yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
I've just voodoo'd my Tab and well my first voodoo capable device and wow it rocks! The SG2 could have been perfect with voodoo if Samsung didn't drop Wolfson for it. Got to say my tab will be my main music device at home now.
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Well, I finally tried that service menu tweaks and it did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't listen only, I also measured again, I spent 2 hrs with it, changing values back and forth - nothing at all.

And seriously, did you find out all these changes by trial-and-error? Excuse my doubts, but with all these parameters there seem to be more variations than lottery combinations :D. And IF these parameter names are meaning at least something, why should a parameter called "SRC Speech RX Volume" change the headphone path? What are the 6 levels?

Don't get me wrong, I believe that it's working good for you and your setup, but to me it all seems quite voodoo (no, not THAT one :D). Having that said, I still would be interessted in the source of these values. They have to be set up from somewhere, otherwise they wouldn't be defaulted on boot. Now, finding this source would maybe reveal some useful comments or other enlightning facts. I'm still convinced, that the headphone output is artificially 'throttled', I assumed a resistor. But it could as well be some register setting in the headphone amp, some current limiter or what the heck else.

And now for something completely different :) ... the chip is most likely NO YMU818. Not only does the source talk about a chip with the number 823 (which is not to find officially), but the 818 has only 49 pins, that's a fact. But the service manual of the SGS2 talks clearly about pin numbers that belong to a larger sound chip, my suspicion is 72 pins (there are numbers 1-9 and letters A-J, which is a 72-pin BGA case). The YMU828 has 72 pins. But the datasheet for that chip is even more ridiculous, more a 2-page selling brochure and as I mentioned, the kernel protocoll talks about a 823, not 828.

So if anyone would find out more about these chips, or rather, what's really used in the SGS2, that would be a real good start for solid work on that problem. I think, without knowledge about the chip and its registers, it'll be hard for serious improvments. Keep digging guys ... the net is huge :) ...

I doubt, that Yamaha HAS to be worse. They have some expertise in audio hardware, actually much more than Wolfson. Second, the Wolfson has no power out, it's just a DAC. So the necessary additional amp has to be good too. No doubt, Samsung did right on the SGS1 or your tablet, but they messed up the SGS2 - no serious soundchip on the market is that bad or weak. But if they messed up the Yamaha (or did it intentionally for the good of all our ears :rolleyes:), they could have messed up a Wolfons design as well :). That's BTW also true for the suspicions Supercurio has about the masterclock and the digital 'irregularities' he found. The Wolfson also needs a stable clock.

I might be totally wrong and Yamaha did indeed build the worse audio chip ever ... but still want to believe it's not so :).
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
I'm not sure where you read about the YMU823 but it made me look into this further. It is indeed the 823!

The service manual states the chip is U602, looking at where it is it's not the chip I expected it to be. Now when you look closely on the image on the Ifixit breakdown you can see it's the YMU823.

It's a 67 pin BGA, pin-outs are in the service manual. I can put the images up if this helps anyone?
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
Better teardown images:

http://www.chipworks.com/en/technic...7/silicon-summary-in-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii/
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
Strangely it all ...

Maybe the reason some features (in the device or the firmware)? I have a device from the first batch and firmware KG1 (with root access).

If I have an opportunity to test the same thing on another device, or upgraded to new firmware and it will be any changes, it will be possible to draw any conclusions. Now it appears that is very subjective.
[Galaxy S II General] Dr Tone:
Well I had to go by an Asus Transformer B60 revision today just so I could run Voodoo. I haven't done a before and after on it yet, just went straight for the root and enabled voodoo. First thing right off the bat is how the sound is so much cleaner, clearer and bass is much more focused. I sure wish my S2 sounded that good.
[Galaxy S II General] goebish:
Found something interesting:

Does this bypass the internal amp ?
[Galaxy S II General] Techvir:
Links to the info for interested parties.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1212156
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Good, at least one fact :). Someone in a german thread mentioned the 823 after he'd sneaked into the Kernel protocols or something like that.

