yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] cpu98:
That graph looks awful because it is measured with real headphone connected. With dummy load(mere resistor / common method) it will show rather flat graph. If it is peaked during headphone measurement those results are useless. Let's wait till curio get the device. He will do better test.
[Galaxy S II General] kradcliffe:
I tried changing some of the parameters in the hidden menu but none of them seemed to make any difference.

Keith
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Yes measurement errors are always possible.

I'll make my own and publish them as soon as I'll have the device.
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Does KE2 update change the sound output?

You made measurements or it is a subjective appreciation?
[Galaxy S II General] bakachu:
One thing I noticed is the music from the Samsung stock music player is not affected by Gingerbread EQ applications, these simply dont work.

Alternative music players from the Market are affected by Gingerbread EQ apps though.

Maybe the stock player uses the hardware in someways that the Market alternative players don't?
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
Plenty of bass for me using my Klispch Image Ones.
[Galaxy S II General] Miracle1980:
I have an Iaudio7 and today i made some test (not numbers...just genuine listening test) with 3 songs (different genres). I use an HQ in-ear headphones Hi-FiMan RE-0. The SGS2 has poweramp and dsp player. I have to say that there is not so much difference between the 2 sources. I still prefer the ''clean'' and ''cold'' audio of the Iaudio7 but it barely noticeble. I think that i have to find the correct equalization settings for the SGS2 btw player and DSP Manager. If Supercurio will improve the sound quality i don't think that there will be problems and the quality will be the same as the Cowon mp3 reader.

My vote right now is 7.5
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
I've got the RE0's as well, superbly detailed they are, though with most sources (especially unamped) they tend to sound a bit overly bright. How's the sound with the SGS2? Is there a good fusion? Is their sufficient low end?

They're a bit bass anemic with my iPhone 4 and the treble spiked badly along with a bit of noise on the original SGS, but they sounded absolutely stunning on my SGS + Voodoo sound - complete balance
[Galaxy S II General] Miracle1980:
I tried the RE0 always and just with the Cowon Iaudio 7 and they are perfect. With the SGS2 they sound really good in my opinion. I can fix a bit more playing with the settings but imho its a good fusion. I cannot compare with SGS+Voodoo sound but the fact that the SGS2 can only get better in future it makes me happy. BTW i'll start to use it as my primary audio source.
[Galaxy S II General] ijat91:
I have brainwavz m1 earphone, the sound come out from my earphone with good clarity but i notice that the base sound really bad, especially with 5.1 sorrounding sound option activated. The best i try so far is set to auto equaliser with sound clarity for sound effect but this cause the bass come out really weak, i want to balance it. Any suggestion option?
[Galaxy S II General] Toss3:
Has anyone tried if the original sound quality fix for the Galaxy S applies to the SGS II as well? Linky Might be a temporary solution until Supercurio gets his hands on the device. I can confirm that the code at least works.
[Galaxy S II General] Toss3:
MixGet for the Galaxy S seems to be working for the SGS II.
[Galaxy S II General] Miracle1980:
From Supercurio Twitter page:

''Various volume adjustments, probably, but based on what I saw: better sound or more feature: unlikely on #GalaxySII.''
[Galaxy S II General] Toss3:
He just got his SGS II today so we'll probably hear more about the sound quality issues on the device soon.

First impressions don't seem that positive:
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
Ouch!!

What were Samsung thinking? As soon as there is an upcoming alternative I´ll probably get rid of it.

What puzzles me is, how can a company like Yamaha who have decades of experience fail to deliver on such a high level. :mad:
[Galaxy S II General] kradcliffe:
I thought going forward the S2 would be the same or better than the Galaxy S but it seems not. This is disappointing news if true.

Mixget Alsa does not install on the S2, is it compatible and does the phone need to be rooted?

Keith
[Galaxy S II General] slitch:
Damn, just ordered the SGS2 this afternoon to replace my SGS.

I just love the sound of my HD25 and Image s4's on the SGS, one of the reasons I ordered the SGS2...

