yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] elfary:
There are far more parameters to the sound like frequency response, stereo crosstalk and intermodulation distortion.

The most important aspect of the perceived sound quality is the frequency response and the output impedance of the amplifier section plays a key role in that regard.

The Galaxy S II sound quality is mediocre and featuring a sky high output impedance is the main culprit.

Thus if the Galaxy Note shares dac it's likely that shares amplifier section so it would be a no-go for people who cares about sound and use high end multidriver iems (Since these iems feature a changing impedance across the frequency range a high output impedance amplifier would ruin the designed frequency response of the transducers because of the impedance interaction).

Unfortunately i will be passing on the Note.

I was really looking forward for it but i suspect that my Shure SE420 and Westone UM3x iems would sound far worse fed by the Note than fed by my iPhone 4 (Which has an output impedance of 0.9 ohms vs the 49 ohms of the Galaxy S II).

@Samsung: do you hate music ?

When you read thoroughly Supercurio review of the sound department in the Galaxy S II you can not avoid thinking that in Samsung sound quality is not even an afterthought.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] dreams1723:
I had used galaxy s for one year which has wolfson chip,the sound quality was amazing,best i have heard from a phone.From the past 5 months i am using galaxy s2 which has yamaha chip and the souund quality is terrible.I have to buy mp3 player for listening music i.e.,cowon iaudio9..Anyone can understand the sound quality difference in both the phones if he had used both of them.I can't hear lifeless sound after hearing wonderful sound for one year but its just personal taste and thinking,may differ from others :-)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] baramuli:
Perhaps in the ears of an expert, yamaha thing is a bad thing, I'm lucky that I'm not an expert.. my sgs2 sound is good enough and it doesn't make me complain about it. Perhapas if I'm an expert over those kinda stuff... I'll be even more then sensitive... the sound should be in3d surround stereo, the graphic should be in 3d and I should be able to touch it..specialy when watching porn, I should be able to tell my Gnote to go shoping to the market by voice command..like "hi galaxy"..."go to the market and grab me some snack"..."pay with your money first, I'll pay you tomorow"

Damn I'm lucky to be a normal stupid person :) peace
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] cccy:
3d surround stereo?

Sound in 3 dimensions -->3 speakers

Surround --> 5 Full-range speakers and 1 subwoofer

Stereo -->2 Full-range speakers

What do you want? Choose! :p

Its not a matter of being an expert/strange/whatever_description_you_want. Its a matter of getting proper sound quality, after all we are paying hundreds (Or thousands at launch?) for this phone.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Tatsuya79:
I agree you are.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
With sensitive SE530 shures, I had no distortion and problem with SQ when using powerAMP 2.0 with stereo X pushed to about 25% on SGS2. Note that im using 2.0 ver. I experienced NS SGS and SGS2 but with poweramp i couldnt tell them apart with blind test.

EDIT i sometimes hear buzzing sounds when listening to music whilst playing about with the phone but that im sure is related to rom and kernel cuz on all phones i had some made no buzzing noises and some made loads. Had the most noise from nexus s rom.

So the point is! Get good cans and test all music players dont just use stock! powerAMP 2.0 is my suggestion :)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
You are not stupid; Is just that we got used with the superb sound quality of the sgs1 and some standalone mp3 players....

Once you get used to it, you cant go back .......OR listening to music is not your first priority.

Our so called "high end" smartphones are expensive enough, so I dont want to buy an abusively expensive headset (BT or not) in order to "compensate".

My smartphone cannot really replace my video and photo cameras, but it can replace my standalone gps and MP3 devices which I sold....

Shame on Samsung for not bringing the wolfson dac ( or better) back...after all that complaining about the sgs2.....

.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] shure2:
I dont want to deviate too much from the tread but does anyone have a clue about the audio in the galaxy nexus, concidering its qhite conclusive its crap in the note
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] VTEChump:
Does this only affect the sound of the headphone output? I assume the audio through HDMI out is untouched by the codec??
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
I found this thread on Nexus Prime:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1311786&highlight=dac

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[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Prankey:
I don't think we are discussing power output here, are we?

Trouble is, no matter you use the most expensive BT headset, it can not match the direct UNCOMPRESSED audio from a good DAC/amp. BT is a lossy format and hence will always have its own shortcoming.

Wow, you are mixing THD with Noise Floor and claiming to be a guru in audio engineering? I strongly recommend you checking out SGS1 and SGS2 audio to write your thesis. Might get approved next time :rolleyes:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ph00ny:
Yes and No. Underamped high end cans sound terrible and there is no way around it.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
.

By the way, I read somewhere that IF the yamaha codec is better implemented ( or something like this) it could generate great results...

