Quickstart Guide:
1. Go to second page of the thread to download the V4A convolution wav file. Get the one named "pocoxb7maxedv2.zip" (newer).
2. Copy the wav named "norm1xb7maxedv2.wav" in the name to Android/Data/com.pittvandewitt.viperfx/files/Kernel
3. Open Viper4Android, enable Master Limiter and Convolver. Set the convolver to the wav that was copied.
EDIT 5 (June 2023)
Added new preset pocoxb7maxedv2.
Hey all, first post here. If I broke any rules please let me know.
Backstory (Skip Ahead):
So I've been using my Xiaomi phone for a while and it's really worth it for the price in my opinion. An issue I had was the 'tinny' speakers.
To remedy this, we need an anechoic measurement in order to actually "fix" the sound, not one measured indoors. We also need to get off-axis measurements as well. (Check the book from Floyd Toole on why).
An actual anechoic room is too 'expensive' (a bit of an understatement). There is the Klippel NFS, but it's also 'expensive'. But fortunately we can do a quasi-anechoic measurement (time gating). (Update: I developed another method to achieve this).
Here's the Poco X3 NFC left speaker measured at various angles on the listening window:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
The ideal target for an anechoic measurement would be a completely flat graph on-axis, smooth (maybe tilting) directivity and smooth sound power.
Subjectively speaking, applying the EQ through Viper4Android, the internal speaker sounds a lot better. It's a night and day difference in my opinion.
Anyway a few cons to be aware of:
Cons:
- Reduced (max) volume -> This one is to prevent clipping/breaking your speaker.
You can remedy this by using Playback Gain Control in Viper which will reduce the dynamic range on max volume (I recommend turning the gain control off when playing music)
- Difference in the speakers itself -> I only have one Poco X3 NFC to measure. If the speakers have bad unit variance, this won't work that great.
What I give to you:
A convolutional wav (in the zip) to use in Viper4Android / JamesDSP. Big thing to note is this requires root to use.
If you have questions, ask me anything. Thanks.
Can't really judge the results but I reckon yours is outstanding work. Thank you, sir.
Amazing effort, I have to try this.
Advantage is more bass & less treble for more realistic sound I guess.
Can you please make Parametric EQ preset for Neutron Music player as I prefer to use it without root? Thanks so much.
SkaboXD said:
Amazing effort, I have to try this.
Advantage is more bass & less treble for more realistic sound I guess.
Can you please make Parametric EQ preset for Neutron Music player as I prefer to use it without root? Thanks so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Parametric EQ settings added, check out the post
zettozoid said:
Parametric EQ settings added, check out the post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I just want to ask where's the pre-amp value?
I know that we can apply normalization or AGP (Auto-Gain Protection) but for people who don't have advanced music players with those functions, it would be nice to have pre-amp value attached here.
I want to say that you can finally hear some bass with this EQ. Treble is a bit more dull (but still more accurate than stock) compared to my M50x headphones which use Harman EQ by oratory1990. But overall, sound is more realistic, less bright compared to before. Music gets the new depth. And with normalization, sound is not reduced much. -8db by average I would say. My advice is to play music around 70% to avoid distortion.
It's an amazing improvement & I recommend everyone to try.
Here's the EQ preset for Neutron MP. Place it in storage/emulated/NeutronMP folder. Bind EQ to folder/album in media library than use audio normalization feature along with it.
If you saved some custom EQ in Neutron, backup it's settings as it will be overwrited by this EQ XML.
Thanks a lot!
Is that preset also applicable to Poweramp?
wimstefan said:
Thanks a lot!
Is that preset also applicable to Poweramp?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Only Neutron. I can try to make it for Poweramp.
SkaboXD said:
Thank you, I just want to ask where's the pre-amp value?
I know that we can apply normalization or AGP (Auto-Gain Protection) but for people who don't have advanced music players with those functions, it would be nice to have pre-amp value attached here.
I want to say that you can finally hear some bass with this EQ. Treble is a bit more dull (but still more accurate than stock) compared to my M50x headphones which use Harman EQ by oratory1990. But overall, sound is more realistic, less bright compared to before. Music gets the new depth. And with normalization, sound is not reduced much. -8db by average I would say. My advice is to play music around 70% to avoid distortion.
It's an amazing improvement & I recommend everyone to try.
Here's the EQ preset for Neutron MP. Place it in storage/emulated/NeutronMP folder. Bind EQ to folder/album in media library than use audio normalization feature along with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The value is on my laptop, but looking at the graph it should be -7dB.
Oh yeah, for the treble part is where using a umik would come in handy since most cheap omni mics get inaccurate above 10khz. Sadly I don't have it so you can just add a 11khz high shelf and adjust by ear.
SkaboXD said:
Thank you, I just want to ask where's the pre-amp value?
I know that we can apply normalization or AGP (Auto-Gain Protection) but for people who don't have advanced music players with those functions, it would be nice to have pre-amp value attached here.
I want to say that you can finally hear some bass with this EQ. Treble is a bit more dull (but still more accurate than stock) compared to my M50x headphones which use Harman EQ by oratory1990. But overall, sound is more realistic, less bright compared to before. Music gets the new depth. And with normalization, sound is not reduced much. -8db by average I would say. My advice is to play music around 70% to avoid distortion.
It's an amazing improvement & I recommend everyone to try.
Here's the EQ preset for Neutron MP. Place it in storage/emulated/NeutronMP folder. Bind EQ to folder/album in media library than use audio normalization feature along with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh lol we have the same headphones.
I was using oratory's preset till I got ahold of a custom preset via an app called DGSonicFocus.
I think my ears are a bit different since to make it sound neutral I have to reduce 1khz and 4500hz by around 4 dB from the harman curve.
I also have the 10khz above rising akin to the diffuse field curve.
With this in mind, listening to the preset for the speakers sound tonally correct to me sans the subbass. Perhaps it's due to unit variance.
zettozoid said:
Oh lol we have the same headphones.
I was using oratory's preset till I got ahold of a custom preset via an app called DGSonicFocus.
I think my ears are a bit different since to make it sound neutral I have to reduce 1khz and 4500hz by around 4 dB from the harman curve.
I also have the 10khz above rising akin to the diffuse field curve.