Well if supercurio (or anyone else) fixes it, I will donate! (even tough I'm broke as hell every month)
[Galaxy S II General] Toss3:
Installed it manually using root explorer(so yes you'll need root access). Still couldn't adjust the alsa volume, but I got it installed at least. :p
[Galaxy S II General] jay_993:
No wolfson may be the reason why i may get an infuse in the end...
[Galaxy S II General] LondonGemini:
Guys. The DigitalAnalogConverter be it Yamaha etc is only 1 part of the sound. You also have an op amp which amplifies the sound. Its this part that's giving us quiet volumes.

As I did with my iPhone, I think will look for a portable hadphone amp.
[Galaxy S II General] -Juff-:
Well, we have to wait some more for the complete analysis it seems.

I hope there are ways to improve the sound quality otherwise I'm not going to buy this device... Still dont't get why Sammy did such a dumb mistake...
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
To cut costs, obviously. Sammy just didn't think audiophiles were an important part of their target audience. This is heart-breaking because the rest of the device is amazing..

i've been looking very closely instead at the Optimus 2x/g2x for the wolfson chip it has, but apart from that, honestly they aren't anywhere near SGS2 on any level - which is why my heart keeps bringing me back to the SGS2. Meh.
[Galaxy S II General] Sorrow1994:
WTF?!

i just red this... is the sound now really worse than it's predecessor?

If yes, im not going to buy the Phone... lol

Because IF id get the phone i think I'm gonna use it half of the time as an music player lol (yeah i know, i really should get an iPod or Something like that instead lol)
[Galaxy S II General] -Juff-:
But WHY THE HELL did Sammy put this awesome Wolfson WM8994 in the SGS? :confused:

(Had to finally do this...)

And yay, LG is even worse with their actual phones what concerns audio quality... -.-'
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
Best. Pic. Ever.. Someone please send a million of those to Sammy in a DDoS attack.

And yes, LG is absolute cack BUT it has the WM8994. It's also got decent dev support and CM7 nightlies. But.. everytime i see how smooth the SGS2 is...

Damn you Sammy. Damn you.
[Galaxy S II General] sun-drop:
i'm using the sony MW600 bluetooth dongle ...audio seems fine?

then again i'm not really a trained ear for these things.
[Galaxy S II General] tameracingdriver:
As a bit of a recovering audiophile myself, I do share many of the concerns that people in this thread have, and while I dont have the time or knowhow to fix it, I do have a suggestion that might make things more tolerable in the meantime.

Unfortunately these tweaks only work in the samsung player, I would have preferred if they had worked in poweramp as that can play mp3 gaplessly, but you can't have everything I suppose.

For a result that I find both a bit louder and also more pleasing to the ear, try this.

In samsung player: In settings, equaliser, choose "classic".

In settings, sound effect, choose "music clarity".

To my ears this makes it sound a lot nicer, more detailed, and a but louder. Not a fix, but as a workaround for now, good enough for me. :-)
[Galaxy S II General] ph00ny:
Lol at getting an ipod as a music player
[Galaxy S II General] -Juff-:
Still am sceptic what concerns audio via bluetooth. I got decent bluetooth headphones ("real" headphones from Philips) but I always had the feeling that sound is not as good as with plugged headphones (on SGS).

Anyone got an idea how "good" audio over bluetooth actually is? Did Bluetooth 3.0 improve anything? It might be a solution for crappy headphone jack output.
[Galaxy S II General] Sorrow1994:
Hi, i meant i should get a "dedicated MP3 Player" instead of using a phone lol (i wouldn't buy an iPod either lol) BUT... it just sucks to allways carry multiple devices around... imagine carriing a SGS2 AND 5" Archos with you...:p
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
I still can´t believe it.

I will express my anger and write Samsung an email. Even if it leads to nothing at least I´ll get it off my chest. These stupid morons.