I'm sorry, I can't see anything there, not even close to clear numbers or letters. We talk about Step 8, right? IMHO it's the only img with the soundchip AND the EMI shield removed. Am I wrong about the img? However, the ones I know are not revealing any chip identification (which I HATE - why doing that whole work, if you can't even take a bloody decent picture :mad:). You other link is great, thanks for that and the pic quality is much better, but I didn't find a pic of the sound chip. I think they didn't care to remove the shield, which is kinda more than taking the SGS2 apart. To be honest, that's also preventing me from taking my SHS2 apart another time. That shield removal is serious and not easy to revert. If you're unlucky you ruin the whole thing, unless you have top notch tools

You mean the images from the service manual? Well I personally have that, but I assume it's not carrying the whole information, but only stuff the service needs. Where did you get that 67-pin info from? That's the next problem: the 818 datasheet is lousy regarding programming and registers, the 828 datasheet is no datasheet at all, but a brochure and for the 823 I didn't even find a trace of something like a data sheet :D. Actually, there's isn't even a chip :D. It's not listed on Yamahas site and Google finds it a few times, but mostly in sources, as a text.

Which amp? It surely bypasses the headphone amp, but the sound is still 'produced' by the Yamaha chip.

EDIT: HA, found the 67-pin info, I never scrolled that far down in the service manual :D
[Galaxy S II General] goebish:
That's what I want (while waiting for Android 3.1), just ordered some micro usb plugs and 360K resistors.
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
Here's a direct link to the image showing the 823 on the chipworks teardown site:

http://www.chipworks.com/media/wpmu/uploads/blogs.dir/4/files/2011/07/Samsung_Galaxy_board4.jpg

It's the bottom left BGA
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Good luck, I have the micro usb plugs already, waiting to find the time :). Unfortunately the service manual shows series capacitors in that audio lines. To be precise, there are 2 audio outputs (L & R) called VPS_L & VPS_R. But since there is only one use for a line_out (the chip had even two, what a waste because of a missing plug :D), these lines are probably the feed into the USB-line-switch. Such capacitors don't have to be trouble, but they can. If they are too small or the line-in is too low impedance. True HiFi gear sometimes uses lower impendances than the usual 10-20kOhm. Well, we'll see.

Wahh ... I oversaw that totally, thanks. Well, that's right, doubtless an 823. Ok, but then there HAS to be a datasheet too ... dammit, where are all these hackers when you need them? Who needs papers from the pentagon, I WANT THAT DATASHEET
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Oh WOW! Just discovered, the best about that picture is, that you can see that EMI-shield is obviously not soldered, but there are special clamps soldered on the PCB to hold it! That's rare! Obviously Samsung really cares about individual service and 'reachable' chips. But that means I can reach that part of the phone without ruining it. I also think, the phone is quite easy to run, while reaching the parts around that 823. Open heart surgery - yeah :D!

New hope, I HAVE to find out, whether there is a hardware resistor. That doubt drives me crazy :).
[Galaxy S II General] nraudigy2:
I found some comparisons lol.

Galaxy S, Galaxy SII and Nexus S

http://supercurio.project-voodoo.or...sii-galaxys-voodoosound--13dB-dac-no-load.htm

Nexus S

http://supercurio.project-voodoo.org/audio/voodoo-sound/Nexus-S-Voodoo-sound-DAC-direct.htm

Cowon S9

http://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/cowon/s9/cowon-s9-rmaa-wav.shtml

Galaxy Tab 10.1

http://supercurio.project-voodoo.or...erimental-GalaxyTab10_1-NexusS-comparison.htm
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
Do you mean an embedded passive (part of the bare PCB)? This will be so difficult to find. There is nowhere to probe either that I can see, if I had the PCB gerbers I'd be able to tell you so much more.
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Yep, that's what the measurements tell IMHO. The voltage drop for different headphone impedances are implying a 50 Ohm resistor (about). I just can't believe (rather, I don't WANT to), that the output amp is so 'soft'. 2V open, 800mV with 32 Ohm and 400mV with 16 Ohm? That's not a direct amp out or the worst I've ever seen.

Depending on which side of the PCB it is not necessarily. If it's one of the parts around the 823, there are some, it's quite easy to probe between the headphone plug and there.

