yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] supercurio:
Yes, WM8994 in SGS1 can play 96kHz/24bit, but its never have been used by the software.

I don't know for the SGS2.
[Galaxy S II General] soraxd:
are you saying its better as in its better than the S2?

all i want to know is that the s2 will be as loud as the s1.. and im glued to this thread until i hear some good news.. ugh cant move away!
[Galaxy S II General] Miracle1980:
I want to know how is the quality and the power with the headphones (in-ear).

Do you compare it to an ipod or to a Cowon Iaudio for example (would be perfect...)? Just tell me if its good quality and powerful enough.
[Galaxy S II General] fallenguru:
To each his own, of course, but that statement makes me sad. :-(
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
just wait a little more.... gsmarena review should be up in the next few days.. dunnu what takes them so long...
[Galaxy S II General] ndnesh:
Nice to see results coming in... i hope supercurio and other devs can do something to enhance the already awesome audio quality of the SGS2!! Excited!
[Galaxy S II General] ondjultomte:
No more news/info about the sound quality?
[Galaxy S II General] fallenguru:
I'm guessing there won't be until the SGS2 is released more widely.
[Galaxy S II General] boondoc:
from his twitter he said someone donated him an SGS2 so i assume he'll really get cracking on it when he gets it.
[Galaxy S II General] :
No technical information, but I have a Cowon S9 and I can honestly say the GS2 sounds just as good with a good equalizer setup. Tested using Sennheiser CX300 and the earphones that came with the phone. Don't have any premium headphones to test with unfortunately.
[Galaxy S II General] fallenguru:
Excellent news!
[Galaxy S II General] Woodend:
Hi Beggin,

from what I know Cowon are pretty good when it comes to sound quality. If the S2 comes even it would be really promising, considering that it can only get better.

Thanks
[Galaxy S II General] AXIS of Reality:
Definitely not a technical test, but I definitely noticed a difference going straight from Galaxy S to S II.

Not worse, just...different. The Galaxy S seemed sort of punchier, while the S II was more balanced.

However, the fantastic equaliser and bass and treble knobs in Poweramp let me get the right sound for me (used Bass preset, but lowered where it placed the left-most 3 sliders a little bit and moved the midrange back up to neutral).

Tested with Sennheiser CX870 earphones.
[Galaxy S II General] dk206:
I'd be more than willing to help out too!

I have to say the speakers on SGS II imho is not better than SGS I. I think there was a bit of compromise in the design.

On the original SGS you couldn't listen to it whilst on the table or sofa.

Now on the SGS II there is a massive gap between the outer chasis and the internal speaker inside so you can listen to music perfectly without any muffling when laid on a surface. However there seems to be a real lack of base comparing with the SGS I.
[Galaxy S II General] dazzer1975:
forget the bass, what is the clarity like?

does it sound clinical and clean?

especially through earphones and in ear's, and if anyone has some etymotics, what is their impression of the audio quality via the gs2?

Cheers.
[Galaxy S II General] Funkym0nkey:
Its clean and balanced.

If you do not have audiophile grade headphones or even something like the calibre of Brainwavz M1/M2 or Nuforce NX700 series, the only difference you will notice between SGS1 and 2 is the lows.

On NX700, the output is clean and balanced. Its not as punchy as SGS1 with voodoo. And volume has taken some serious hit. But if you use headphones which gives good isolation, it wont be a big deal. Basically SGS1 was too loud to be used at full volume for me. SGS2, you can reach full volume without hurting your ears.

I feared the audio will be crap and too flat. But its nice and clean which I actually prefer.

As much fun are M1 and M2 to listen to Pop and rock, I could never use them with SGS1 as it was too punchy. SGS2 and M2 and NX700 now make perfect combo. (i like to swap between these 3 every few days. )
[Galaxy S II General] omersak:
thank you for this! Thankfully, the feedback has been positive so far with regards to the performance of the Yamaha chip.

I really do hope this trend continues as my decision to buy this sexy monster of a phone hinges on this - i just cannot live without using my phone as my primary portable source, so it's SQ needs to be exemplary - just as it is on the iphones and the original galaxy s (especially with voodoo sound).

