The Sound Quality discussion thread

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NZtechfreak

Senior Member
Sep 5, 2008
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999
Yeah, and it seems like ODAC with O2 amp is the best out there so far. I also visited NwAvGuy's blog several times, finding myself too little compared to him :) Hmm.. anyway I wish I had a chance to measure the SQ of an external DAC connected to SGS3 to see whether the external DAC actually lives up to expectations. (not that I don't believe, I just want some concrete figures :))

Great blog, read posts there quite often because I have to go back several times to understand bits of what he is saying :)
 

willybilly

Senior Member
Feb 4, 2006
188
12
In all honest, get a S3 if you want to try something "new" and have something that is the BEST phone out there in the market.

The 4s....well I'm sure you know what it is.
FYI:
I use my phone for 80% of music use, the other 20% is between browsing/emails & phone/texts.

Music is my utmost priority, and thus why i didn't buy the S2.

I'm listing to my S3 right now with my digizoid ZO2 amp + custom interconnect + the PFE232's - those PFE232's don't come cheap ;)!

Just like you I too spent 80% of my time listening to music.

I gave up my S2 and switch to S3 the day it was launched. No matter how much tweaking done in S2, I am still not satisfy with it.

Now listening to music with S3 with a good pair of headset brings sweetness to the ears. And S3 is yet to be tweaked!
 
Nov 2, 2010
47
5
South Pole
If my theory is correct, it won't work, because the FiiO E10 contains a USB controller Tenor TE7022.
The SGS3 may interwork with the USB DAC/amp FiiO E10 via a powered High-Speed / Full-Speed USB 2.0 hub.


For the moment all USB DAC with known USB controller, which interwork with SGS3, contain a Full-Speed transceiver:
. AMB Labs Gamma2 with USB controller TI Burr-Brown PCM2707
. FiiO E7 with USB controller TI Burr-Brown PCM2706
. Go-Vibe Mini USB DAC with USB controller TI Burr-Brown PCM2702
. HifiMan Express with USB controller TI Burr-Brown PCM2702
. iBasso D12 with USB controller TI Burr-Brown PCM2906B
. Topping TP30 with USB controller TI Burr-Brown PCM2704

The following USB DAC with known USB controller, which don’t interwork with SGS3 for the time being, are:
. FiiO E17 with USB controller Tenor TE7022 (FiiO E17 does work with Android-powered Archos G9)
. iBasso D6 with USB controller TI TAS1020B
. Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11 with USB controller Tenor TE7022


SGS3 Full-Speed / High-Speed switching issue?
http://www.gfec.com.tw/TE7022L
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/pcm2706.pdf

33cb99aa_303340_4243507171833_1087813988_n.jpeg


SGS3 USB driver issue?: some parameters are not well-adjusted?

d550e932_538560_4243507851850_854898738_n.jpeg


"The host controller directs traffic flow to devices, so no USB device can transfer any data on the bus without an explicit request from the host controller. In USB 2.0, the host controller polls the bus for traffic, usually in a round-robin fashion. The throughput of each USB port is determined by the slower speed of either the USB port or the USB device connected to the port."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus


Powered USB 2.0 hub containing Full-Speed and High-Speed transceiver workaround?
http://www.ti.com/analog/docs/microsite.tsp?sectionId=590&tabId=2211&micrositeId=11

d75c5c74_180260_4243571933452_1200696734_n.jpeg


"High-speed USB 2.0 hubs contain devices called transaction translators that convert between high-speed USB 2.0 buses and full and low speed buses. When a high-speed USB 2.0 hub is plugged into a high-speed USB host or hub, it will operate in high-speed mode. The USB hub will then either use one transaction translator per hub to create a full/low-speed bus that is routed to all full and low speed devices on the hub, or will use one transaction translator per port to create an isolated full/low-speed bus per port on the hub."


Anyway, dmesg log output and lsusb log output could detail what is going on.
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/96433

dmesg:
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=dmesg

lsusb:
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=lsusb

---------- Post added at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 PM ----------

"I just tested one of those cheapo PC usb audio sticks with a c-media chipset and it works fine with the SGS3 too.
Here's the dmesg output when I plug it in:

http://pastebin.com/nHmTRUN6
"
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=26898236&postcount=177



Here are the files:

dmesg
usb host
 
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TotallydubbedHD

Senior Member
Dec 7, 2010
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Ok I went all the way to 700mhz, and gave up on scaling: pegasusq
(The higher the lower the frequency of it appearing, but still present)

I went to on demand scaling - on 200mhz, and have yet to hear the issue.
Thus I'm back at 200mhz min, but with a different scaling - I'de love if people tried it.

