yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] BarryH_GEG:
You

can hear the hiss. For whatever reason, some of us have SGS2s that don't transmit background noise through the headset. We're not idiots and if we're using $300+ headsets should be able to tell whether we're hearing background noise or not. The question isn't why some people

aren't

hearing "hiss" but rather why a handful

are

.
[Galaxy S II General] vitalij:
With seinheiser IE8 absolutly no hiss on my sgs2. Even on previous SGS there were some hiss with or without voodoo. Its enouth volume for me, however sound is a bit less detailed than sgs with voodoo.

So maybe there are some bad batches of sgs2 with bad sound quality and people should try replacing their units?

Edit: when navigating around menu and actively interacting with a phone there definately appears some very quiet hiss. However its quiet and if not searching for it I would nether notice.
[Galaxy S II General] B3311:
Barry has nailed it. I've lost patience with some of the nonsense being spouted here.

Clown number1 is convinced he'll have hiss with his IE8s, but doesn't own a SGS2.

Clown number 2 replies and he doesn't own IE8s. FFS.

One more time for the cheap seats:

You

can hear the hiss.

I

can't.

I don't own westones, and hence couldn't give a toss whether you hear hiss with them or not, because I can't possibly know. I assume you don't own IE8s - if not, you should feel the same. So what earthly relevance has your reply to my statement?

As far as I know, I haven't cloned my ears and auditory system and given them to you. Jog on. Your name is very appropriate.
[Galaxy S II General] novaci:
I'm starting to think the first batch of SGSII's were just faulty in some areas. I'm extremely pleased with the audio quality with the sGSII I received last week and as I posted earlier, there are absolutely no issues with it so far. No problem with volume levels with my Klipsch S4's or Aiaiai TMA-1's, no noise related to CPU clocks and no discernable hiss at all.

Maybe the very first phones that left the factory just had faulty shielding somewhere down the line as far as the audio output goes, which Samsung reacted to at some point or that some components that the phones shipped out with had some issues. It'd be interesting to compare serial numbers and try to figure out if a pattern emerges.
[Galaxy S II General] shawn_pro:
hi novaci, please give us more detailed observations.

Is volume level good with stock headphones or Klipsch S4's? Do we get volume levels like that of galaxy S1

Another query which i have (bit offline) does the Play & pause, the volume buttons buttons on the Klipsch S4's work properly, Can we also do a FF/Prev tracks with those buttons.

Thanks in advance
[Galaxy S II General] novaci:
The stock earbuds are still in their wrapping and I'm not planning on on using them at all. They'll remain in the box until my next dream phone comes along and I decide to sell the SGSII.

I don't own the S4i model which have the remote control built into the cord, so I can't comment on that. As far as volume level goes, in the stock music player for example 4/10 volume is more than enough for listening in quieter environments (jogging out in the woods, listening to audiobooks before I go to sleep). I push the volume out to 6/10 if I'm in an environment with alot of outside noise (commuting on a bus or a train for example). Any louder than that and it starts to hurt my ears.

The TMA-1s are fairly efficient as far as fullsize cans go and they pump out about as much perceived pressure as the S4's on equal volume levels. I haven't really tested the TMA-1's in noisy environments as yet, but I'm flying out to HK on tuesday and I'll bring the Aiaiai's along and write up any impressions I gather during the flight. Prelimiary testing hasn't rooted up any significant issues with them either, however.

EDIT: I took a few minutes to try my Sennheiser HD 650's with the phone. I listened to various tracks off Explosions In The Sky's discography in flac format, which includes a various highs as well as quieter sections. As I was listening, I fired up various apps to try to see if I could hear the CPU clocks causing any issues with the sound. The apps I tested were Google Maps and 1080p video (audio off, mind you) through Youtube in the stock browser. The result was no additional noise at all.

At home around 7/10 volume in Poweramp was enough to produce comfortable sound levels. The quality of sound wasn't anywhere near what I'd get with a properly amped source, but that isn't really an issue for me as I usually only listen to with the 650's at home and they're really as far from a portable HP as you can get. My portable gear listed above isn't all that picky as far as source gear goes, and they sound the same no matter what source, pretty much (unless there really are HUGE issues with the output, as there are with most HTC phones for example).