Since I am no developer, I will do as always:

I will take my headsets to the nearest showroom and do some comparison tests...

I wont give up the note as fast as I did with the sgs2, since I like the size: Just between a big smartphone and a Tab...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Nyssa1104:
Yamaha also make some damn good motobikes...;)

Back to the subject
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Prankey:
Hmmm I understood what you were referring to and hence asked this question? Do you really relate audio quality with power output like most for SGS2 feel? I can assure you that you are not the only one who does it, and I get amazed meeting folks like you ;)

---------- Post added at 03:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:20 AM ----------

You are right. DAC doesn't affect digital audio output.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] sauron0101:
Here is the Anandtech Review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/13

Samsung seems to be mixed on this one.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1, for example has the Wolfson DAC found in the Galaxy S:

http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/cracking-open-the-samsung-galaxy-tab-101/6258363?seq=49&tag=content;thumbnail-view-selector
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] bbdj69:
I must sadly confirm that the audio on this device is the worst of any phone I have owned that had the ability to play audio. That sucks for such an expensive piece or hardware. From what I read it sounds like a software patch would not fix this issues.

I am a bit of a loss, but I still love the phone. I can live it for another year until the Note 2 comes out :)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] NZtechfreak:
If anyone here was wondering: USB DAC's do not work via USB OTG, got my HiFiMAN today to try it out. Shame, even a $40 one like the HiFiMAN would improve the SQ out of sight. Ah well, it was cheap, and sure as heck makes my laptop and desktop sound a million miles better - although it doesn't work in the Note I still feel like it was quite a score!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] LiquidNitrogen:
Hm... What to do then. To the audiophiles in this thread, what should I do: I'm a casual music listener with Bose in-ear headphones who is moving from an iPhone 4 to the Note. Should I stick with the Note or pull out my old white 30GB iPod classic to use for music?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] NZtechfreak:
Don't know if anyone can really answer that for you, the sound won't be up to the iPhone 4 quality, but then you identify yourself as a casual listener, so it may be adequate for your with some tweaks with programs like PowerAMP.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] aussiebum:
Don't have an iPhone 4 so can't compare audio quality, but quality from the Note + Neutron MP is not bad.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] foxmeister:
I have an S2, but have not been using it to listen to music, as I usually use my HTC Sensation as my daily driver.

Last night, I was listening to some music on my Note and although I'm certainly not an audiophile, I thought the sound quality from the supplied ear buds was perfectly acceptable.

This morning, I decided to compare the Note to my S2 with the same source material (Zak Brown Band FTW! :)), using the Note's ear buds and I was surprised to discover that the sound quality from the S2 was noticeably much worse than that from the Note.

As I said before I'm not an audiophile (hence stock ear buds), but I advise anyone put off by the Yamaha codec because of its performance in the S2, to give the Note a test drive because if I can hear the difference, the Note must be much better than the S2 for audio playback.

Regards,

Dave
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] bbdj69:
I am a bit of an audiophile so I'm going to way more critical about the sounds output than most. I don't want to have to carry around another device but if its for an extended I probably would.

Day to day use, I can just plug into my computer at the office.

Seriously the sounds is so flat, I actually have to turn on the Bass Boost to get a better response. Using the Bass Boost is such a no-no in my book, people who produce music balance levels for you ahead of time. This is my first Android/Samsung phone - they need to fix this for their next iteration, but considering this has been an issue since the S2 it concerns me.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
Yep...I like many things on the note, so I took my AKG K430 to the showroom to perform some comparison tests among the note, the galaxy s2, the new HTC Sensation XL and my own galaxy s1, hoping that somehow, the Yamaha DAC would be better implemented on the Note....and......

Eventhough the sound on the Note, felt a little better than the sgs2 AND the HTC, it's still waay worse than my sgs, even without Voodoo app (which I disabled for this test).

Compared to the sgs1, the bass on those 3 devices sounds poor, and, the treble, canny ( I mean it sounded like it was coming from an empty can...).

I appreciate your wishfull thinking, hoping that the next Note will have a better sound, but I cant ignore the fact that the manufacturers such as samsung tend to be more and more arrogant and that's the short version..

There were enough complaints from audiophyles everywhere about the sgsII DAC, but that's a minority, cause the sgsII was elected the Best Smartphone of 2011 here in Europe, so Samsung tends to ignore that minority and the Note is the proof.

And that's why I think that expecting that the next Note will have a better DAC, is just wishfull thinking....but I hope you are right (and I am waiting too)

Well...I sold all my standalone MP3 devices after purchasing the sgs1 after realizing how good the sound was....

I know my smartphone isnt smart enough to replace my video/photo camera, but ir was good enough to replace my MP3 players and my GPS devices...

