Sound Quality from 3.5mm jack

[amarryat]

Even at the time, iPods paled in comparison to Creative Zens. I never got why everyone thought iPods had such amazing sound; when I traded my Nano 1st gen in for a Sansa player it was a huge step up in audio quality.

As in a Sandisk Sansa, like the 4GB one with the built-in FM radio?

 

[rushmore]

Even at the time, iPods paled in comparison to Creative Zens. I never got why everyone thought iPods had such amazing sound; when I traded my Nano 1st gen in for a Sansa player it was a huge step up in audio quality.

I have one of the 32gb flash version of the Zen. It has an sd card slot, but the freaking media software built-in, does not aggregate media from the flash and sd card- MEGA lame SD card media is browse folders only and NO integration.

My N900 has 32gb built in and I have a 16gb for it. Thankfully, both the N900 and Incredible integrate media from both storage sources

N900 sounds better than my Zen, and almost as good as my Gmini 402.

 

[atmn77]

Compared to the Droid, the Inc has better depth, clarity and a little more volume.

That's probably the one thing I noticed about the incredible initially. It's capable of getting very loud.

Walmart sells some Altec Lansing buds made out of wood, for $25. They have the best sound I have heard in buds for under $100.

Those seem very interesting...for $20-30, i'll definitely give them a shot.

 

[rushmore]

That's probably the one thing I noticed about the incredible initially. It's capable of getting very loud.



Those seem very interesting...for $20-30, i'll definitely give them a shot.

They are a darker color (dark brown). Took just about ten hours of music to "burn" them in. Even before this, they sounded good. They are called Muzx.

The sound issues you mention are indicative of gain problems when using higher impedance buds, in a device that can not output enough to cover the drivers.

 

[ab187]

Zune HD + Klipsch S4 = Awesome. True they aren't the best headphones out there but they sound pretty dang good. The Incredible doesn't have as good of a sound quality as the Zune HD but its definitely bearable for casual music listening.

 

[ryanx27]

I had a 5th generation iPod that I replaced with a Cowon S9 when the iPod's hard drive died.

The Cowon's sound quality absolutely smokes the iPod's, as well as the Incredible's. I use the Incredible pretty much just for streaming Pandora/Slacker/Grooveshark, and the Cowon for MP3 and FLAC. The Cowon is about 2/3rds the length and depth of the Inc so both fit in the same pocket just fine. Though I could understand how some would only want one device.

 

[barrister89]

I listened to MP3 tracks I have from a favorite recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (using my Nano's phones) and the sound is good for a portable device, decent dynamic range and I heard no distortion or evidence of DSP. Certainly measures up to my Nano. I'm no music snob, but I find it easier to judge sound quality from orchestral or acoustic music rather than rock or pop, much of which is heavily processed at the recording stage.

Sound is good folks. BTW, my MP3s I use on portables are encoded at ~175kbps variable bitrate using the LAME encoder for superior sound. With MP3, I find I start hearing artifacts if I try to encode at a lower bitrate. At ~175kbps, the average album is about 100mb. AAC is very good though I have limited experience with it. I understand it offers better sound quality at lower bitrates than MP3, but I'd encode at a little higher than 128kbps. SD card space is getting cheap.

The only thing I don't like is the clicks I hear through the phones when selecting songs or otherwise going through the menus of the player. Slight annoyance though.

 

[Sk1pp3r]

I have some nice earbuds that cancel noise pretty well from just being in my ear, but coming from my incredible it just seems like I can't get the volume up very high

 

[SirensOfTitan]

here is some scientific testing of the HTC Droid Incredible's 3.5mm headphone jack. this is pink noise played out of the headphone jack and input into my laptops microphone jack. i calibrated the sound card on my laptop so these results should be accurate.

pretty flat. the top end has a slight decline, but it's not a sharp drop by any means.

for anybody that has never done any measuring of audio with a pink noise track it will look jagged. you are supposed to take several measurements and average them together. this is just one quick measurment, so it will look jagged.

Was there any audio playing? I have very little experience in working with sound, so I may be wrong in what I'm about to say.