Hehe, if I had the layout I could look it up myself :D. Actually, with a good layout we wouldn't have to guess about the resistors. Actually, there is no resistor in the circuit printed in the service manual. But I mentioned that before, I have the feeling, that service manual only lists parts for the service, it's no complete schematics.
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
An embedded passive will likely be on the internal layers, it will not be on the other side (the 823 sits directly opposite the CPU!). My suspicion is this; the route for this signal goes directly from the pad, through a via under U602, and out near the connector. If there is an embedded passive it will be internal and we will not have access to probe directly. The via will/should not be outside of the BGA footprint unless it is connected to one of the caps (which the service manual suggests it isn't). it looks like they are using via-in-pad technology as well.
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Yep, that would be the end of all hardware-mod plans ... PLUS, we wouldn't even find out, whether there is a resistor after all. That's why the second best chance is the datasheet (a proper one!) of that 823. From the parameters of the headphone amp it would be possible, to judge about the measurement results. I only know, the headphone amp on the 818 HAD TO HAVE external resistors for these 'soft' outputs. The 823 could be different though, NOT to forget possible internal configurations.

As I said earlier, it's hard to believe that with the complexity of these audio chips nowadays, the design has to use 2 old-fashioned, costly resistors on the output to limit the output power. But Samsung also knows that all register settings are hacked earlier or later. On the other side they all piss their pants if someone shouts 'safety' - ah, the ears of our youth has to be protected (well, I think this is true, but I also think it's the job of the parents, not Samsung :)). Anyway, such a resistor is a hard to hack limiter, just what companies like Samsung love when it comes to their reputation. Nothing worse than deaf people because of hacked Samsung phones :rolleyes:. That's why I also believe in that resistor AND it's 'non-existance' in the service manual.
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
I believe you are right, but I also believe the main reason for leaving an embedded resitor out of the manual is, quite simply, it is of no use to a repair technician. If, for whatever reason, there is a problem with any embedded passive there is nothing a repair tech can do. All of the repair suggestions are to replace the suspect component - you cannot replace an embedded component. It's possible to modify the circuit however, this would be well outside of most technicians abilities.

Find that datasheet! :)
[Galaxy S II General] mobfest:
Hello All I had a Galaxy SL earlier bcoz of unavailabilty of SGS 1, but now I have a Galaxy S II. I have heard a lot about Vodoo sound but never had the previllage of experiencing it. I will surely like to have that on my device as well and I am ready for any kind of assistance to offer.

As I have read, Galaxy S II has a yamaha processor. Till date I have not used my boxed headset for listening to music I always have relied on my cheap but overwhelming ep-630 (a bit Bass Heavy), with it I have always got a clean response but the level of volumes are not that high. when I use these set of earphones with My Ipod touch, I get a satisfactory results at volume levels just over 50% say 60%. but in galaxy S II adequate (although not as satisfactory as Ipod touch) is obtained at level 13 (2 notches down the highest limit). My settings are EQ= Auto and Sound Effect= Normal. If you need any more info, I will be glad to help u.
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
LOL - yeah ... so far no sight of it. It's amazing how 'empty' the web can be about a part, that's applied million of times! About the resistors you're probable right, no serviceable parts, no listing. But I wondered anyway, what works are suggested in this level 3 service. It is rather unusual that BGAs are exchanged but the service manual just mentiones it, like it would be nothing. I would like to see these level 3 workspaces, let alone the quality checks after replacing a BGA :rolleyes:.

Anyway, I'm off for a while searching a data sheet ... :D.
[Galaxy S II General] Teknohtc:
i know this is random but i found a service manual:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/56542824/Samsung-GT-i9100-service-manual
[Galaxy S II General] arkadius41:
I have heard of a brave man who bought a unobtrisive small mp3 player named Cowon E2. He disappointed with low and little bit crap sound of this device changed european soft to korean one. And .. a miracle happened, voices became clear and deeply loud with no expect. The man of the story was me of course. Maybe this is an answer, not to all questions, but the fact is that loudness of all mp3 player to Europe is noticeably narrowed and our sgs should be in some of piece to them included as well.
[Galaxy S II General] Dr Tone:
Voodoo sound doesn't work the the Galaxy S2.
[Galaxy S II General] ph00ny:
Cowon, my favorite portable audio player maker