I think most of the complaints people have with this device will fade out as time goes by. I personally think that it's a magnificent engineering achievement in pretty much every aspect. The battery life with my phone has been fantastic, it performs like no other phone I've owned and the build quality and feel of the phone have improved by leaps and bounds compared to Samsung's previous phones.
[Galaxy S II General] MikeMaMan:
Guys, sound is not so bad as some people think. I have Sennheiser HD25-1 II and Tannoy R5A studio monitors. and I must say. I was trying to match sound quality and I managed to get it really close. So its not a big problem as some people see it. Get a good cans ;)
[Galaxy S II General] BarryH_GEG:
I'm on a plane at cruising altitude right now. Using my SE530s, I'm at "10" volume and it's as loud as I'd want to go. I'm using the stock music player. Also, the soundstage on the 530's is pretty big. The faux 5.1 actually adds a lot of depth and doesn't sound contrived.
[Galaxy S II General] voodoochild2008:
I use 530s and sound is very good,,,,not sgs1 with voodoo but still very good, I do here very faint sounds if I scroll through tracks (only if the music is on a quiet part) the volume is fine and like the other poster said I would not like to go past 10 (think this is due to way shure buds fit....no sound loss) yes I would like changes and to be more like sgs1 but I can live with it easy, its only a now and again player and not what I would use for a full on music day.

As for hiss....not my thing here as many know far more than me but few years ago I had a laptop which I put a good sound card in, I had 2 sets of phones which I could hear hiss on if I use them but then I got some sennheiser headphones (think 660 model?) and they were perfect, no hiss, so maybe same thing or maybe like other guy said, maybe a bad batch or case of people trying to hear something thats not that bad.
[Galaxy S II General] bendispo:
Being able to hear hiss/background noise is dependent on a variety of factors: the auditory acuity of the listener, the noise floor of the environment, the sensitivity/resistance of the cans, and the quality of the cans.

I definitely hear intermittent background noise when scrolling or opening new programs, and it seems as though enough other people also hear it that it should warrant concern. However, it's difficult to impossible to determine how widespread the issue is (whether most or all SGSII's suffer from it) without establishing controlled conditions (same cans, same listener, same environment, etc).
[Galaxy S II General] cpu98:
I have very early batch of sgs2. (Korean version)

With genuine sennheiser ie8 there is always serious audio issue...

Lots of guy here saying they hear no hiss I should contact Samsung engineers.

It's almost unbearable to listening to classical musics without an attenuator.

It has scrolling noise + internal amp hiss + dac imd(caused by resampling?) on 5/15 volume.

On iPod 5.5g there is only negligible hiss.

It really sounds like 10 years old ac97 onboard sound codec.
[Galaxy S II General] JALACB:
Hi

Since I`m reading this post I`m trying to hear the background noise in my SGSII but can´t find It.

I tried to listen various various kinds of music using demanding applications such as Gogle Earth or 3d games but found no noise at all.

Sound with earphones is not no bad, I think much better than my old Desire.
[Galaxy S II General] kradcliffe:
After much analysis and deliberation I have gone back to my Galaxy S.

The Sii has less bass in general, distorts like hell above a certain level and the overall volume output is far too low.

Having compared both phones side by side using Sennheiser HD-20 and Pioneer HDJ-2000 cans the Galaxy S with Voodoo sound is far far better, the output is crystal clear even with the EQ boosted up and there's loads of overhead for driving pro headphones.

I personally can't believe how Samsung have screwed this up. What reason do they have for an upgraded product having far worse audio than it's predecessor. Cost cutting perhaps?

I do like the larger screen and better camera of the S2 but I would rather sacrafice that and have perfect audio once more.

Keith
[Galaxy S II General] aurelm:
senn IE6

SQ decent, a bit too heavy on the base, I need to use the equilizer.

SGS with vodoo sound was better indeed

No hissing or strange sound except maybe when starting or stopping a song.

Player pro was behaving oddly so I replaced it with Poweramp. I guess it's ok if you are not a real audiophile.

ON SGS using audio technica AIR AD900 there was no difference from my home Asus Xonar D2X.

With SGS2 I can feel a difference.

But if you can make a voodoo sound v2 and it's possible it might make a difference :)
[Galaxy S II General] kradcliffe:
Supercurio has already stated there will be no Voodoo sound mod for this phone due to the Yamaha sound chip. Only thing users can hope for is a volume boost courtesy of a custom firmware but that may just make the distortion worse .......