Download: Voltage control and/or CPU master free, and do some crucial testing! :)
 

willybilly

Senior Member
Feb 4, 2006
188
12
I am using SiyahKernel S3-v1.1. Using ExTweaks, I changed the CPU Governor to hotplug and the cracking sound seemed to be eradicated.

Can anyone care to try this setting to confirm?
 

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ma10

Senior Member
Aug 14, 2006
87
51
London
...By the way, what is the exact model of the very cheap USB sound stick that works with your SGS3?
There are a lot of cheap USB sound cards on eBay.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=usb+sound&_sacat=0&_odkw=usb+sound+card&_osacat=0
A lot of developers are willing to enable USB audio on other Android phones, but they don’t have a USB DAC/amp.

Thanks!

The exact one I got was this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003QADH9C/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

However, you should be able to easily find these re-branded mass produced audio sticks in various forms anywhere and it's super common of them to use a c-media usb controller e.g.

http://www.amazon.com/Channel-External-Sound-Audio-Adapter/dp/B0027EMHM6/ref=pd_sim_e_2

"The chipset is advertised on the box as the C-Media CM119, and it's a USB 2.0 device."
 

ddqq123

Member
Dec 9, 2010
5
0
Long story short what do you value more?
JUST the sound quality (and we are ignoring voodoo sound here) or the overall BETTER phone.
No one can dispute the 4s being better than the S3, unless you go into the nitty gritty of the software.
I think it'll end up being the overall better phone. I'll need to actually use an S3 somewhere before I end up buying it. I'll get an unlocked sim-free one from Amazon I think.

If you need info of the MG7's give me a shout - I owned them for a few months, as my main earphones, absolutely lovely for trance, but a real closed soundstage.
Nice, cheers. M5s have been my go-to IEM for the past 3 years, so the MG7-driver M5s will be my next once my current pair give up. Thanks for the review, it seems to reflect mostly what I've read elsewhere about the MG7s also. I listen to mostly electronic music so the bass-heaviness suits.
 

TotallydubbedHD

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Dec 7, 2010
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I think it'll end up being the overall better phone. I'll need to actually use an S3 somewhere before I end up buying it. I'll get an unlocked sim-free one from Amazon I think.


Nice, cheers. M5s have been my go-to IEM for the past 3 years, so the MG7-driver M5s will be my next once my current pair give up. Thanks for the review, it seems to reflect mostly what I've read elsewhere about the MG7s also. I listen to mostly electronic music so the bass-heaviness suits.

if microphonics isn't and issue, and you want a better soundstage and mid-bass, get the CKS77's :)

And if you want a lower amount of sub-bass (non-existent) but an overall better sounding earphone than the latter two, then get the TDK BA200's! :D
 

buddha2012

Member
May 7, 2012
5
0
I see quite a few people already have their S3s. Is anything already known about the output impendance and/or has anyone already tested frequency response with critical in-ear headphones like UE TF10 ? I have not yet found anything on the net...
Thanks
Guenther
 

TotallydubbedHD

Senior Member
Dec 7, 2010
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I see quite a few people already have their S3s. Is anything already known about the output impendance and/or has anyone already tested frequency response with critical in-ear headphones like UE TF10 ? I have not yet found anything on the net...
Thanks
Guenther

they should be able to drive the UE TF10's.
I've had them for 2 weeks with the S1, and they didn't really need to be driven.
 

TotallydubbedHD

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Dec 7, 2010
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We agree for now, after voodoo we'll see :)

What I meant is:
-S3 wins hands down hardware wise
-S3 however in software is very much close in becoming perfect
-iOS as usual is rock solid (boring), but rock solid and fast

So If you ask me iOS does beat ICS, but only because of certain integrated features that ICS cannot have.
By "cannot" I mean, iOS is designed for 3 devices or something?
Android is designed for literally thousands. Thus it not being perfect.

The S3 however is the best android I've ever picked up.

Now in terms of SQ
The 4S wins, as it is known for good SQ, that's what apple originally made, with their iPods. However the S3, doesn't or shouldn't be considered as "rubbish" it is certainly amazing, and it is only when you get Freq graphs and/or audiophiles to tell you that the S3 vs 4S, there is a "clear" difference.

That said, put voodoo on it, like on the S1, and it transforms from being: "good" to "amazing".

So long story short:
S3, rooted, possibly with a kernel, and voodoo sound kicks the 4S back to its apple tree.
 

danba

Senior Member
Jun 22, 2008
184
89

I compare your dmesg output with a "good" one (SGS3 & ODAC interworking).