And if Voodoo sound is being developed for this then i wouldn't care even if it's SQ is trash because it'll just make it sound absolutely perfect!
[Galaxy S II General] marbulas:
I'm ready for voodoo sound on sgs2 with my earbirds(JH 13 pro) :D

Voodoo sound on sgs with 'Galaxy Tuner''s HWEQ was the best portable device to listen to music!
[Galaxy S II General] blackstar84:
Man..it is not bad to be optimistic..but I prefer to be realistic.. there is no signs or evidienec at all that this Yamaha chip is "good" actually this is the first subjective opinion that state it sounds good..but such subjective experience does not hold much meaning...

but really...we need more tests... the test I saw earlier in this thread was made through an on board non-professional sound card...so it holds not much value either unfortunately...if you try with an different sound card you will get different results.

In fact, I did just cancel my pre order. I am waiting for the NFC version of S2, cause I am suspecting/expecting that this version will have the Wolfson chip.

If you visit Wolfsons website you can read...

"Samsung selected Wolfson Audio Hubs for multiple new Galaxy S models, including the Google Nexus S, its Wave 2 smartphone platform, one of its next generation Galaxy S2 platforms, its latest tablet PC products and its 4G LTE phone, the Galaxy S Vibrant "

So I would be wise to wait for a next version of the S2.

Cause there will be many different versions on the market..samsung

only say... that the hardware can be different depending on what region you live in...but samsung are also very secret about WHAT the difference is...you do not find it in the specs...you only find it through personal experiences and forums like this.

Wolfson has already confirmed it will be included in the S2 series...

But exactely which regions/versions that will have the wolfson chip is yet not known..I am still waiting for an email from Wolfson to confirm this...

But there is already different versions out on the market..some have no NFC for example..and some have no Logotype on the front...so we can EXPECT hardware differences...

However...that Wolfson have confirmed that their chip will be used in the S2 makes me very optimistic, that is why I did cancel my pre order today.

I hope it will be released with the NFC version that will be released in Sweden during this summer... I have no problems to wait some months for the wolfson chip and better sound..it is certainly worth the wait...but then if I wait 2-3 months then the next dilemma will be that Samsung Galaxy S3 will be released in September....might be worth to wait on that too...
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
I listen to Andless Player + lossless
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Well, I have that strange habit, of trying to understand what I'm doing :D. That's why I asked for the meaning of all that values. Apart from the frustration of endless trials with such alot 'unknown parameters', I would hate it, to mess up other functions, just because I don't know what I'm doing :). Actually another reason is the volatility of these settings - you can't be serious of setting all these values everytime you start your phone ... I can't even remember that frickin' magic number to call the menu (and it's obviously not storable as a contact).

Last-but-not-least I'm a 'hardware guy' and I know what I saw on my scope. For me the summery is: +6db is about all you can boost the whole thing. Agreed, the standard player is crap, I learned that. But whatever other method you use, you always end up with a max. of +6db. You just can't add the methods, so it makes no sense to install volume+, DSP-manager & some nifty player all together and let them all do their magic. You only lose control of what's happening and the sound is getting even more terrible. My finding is, that PowerAmp is all you need to boost the output to its 'pysical' max and that is 2Vpp. That an average 16 Ohm earbud is reducing that output then to about 20% or 0,4Vpp is a fact, you can't overcome with software - that's my firm belief - unless there is some very weird limiting hardware involved, which I'm still investigating. They say hope dies last :) ...
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
Number of the service menu, I added a contact :)

Volume+ does not give such an effect and spoil the sound. In volume+ sound quickly reaches the limit and starts to wheeze. Through the service menu does not.

I share my own settings to told me that I did. Or maybe someone has tried to understand the issue.
[Galaxy S II General] darkinners:
just got Samsung Galaxy S2 for few days and bought a brand new Shure SE425 for some vocal tracking work at studio and musical pleasure on my S2, when I plugged my SE425 to the S2...Pffffffft.

sound nothing like how SE425 should, I don't know if this is the DAC or the builtin headphone amp problem.

All I've got from S2 with SE425 was, lost focus, sparse, no punch sound.

The level are more than enough though just the sound quality really like crap, made my SE425 sound like a 70 dollars phones or worse.