With this in mind, listening to the preset for the speakers sound tonally correct to me sans the subbass. Perhaps it's due to unit variance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know my peak resonance of the ear, but I know that Harman EQ profile suits me. I might got the lottery with EQ & unit matching my ears correctly.
It sounds pretty much correct to me, I agree.
Unit variance & quality control of Xiaomi is not top notch for sure lol. But it still made an great improvement in sound quality.
SkaboXD said:
Nope. Only Neutron. I can try to make it for Poweramp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow that would be great! But please only if it's not too much of an hassle.
wimstefan said:
Oh wow that would be great! But please only if it's not too much of an hassle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made Poweramp EQ preset, but you can't go below 0.1 Q value, below 20Hz & above 20000Hz with Poweramp EQ. So the EQ preset is very slightly different compared to EQ preset posted here by OP & me for Neutron Music Player as Neutron has much more powerful EQ. It's still great though.
Take in mind that Poweramp doesn't support exporting EQ presets only, but every setting choice. So backup/remember every setting you did before importing this EQ preset. Extract zip file before importing.
Thank you so much!
For the efforts to create the preset and also the precious & detailed information on how to handle it in Poweramp
zettozoid said:
So the ideal target for an anechoic measurement would be a flat graph. While this is, practically speaking impossible to achieve, we can (or at least I tried to) get closer to it by using equalization. Note that doing a measurement in a reflective room and equalizing from it is bad practice and will more than likely ruin the sound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For each their own, but tbh a completely flat graph won't sound good. personally, I quite like the stock tuning, but you can do quite a lot of tuning I'd probably boost the mids and drop the "air" peak
xlen said:
For each their own, but tbh a completely flat graph won't sound good. personally, I quite like the stock tuning, but you can do quite a lot of tuning I'd probably boost the mids and drop the "air" peak
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure that by flat graph not "sounding good" we're talking about the same thing here though.
I believe in his book, Toole talks about most people leaning towards the (in anechoic chamber) "flat" measuring speaker which when put in a room gives a downward tilt with a bass boost.
If we're talking about my preset though, of course you can still tune it. I don't have a properly calibrated measurement mic (like the Umik) so the actual response above 1khz probably deviates somewhat.
xlen said:
For each their own, but tbh a completely flat graph won't sound good. personally, I quite like the stock tuning, but you can do quite a lot of tuning I'd probably boost the mids and drop the "air" peak
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hated stock tuning. With this EQ, I hate it even more lol.
I got a UMIK-1. I updated the EQ preset. Please check the main post
zettozoid said:
I got a UMIK-1. I updated the EQ preset. Please check the main post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG YES!
Gonna try it now!
This is very big, every smartphone manufacturer should tune sound like you do.
I will edit for my final impressions
.
It sounds better than the last EQ. It has better directivity and that ''less airness'' compared to last EQ comes from the fact that frequency response is more neutral with this new EQ, especially in treble & bass. It's still not perfect, but it's better. There are still some peaks between 10-15Khz, but that's nothing compared to other phones.
Awesome!
SkaboXD said:
OMG YES!
Gonna try it now!
This is very big, every smartphone manufacturer should tune sound like you do.
I will edit for my final impressions
.
It sounds better than the last EQ. It has better directivity and that ''less airness'' compared to last EQ comes from the fact that frequency response is more neutral with this new EQ, especially in treble & bass. It's still not perfect, but it's better. There are still some peaks between 10-15Khz, but that's nothing compared to other phones.
Awesome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know, did you use the wav or the Parametric EQ btw?
Also, fyi I didn't touch the bass since I ran out of the 6dB headroom. Perhaps the improvement you mentioned was placebo? As for the treble peaking I think that's either because of the smoothing of the measurement or non-linearities.
As it is, there's not much else to do to improve this further. I could either try to get the anechoic measurement down to around 200Hz but the result will probably have too low of a volume
zettozoid said:
Good to know, did you use the wav or the Parametric EQ btw?
Also, fyi I didn't touch the bass since I ran out of the 6dB headroom. Perhaps the improvement you mentioned was placebo? As for the treble peaking I think that's either because of the smoothing of the measurement or non-linearities.
As it is, there's not much else to do to improve this further. I could either try to get the anechoic measurement down to around 200Hz but the result will probably have too low of a volume
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impulse response.
Well, higher frequencies can affect bass too, to mask it more if they are louder than neutral. It's a micro difference in real life but really noticeable imo when playing the pink noise & some nicely bass recorded songs. Maybe I could phrase it better myself there & not lead people that bass is bigger.
I believe it's due to unit variation mostly.
I would be open for some more volume reduction lol, I use my device at 80% volume + some noticeable volume compression happens above that volume.
But I honestly find no need. It's already good as it is. Better than most phone speakers up to 500 dollars price range for sure.
Which says how much frequency response is important for sound quality.
Related
Beats is a great brand in my opinion, and its pretty cool for them to be involved with such a great company as HTC. So how does beats work
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Xparent Green Tapatalk
eggydrums said:
Beats is a great brand in my opinion, and its pretty cool for them to be involved with such a great company as HTC. So how does beats work
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Xparent Green Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you completely sure it does work m8 ????
By beats a presume you mean Dreys Beats?? ....... *sigh*
No offence but they sell overpriced junk to clueless kids who want another 'cool' accessory to match their iphone
If you want good sound quality headphones go to a proper HiFi shop and try some Sennheisers and some other brands ......... you'll probably notice that most of the Sennheisers sound great compared to other manufacturers offerings at the same or often much higher price.
Job done
Please don't get sucked in by the 'Big rap name brand BS' all they sell is overpriced junk. There are proper companies who develop and sell REAL HiFi headphones, Sennheiser, BeyerDynamic, Sony, etc.
Give them your cash and get genuinely awesome sound quality rather than something that just happens to come in pink camo.
Oh yeah almost forgot if Beats on HTC does anything at all it will be nothing but a slight EQ profile change, to accentuate the characteristics of the phones.
Probably just a big dumb low freq boost so you can 'Feel da bass'. Problem is as anyone whos HiFi knowledgable will tell you an EQ really needs setting for each piece of music or at least each style ......... once you understand that you start to realize how useless such gimmicks are and learn to not trust companies behind such junk.
Dunno what HTC are getting in bed with this, maybe their marketing people think they need kid street cred.