Is there any mobile on the horizon that will

fulfill our dreams? Maybe the HTC Sensation?
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
I don't understand why people are saying this has low volume, I use Senheisser IE7s and also Klispch Image Ones and the sound is more than loud enough. Using crappy headphones will result in bad sound quality regardless of player.
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
that'll most probably have worse SQ than even the SGS2.
[Galaxy S II General] kradcliffe:
As I said in a previous thread the sound using PowerAmp is comparable to the Galaxy S, and like it's predecessor it just needs the system volume kicked up a bit.

It's not bad by any means.

Keith
[Galaxy S II General] jay_993:
samsung infuse and optimus 2x may be other options IF you believe sound is that important. I'm certainly considering them two.
[Galaxy S II General] SBS_:
The only problem I've had with the audio on the SGSII is with the FM Radio app, the volume level there is _very_ low. At least compared to other apps I'm using.

With Sky.FM radio the volume level is at least much higher (granted it's only 256kbps mp3, but pretty decent for internet radio).

With my Bose noise cancelling head-phones which I use when on planes etc it is very very loud. So might just be my in-ears having a high impedance.
[Galaxy S II General] LondonGemini:
I tried my Klispch 4i's and I found the volume rather low not to mention my Senheisser 595's! Still nothing that a small headphone amp can't sort out. Its just a pain to carry so many things.

Having said that, the battery doesn't last long at all but that's a topic for another thread!
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
The atrix too has the Wolfson chip. I'm more inclined towards the t-mobile g2x - the vanilla android literally flies on the tegra 2 and its almost as blazing fast - maybe faster -as the SGS2.
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
The Infuse is nice, but isn't it an America only mobile? I'm from Germany so it would be ruled out. I secretly hope that there will be a SGS2 version with a Wolfson later this year.
[Galaxy S II General] bendispo:
I'm a bit of an audiophile, so thought I'd also chime in...

I agree with an earlier poster that there seems to be too much focus upon the DAC. Most modern DAC's are going to offer excellent performance. The audible differences between DAC's is negligible (more in terms of sonic "flavor" and less in terms of absolute advantage) in comparison to other factors (both hardware and software).

In terms of other hardware factors, there's the quality of emi (electromagnetic interference) shielding so that the audio path does not receive interference from the other electrical signals packed into the small device. supercurio's twitter post about being able to hear interference from the 2g/edge radios is a likely sign of poor shielding.

Another factor is that of the opamp, which is responsible for the amplification of the signal coming out of the DAC. The opamp amplifies the signal so that it can drive the headphones. Low volume is a sign of a weak/inferior opamp.

Finally, there's the factor of how clean the electrical line is. If the SGS2 is feeding the audio components of the device with a "dirty" or inconsistent electrical signal, then DAC and opamp performance are going to degrade.

So, all things being equal, a Wolfson DAC in the exact same device will unlikely produce anything more than negligible gains if the rest of the audio chain remains unchanged. These other factors would also mitigate supercurio's attempts to improve the sound on the software front.
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Atrix has a proprietary audio chip − same on Xoom named cpcap Audio:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Teardown/4964/2 << ST Ericsson CPCAP

GSMArena review show it may give good audio decent/good (not stellar though) http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_atrix_4g-review-589p7.php
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
I agree that talking about just the DAC miss most of the picture.

If its hard to discernate sound difference between different DAC used optimally, its a very different matter if you're comparing a DAC used at its best capability to a buggy one.

Today Galaxy S II DAC itself is just full of bugs. It may be a hardware design defect, or misuse by the driver. I don't know yet.

Built-in Headphone amp seems okay despite poor GSMArena measurements, but its plagued by a poor software and hardware implementation that let you hear CPU frequency changes and EDGE Radio noise.

I'll develop all this in details in a study, so you'll not only be able to understand but also "see" whats happening.
[Galaxy S II General] Miracle1980:
Im not really audiophile expert...do you think that buying a Fiio Amp 5 can improve something? I mean quality...because the volume for me its pretty decent.
[Galaxy S II General] pixie77:
You can't improve what isn't there. At this stage amplifing a poor signal will just give you a louder poor signal. I see it as buying a composite to HDMI convertor and believing you have HD!
[Galaxy S II General] Nik0la:
Is it possible to use external dac connected to usb otg cable? That would eliminate all noise from radios
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
You might avoid the CPU frequency change & EDGE noise, but the DAC will still be buggy.