I tried my other workhorse cans too, like Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80ohm and Sennheiser HD600

these needs higher ohms to drive and they sound even worse on S2 (which is normal and expected).

and then I plugged the crappy samsung IEM come with S2, sound like shxx as I expected but at least they has focused sound on S2.

and I noticed S2 has really narrow stereo image for whatever phones I plugged into and the highs has noticeable roll off at some point around 8khz ish too.

overall, I think it's not worth it if you use any higher end buds, cans on S2.

I wouldn't say S2 audio quality is "bad" as it's a cell phone for it's sake.

My advice to the people who want to buy earphones for S2, just make sure you buy low-mid to mid tier ones are more than enough for S2, anything higher tier are totally unnecessary or even made your expensive earphones sound worse than the cheap ones.
[Galaxy S II General] Dr Tone:
So what's the scoop with the line-out from the official Samsung dock?

Is it sending digital to the dock via the usb port and the dock has it's own dac?
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
In case anyone find this usefull, Ifixit have done a 'teardown' of the S2 here:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung-Galaxy-S-2-Teardown/5861/1

You can see the Yamaha chip and the sourounding circuit after removing the EMI shield.
[Galaxy S II General] J-Monty-L:
Unfortunatly these settings change nothing on my rooted SGS2 with stock samsung KF3-Update:(

Very low (unchanged) volume on every player i tested no matter what values entered.

(Stock Samsung Player, Cyanogen mod Player, PowerAmp + several Online Radio-Apps like DI or XiiaLife)

Volume+ works to a certain level (Volume boost to 11 or 12) but distorts heavily and above this level it gets again lower like some limiter is kicking in.

Cyanogen DSP most probably needs a modified kernel. For me only the equalizer works. Pushing the low and high freqs to roundabout +5db and the mids down to -3 (V-Curve) sounds better (punchy bass and clearer highs) but is still too low in general.

I think there is some problem between the lowest alsa-modules, the applications and the software that lies in between as sometimes i noticed that the stock player reacts different than Power-Amp. Like they are using different sound-apis/sound-servers.

It would also be interesting if this is only on european phones as there are some strange regulations here that hardware has to be limited to not destroy stupid childrens ears.

I had a similar problem on my desktop (debian+KDE4.6) when they introduced pulseaudio. Low volume and distortions when i pushed the preamp of whatever player i used. Most probably on the way between player and hardware some db get lost - for what i understand of audio these cannot be recovered by hardware.

Atleast not without loosing sound-quality or getting distortions.

I hope some software guru can have a look at this mess and show us a way as this makes the phone nearly unusable as a music player.

B.t.w Thanks to all the audio-lovers that are investigating this.

Greets

Monty
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
Do not use the standard player from Samsung, it plays like crap.

I can hear the difference between a 320 kbps mp3 and flac on my phone (with an additional adjustment in service menu).
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
It should work perfectly in all applications. I gave an example for firmware KG1.

Volume+ will further increase the volume. Included volume level +7, it seems that it is very loud. Distortion in the sound is not (or do not understand in this volume).

I took my phone in the first batch of handtec.co.uk ...

It is necessary to study the issue and gather more statistics...

Can anyone needs datasheet: http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/lsi/codec/
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
But can you dial it then? I tried that, it doesnt't work - just says, invalid number.

Not to be missunderstood, I like that finding and I surely try them out as soon as I have the 'mood' to fiddle a bit longer with it. Audio tests for me are nothing I can rush or everything sounds crappy :). Maybe they ARE doing something additional with the hardware and there's more we don't know yet. I just would love to make them permanent, if they proofe to be good and safe.

Well, 'seeing' is very friendly word for the tiny images. I'd love to have a high-res pic with the shield removed. Then again, you can't measure on a picture anyway :).