182569_4261163133221_190385610_n.jpg


It seems that the SGS3 - FiiO E10 non-interworking cause is due to a buggy descriptor:
05:00:47 [WARNING] c0 usb 2-1: config 1 has an invalid interface number: 3 but max is 2
05:00:47 [WARNING] c0 usb 2-1: config 1 has no interface number 2

From the ALSA gurus:
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/96433

"Which doesn't prevent Teac from writing buggy firmware.
> $ dmesg
> usb 2-4: config 1 has an invalid interface number: 3 but max is 2
> usb 2-4: config 1 has no interface number 1

> The USB audio driver actually just uses functions from the USB driver
> core to access the interface association. However, the USB core didn't
> assign it during its probe, which is most probably a result of the
> broken descriptor set.

And it turned out it is.

Ben, can you try the patch (of the link) below, please? It's a pretty obvious flaw in the USB core system which is triggered by buggy descriptors."
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/98243

We should ask some XDA developers and Samsung to add/try this patch.
 
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Nov 2, 2010
47
5
South Pole
Any way to test this? i'm not exactly a guru in terms of code but i guess you need a recompiled message.c file? Can that be done as simply as replacing the file and rebooting or does it have to be coded into a kernel?
 

danba

Senior Member
Jun 22, 2008
184
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I'm not an Android developer, but I think a (modded) kernel including this patch should be built.
 

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  • 75
    Hi there!

    So I'm not the only one happy with the promising audio codec in Galaxy S III ? ;)
    20
    Wolfson DAC confirmed by Supercurio.

    Audio codec:

    Wolfson Micro WM1811
    http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/products/audio_hubs/WM1811/
    100dB SNR Class W Heapdhone amp output, ReTune DSP, 3x digital interface.
    Like WM8994 in Galaxy S / Nexus S, except:
    1x stereo DAC instead of 2x.
    2x 2W Speaker amp instead of 2x 1W
    Smaller and probably cheaper, same sound quality expected.

    Audio driver configuration & policy implementation based on TinyUCM (/etc/tinyucm.conf)
    Probable subset of TinyHAL implementing codec configuration in config files instead of having everything hardcoded in ROM or kernel driver at compile time.

    Native sampling rate: 44100 Hz. It means music played will be sent as-is to the DAC instead of being processed by a software up-sampling routine as it is on Galaxy Nexus or other devices with codecs accepting only 48000 Hz.

    AWESOME.
    13
    Crackling sound visualized

    I see quite many people suffering from that 'crackling' sound that comes randomly whenever the music is playing, and I also noticed it. Since this is a bit irritating I wrote a short analysis of the playback sound of SGS3. I played a test signal which plays only 1kHz of sine wave for 10 minutes, and waited until that crackling sound happens again.

    124260454FD959E2282F71


    First, this is a part of the 1kHz signal file that was played through my SGS3, which seems to be OK, but take a look at the next image I attached.

    124274454FD959E1244B29


    Now this throws us a hint that signal is significantly distorted at 00:01.346, but this doesn't actually show everything about noise that's happening during the playback. That's why we need to take a look at the spectrum of the output sound.

    14378C454FD959E1357E9F

    I got you noise!

    Damn Youtube. You just can visit here for the video. http://youtu.be/ObXT-08CYZg

    Actually this noise lasts really short so it was quite hard for me to catch that.
    In the signal file I played, the actual contortion starts at 00:01.26084 and ends at around 00:01.34676. Of course these figures are based upon that GoldWave spectrum analysis; you cannot tell exactly when that noise happened because it just zips away.

    For those who want to take a closer look yourself, watch this video please, or download the file I attached here. You'll see the real body of the crackling noise.

    Hope this is just a bug in the firmware, especially the wrong wolfson dac driver settings from Samsung 'cause I see that rise in the frequencies except for 1kHz is rather consistent.

    +
    Anybody know how to report this issue to Samsung? I tried to report this to Samsung Korea but they redirected me to nowhere.

    ++
    Seems to be related with power management.
    10
    Youtube video

    Sorry for being so late but last day or two has been manic!! Here's a really crappy video I posted on Youtube:

    http://youtu.be/jR6Vc28NEcc
    8
    A digital audio system is composed of:

    406045_3017824090522_1410232016_33249063_365914518_n.jpg


    . A storage module: Music is stored in file as a series of bits 0 & 1 with different encoding formats (MP3, WAV, FLAC…).
    . A player: The player decodes the bits 0 & 1 to PCM digital audio signals.
    . A DAC (Digital to Analog Converter): The DAC converts the PCM digital audio signals to the original analog audio signals.
    . An amplifier: The amplifier amplifies the analog audio signals.
    . A speaker: The speaker restitutes the music.


    Like a PC or a Mac, an Android phone / tablet is a digital audio system.

    386049_3017824530533_1410232016_33249064_602805578_n.jpg



    An Andoid device, running on a kernel with the USB audio feature activated, can output the PCM digital audio stream to an external USB DAC & amplifier, much more efficient than the internal DAC & amplifier.

    376007_3017823650511_1410232016_33249061_1036262226_n.jpg