The Beats thing is not what you would want in Headphones. I will always want to listen to my music without adjusting the EQ. Personally never liked the over done BASS on the headphones myself, could always find something cheaper that did a better job.
I would always want to listen to music on a iPod so i don't drain the battery of my phone.
Guru Zeb said:
Are you completely sure it does work m8 ????
By beats a presume you mean Dreys Beats?? ....... *sigh*
No offence but they sell overpriced junk to clueless kids who want another 'cool' accessory to match their iphone
If you want good sound quality headphones go to a proper HiFi shop and try some Sennheisers and some other brands ......... you'll probably notice that most of the Sennheisers sound great compared to other manufacturers offerings at the same or often much higher price.
Job done
Please don't get sucked in by the 'Big rap name brand BS' all they sell is overpriced junk. There are proper companies who develop and sell REAL HiFi headphones, Sennheiser, BeyerDynamic, Sony, etc.
Give them your cash and get genuinely awesome sound quality rather than something that just happens to come in pink camo.
Oh yeah almost forgot if Beats on HTC does anything at all it will be nothing but a slight EQ profile change, to accentuate the characteristics of the phones.
Probably just a big dumb low freq boost so you can 'Feel da base'. Problem is as anyone whos HiFi knowledgable will tell you an EQ really needs setting for each piece of music or at least each style ......... once you understand that you start to realize how useless such gimmicks are and learn to not trust companies behind such junk.
Dunno what HTC are getting in bed with this, maybe their marketing people think they need kid street cred.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice reply thanks, I was actually was thinking of buying a pair of beats but man have you convinced me lol. I've always thought that people like beats because its has so much marketing, then when a person uses them its like mental if you know what I mean
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Xparent Green Tapatalk
eggydrums said:
Nice reply thanks, I was actually was thinking of buying a pair of beats but man have you convinced me lol. I've always thought that people like beats because its has so much marketing, then when a person uses them its like mental if you know what I mean
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Xparent Green Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dood DO NOT Just take my word for it .... go to a decent HiFi shop with your phone or MP3 player ( i don't use my phone for mobile music never have ).
Use your own player with your own music and just listen to some different phones and see what you think. Do the same thing with some 'Cool boutique' phones and you'll see what a mean.
I can predict that Sennheisers will most likely be the best 'bang for buck' in full size cans anyways. Their in ears are good too but i don't use in ears myself as am one of those people whos ears get sore in 20mins using in ears.
Oh yeah forgot to say the best sound quality improvement on headphones for less than $20 is a of these
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
FiiO E5, headphone amp it sits between your player and your phones and acts as a dedicated power Amp. Its about 45x45x8mm with an LED lit on/off button, a volume rocker, and an EQ button flat (FTW), or Bass boost (meh).
They are stupid cheap (thanks to our Chinese brothers )
Usb rechargeable, run for about 10 hours on one charge, improve the sound stage and the mid tones amazingly well.
Also they help reduce battery drain in your phone/MP3 player as you can turn the Amp upto 80%-90% and leave it there and run your player on much lower volume like 20%-40% this can make a huge difference to battery life if (Like me) you pretty much listen to mobile music constantly when your outta the house. Get them for peanuts on ebay they really are awesome. FiiO also make a bunch of others models waaay more sophisticated than the E5 i have, but it only cost me $15. Best mobile music accessory i have ever bought, and i've been a mobile audiophile since the 80's!!!!
I agree... Beatz by Dre are CRAP.... 20 Hertz are the lowest they go..
And for 300$ that whack bass lol
I bought pro American Audio DJ headphones that go all the way down to 5Hz for 100$ and the bass is ridiculous!!!
I'm a bass quality type of guy and if you hate bass like treble and are fine with OK audio... then these are for you....
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
I was looking at some senheiesers for 100$ on musicians friend looked pretty good through they have a large selection
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Xparent Green Tapatalk
What Guru Zeb said. It's all a load of gimmicky rubbish designed to part you from your cash.
If you want good audio fidelity it would be wise to invest in Headphones from a company that has been making them for over fifty years. You wouldn't buy a car made by Zanussi after all, although you might have a washing machine from them!
Stick to the known manufacturers like Sennheiser and you can't go wrong.
Beats is garbage. Htc use it to make their phones desirable to ignorant teens. That is all.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.......
conantroutman said:
Beats is garbage. Htc use it to make their phones desirable to ignorant teens. That is all.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
10char
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
jayRokk said:
I agree... Beatz by Dre are CRAP.... 20 Hertz are the lowest they go..
And for 300$ that whack bass lol
I bought pro American Audio DJ headphones that go all the way down to 5Hz for 100$ and the bass is ridiculous!!!
I'm a bass quality type of guy and if you hate bass like treble and are fine with OK audio... then these are for you....
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious as to why you need bass down to such a low level, since that's pretty much just moving air at that kind of frequency... I don't really think you would hear any difference tbh, unless I'm missing something
pulser_g2 said:
Curious as to why you need bass down to such a low level, since that's pretty much just moving air at that kind of frequency... I don't really think you would hear any difference tbh, unless I'm missing something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In large speakers yes its just moving air... but have you felt 5Hz in headphones?? Not only does the bass sound richer and deeper but idk the rest of you but I like the feeling of the bass as well and with 5hz you CAN feel it lol
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
conantroutman said:
Beats is garbage. Htc use it to make their phones desirable to ignorant teens. That is all.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent choice of Avatar image there m8
Check out Bhajis Loops
http://chocopoolp.com/
Its oooooold but utterly amazing still nothing that really comes near it for a mobile DAW ........ then maybe buy and old PALM to run it on ..... I did
You are right, humans cannot hear 5hz, but that is not the reason for wanting to have cans that can reproduce such low frequencies.
The real reason you want cans or speakers in general for that matter to be able to reproduce frequencies way out of our hearing range is to allow for the rollofs at the limitations of a driver. Every speaker has a limited range of frequencies that it can reproduce, usually some range between 20hz and 20,000hz, but there is a difference between what is "reproduceable" by a driver and what is "useful" in that range of frequencies. As you reach the upper and lower ends of that range you are actually reaching the physical limitations of the mechanical features of the speaker which means that there are variances in the frequency response that reault in what is called a "rolloff" or drop in the output of the speaker at specific frequencies. For example if you have a set of cans that respond fron 20 to 20k as previously described, when tested with measuring equipment you will find that when you reach up around 15k or 16k you will stat to get a drop off in response resulting in decreased volume from those frequencies due to losses within the mechanical reproduction of the audio, say for example a drop of 3db/octave beyond 15khz. While the speakers may still do something, "respond", when you supply them with a 20khz tone, the tone may be very much quieter than a useful volume for music reproduction purposes.