So, no wont help much (not sure it will help, FiiO5 is still entry-level performing despite its fame in forums due to habile social marketing on head-fi)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] OmniNut:
Someone enlighten me on why official reviews of this phone do not include a GPS test. Knowing how all variants of the Galaxy S failed miserably on the GPS, would it not make sense to put peoples minds at ease with a simple mention of GPS? Why official reviewers never mention GPS is kind of strange and especially with this particular branded phone ;(.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ph00ny:
i'm sure i read on a few of those that gps is quick and accurate. What official tests do you need? didn't all the mobilers show you the performance of their units?

Also do we need another thread for this?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] OmniNut:
An official review would be from someone like Engadget or Cnet or Android Central. Official reviewers are more meticulous with everything. I just don't understand why they wouldn't do it lol. There's no rational reason not to quickly mention that either "gps is very accurate" and vice versa =/. Strange.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ph00ny:
engadget is meticulous with their reviews? lol you're kidding right?

you should probably catch up on mobiler's reviews which had gps tracking with diagrams drawn. If that's not enough for you then what is
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] silverwolf0:
Engadget goes straight to the main points that matter and give an educated opinion, which is what I look for. It's blog short, meaning very little fluff. If I want to read an exhaustive and robotic detail of every feature, with very little I would call "impressions" because really, almost every phone is good to them, I read a GSMArena review. If I want a poorly translated and very dry review that is so long but says so little, I read a mobile-review.com review. If I want to get my tabloid kicks and whoever is paying them to defecate on some brand or write vilifying troll reviews, I'll go Gizmodo. If I want blind fanboy lust reviews with tons of smooching, I read Androidcentral and Phandroid reviews.

Here's a respectable enough looking and sounding review, saying thte GPS locked in under 5 seconds and the compass seems better than most.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review?artc_pg=11
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BoogWeed:
I have found Anandtech have the most thorough reviews...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dudeldei:
Frome same article:

"Another point we were happy with – the compass on the Samsung Galaxy S2 was more accurate than anything we've seen recently on smartphones, and actually pointed in the right direction most of the time."

This is indeed good news... ^^
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Wis12:
GPS Test on engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-gps-it-works-it-really-works-video/
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] fallenguru:
Just saw that as well ...

So in one instance at one location the phone's GPS locks quickly, but they don't say how quickly, if the lock was hot or cold or even how accurate it was. Also, why they turned off wireless network positioning is beyond me. If it works, it should only help, not hinder, the lock. If it doesn't, well, they should have said so. (Disabling A-GPS altogether would make sense if you only wanted to test the chip + antenna setup instead of the whole stack, but they didn't do that.)

I'm assuming there's labs where GPS signals can be simulated and conditions completely controlled. That's really the only way you can meaningfully test GPS functionality for a single device. To expect even a professional publication to run such a lab is unrealistic but they could certainly pay to have a few devices tested.

Aside from that there's the far easier way of comparison. Take a top of the line (civilian) GPS as a reference, 10+ phones including some with known good and known bad GPS, including non-Android ones and run a few tests in different locations.

But no, none of the above. I'm so fed up with people who conclude something works great just because it doesn't fall flat on it's face ... Instead, another video that takes ages to make, ages to watch and is absolutely devoid of any meaningful content. Bloody worthless ...
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NZtechfreak:
Yep, pretty hopeless video at Engadget. A quick lock with no real indication of accuracy, and no information about how well it maintains a lock. Face palm.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lugi93:
Jeez!