Keith
[Galaxy S II General] ph00ny:
Hissing is very prominent with denon d5000 cans but not with the samsung ear buds. Same goes for klipsch s4.

Some iems are known for hissing and some are known to be quiet. I have a set of phonak iems on order, i will report back once it arrives
[Galaxy S II General] RogerPodacter:
Does certain impedence level of headphones make it better or worse?
[Galaxy S II General] eirwan:
Does someone know if this trick works for the gs2 ? I mean, can the app tapemachine recorder change the audio recording settings, like it did on the sgs ?
[Galaxy S II General] ph00ny:
wow Phonak PFE 122 with grey filter brought my galaxy s2 to life. I may dare say it's better than my klipsch image S4 by a large margin. Some of the mid range details came alive and i can hear every instrument clearly.

Currently using The East Village Opera Company - Overture (Le Nozze Di Figaro) to sample the IEMs.

This may simply be a honeymoon phase. I will come back in a few days to let you guys know how it's working out.

Hissing noise is very feint in some parts of the music but not enough to bother me
[Galaxy S II General] intruda119:
Tell this to my 2 12s in ported box. You can hear me coming from a block away. I only use DSP manager and poweramp with no equal.
[Galaxy S II General] aurelm:
supercurio, I have to ask tho.

Are you sure you tested a good sample of the phone ?

I see there are many issues with hiss and I can't seem to find the smalest sample of it. Only the fine hiss that is there anyway in the songs and that good quality hardware + headphones should be able to notice.

I keep comparing it with the xonar d2x set up to hi-fi mode and audio technica ATH AD-900 (very good headphones) and am not able to find a major flaw. Only a very small diference that has nothing to do with quality.

If you want I think I can perform another sound analysis using the mic or line-in of the sound card and output from both the soundcard itself and the phone.

If you tell me how :)
[Galaxy S II General] Sorrow1994:
Thanks for some Positive feedback on the sound!

but i've got a question... is your SGS2 able to drive your ATH AD-900's? without an external DAC? :eek: wondering that it has enough power to do that...EDIT: i'm not owning a SGS2 yet, thats why i'm asking...
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
Wolfson were stating on their webpage that they will deliver for one of the GS II models, but there are no further news about it. Did they change their plans?
[Galaxy S II General] Sorrow1994:
Oh MY ****ING GOD!that would be AWESOME!! :D
[Galaxy S II General] aurelm:
Well, I cannot keep the sound on maximum volume with them, it's a bit too loud on most songs. Best experience is at around 75% volume. I bought these headphones after 3 hours in a hi-fi store in Barcelona of testing every possible high-end headphones. These were the best that could be driven by a mobile player (an iphone 3g at that time, still Wolfson DAC I think). I am extremly picky about sound quality but also very picky about the amout of gear I have to keep (That's why I don't want any external amp, or another player like Cowan besides mobile phone).
[Galaxy S II General] aurelm:
Another thing. asound.conf still states it's yamaha dac, but since that's a generic comment in the file and the setting could be the same for any chipset, is it possible it's still a Wolfson Dac ? Where are the dac drivers located ? Are they flashed with the rom ?

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5284f8da-a974-237b.jpg
[Galaxy S II General] Sorrow1994:
*Push*

would be cool if a few more people, who got newer builds of the phone, would give some more feedback on the soundquality!
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
Its got a Yamaha DAC full stop, it wont have Wolfson not in the released models as of now. Lets see what the new Galaxy Tab has as that is supposed to have Wolfson as well but if it doesn't then maybe Samsung has parted with them.
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
Well I've had the phone for about a month now and use it as my MP3 player and am really happy with the sound. Previously I used an Ipod Nano 4G and switched to using my X10 mini using Poweramp as I thought it sounded better. There's not a lot in it but I think SGS2 sounds better than both of those, better bass response and a larger soundstage. I also notice the Ipod tends to place vocals further forward, which I don't like.

For reference I use Poweramp and a pair of Brainwavz Pro Alpha earphones.