I got used to have good music phones and no need to carry standalone MP3 players

But if want the Note that bad and you dont mind to carry a second device for music so go for it...

Furthermore I would suggest you to take your headset and your iPod classic to the nearest showroom and make a comparison test..maybe you will like how the Note sounds, since not everybody have the same musical hearing and taste is personal...

Furthemore my sgs1 have a better sound than my neighbour's iPod classic, so maybe the Note's sound will be as good as the iPod's

So.... do like me, go to a showroom and have a taste of it yourself...and if do, please dont forget to report back, over here.....;)

..
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
SGS2 PLUS POWERAMP2.0 PLUS EQUALIZER PLUS SE530 is amazing. No different to sgs1!

Oh and I set the virtualizer on equalizer app to 40% :)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] bbdj69:
Thanks for the tip.

It can add some depth to the sound, but there is some processing noise that is drives me crazy. Sticking with the stock play with the base boost. I'm up for trying anything else.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
Hmmm......it seems to good to be true and too short of an explanation..

Can you post the related thread(s) ?

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[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] bigmout:
Would the Yamaha codec also affect the sound quality of phone calls through the headset? There have been reports that callers are hard to hear through a headset, so I'm very curious if this could be the cause.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] koniakki:
Hey everyone, one question please..

I have the Bang & Olufsen A8 Headphones. Will this be any improvement in sound quality? I know it still uses the Yamaha DAC but any hopes this good quality headphones will improve it at least? Thanks.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
I am an audiophile but I'm not a audio techie.

Search equalizer on market and you will find an app called equalizer :)

powerAmp 2.0 is on android app section from memory.

I didn't bother with a long explanation because my comments were ignored before.

Anyways!

Please note all this differs with each IEMs! Btw IEMs work better with the yamaha DAC than headphones (from my experience anyways) tested with shure SE530 :) also note that some ROMs and KERNELs bring more distortion and processing noise than others (don't ask me for explanation it just seems to be from experience) with my supposedly sensitive shures, I couldn't notice any processing noise although this may be cuz I listen to music quite loud lol

poweramp sounds very muddy at default. Therefore I turned the treble all the way round to get rid of this.

Because of the treble boost I turned the bass to the maximum possible without getting distortion.

Because the shures naturally have a nice mids, it was a good balance.

The stereoX increases soundstage and depth, giving it a virtual feel. For my shures which lack abit of soundstage, (as with most IEMs) turning it around just over a quarter was perfect for me. If you add too much, it sounds too artificial.

to add a bit more flavour, put the virtualizer on equalizer to around 40%. The stereo x and virtualizer add subtle different sounds to the output :) Don't touch the bass boost on equalizer app. It just worsens the sound when using these configs.

If you like quick, punchy bass, you can put up a couple notches on the lowest frequency EQ on poweramp. Same with treble if you want, push a couple bars up on poweramp eq.

That should be enough but if you wanna make the sound even better, let's EQ your sound with equalizer app :)

Before you start, use the stock player or equivalent to get flat sound.

What I like to do is put all the frequencies to lowest (I think its -10?) first. Then I increase one band at a time until I find the frequenct I like. Remember the hz level for that band. Then put it to lowest again and repeat with others. When you are done, put all the bands to the hz level you liked originally. Might not work for some but it worked for me to find the best eq settings :)

Hope it helps!

Oh when I say no different to sgs1, I say so because with blindfold test, both phones with the settings above, I couldn't really tell them apart.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] koniakki:
Great suggestions jay_993. Note-ed! :p
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] bbdj69:
I'm sorry to break the news to you. The better the earphone I use the more I notice the poor sound quality.

I actually just used the Samsung supplied earphones for the first time since I got the phone - I don't think I will ever use them again.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Tiamath99:
I have a long and expensive collection of headphones as is one of my hobbies and i have to say the following:

The Galaxy S2 with Poweramp 2.0 correctly configured and equalized gets a pretty decent sound, at least as good as my Iphone 4.

Its only my opinion but im picky with the quality of sound, very picky.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] koniakki:
Thank you for your replies. I guess we have to wait for a good custom rom or ICS to see if they manage to improve the sound quality to an acceptable level compare to SGS2 or even SGS1.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] bbdj69:
I will check out the sound quality on my friend S2 next week and see if it is any different types in report back.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] aussiebum:
Coming from a S2, I can state the Note does sound better than the S2 (flat eq, Neutron MP on both) even if it's the same chipset simply because there's less noise in the headphone jack, either due to better shielding of the chip or just better layout.

I couldn't stand listening on my S2 even after tuning with Equalizer / Poweramp EQ because a lot of detail was lost due to the high levels of background noise.