If the response range of the speakers advances a ways past the range of frequencies audible to humans you will find that the response within those audible frequencies will be stro.g at the far low and far high extremes of the range because the driver is not working at the edges of its mechanical limitations. Less energy is wasted as heat because the driver operates more efficiently within the useful range that it is intended for. So while you may not be ae to hear that extra 15 thousand hertz your speakers can produce above 20khz, its purpose is not to be audible, its purpose is to improve the linearity of the response of the audible frequency range.
Now, back to the topic, since im a sound engineer by profession and obviously audio actually matters as a feature to me, what does "with beats audio" actually entail in practice and can it be turned the **** off? I have a funny feeling i might buy the htc one x and i want to be sure that this "beays audio" nonsense isnt gonna actually ruin the audio playback for me as its basically mission critical. As long as it can be completely disabled so it has no effect on playback i will be satisfied.
hefonthefjords said:
Now, back to the topic, since im a sound engineer by profession and obviously audio actually matters as a feature to me, what does "with beats audio" actually entail in practice and can it be turned the **** off? I have a funny feeling i might buy the htc one x and i want to be sure that this "beays audio" nonsense isnt gonna actually ruin the audio playback for me as its basically mission critical. As long as it can be completely disabled so it has no effect on playback i will be satisfied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NEEDZ MOAR BASSSSS!!!
To answer your question, it's nothing more than a branded EQ and I'd imagine it's just an apk that can be uninstalled or frozen with titanium backup or equivalent app....
The fact that it's nothing more than a gimmick which allows them to slap a sticker on the box and lure in teenagers who enjoying playing Rihanna songs at full volume on their phone in public, makes me think that it will not be so deeply integrated that it's difficult to remove.
Thats exactly what i was hoping.
I discovered after a little reading that the reason htc have gotten involved in the beats audio gimmick is that beats electronics inc. invested $300million in htc. Kinda hard not to slap the logo on for that much money in what is arguably hard times for htc.
hefonthefjords said:
Thats exactly what i was hoping.
I discovered after a little reading that the reason htc have gotten involved in the beats audio gimmick is that beats electronics inc. invested $300million in htc. Kinda hard not to slap the logo on for that much money in what is arguably hard times for htc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting....
Gotta pay the bills I guess...
Beats audio..
Beats audio.
what i think ( and tested ) not the headphones.
But beats audio on your phone has very little to do with the hardware. and no special hardware inside the phone is required.
(ie flashing sense 4 rom with beats support wil work on a desire HD)
Now let me be bold to say that the software "beats audio' is nothing more than a "soft" DSP.
Copanies like SonicFocus / DTS / and Dolby have ben in this for ages and doing asuperb job at it.
Call it EQ, call it an algorithm.
Beats is in fact an algorithm that boost the dynamics, dep bass, brilliance, and solo clarity of the sound.
Creative > crystaliser
SoundMax > Sonic Focus
And i do have to say that with the "beats audio" enabled it does sound bigger and more clear.
But is it still safe to say that with compression of mp3s or even streamed music the quality of the sound could get just a little dull.
( at least that is what I notice )
Not thats where the DSP comes in, may it be beats, sonic focus, or whatever. I think on a mobile device playing mp3/streamed audio it does enhance the sound.
conclusion.
its a soft DSP, with its own fancy name and logo. A DSP that should be in that device anyway.
A nice marketing gimmick.
hefonthefjords said:
You are right, humans cannot hear 5hz, but that is not the reason for wanting to have cans that can reproduce such low frequencies.
The real reason you want cans or speakers in general for that matter to be able to reproduce frequencies way out of our hearing range is to allow for the rollofs at the limitations of a driver. Every speaker has a limited range of frequencies that it can reproduce, usually some range between 20hz and 20,000hz, but there is a difference between what is "reproduceable" by a driver and what is "useful" in that range of frequencies. As you reach the upper and lower ends of that range you are actually reaching the physical limitations of the mechanical features of the speaker which means that there are variances in the frequency response that reault in what is called a "rolloff" or drop in the output of the speaker at specific frequencies. For example if you have a set of cans that respond fron 20 to 20k as previously described, when tested with measuring equipment you will find that when you reach up around 15k or 16k you will stat to get a drop off in response resulting in decreased volume from those frequencies due to losses within the mechanical reproduction of the audio, say for example a drop of 3db/octave beyond 15khz. While the speakers may still do something, "respond", when you supply them with a 20khz tone, the tone may be very much quieter than a useful volume for music reproduction purposes.
If the response range of the speakers advances a ways past the range of frequencies audible to humans you will find that the response within those audible frequencies will be stro.g at the far low and far high extremes of the range because the driver is not working at the edges of its mechanical limitations. Less energy is wasted as heat because the driver operates more efficiently within the useful range that it is intended for. So while you may not be ae to hear that extra 15 thousand hertz your speakers can produce above 20khz, its purpose is not to be audible, its purpose is to improve the linearity of the response of the audible frequency range.
Now, back to the topic, since im a sound engineer by profession and obviously audio actually matters as a feature to me, what does "with beats audio" actually entail in practice and can it be turned the **** off? I have a funny feeling i might buy the htc one x and i want to be sure that this "beays audio" nonsense isnt gonna actually ruin the audio playback for me as its basically mission critical. As long as it can be completely disabled so it has no effect on playback i will be satisfied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly right.
The numbers relating to audio that are posted on headphone and speaker boxes are a mess, they all proudly proclaim 20-20k, but realistically they're defining an edge on a smooth curve. The point you made about linear amplification bears to be repeated: the phone is going to contain the driving amp, and the ideal amp would produce a square wave at your nominal impedance, where the amplifier will simply not push any frequency below the lower bound, then push exactly X dB at each frequency for the entire supported frequency range, sharply dropping off again to never push any signal above the upper frequency bound.