AFAIK, you would need to play some track (white noise, cos / sin waves, etc) in order to properly measure harmonic distortion, signal-to-noise ratio, frequency response deviation, and the like. This would be helpful to determine audio precision (how faithful the player is to the track), which is the important factor here.

Most of the music I have on my device are lossless encoded in the flac format that were converted to V0 using the latest version of lame for use on a portable device. I usually listen with a pair of Audio-Technica ADH-AD700 cans. I have not experienced any sound quality issues with the Incredible; and it is on the same order of magnitude of quality to my Zune 80 as far as my ears can tell.

 

[FlyPenFly]

He was playing pink audio

 

[Kyuss]

They are a darker color (dark brown). Took just about ten hours of music to "burn" them in. Even before this, they sounded good. They are called Muzx.

The sound issues you mention are indicative of gain problems when using higher impedance buds, in a device that can not output enough to cover the drivers.

Thanks for the heads up on the earbuds. I'm by no means an audiophile, I just enjoy music, so I have no issues with the sound quality from the Inc and use it just about daily. I definitely need some new earbuds though so I will have to check these out. Again I'm not picky so I don't need/want to spend that much money so these are worth a look for the price.

Initially I looked them up on Walmarts site and only seen stuff like this.

I'm pretty confident with my sexuality but I draw the line somewhere before rockin out at the gym with a pair of those lol. I then googled them and see the wooden ones you were talking about. Apparently they have a lot of different design for the Muzx line. Will be stopping by the local Walmart tomorrow to grab a pair. Thanks again for the heads up!

And just to restore my masculinity, here's the wooden ones lol

 

[dt_]

Compared to the Droid, the Inc has better depth, clarity and a little more volume. My N900 kicks both their butts, since it has a built in audio amp for the 3.5mm jack

If the phones you are using have above 16ohm impedance, you could have a lack of volume and resulting loss of gain (hence less sound quality), since the volume is not loud enough to push high impedance buds.

The Vmoda metals work great and are 16ohms. Also of all places, Walmart sells some Altec Lansing buds made out of wood, for $25. They have the best sound I have heard in buds for under $100. I kid not They work well with the Incredible

I prefer those to my UE's and Vmoda's. Better depth and clarity than those buds. It could be my imagination, but sounds good to me

added:

I am not kidding about the Wally world buds. They are amazing for the price.

Thanks for the informative post Looks like my Skullcandy Titans have 16 Ohm impedance.. I suppose I got lucky? ;P
So is there an issue with the sound being too loud even at its lowest volume with the Incredible or is that a myth?

 

[Mr.Slave]

Someone just released Astro Player on the Market with a real EQ. I havent tried it yet bu I hope it works.

 

[greenrolaids]

jasonb: how should we interpret that graph?


Greenrolaids: Are you some sort jihadist extremist anti-Apple crusader? I like Apple products just fine and I also like other makers as well.

"Unfortunately, nobody seems to be able to match up to Apple's DACs in the iPhones or iPods."

When you make statements like the one just above this, you appear to not understand what you are talking about.

 

[g1701gst]

Thx @ rushmore for mentioning impedance.

I had very poor/weak SQ from the DINC when listening with my Antec Lansing BackBeat Pro($100) earphones but when I used my V-Moda bass Freq($30) earphones the SQ was very good and full.

The problem was Impedance! The DINC and many portable music devices can't deliver a higher driving signal that high impedance sets require. My Antec Lansings are 29 Ohms while my V-modas are 16 Ohms.

Just make sure your headphones are less than 16 Ohms impedance and your SQ should be Great.

I highly recommend the V-moda earphones. They are very comfortable with customizable fit, lots of color choices, good range, and have excellent bass. Best affordable head phones I have ever used. They also seam fairly durable. I am not one to spend lots of head phones. So if you are on a budget or dont like to waste money, check these out.
bass freq color earphones

 

[dt_]

Just make sure your headphones are less than 16 Ohms impedance and your SQ should be Great.
http://shop.v-moda.com/p-16-bass-freq.aspx

I assume you mean "less than or equal to 16 Ohms impedance" ... right?

 

[g1701gst]

I assume you mean "less than or equal to 16 Ohms impedance" ... right?

Yes thanks. less than or equal to. I don't know what the max impedance for the DINC is, I just know that 26 omh's was to high.

