[Q] Horrendeous noize

[MightySashiman]

Hi,

strangely, i find the audio quality to be very poor (much worse than the GNEX i'm coming from anyway).

- sound stage is much narrower using the walkman app.

- using poweramp has proven to be impossible : there is an awful background noize (that i don't get either with the walkman app, either with google play music, like a FM radio interference.) The sound stage seems wider (I suppose this is thanks to the "direct volume control" feature of poweramp)

I did the test with 320kbps mp3, and a wide range of CD quality FLAC files.

I have tried the high res usb DAC output, but will not be using it on a daily basis as :
- it requires the platic waterproof protection to be off
- with my usb dac (dragonfly 1.2) the phone cannot control the dac's volume control (100% output volume would smash to pieces my earphones, and my ears)
- having a cable attached to the microusb port is the best way to break the port...

I'm not using any of the rubbishy musiFX, clearaudio stuff.

My earphones are high end IEMs (westone W60).

Anyone experienced this too ?

 

[icsha]

Well, I have encountered similar problem with you..

For the noise floor, it seems that this problem appears only if you use Poweramp, I have tried to use walkman and folder player with creative in-ear 3 and ATH-AD900X, the noise floor is not very obvious. Generally, I think z3c has a relatively good control of noise floor, and the arising of noise is due to Poweramp.

For the sound stage, yes it is narrower when you use Walkman, open the Clear Audio+ will enlarge sound stage a little bit but then the problem of sibilance arises

 

[MightySashiman]

YEEES. Thank you so much for confirming I'm not going nuts and my phone is not malfunctioning !
I've sent a bug report to poweramp devs. I hope it gets fixed...

I personally can't bare clearaudio-style features which tend to give the feeling the music was recording microphone was set up inside a can...

ps: btw I learnt a new word today : sibilance.

ps2 : please upvote the bug thread on poweramp's forum (http://forum.powerampapp.com/index.php?/topic/6857-horrible-noise-floor-on-z3-compact/)

ps3: forgot to mention, this noise problem is related to Direct Volume Control. disabling this feature in poweramp removes the noise issue, but also reduces sound quality and sound stage.

Well, I have encountered similar problem with you..

For the noise floor, it seems that this problem appears only if you use Poweramp, I have tried to use walkman and folder player with creative in-ear 3 and ATH-AD900X, the noise floor is not very obvious. Generally, I think z3c has a relatively good control of noise floor, and the arising of noise is due to Poweramp.

For the sound stage, yes it is narrower when you use Walkman, open the Clear Audio+ will enlarge sound stage a little bit but then the problem of sibilance arises

 

[kuczyproceder]

hi, i'm too dissapointed about the music quality.
it was much better when i installed custom rom on xperia tipo with z1 features, clearaudio+ gave the huge quality boost