The actual bounding values that the amplifier covers are irrelevant because the physical limitations on what frequencies silicon can push are far outside of your audible hearing range (no you cant hear 20Hz, I know your science 8 teacher told you you could but he lied, you have superb hearing if you can hear 30Hz, furthermore none of my music produces sounds above 16KHz).
And that's only speaking to frequency response, which, while arguably the most important characteristic of an amplifier, is certainly not the only one.
Somebody before this post suggested getting a Fiio E5 headphone amp, I've used one of those and they really do help if your trying to drive 100 Ohm+ headphones, which almost no ear buds are. If your wandering around with Senny 600s or AT 900s you might need such an amp, but for the most part the amp built in to the phone should suffice.
I hope the thing that a "beats [certified amp]" means is that for some given load (read: headphones to drive) the amp must produce a reasonably constant dB / frequency curve. But looking at beatsbydre.com/beatsaudio/Beats%20Audio,default,sc.html, it really does just look like yo dawg, this stuffs dope, we promise.
as per Enonoid, I'm wondering if its just software and/or a DSP. I haven't used any beats audio stuff before so I cant speak to it, but the "Crystalizer" feature on modern X-Fi stuff is actually kind've nifty. Its claim is that intrinsically its very difficult to encode percussion, and so when decoding you should have filters that smartly look for percussion and attempt to create the true audio-spikes they entail, rather than the wash they frequently get encoded as. Its a novel concept, and I'd even be willing to argue it adds something to the sound, and if beats is just something similar, I guess I'm on board, as long as it isn't simply slanting an EQ to boost everything below 500Hz.
First off let me say i understand that everyone's hearing is different and what sounds good to one may not sound good to another.
I decided to do a little comparison of jetAudio PowerAMP & PlayerPro to see which one i thought had the best audio. Not features or operation ect. Just the best audio to my ears. The test went like this. Install them and set all audio extras off. No bass boost. No eq. No virtaulizer. No stereofx. nada, nothing. Nothing but just the unaltered sound from the player.
I chose a lot off different tracks to compare but concentrated on Saving Abel- The Sex is Good and ZZ-Top- Blue Jean Blues along with Matchbox20- Hang. I would load up a song in all three. Play it back to back to back listening to each one closely for bass, mids and treble. Drum clarity. The sound of fingers gently breathing over the strings. Upfront vocal quality.
Before i get to the results let me give a little info about the setup. It's a Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 with TerraSilent 1.3.5 kernel, Klin's Icy~Fusion 2.3 ROM. Voodoo Sound Control. The cans are a-Jays-ONE and MEElectronics SP51's. I also conducted the test with and without DSP Manager (which is included in the custom rom.) For settings in DSP. No bass boost. No Compression. No Loudness Compensation. Just eq with the first set to +2.2 for a little bass boost. All others at 0. I also like Virtual Room Effect set to ROOM.
The results: HANDS DOWN PlayerPro! Seriously, it was no contest. Every song i tried resulted in PlayerPro kicking there backside. Jet and Pamp sounded very similar. The bass just seems muddy, the mids are lackluster and the highs are over exaggerated. Overall an unclean sound. PlayerPro was clear and precise.
This isn't the first time I've conducted this test either. I've tried the same test with the 4.0 in stock condition and also with steves custom rom with voodoo. The results are always the same for me. One reason i keep doing the test is because i see so much in forums singing the praises of PowerAmp and i keep telling myself that maybe the test was a fluke, my hearing wasn't having a good day ect. But low and behold there's not even a maybe this sounds just as good or better. It's always the same surprised look on my face with a smile when i hit play on PlayerPro.
PowerAMP fans don't flame me If it sounds that good to you, well more power to ya (pun intended). I'm uninstalling all others for about the 4th time and sticking with PlayerPro. Good day!
DVC
IMO Poweramp's DVC feature makes it stand out from the rest. However, you need to have some knowledge on how to properly adjust the EQ in order to fully maximize its potential. Right now I'm using neutrino music player and it sounds good out of the box, you don't need to do extensive tweaking unlike in poweramp. I'm not giving up on poweramp yet though
See here is my take on eq's. From what I've read all my life, eq's should never be used to boost frequencies. Most audiophiles will say if the player is doing what it needs to do, then boosting frequencies will only add unwanted distortion. So if eq'ing is used it should be to cut not boost.
I tend to agree with them. I want to hear exactly what the sound producer/mixer wanted me to hear when they cut the track. Not something thats been artificially added. And agan, not trying to start a war of words on the matter, just giving my honest opinion. looking forward to others opinions on the subject.
I personally like poweramp. The dvc feature is great. I only slightly adjust the eq to give a little more bass and also a boost around 4k. It sounds to me better than player pro. My headphones are sennheiser hd 205 ii. So they're pretty good and I can hear that the clarity in player pro is a little better than in poweramp. But again, the dvc allows me to get the warmer, cleaner sound that I want. The player pro's eq flat out sucks.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
Ok, after hearing others opinions on the subject i decided to revisit my test again but this time with DVC on in PowerAMP. Well as they say,,,,,this is a game changer It's unbelievable how much difference putting that one check in the box made! I believe i'm going to have to call it a tie now between PowerAMP and PlayerPro. After loading up several of the same songs in each one and listening side by side, it was real hard to pick a clear winner.
kesongpinoy said:
IMO Poweramp's DVC feature makes it stand out from the rest. However, you need to have some knowledge on how to properly adjust the EQ in order to fully maximize its potential. Right now I'm using neutrino music player and it sounds good out of the box, you don't need to do extensive tweaking unlike in poweramp. I'm not giving up on poweramp yet though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you, I ALWAYS leave my EQ's on any of my players FLAT as that is really the only way to compare different apps.
---------- Post added at 02:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 AM ----------
mwclark7 said:
Ok, after hearing others opinions on the subject i decided to revisit my test again but this time with DVC on in PowerAMP. Well as they say,,,,,this is a game changer It's unbelievable how much difference putting that one check in the box made! I believe i'm going to have to call it a tie now between PowerAMP and PlayerPro. After loading up several of the same songs in each one and listening side by side, it was real hard to pick a clear winner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your gonna test sound on this level you should also flash like 1.4 or 1.5 versions of Stratus ROM (EtherealRom) so you can compare the difference BEATS Audio makes, personally I felt that gave the best clarity, despite the loss of DVC in poweramp.
daniel644 said:
I'm with you, I ALWAYS leave my EQ's on any of my players FLAT as that is really the only way to compare different apps.