I still have my T2, D2+ that replaced the lost D2, S9, etc

Probably spent more on audio/pmp than i did on cell phones
[Galaxy S II General] Teknohtc:
I got this combination working nicely on SGS2 PowerAmp, Equalizer and my Denon AHD-1100 headphones. Sounds even better with my Fiio E5 but, i don't need it since it sounds great already with this setup. I went to a headphone store and tested out some headphones. I found two that sound great (volume wise) Bowers and Wilkons C5 and Sennheiser PX-100. I have my Yuin pk2's but, i need an amp to drive them on my SGS2 and i have a Koss Porta Pro but, needs to be serviced before i can test.
[Galaxy S II General] m2smoe:
Browsing through the market, I've found this:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.AutoMod&feature=search_result

(Louder Volume Hack)

Maybe it can help some of you who wanted this feature?
[Galaxy S II General] Tinderbox (UK):
You can also download it from the link below, and you dont have to disclose you identity. :D

http://www.multiupload.com/KZIZRU1G6T
[Galaxy S II General] hooligan007:
But its service pdf?...i thought u were talking abt the volume app
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
States it does not support any Samsung phone.
[Galaxy S II General] m2smoe:
youre right; but you should also tell the full story:

* DOES NOT WORK ON ANY PHONE RELEASED SINCE THE NEXUS. PLEASE SEARCH "DSP MANAGER" ON GOOGLE FOR AN ALTERNATIVE FOR NEWER PHONES (Nexus onwards). SEE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO.

** I HAVE AN APP CALLED VOLUME+ ON THE MARKET FOR £0.99 THAT WILL WORK ON ANY PHONE WITH GINGERBREAD (2.3). IT IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR FREE ON MY WEBSITE!!!
[Galaxy S II General] jangomango:
Shame it keeps crashing ;-)
[Galaxy S II General] JuniorGG:
My suggestion is to always set EQ to "Normal" in the stock music player. "Auto" is not flat, and in addition, it's not clear what it does.
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
It is clear, it sets the eq depending on the music type defined in the mp3 tag. If there is no info i think it uses normal
[Galaxy S II General] Psilocin:
Truly amazing sound quality with the Auto EQ, much better than my laptop and old ipod.

Only thing is that when I try to turn on the 5.1 surround sound, it gives an error saying "5.1 surround can only be activated when sound effects off". How do you do that? I tried looking in the settings, but there is no Off option.
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
EQ = normal, after 5.1 surround on
[Galaxy S II General] Dr Tone:
From the silence, I assume we are all waiting to see what the new LTE version of S2 will have for hardware/design improvements?
[Galaxy S II General] bala_gamer:
It doesnt has any major changes in hardware except the screen, so it will be the same "yamaha"... my assumption though
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
I'm waiting for the illusive data sheet and pspilot to have some inspiration. Well I say wait, I am perfectly happy with the sound on my setup.
[Galaxy S II General] Paavani Krishna:
Hi,

I'm not sure if it's correct forum to put this point. I'm posting for first time. I have observed that SGS2 restarts automatically when the player is played continuously. Please let me know if it's a bug and how can it be fixed. Thanks
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
Wrong thread, read:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1081503

Lots of people having restart issues, I did also but sent mine back. New phone had not restarted once in 3 months
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
Or this one:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1102920
[Galaxy S II General] Paavani Krishna:
Thanks for pointing to correct thread.
[Galaxy S II General] SuperTheMando:
Hi all,

This is a very long thread, and I skimmed through it until it was confirmed that there won't be Voodoo for this phone (why do both the FAQs still say that it is undecided? Doesn't anyone update them?) and then gave up.

Would someone here be kind enough to give me a tl;dr of this thread?

I just want to know what I can do to get the best audio experience from my phone.

I don't know much about sound quality (most of what I read went *way* over my head) but I'd like to learn, or dabble, at least.

I've just began (for the first time ever) legally buying my music, in CD form, and ripping FLACs from them with EAC.

I'd like to take advantage of my new legal FLAC files.

What can I do to my phone to do this? I haven't rooted or flashed or anything, but I'm open to doing that if it means I can improve the quality. What other neat tricks are there to getting better sound out of it? Apps? Roms? Settings?