People must remember DAC is only part of the story - opamps, circuit design, and sheilding also play a part. I would suggest many of us would not be able to tell the difference between many DAC's if they were used in the same electronic environment.
[Galaxy S II General] varunkumars:
http://cgi.ebay.com/FIIO-E7-USB-DAC..._Amplifiers&hash=item4cf02ffd8c#ht_2925wt_905

http://www.amazon.com/NuForce-Mobil...6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1307419516&sr=1-6

I don't know if there is a way to reduce the noise in the headphones. Supercurio also gave up on this. I don't see an other way to fix this. What is your opinion on this. Do you have any suggestions.
[Galaxy S II General] Arron123:
Anyway to help? Guide me though it
[Galaxy S II General] =dave=:
so do you think voodoo will come out for the sgs2?
[Galaxy S II General] ziggazee:
Id love to help but im a noob lol dnt even know what half of you are talking about.. Anyway i heard your one of the best devs so if you can put a guide of how to get the info you need, id me happy to help. Wish this hansdet would release everywere already, that way more ppl with better knowledge would be able to help.
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Hey :)

First, what kind of audio hardware do hot own? (Like: of sound card)

Also, do you have the male-male JACK cable to plug your phone output to your soundcard line input?
[Galaxy S II General] cpu98:
Hi. It's me anotherguest at the IRC.

I rmaa'ed it.

It shows THD < 0.0050% and that was lower than iPod 5.5G.

It means lower than 0.005% not about 0.005%(met lower threshold of adc)

Unfortunately, however, other results are not reliable.

Hope someone with a great sound card measure it.
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Hi pal :)

Thanks for this first test!

How unreliable are the other tests, are they too limited by the sound card used for measurements? Even if you setup the recording itself all in 24bits?

I understand if you don't want to make these tests public if you think values are not accurate enough. However if you can send an URL by mail ;)

So at least it seems to measure well at line-out output, which is a good thing. Means the DAC itself should be clean!

Now there is still the question of the headphone amp itself, and this basically only can be heard ^^
[Galaxy S II General] cpu98:
Here comes the fresh result. :D

-4dB analog gain(0dBFS) on iPod : -10dBFS on PC

14/15 level slider on SGS2 : -10dBFS on PC

So you can add roughly 10dB to those dB.

That gives Noise level <= -93.1dB, -92.7dB / DR > 92.7dB, 92.7dB for SGS2, iPod 5.5G respectively. Not sure about other results.(Actual value would be better than this)

And if SGS2 level slider controls digital gain its result would be better.

Graph shows they have far different design.

It should be considered as an comparative measurement not an absolute value.

img52.imageshack.us/i/unledxz.png/
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Thanks :)

Here are your measurements directly shown as I can link external content:

There is just 1 thing that looks strange, its in the THD+N graph: see the white shape around 1kHz, is it jitter? at this frequency? It doesn't look right. but yeah we need counter-measurements.

I'm interested in measurements at the maximum digital volume too:)
[Galaxy S II General] cpu98:
I can't see such shape when I see 1kHz in the scope. It's clean!

Don't know what that is.
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
Hi guys,

can you already say something about the quality of the DAC after these few tests? I'm dying to know.
[Galaxy S II General] Virtue94:
I second this proposal.
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Current analysis is too limited to draw conclusions about the sound, apart from a low distortion rate from the DAC which is a good point but not the whole picture.

Missing infos:

- Quality, sound and versatility of the headphone amplifier.

- How clean is the DAC output in highest frequencies, including > 20kHz (affect listening fatigue)

- Level of hiss with sensitive headphones (like in-ear)

For comparison, Galaxy S / Nexus S story with Wolfson WM8994 is: great but not perfect DAC, mind-blowing built-in headphone amp.
[Galaxy S II General] Guitarfreak26:
Very eager to see a voodoo improvement, needs more volume me thinks
[Galaxy S II General] cpu98:
I'll do 192kHz measurement tonight.

Regarding hiss, It's not easily noticeable, a lot quieter than iPod 5.5G.(on etymotic mc5, 16ohm)

I heard it's output impedance is 31!!!ohm.(NOT CONFIRMED)
[Galaxy S II General] Demiourgos:
Hi, I hope it has good audio quality but as it has USB OTG I would love to use it with my external Fiio E7 DAC/AMP via USB or jack 3,5.

1. Will SGS2 work with Fiio E7 via USB OTG?

2. Does Voodoo have an line-out option via 3,5 jack socket?
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
There is no such thing as Voodoo for Galaxy S II.