---------- Post added at 02:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 AM ----------
If your gonna test sound on this level you should also flash like 1.4 or 1.5 versions of Stratus ROM (EtherealRom) so you can compare the difference BEATS Audio makes, personally I felt that gave the best clarity, despite the loss of DVC in poweramp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I if you do, make sure you use my latest version, because I applied a better, cleaner beats mod in it.
what's irritating about the DVC though is its uneven volume scaling which can badly hurt your ears if you forget to turn down the volume
Also, remember you need a MINIMUM 192 kbps bit-rate to properly judge audio quality.
IMHO the best albums to use for testing sound quality are "Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon" remastered of-course and "Evanescence's Fallen".
Not a gripe...
No change to the sound quality after ICS. Figures ehh.. bad compression in sound still present.. I'm still having to use lgcamera for video. I love that app but I wish the dev would fix the screen cropping, aspect ratio and improper scaling. What apps do you use for video recording?
they fixed the clicks and pops though. That was the huge problem we all complained to htc about and it seems they fixed it... so that's good lol
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2
Yeah, the beeping noise is gone. But I still woukdnt recommend using it in loud environments such as around loud music or crowds. It gives it a robotic swishy effect. Rather annoying and makes some sounds difficult to interpret.
They just figure that suckers for "Beats Audio" don't know what sound quality is.
mike.s said:
They just figure that suckers for "Beats Audio" don't know what sound quality is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some people like the bass heavy , weak midtones and boosted highs , I personally dont. If you are a rap junkie...then yah..shoot. Its ok..but I have a wide music listening taste. Also being an audiophile has that weird effect...
THE-COPS said:
Yeah, the beeping noise is gone. But I still woukdnt recommend using it in loud environments such as around loud music or crowds. It gives it a robotic swishy effect. Rather annoying and makes some sounds difficult to interpret.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, almost positive thats the noice cancellation messing everything up, but joe never figured out how to truly disable it
THE-COPS said:
Some people like the bass heavy , weak midtones and boosted highs , I personally dont. If you are a rap junkie...then yah..shoot. Its ok..but I have a wide music listening taste. Also being an audiophile has that weird effect...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The frequency curve on Beats is even weirder than most bass-heavy headphones though, at least on the un-EQ'ed headphones. On the standard Beats earbuds (not sure about the iBeats...never seen any tests on them), the low bass is actually suppressed, and the mid-high bass is boosted way up. The mids are actually suppressed (most bass-heavy sets just flatten them), and the highs peak in a weird place instead of just tapering like most bass-heavy sets. I don't mind a bit of bass-heaviness in headphones...you aren't getting the floor-shaking, chest-vibrating feedback of large speakers, so heavier bass helps bring the lows out of the mix, but the weirdness in the low bass and the suppressed mids explains why Beats just sounds like mud to me.
jayochs said:
yep, almost positive thats the noice cancellation messing everything up, but joe never figured out how to truly disable it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes..that was my first thought early in the year because this seems to be mostly audible when louder low to mid bass frequncies are prominent. But it also resembles bad audio compression or a codec problem. Noise cancellation needs the second mic to wirk, so if this is the case .....then why is it still heard during a stereo recording? The second mic signal is being routed to the input mixer/gain amp then to the audio codec...instead of the noise cancelation system. Idk if thats hardware built in or software.
@Shrike , yes the ibeats earbuds do suck. Very muddy sound. I do like their fit tho..
I've found that the D/A on this phone sounds really good - easily comparable to my studio D/A (Allen & Heath) in AB testing. My last phone, a Oneplus 5T, was noticeably harsher. So I decided to do some analysis. I generated white noise at 24bit/96khz, it looks like this in Ableton Live (attachment 1). Note that this sample rate represents 48khz of sound waves.
When running it out and back through my Allen & Heath studio AD/DA there is some drop off from 20khz and upwards, but the low pass filter is nice and steep right before Nyquist (2).
When playing it back from the Sony Xperia 5 II, the signal stays stable all the way up to the low pass, which is a bit softer than on the A&H (3). For a mobile phone, I'd say that's impressive.
While we're at it, let's see what the DSEE Ultimate algorithm does. Here's the noise compressed to a 128kbit MP3, which dutifully cuts off around 15khz (4). With DSEE turned on, there appears to be no difference (5). Since the algorithm is supposedly trained on musical material, I performed the same test on low bitrate Spotify material, but there was no measurable difference: Low bitrate Spotify without DSEE (6). Note how good the frequency response on OGG is, compared to MP3. Spotify with DSEE - level difference is due to dynamic material (7).
Just as a side note, the DSEE Ultimate algorithm seems to low pass everything at 48khz sample rate, even uncompressed 96khz signals (8).
And in what comes as a shock to no one, the frequency analyzer shows that Dolby Atmos applies different EQ curves in the different modes (Dynamic, Film, Music) and also raises the overall sound volume with roughly 1.2 LUFS for dramatic effect ? Atmos also limits the output to 48khz like DSEE. So in conclusion, the D/A is real and the algorithms are marketing gimmicks to my ears. Please comment if you've experienced otherwise, would love to hear what you think!
I have no clue what you said but I think you're right
I think the hardware has great quality, but in terms of software, I'm not a huge fan of Dolby Atmos, only on phone speaker Atmos is fine. For headphones I'd like to use ViperFX but I haven't found out how to install it yet.
(Anyone has an idea how to install it?)
Dolby doesnt have seperate settings for headphones/speakers/bt so I'll have to change it manually each time I switch audio outputs
Also, with D/A, do you mean the DAC?
You're right, I've found myself using Atmos just to get some loudness from the internal speakers when listening to podcasts etc.
Rageplay said:
Also, with D/A, do you mean the DAC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, maybe D/A is not the most common term :laugh:
woodcarver said:
I've found that the D/A on this phone sounds really good - easily comparable to my studio D/A (Allen & Heath) in AB testing. My last phone, a Oneplus 5T, was noticeably harsher. So I decided to do some analysis. I generated white noise at 24bit/96khz, it looks like this in Ableton Live (attachment 1). Note that this sample rate represents 48khz of sound waves.