Also, this probably isn't the right place to ask, but it's not a bad place to ask, about headphones. I'd like to buy some nice headphones to take advantage of my FLACs and my phone - but I don't want to spend more than I have to, meaning, I don't want to spend $300 on the best headphones, when the phone (or the FLAC?) physically can not play them better than a $70 pair. What's a happy medium so that the bottleneck of my audio experience isn't far from the opposite of a bottleneck?

My primary way of listening to music will be from this phone, and will probably stay that way for the next 12 or so months, until I decide to get a new phone. Hopefully, by then, the best phone on the market will also be undoubtedly the one of the best ways to listen to music.

Thanking you,

SuperTheMando
[Galaxy S II General] arkadius41:
It is (was) my main problem too buddy. I think it is not possible to make our SGS2 high end pmp :D However a little light in darkness has appeared. That is why (was) has been mentioned in the begining. Try the Audioboost for SGS2 app wich is to buy in the market. For me low sound was the most irritating and this app has given big and succesfull solution for this.
[Galaxy S II General] Teknohtc:
you want boost this just came out: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.signalos.audioboostgs2&feature=search_result

It works!!!!!! I have my setup with the Power Amp, Equalizer, and Audioboost sgs2. The headphones i am using are the Denon AH-D1100 and it driving them nice now i will test my Yuin PK2's. This is a good boost and doesn't affect the quality of the sound. (sweet spot at 82-83%) Any higher the sound distorts. The app cost $2.50 and it's very well worth it!!!!

Hope this helps everyone!

edit: Did not see the post above lol
[Galaxy S II General] aegeuss:
Thanks for the clue, it really works! What EQ settings are you using for power amp then?

Regards.
[Galaxy S II General] Teknohtc:
here are some of the settings i used:

Equalizer

PowerAmp

Audioboost SGS2

I used these settings for my denon 1100's.
[Galaxy S II General] Prankey:
I don't understand why would I go for an audio booster app when we could easily do thru service mode (as I understand, it might hold till the next reboot). Any volume higher than stock level of 12 on the scale of 15 usually distorts heavily, so unless we can hack the amp to give more power output, I don't see much benefit out of an audio boost app.

I have also found an unacceptable issue when used with powered headphones like Monster Beats Studio where when you don't play anything, it gives all sort of humming noise and when you connect a charger, humming is extremely loud!!! This indicates that Samsung intentionally disconnects GROUND signals from headphone socket probably to reduce background noise (essentially disconnecting the amp circuit when not in used).
[Galaxy S II General] KaliKot:
You're using beats and you complain? LOL

on a serious note though, there is indeed a humming sound when you click on something and a charger is plugged in.
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
If you allow me I would disagree on this.

Wolfson makes low power and quality DAC for mobile device (DAP, Phones) since... a long time :)

Old Apple iPods, and iPhones 'till 3Gs (3G was) were using Wolfson codecs.

About the amp, all the current mobile codecs (or "audio hubs for more complex IC") implement the Class W amplifier.

Its very low power and uses tricks to become so, like analyzing the digital signal sent through the audio interfaces to optimize the power efficiency of the amp :D

I suggest as reference: WM8993 Datasheet.

About clock: Wolfson codecs implement a "FLL", its basically a digital PLL, very versatile and that can be tuned largely in its behavior.

It's not perfect but does already a very good job to repair master clocks inconsistencies. Concretely, it re-clock what's sent by the audio interface to reduce as much as possible the jitter, without using a power-hungry dedicated crystal.

I suggest as reference: FLL datasheet

To my understanding and after having optimized WM8994 settings for Hummingbird and Tegra2 SoC based devices, the higher performance resulting (and mostly: less issues) is no surprise, as they're benefiting of years of experience Wolfson added tools to solve low power mobile audio challenges.

I can tell also they're listening to feedback closely and what's not optimal in current generation seems to be reworked in the next: I'm always impressed by their dedication :)

Yamaha ppl are cool too but as the quality potential of their current chip is boring to me, I've been lazy and stupid and didn't sent the signed NDA setup back yet, sorry ^^
[Galaxy S II General] ammarmalik:
I bought FiiO E5 and paired with my Sony MDR-V6 the sound quality has improved remarkably