 

[dt_]

lol, good to know. thanks

 

[jasonb1985]

What phones do u use?

Sennheiser CX300-II Precision in black

not to be mistaken with the old CX300's

the II's still have loads of bass, but are more balanced, more controlled, and more defined than the originals from what i have read in numerous reviews.

they sound excellent with the Inc even with it's lack of EQ.

 

[amarryat]

Sennheiser CX300-II Precision in black

not to be mistaken with the old CX300's

the II's still have loads of bass, but are more balanced, more controlled, and more defined than the originals from what i have read in numerous reviews.

they sound excellent with the Inc even with it's lack of EQ.

Based on what I read in here, I ordered those a couple of days ago. Can't wait to hear them!

 

[buckweet]

I'm actually thinking of returning my Incredible due to this issue. I listen to Pandora and Slacker a lot at work, I hardly listen to MP3s anymore. I've tried the Moto droid and the Incredible and both of them still have this issue with the bass clipping. Slacker knows its a problem and are stating that it's an issue with the way Android interfaces with the codec. There is no committment to fix from what is being communicated. Pandora has the same issue, but not to the same extent..

I just have doubts as it being fixed in 2.2 Froyo. The Moto droid when I tested was 2.0 OS and it had the same issues. Others I know with the incredible are experiencing the same issue. And YES high quality is enabled. Slacker doesn't doesn't have the issue if you use wifi, but sometimes the bass is still overpowering.

Will this be fixed in 2.2? When will HTC push out 2.2? Very annoying, I love the phone, but this really irritates me as its what I use primarily. I came from a Crackberry Bold 9000 and it sounds 10x better than both Droids I've had.

 

[buckweet]

URL for slacker Issues:

http://androidforums.com/android-applications/15588-slacker-radio-awful-bass.html

 

[jasonb1985]

URL for slacker Issues:

http://androidforums.com/android-applications/15588-slacker-radio-awful-bass.html

I'm actually thinking of returning my Incredible due to this issue. I listen to Pandora and Slacker a lot at work, I hardly listen to MP3s anymore. I've tried the Moto droid and the Incredible and both of them still have this issue with the bass clipping. Slacker knows its a problem and are stating that it's an issue with the way Android interfaces with the codec. There is no committment to fix from what is being communicated. Pandora has the same issue, but not to the same extent..

I just have doubts as it being fixed in 2.2 Froyo. The Moto droid when I tested was 2.0 OS and it had the same issues. Others I know with the incredible are experiencing the same issue. And YES high quality is enabled. Slacker doesn't doesn't have the issue if you use wifi, but sometimes the bass is still overpowering.

Will this be fixed in 2.2? When will HTC push out 2.2? Very annoying, I love the phone, but this really irritates me as its what I use primarily. I came from a Crackberry Bold 9000 and it sounds 10x better than both Droids I've had.

i have no idea what you're talking about. the problem with slacker has been fixed. it was fixed months ago. slacker to me sounds near perfect, and i have very good ears.

 

[dt_]

I'm actually thinking of returning my Incredible due to this issue. I listen to Pandora and Slacker a lot at work, I hardly listen to MP3s anymore. I've tried the Moto droid and the Incredible and both of them still have this issue with the bass clipping. Slacker knows its a problem and are stating that it's an issue with the way Android interfaces with the codec. There is no committment to fix from what is being communicated. Pandora has the same issue, but not to the same extent..

I just have doubts as it being fixed in 2.2 Froyo. The Moto droid when I tested was 2.0 OS and it had the same issues. Others I know with the incredible are experiencing the same issue. And YES high quality is enabled. Slacker doesn't doesn't have the issue if you use wifi, but sometimes the bass is still overpowering.

Will this be fixed in 2.2? When will HTC push out 2.2? Very annoying, I love the phone, but this really irritates me as its what I use primarily. I came from a Crackberry Bold 9000 and it sounds 10x better than both Droids I've had.

Have you tried listening to music stored locally as opposed to via streaming radio? How does the quality compare?

 

[jasonb1985]

Also try Droidlive. The higher bitrate streams can sound pretty damn good. I'm listening to some kickass chillout music on DL right now and it sounds perfect.