When running it out and back through my Allen & Heath studio AD/DA there is some drop off from 20khz and upwards, but the low pass filter is nice and steep right before Nyquist (2).
When playing it back from the Sony Xperia 5 II, the signal stays stable all the way up to the low pass, which is a bit softer than on the A&H (3). For a mobile phone, I'd say that's impressive.
While we're at it, let's see what the DSEE Ultimate algorithm does. Here's the noise compressed to a 128kbit MP3, which dutifully cuts off around 15khz (4). With DSEE turned on, there appears to be no difference (5). Since the algorithm is supposedly trained on musical material, I performed the same test on low bitrate Spotify material, but there was no measurable difference: Low bitrate Spotify without DSEE (6). Note how good the frequency response on OGG is, compared to MP3. Spotify with DSEE - level difference is due to dynamic material (7).
Just as a side note, the DSEE Ultimate algorithm seems to low pass everything at 48khz sample rate, even uncompressed 96khz signals (8).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The DAC/Amp is definitely great on this device so far. I have Dolby Atmos and DSEE Ultimate on and it sounds great with FLACS and extreme quality spotify. It isn't the most powerful Amp though, using my Sennheiser HD 6XX's, its not super loud, even at max volume. The fidelity is fantastic across the whole volume range however. I think it will perform fantastically with a high quality set of IEM's.
Jayram2000 said:
The DAC/Amp is definitely great on this device so far. I have Dolby Atmos and DSEE Ultimate on and it sounds great with FLACS and extreme quality spotify. It isn't the most powerful Amp though, using my Sennheiser HD 6XX's, its not super loud, even at max volume. The fidelity is fantastic across the whole volume range however. I think it will perform fantastically with a high quality set of IEM's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you set Atmos to Dynamic or music?
woodcarver said:
I've found that the D/A on this phone sounds really good - easily comparable to my studio D/A (Allen & Heath) in AB testing. My last phone, a Oneplus 5T, was noticeably harsher. So I decided to do some analysis. I generated white noise at 24bit/96khz, it looks like this in Ableton Live (attachment 1). Note that this sample rate represents 48khz of sound waves.
When running it out and back through my Allen & Heath studio AD/DA there is some drop off from 20khz and upwards, but the low pass filter is nice and steep right before Nyquist (2).
When playing it back from the Sony Xperia 5 II, the signal stays stable all the way up to the low pass, which is a bit softer than on the A&H (3). For a mobile phone, I'd say that's impressive.
While we're at it, let's see what the DSEE Ultimate algorithm does. Here's the noise compressed to a 128kbit MP3, which dutifully cuts off around 15khz (4). With DSEE turned on, there appears to be no difference (5). Since the algorithm is supposedly trained on musical material, I performed the same test on low bitrate Spotify material, but there was no measurable difference: Low bitrate Spotify without DSEE (6). Note how good the frequency response on OGG is, compared to MP3. Spotify with DSEE - level difference is due to dynamic material (7).
Just as a side note, the DSEE Ultimate algorithm seems to low pass everything at 48khz sample rate, even uncompressed 96khz signals (8).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see any attachments but your analysis of DSEE Ultimate is very good.
woodcarver said:
And in what comes as a shock to no one, the frequency analyzer shows that Dolby Atmos applies different EQ curves in the different modes (Dynamic, Film, Music) and also raises the overall sound volume with roughly 1.2 LUFS for dramatic effect ? Atmos also limits the output to 48khz like DSEE. So in conclusion, the D/A is real and the algorithms are marketing gimmicks to my ears. Please comment if you've experienced otherwise, would love to hear what you think!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame that this Dolby was specially tuned and yet involves such simple tweaks...terrible marketing.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
change the samsung equaliser to these settings for real good bass! Really makes a difference!! Also the adapt sound 60+ boosts all frequencies and makes everything way more louder, complete difference on ear buds 2 pro, and obs change ear buds themselves to bass, didn't realise how much samsung built in equaliser can make such a change
Try to test your hearing.... It makes change also...
I'm on dynamic eq and it's the best of both worlds.
Dear lord that is an aggressive v-Curve (plus bass boost?!) for earbuds. I love bass but I'm imaging that sounding like the two 1200w RMS subwoofers which I enjoy in my car but not so much in headphones.
Are you a bass head or the the Bud2 Pros that lacking in bass?
SyCoREAPER said:
Dear lord that is an aggressive v-Curve (plus bass boost?!) for earbuds. I love bass but I'm imaging that sounding like the two 1200w RMS subwoofers which I enjoy in my car but not so much in headphones.
Are you a bass head or the the Bud2 Pros that lacking in bass?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience using the regular buds2 not pro, they really lack bass, especially with active noise cancelling turned off
spart0n said:
In my experience using the regular buds2 not pro, they really lack bass, especially with active noise cancelling turned off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd suggest investing in Comply foam tips for this tws and changing the eq to dynamic. This is what worked for me both in the noise cancellation and sound departments.
amirage said:
I'd suggest investing in Comply foam tips for this tws and changing the eq to dynamic. This is what worked for me both in the noise cancellation and sound departments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give that a test
SyCoREAPER said:
Dear lord that is an aggressive v-Curve (plus bass boost?!) for earbuds. I love bass but I'm imaging that sounding like the two 1200w RMS subwoofers which I enjoy in my car but not so much in headphones.
Are you a bass head or the the Bud2 Pros that lacking in bass?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I no lol but the buds do lack bass! That curve really does give best bass boost, we'll for me anyways but then when a song comes on that doesn't have much bass it's pretty poor lol, I canny win
I guess this comes to personal preference, but buds2 pro really don't lack bass IMO.
The bass is balanced and spatial, really sounds like you are in a room with a great woofer active.
I use dynamic preset and it's really good both in terms of bass and other frequencies.
Well it depends a lot on what to listen. On some music there's no perceivable difference, but on other there's very obvious difference if noise canceling or ambient mode is on vs neither one is on - with some music one can notice that enabling noise canceling or ambient mode brings out some of most lower frequencies that are much more subdued when neither of modes is enabled.
It was even more pronounced on first generation Buds Pro, but it is still there with Buds 2 Pro.
It is reasonable to assume that some of music even does not have these frequencies present to be able to notice that.
Wow lots of responses in the meantime.