That version is known (thanks anyway :)), unfortunately it's not the full datasheet. There are no registers listed, nor anything about the programming of the chip. It's purely electrical application informations. But exactly from that infos I know, that the SGS2 is _hardware_ limiting the headphone output to less than 1/4 of what the chip is able to deliver. Max. output I ever measured with a 16 Ohm headphone is 10mW. But the chip supplies 44mW max!!! Samsung f**ked it up in the hardware :mad:.
[Galaxy S II General] J-Monty-L:
Wouldn´t the output level also be lower if i just turn the volume down by software, like the mixer that appears when i push the volume buttons or by pulling a pre-amplifier down to lets say -5db

Don´t take me wrong, i trust in your hardware knowledge and that there is space to push more juice to the amp-stage but i can´t believe that samsung-hardware-devs wouldn´t notice a hardware flaw like this

Monty
[Galaxy S II General] nraudigy2:
I fixed the audio quality when I bought me a Cowon J3 :) . One of the best at audio quality. It sounds better than Galaxy S with Voodoo sound.
[Galaxy S II General] NuckinFutz:
You can get high res images, just hover over the image and you have the option to view at different sizes. The reason for the post is im a hardware guy but purely in a manufacturing sense. Using the service manual its possible to identify the passives in the circuit and their references on the images (obviously not the values). This may be of some use if one of you bright sparks can figure out what needs changing in the schematic, we then can then look at a modification. For the record i do not have the balls to take apart my s2 to measure these parts but someone might :-)
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
Sure it would, but I tested the maximum. 2 reason for me to believe it was the maximum (achived with PowerAmp): I could _set_ more, but the output clipped right away, since it was already at 2Vpp. And second, the data sheet says: 2Vpp max :). The problem is, that this is unloaded and loaded the output 'breaks in' 80% at the headphone plug.

Hey, you never know, I'm still not 100% sure myself - so any critics or thoughts, how and why I could be wrong are welcome :). And I don't think Samsung is considering it as a flaw. IMHO they just set the 'acceptable' minimum. Listen to the majority of users (not here, overall), most of them are probably happy. They never even care to use another headset than the supplied one. Samsung benefit? Not only do they safe some energy - a poweful headphone amp CAN indeed use some battery - and battery stamina is a big deal nowadays, they also avoid any problems with maximum volume regulations in the EU and other parts of the world. What's better, than 'unhackable safety'. A little resistor on the output does the trick :).

And having said all the above, it's still only speculation, based on some facts. I still need to find the evil resistor ... :D.

Well, 'high res' is surely relative, but for our purpose at least the chip code should be readable. This is my img of that part of the phone and that's what I call high res :) (attention low-bandwith users, it's ~11MB - make sure you zoom to 100% if your browser displays it 'fitting'). Unfortunately I didn't remove these shields at that time, have to rip it open again.

I suspect even not all parts beeing listed in this service manual. According to that, the headphone output is directly wired to the chip, which I doubt. That service manual is clearly no schematics - unfortunately.
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
*#* ... number found. One click and the service menu ;)
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
- ich Depp! Die Nummer nach *#* hatte ich schon gesehen und mich immerhin gefreut, dass ich sie wenigstens von dort abtippen kann ... auf drauftippen kam ich nicht.
[Galaxy S II General] J-Monty-L:
OK, i think i understand... 80% load-drop sounds like quite a bit.

Probably it's comparable to the Home-High-End Audiophile´s with their 2 Ohm Special-Loudspeaker where even a 1000W Mono-Amp starts sweating just in smaller scale.

I´m just wondering because, like i mentioned before, a few month ago i had some strange sound problems with my desktop and pulseaudio. Coming from WinXP i was able to crank up the volume to ear-bleeding levels i went to debian/alsa/pulseaudio/kde4.6 and on the way i lost the possibility to get even room/conversation volume-levels on exactly the same hardware (Soundblaster Live => Sennheiser HD495).

With the pre-amp button of my preferred player (QMMP) i was easily able to get it a bit louder right until it clipped but still not even nearly as loud as before under WinXP. But indeed i haven´t measured if the soundcard-amp was at its limit.

I was so frustrated that i started searching the internet for solutions and all i could find was soldering-instructions for an headphone-amp (CMoy). Believe me this is a piece of hardware you don´t like to see as High-res-Picture :) (my first soldering project).

In the days i needed to build it (tremendous amount of roundabout 15 resistors, capacitors and a 8pin OpAmp) and the weeks i needed to debug it until it worked properly :) the KDE-guys came up with a GUI for the pulseaudio-server and i was able to finally regulate the input and output-levels to this server. And the volume levels i can achieve now are again nearly like before (up to too loud)

To get to the end : I think it is possible to get into clipping before the final stage (headphone-amp) is at it´s limits. I´m just not sure if it would show the same measurements that you got on our beloved SGS2.

