Sound Quality from 3.5mm jack

[FlyPenFly]

I use some higher end balance armature earphones and also some regular traditional earphones.

Anyone else notice the sounds quality ... isn't exactly that great?

I hope its just me but the frequency range seem incomplete. The highs are missing and the low end is clipped out pretty early. The midrange is decent though.

 

[jasonb1985]

i think the Incredible sounds good. no problems here whether using headphones or plugged into my car or home stereo.

 

[j0se]

No I agree. The sound no where near my iPhone 3G. I tried playing with my dre beats solo and the highs are pretty weak.

 

[FlyPenFly]

On the other hand the built in speaker is super loud compared to the Phone/Brand that must never be spoken.

 

[Haelous]

I wonder if the Incredible suffers from the same issue as most sound cards in computers. The sound must be set to max for you to get a full sound stage, then you use an external amp to adjust the actual volume. I would be inclined to think it's similar or the same.

I would suggest trying it at max volume and/or trying it plugged into an amp, even if it's a home theater amp, with the volume at max.

 

[jbdan]

Yeah setting at max volume worked for me. I plug my Inc into my car's aux port and stream Pandora....while not as good as CD quality it's much better than FM radio!

 

[greenrolaids]

i have a pair of $200 Ultimate ears eb5 pro's and the incredible sounds muted and dull.

 

[jasonb1985]

i like how it sounds. i guess i can't call myself an audiophile then.

 

[Kyuss]

This generally seems to be the case with phones. Whiles it's fine for earphones (IMO anyway), if your going to run it to say your car stereo it's better to use RCA's. I'm not aware of any official cable for this yet, but it should be something like this and even then I'm not sure if it will support line-level audio out for music.

If the earphone jack quality isn't up to par for you though I don't think there is much you can do. It's a phone first so I'd imagine a dedicated audio player would be your best bet if your after high-end audio playback. And I'm not saying that to be a dick, just voicing my experiences with cell-phone music playback since it's all I've been using since my iRiver died a few years back.

 

[FlyPenFly]

I've just been spoiled by the fantastic output from even an iPod Shuffle and the iPhone. I think it will be fine for listening to podcasts and light music duty while I commute but just another checkmark of disappointment in the hardware.

 

[amarryat]

I've just been spoiled by the fantastic output from even an iPod Shuffle and the iPhone. I think it will be fine for listening to podcasts and light music duty while I commute but just another checkmark of disappointment in the hardware.

I'm hoping it's a firmware problem. They probably all use similar audio chips anyway, right? I agree, it doesn't sound as good as my iPod Touch or my Blackberry Storm 1.

 

[FlyPenFly]

I wonder if the Incredible suffers from the same issue as most sound cards in computers. The sound must be set to max for you to get a full sound stage, then you use an external amp to adjust the actual volume. I would be inclined to think it's similar or the same.

I would suggest trying it at max volume and/or trying it plugged into an amp, even if it's a home theater amp, with the volume at max.

To test your theory out, I tried a little adapter that came with my Shures that lets you adjust impedance and I put the phone at 90% volume and it actually does seem to sound a bit better. I need to listen more to see if it's just mental but the sound seems a lot fuller.

 

[jasonb1985]

what app are you guys using to play back music when reporting these results?

if it's MP3's loaded onto the phone, what format and bitrate are they encoded in and what program was used to encode them?

 

[FlyPenFly]

256kbps or 192kbps AAC

 

[dt_]

ARGHH

as someone who's considering either a Droid or an Incredible this is really bothering me.

I want to replace my iPod nano + phone with just a smartphone but that would require me to have good audio quality. I don't want to deal with crap.
Does the DROID's headphone jack have better audio quality for those of you who have used it?

thanks

 

[jamor]

I would never use a phone for listening to music unless I wanted to use it like a boom box and place it on the table to play which it does great.

Hard to listen to music and answer calls at the same time ;p

Try a Zune HD out - they are slick as hell and have better sound quality then any phone or apple mp3 device.

 

[FlyPenFly]

ARGHH

as someone who's considering either a Droid or an Incredible this is really bothering me.

I want to replace my iPod nano + phone with just a smartphone but that would require me to have good audio quality. I don't want to deal with crap.
Does the DROID's headphone jack have better audio quality for those of you who have used it?

thanks

Droid jack apparently has all sorts of problems because of the way it's mounted.

The best DAC I've heard out of a portable device was the first generation iPod Shuffle which had an unusually excellent DAC that exceeded anything out there under $500.

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

 

[phobic]

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

Many would argue that Cowon's products and even the Microsoft Zune have superior DACs but your mileage may vary of course.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Many would argue that Cowon's products and even the Microsoft Zune have superior DACs but your mileage may vary of course.

Very true, it's all subjective and you might be right about normal media players. Maybe I should have been more specific on smartphones. I can't think of a smartphone that has the same audio quality as 3G and up iPhone through the headphone jack.

 

[phobic]

Very true, it's all subjective and you might be right about normal media players. Maybe I should have been more specific on smartphones. I can't think of a smartphone that has the same audio quality as 3G and up iPhone through the headphone jack.

Yeah I agree with you there. I haven't used my Incredible with any "real" earbuds yet but it sounds decent enough for me to stream music from my server into my AUX port in my car. The iPhone is really good at being a media player since it's more or less an iPod with some phone upgrades. Apple had plenty of time to tweak their iPod line before they released a phone.

I will say though that the Incredible is a lot more pleasant to use in this area than my Droid was. The way they designed the headphone jack on that thing is annoying to me.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Okay, to confirm, it definitely sounds way better if you use an adapter that can control impedance.

Too bad it will suck down battery life even more.

 

[dt_]

Droid jack apparently has all sorts of problems because of the way it's mounted.

The best DAC I've heard out of a portable device was the first generation iPod Shuffle which had an unusually excellent DAC that exceeded anything out there under $500.

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

Hahaha, I know what you're talking about with the shuffle. I own one of those as well and OMG it sounds amazing. Too bad it's so limited in functionality

Anyway, the whole point is to replace two devices with one device. I already have a 4th-gen iPod nano if I want to listen to music at a high quality. >_< If the Droid's audio quality is substantially better than the Incredible's then I'll probably prefer that. I am not looking for an iPod shuffle (first gen) - caliber product, but something that is roughly as good as my nano.

 

[jamor]

I'll test it out and let you know how mine sound. I'm an audiophile and I have the Klipsch S4 Earbuds (God Like).

 

[jamor]

Okay, to confirm, it definitely sounds way better if you use an adapter that can control impedance.

Too bad it will suck down battery life even more.

That's the main reason I personally wouldn't mix phone and music.

A good mp3 player gets 32+ hours of music play back. No reason in replacing that.

 

[greenrolaids]

Many would argue that Cowon's products and even the Microsoft Zune have superior DACs but your mileage may vary of course.

thats why i researched for a few weeks before i bought my mp3 player.

The mp3 players that topped the list for audio quality were a few sony's and the sansa mp3 players.

Apple's products hit nearly the bottom for overall sound quality, But you need high end head phones to tell the difference.

There is a reason why 99% of the folks that subscribe to the site Head-Fi.org don't use apple or Beats by dre..