC What does this model bring or can it be improved?
Hello, if you wanna record anything else than voice (ambiant sound, etc) on the 5 pro, you can forget it : it's just HORRIBLE. Somekine of filter is applied by system and can't be removed. I want to know if 6 Pro is same. It's one thing that would make me upgrade. Ideally, record sound of your street/hangout and upload to vocaroo. Would be SO GRATEFUL. Thank you.
Hello!
I have recorded pipe organ music with human chorus on a church that sounds beautiful, using the Recording program on the phone. It also records voice and music from pianos and other instruments, with not too much distortion. I am sure if you install a port of Google Record or any other recording program that let's you modify the gain in the micro you'll be able to record anything with good quality.
Cheers!