Nothing is good enough for you guys.. go buy the device and do the test yourself. :eek:

There are alot of posts about GPS and it simply works as it should! :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] PhippsyB:
techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review?artc_pg=11

"the Galaxy S2 managed to lock our GPS in less than five seconds, and we were away in no time at all."
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] fallenguru:
That simply isn't practical. Even if I wanted to pay for the SGS2 itself out of pocket just to review it, I still wouldn't have enough phones and/or stand-alone GPS units for a meaningfull comparison. Never mind the equipment needed for the audio, screen and camera quality measurements. A little more technical knowledge would surely be beneficial as well.

But the fact that this is impractical if not impossible for a private layperson to do is the very reason that tech publications exist in the first place! If all I wanted were an (more or less) uneducated impression or opinion I could just order the thing off Amazon and return it after a few day, if I don't like it.

This problem is not specific to mobile phones, of course, but it's especially bad there since a lot of non-overlapping knowledge would be required to do a proper review - basically you'd have to review each device

as a mobile phone (calling & SMS/texts only)

as a portable music player

as a compact camera

as a personal / in-car navigation device

as an e-book reader

as a mobile web-browsing device

as a gaming handheld

as an external storage device / thumb drive

... ... ...

Now, some of those features can be evaluated "at a glance" but a lot simply cannot.

And no, I'm not being perfectionist right now - if I were, I'd be insisting on multiple review copies from different batches ...

Not quite. There are a lot of posts about the GPS, yes. But it seems to me that they are by people who don't have much experience with GPS, on mobile phones or otherwise. How could they know if it works as it should if they've nothing to compare it to?

In my very limited personal experience the LG P500 for example is so much better than the SGS1, NS and - by the looks of it the SGS2 as well - that it isn't even funny.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ccrows:
That must have killed them to say something positive that wasn't iPhone related!... :p
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] NZtechfreak:
My contribution to testing the GPS functions, hopefully useful to people (particularly prospective buyers). If you have comments please post them there at the blog, rather than here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VuptfBPIEI&feature=player_embedded
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JJEgan:
It is a general failing of many reviews that they do not compare but just give an overall impression .

But that is the same across a broad range from inkjets to GPS with all in-between .

Not that i am complain about my SGS2 GPS far from it i have no complaints it works as i want it to .

A minority view possible but 14 million users did not complain about SGS1 GPS some did but not 14 million of them .

jje
[Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rsswga:
does anyone know how to get the camera lock working ..power button on super clean snaps pics..id like the factory function ..thanks
[Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neh4pres:
Wrong section.I'm not sure though

Sent from my frozen yogurt filled fascinate
[Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BrwnSuperman:
Pretty sure the camera on the last version of superclean did not have the camera mod on it. I had to flash the camera mod to GET the ability to take pictures with the power button every time I flashed it.
[Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rsswga:
ok thanks superman
[Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rsswga:
last version of sclean has the power button taking pics
[HTC Inspire 4G] Cannibul:
Anyone able to get Go Weather to work over the air?

It will update over wifi but not over the air.
[HTC Inspire 4G] mrpiggae:
It's been doing that lately, super aggravating. It even fails over Wifi sometimes.
[HTC Inspire 4G] Cannibul:
I noticed the fails over Wifi when I installed the latest version.
[Nook Color General] dervish9:
I am a newbie, still on original nook firmware think its 1.01

I am having trouble trying to install cm7 on a 16gb microsd card. I had a look in XDA and there are a few people having the same problems awhile ago, and then there are some who have managed to do it. I have trawled thru quite a few pages int he foru but can't seem to find a solution. Anyone here has any luck with installing cm7 to boot from a 16gb microsd? Any comments would be appreciated.

My problem seem to be, after i imaged the microsd and then copied the update night;y cm7. zip file across, the nook booth from the microsd but and setsups but then just hangs after superfiles(?) have been installed, whereas the guide saystehat it will ventually go to a blanks screen, which mine never does, then when i force shuitdown and reboot, it installls some android files but when it reboots after that it either hangs onthe ANDROID_ screen (keeps rebooting over and over again) or it goes to the cyogenm7 graphic screen and keeps rebooting to the startup screen.

Thanks