If there is an evil resistor on the board let me know - after my cmoy-project i´m ready to solder it out (lol) :)

Greets

Monty

PS: I like your definition of high-res - having this photo online nobody needs your GPS-data. Every CSI could determine where you have been in the last few weeks just by having a brief look at the dust particles collected in your phone :)
[Galaxy S II General] pspilot:
It LOOKS like a loss over a resistor. With a 16 Ohm earbud the output drops from 2Vpp to 400 mVpp and with a 32 Ohm load only to 800 mVpp. But I'm still not 100% sure about that resistor. Maybe the Yamaha chip has a programmable current limiter on the output? That would be a dream. Maybe the values of this service menu ARE influencing these settings?

All I wanted to say about these players and tools, that I think with _ordinary_ software on OS level, the output can't be improved more than the hardware delivers. It doesn't mean, there has to be solder work. The pitty is really, that there's no full datasheet for the sound chip, that describes the registers. So whoever finds more than the official PDF on Yamaha's site, that could be the solution. Coders of course could read something from the sources, but not necessarily. If 10mA (that's about the current limit I found out so far) is the default and Samsung just never cared to reprogramm it, you wouldn't find anything in the code.

Your story about the sound card under XP and debian sounds very similar, only you HAD the proof (under XP), that it IS possible. We don't have that here ... yet :D.

Definitely possible. The headphone amp could be 'limited', but how? That's the question. The only sure thing is, the theoretical data (power) is about 4 times the real world ... WHERE IS OUR POWER :D???

Oh my, I doubt that anyone can desolder that (or rather bridge it) without risking the whole PCB. The structures and the densitiy on the board are deadly - and I have some SMT gear here! In the end it would depend, where exactly it would sit, IF there is one. Let's still hope, it's all done as semiconductors, programmable :).

Hehe ... yeah, the dust is embarrassing. But believe it, that's just the flashes. They produce such a hard light, that you can see every single particle :). And then, I wanted to close it ASAP again. Usually I really do these photos only to look up things later, if I want to close the 'thing' again. Before I rip it apart again, I WANT that Q@§"§$-DATASHEET.
[Galaxy S II General] darkinners:
yeah I already using Poweramp and the audio quality still sub par.

I can hear the different between 320k mp3 and flac, even with stock player and the crappy stock samsung IEM.

the point is the quality, the higer end phones you use on S2, the looser sound you will get from it.

I guess the DAC is fine, not too bad , as I can hear the details correctly but just the power of the built in headphone amp in S2 just inadequate.

It can't drive a higher ohm and lower sensitivity phones.

so my suggestion would be don't use anything higher than 20ohms with sensitivity lower than 105db with S2.

it would be a waste to do so
[Galaxy S II General] marcelnl:
as a self confessing purist audiophile I find myself ripping MP3s for the very first time in my life....

The little extra volume may be handy at some point as the max Sound volume indeed is not that high, yet cranking up the volume all the way makes you use it when there is a lot of ambient noise...the danger of hearing damage is pretty real, also when you think you need the volume to drown out the ambient noise.

Guys the thing is a phone, a smart phone....NOT a dedicated audio device but a portable compromise between a phone, a PDA, and a computer with a great screen at that, and I find that is is all of the above AND it is pretty good for a compromise.

In it's function as my computer and organizer away from my desk it has audio as a bonus and as a pretty close listener I find the SQ 'OK'...not great, but passable for listening to yukkie lossy formats that are essentially 'just OK' especially in the typical noisy environment during travel I use it for.

If I were into head fi, I'd buy a dedicated music player and listen to lossless files.

I'd likely be carrying a separate portable head phone amp, maybe even a portable external DAC.

any improvements in SQ are welcome, just in case I'm misunderstood ;-)
[Galaxy S II General] DestRen:
After setting up the service menu, my Sennheiser HD515 play loud (70ohms, 108db). With "volume+" can be hearing loss...

I do not think that the sound hardware limited. Most likely the software or service menu gives the restriction bypass.