So I just got the regular Buds2's an hour ago and am on Normal Preset. Unless they are drastically different from the 2Pro's, I think your ears might be broken (joking).
The bass is a massive step up from the Buds+ and even more so than what I'm used to. My primary cans are neutral AF, so maybe just to me there's a lot of bass.
SyCoREAPER said:
Wow lots of responses in the meantime.
So I just got the regular Buds2's on Normal Preset. Unless they are drastically different from the 2Pro's, I think your ears might be broken (joking).
The bass is a massive step up from the Buds+ and even more so than what I'm used to. My primary cans are neutral AF, so maybe just to me there's a lot of bass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That V curve is way too aggressive, I think.
This is the equalizer curve I use with Poweramp for my Buds+, plenty of bass like this. Some of the curves I use are less aggressive depending on the music.
The last Buds+ firmware update screwed up the sound bad and trashed that pair (I have several pairs). Do Not update their firmware if you have Buds+. The factory loaded version works fine.
Rolling back a firmware update is a real pain with these...
According to sound guys, what we are hearing should be similar, just offset but a bit but bass is stronger on the 2 Pros. Anyway, I know we can't really compare the 2's to 2 Pros but my experience in some initial testing:
Bass - Further Testing, the bass on Normal to me is impressive for earbuds, there is at least decent perceived bass extension (using my old favorite from 15 years ago (Bass 305) to test pure bass.
EDM-Style - Pendulum sounds perfect on Normal to me also (a bit heavy maybe but again, not used to rumbly bass on headphones)
Rock/Orchestral :
VonLichten We will Rock You - Tiny Bit off
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Wizards of Winter - Interesting one, parts sound incredible, others wrong.
Old School Rock:
Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter - A little flat.
Kansas - Wayward Son, also a bit flat.
Rap: Not something I listen to but (yes laugh, I'm old AF)
Coolio – Gangsta's Paradise sounds right.
Pop/Rock:
Phil Collins sounds off, very off.
Michael Jackson sounds right but maybe just a tiny bit lacking in bass.
Kenny Loggins is off, very harsh.
Harold Faltermyer is a bit off but has a fun sound.
(Using FLACs)
Others (NOT FLAC, not sure how objective I can be, compressed music sounds different)
MMPR - harsh but correct
Ducktales - actually sounds ok
Berlin Orchestra/Scorpions - Hurricane 2000, not bad
MASH (TV) - poop
@blackhawk
I wasn't looking for this but rather stumbled across it during a Google search. Is this what you were talking about in regards to the update to the Plus'?
Your Post Here?
SyCoREAPER said:
According to sound guys, what we are hearing should be similar, just offset but a bit but bass is stronger on the 2 Pros. Anyway, I know we can't really compare the 2's to 2 Pros but my experience in some initial testing:
Bass - Further Testing, the bass on Normal to me is impressive for earbuds, there is at least decent perceived bass extension (using my old favorite from 15 years ago (Bass 305) to test pure bass.
EDM-Style - Pendulum sounds perfect on Normal to me also (a bit heavy maybe but again, not used to rumbly bass on headphones)
Rock/Orchestral :
VonLichten We will Rock You - Tiny Bit off
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Wizards of Winter - Interesting one, parts sound incredible, others wrong.
Old School Rock:
Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter - A little flat.
Kansas - Wayward Son, also a bit flat.
Rap: Not something I listen to but (yes laugh, I'm old AF)
Coolio – Gangsta's Paradise sounds right.
Pop/Rock:
Phil Collins sounds off, very off.
Michael Jackson sounds right but maybe just a tiny bit lacking in bass.
Kenny Loggins is off, very harsh.
Harold Faltermyer is a bit off but has a fun sound.
(Using FLACs)
Others (NOT FLAC, not sure how objective I can be, compressed music sounds different)
MMPR - harsh but correct
Ducktales - actually sounds ok
Berlin Orchestra/Scorpions - Hurricane 2000, not bad
MASH (TV) - poop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One little thing to notice for everybody - for being able to adequately compare the experience we should note if Atmos is on or off while testing, because it can change some music quite noticeably (and not for better sometimes).
SyCoREAPER said:
@blackhawk
I wasn't looking for this but rather stumbled across it during a Google search. Is this what you were talking about in regards to the update to the Plus'?
Your Post Here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that's the Wearables app update* bs. This is much worse as it's firmware flash for the Buds+ hardware, post 41.
I still need to deal with the pair that the firmware flash screwed up. See if Samsung put out a fix for it. Just it. My other pairs will never be flash upgraded... grrrrr.
* this is what the older Buds Wearable version looks like. Much more usable...
I have it off. Buds+ it sometimes sounded better, so far everything sounds awful with the 2's with Atmos
Edit: ^opinion
SyCoREAPER said:
I have it off. Buds+ it sometimes sounded better, so far everything sounds awful with the 2's with Atmos
Edit: ^opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try dialing it in with Poweramp if you use that.
It's still the best stand alone music player but it won't play vids (will be play the audio). It's complicated to first set up, but works like a charm once configured.
Group folder/album folders/songs
Settings and playlists can be completely backed up... tested, fully recreatable in a minute or two.
blackhawk said:
Try dialing it in with Poweramp if you use that.
It's still the best stand alone music player but it won't play vids (will be play the audio). It's complicated to first set up, but works like a charm once configured.
Group folder/album folders/songs
Settings and playlists can be completely backed up... tested, fully recreatable in a minute or two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Poweramp... Not going to get into the detail on my history there but noticed a few months back that a standalone EQ was finally created. Well, it doesn't work correctly. Most apps that I use won't EQ.
I (occasionally) use Wavelet which has a 'Legacy Mode' that works with every app.
SyCoREAPER said:
Poweramp... Not going to get into the detail on my history there but noticed a few months back that a standalone EQ was finally created. Well, it doesn't work correctly. Most apps that I use won't EQ.
I (occasionally) use Wavelet which has a 'Legacy Mode' that works with every app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeap. Not really a big issue with the Buds+ for me. They sound good with movies, etc. For music though I default to Poweramp as a player.
Android has always been a pain in this respect.
Because of all this and the lack of wings to stabilize the Buds2 I decided to stay with the Buds+. I also like noise isolation better than losing that for noise cancelation. The battery runtime longevity is another issue with the Buds2.