On first Galaxy S, with all Voodoo sound improvements and DAC Direct options, jack output measurements are better (going through the headphone amp circuit) than theoretical specs for the DAC in line-out mode.
[Galaxy S II General] Virtue94:
I don't think the stock ROM works with portable amps/DACs at the moment. I believe its only limited to flash drives although I could be wrong.
[Galaxy S II General] Guitarfreak26:
What does all this technical stuff mean in simple term?

Is the sound gonna be improvable? Anything similar to sgs1 sound quality?
[Galaxy S II General] erahk64:
It seems SGS2 max sampling rate is lower than for SGS.

I could play music recorded at 24 bit 96 kHz on SGS.

SGS2 seems to be able to handle only up to 24 bit 48 kHz according to Supercurio if the info he found is correct:

http://twitter.com/#!/supercurio/status/65198848900988928

Can someone with SGS2 try to play music recorded at 24 bit 96 kHz and see if it works?
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
SGS1 was resampling (software) everything to 44kHz / 16bit anyway.
[Galaxy S II General] ph00ny:
my only gripe about the player was the volume level since i tend to listen to music during my commute on nyc subway. Either i got used to the volume level or the new earbuds are doing a better job at isolating external nosie
[Galaxy S II General] barsk:
I got an answer today from Samsung support in Sweden that the Yamaha audio chip will be used for the coming NFC model in Sweden as well. No Wolfson there.
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
Not nice. Now, I don´t think there'll ever be a GS2 with Wolfson.

But thanks for asking them.
[Galaxy S II General] blackstar84:
Because of this http://headphonia.com/The-Arrow-Amp....html?XTCsid=ca650eae23ef461944f1346f4dd06725

I might buy the S2 anyway... and to be frank...even with the wolfson chip I would still have needed a good amplifier to drive my headphones.
[Galaxy S II General] LondonGemini:
$299.99!!!!
[Galaxy S II General] blackstar84:
Yeah the price is quite high, but it is worth paying extra on.

Cause I will listen to music a lot in this :)

but I think the Fiio amp has maybe a better value for the money.

It is actually very cheap.
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
Seems like the HTC Sensation has slightly better SQ than the SGS2. Yes, i realise that these tests are far from reliable, so take it with a grain of salt:

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_sensation-review-605p7.php

On top of that i haven't anyone complain about EM interference noise and distortion which plague some phones, as seen in this thread.

Thoughts? Can anyone else offer a comparison/interpretation?
[Galaxy S II General] Sorrow1994:
just because this thread is almost asleep now, is the Audio (hiss, etc...) on the newer batch of SGS2's better? (altough, it's still the same DAC...) + now, how does it sound? I'm coming from an iPod touch 1st Gen. and a HTC Desire and IMO the Desire doesn't sound too bad at all (Better than my netbook w/ onboard sound, in fact) even tough, the iPod (wich i'm using for music now) still sounds better... does the SGS2 sound better, or even as good, as the "Old" Ipod touch? ...any feedback would be awesome :D

btw: i'm using a pair of Sennheiser CX 300 II's, AKG K315's and my Klipsch image s4's... (so not really high-end but good enough, for me)

AND i'm still not sure wether i should get the phone or not, because of the sound, since it's very important for me...
[Galaxy S II General] aurelm:
there is no hiss. none. 0. no sound that should not be there. no noise, no popping, no scratching.

As for sound quality I think it sounds ok. cx300 are not decent headphones anyway imho. For portable I have a pair of IE6 which also sound bad. the only proper decent way to compare was using a pair of audio technica AD 900, using sgs 1, sgs 2 and Asus xonar d2x set to hi-fi and medium volume.

to my ear they are all hard to be set apart. maybe they do not soun 100% the same but I for example cannot tell which is which.

Perhaps a better trained ear can tell but I would suggest avoid the placebo audiophile effect :) :

That is listen yourself, do not look at charts, and randomize input cables when listening so you cannot tell which is which. mark the cables somewhere out of sight and after you give a verdict take a look at the marks and see what you have been listening to :)

repeat with different types of music.

edit:

ofc I am talking about my sample only. which also has no yellow hue or other big bugs . Only the "android os" battery thing. If it had any of those defects you would have seen me screaming on every thread about them. like the damn gps problem on my sgs 1 that was solved after exactly after 1 year of buying sgs and 4 days before buying sgs 2:)