The Note just needs a bit of tweaking and it should be quite acceptable with the Earsonics SM3's I use daily (although I'll probably still carry around my old Galaxy Tab for use. Voodoo+Neutron MP is just too nice)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] sauron0101:
Try the original Galaxy S. The audio is better. Wolfson FTW!

The supplied earphones of any phone generally suck.

Basically if you care about audio quality and you use this phone, you're gonna need a second device for music.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Sharpshooterrr:
How does the Note's external speaker sound compared to the iPhone 4? In terms of quality and loudness.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
Which headphones are you using? im just curious cuz i get no background noise. EDIT: I remember I got HUGE background noise when using samsung ROM to the point that volume would go up and down by itself. Have you tried MIUI roms?

oh yeah and that voodoo+neutron is amazing too for great music clarity :)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
GOOD NEWS ( at least for me)

Ok people hereby my 2 cents.

Went back to the showrom this time armed with the Fiio E5 amplifier and my AKG K430 headphones (not in-ear).

Got very good results just by playing with the built-in equalizer of the STOCK music player !

No need for Poweramp or the Equalizer amp...really

But if you guys do want a 3rd party music player with a built-in equalizer and more options I would rather go for Neutron or my favourite: Mixzing Player.

But the good news are that after so many tests (on my part) , I am convinced that the Yamaha codec is somehow better implemented on the Note.

And all I need is playing with the equalizer and replace the stock headset with a kickass one.

And you dont need to go bankrupt in order to purchase a real good headset:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1190205

Some nice tips over there and the thread got only 6 pages...

And if you want to to try to get even more from the Note, just get the Fiio amplifier...it's small( clipable) and unexpensive, around 14 euros:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FiiO-E5-HEA...ltDomain_0&hash=item484252e339#ht_2980wt_1014

What counts for me is that I dont hesitate anymore in purchasing the Note even after getting used with the sound of my sgs1 powered by Wolfson & Voodoo...

But....the Nexus Prime is just around the corner...hesitation is coming back to me........decisions. decisions

is bad news maybe only for the sgs2 owners but not for the Note ones :cool:

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[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] paulshields:
I've found the Note audio to be pretty good for a mobile device. I've not tried the supplied headphones, but with my usual gear I don't think it's as bad as some here are saying. I've lots of experience in audio as a pro musician (ergo my hearing is probably shot ;)), but I'm not an audiophile. It's certainly good enough for non-critical listening. Maybe even critical listening, but that often gets in the way of the music.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jodeltje:
for some insane reason I can vough for that. I have a pair of shures that served me for years, but using the Note, I got my 3 year old 'creative ep-630's to do a better (why?!?) job.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
With all this, in the end, what I like to suggest to all is get a decent cans, and find out yourself which is the best combination to get optimal sound output cuz in the end, it's all subjective :) And what's good is because we are using Android, we get so much option for music players in comparison to iOS and WP7 so we should take advantage of it :)

Generally, Neutron is amazing for flat SQ. But with a high end IEMs that don't lose clarity easily (i.e. Westones and the Shures), my equalizer app + poweramp 2.0 do wonders imo :D

---------- Post added at 02:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 AM ----------

Which shures are you using? if you have either the SE420 or SE530, I will find you settings which you WILL like :p
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] aussiebum:
Earsonic SM3's (v1) as I mentioned. I do sometimes switch to the Westone 4's when I get bored of the SQ :rolleyes:

On the SGS2 I hear background noise whenever the music stops, none while playing (of course, I'm sure the noise is still there... just masked by the music). Don't think it's ROM-related though... probably just the SM3's have really low impedance and are very sensitive.

Now that the Note is my primary device I might fiddle around with my SGS2 a bit more though.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
I think that after all, the thread title is a bit too negative..

What went bad for the sgs2 dont mean will go bad for the Galaxy Note as well...

Therefore I started a new one with better news...

Feel free to post your findings and opinions over there, specially if you disagree:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=19268782#post19268782

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[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
I promise you some ROMs perform better with the noise when you stop the music. Try galnet MIUI if you have the time to fiddle about. And I too get the noise for around 2 seconds when pausing but does it really matter? With all our sensitive IEMs there aren't many devices which won't produce the white noise in the background.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
Roms ?

I almost bought my Note yesterday, but I wouldnt dare to mess around with mod roms, so soon, specially after the official news that ICS update is coming for the Note....

My guess is that you guys already own the Note for quite a while....( lucky bastards :D)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] reinbeau:
I'd at least root it immediately, if I could get my hands on one! :D

Sent from a state of Serendipity
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] jay_993:
This again proves my point that the poweramp + equalizer app is really decent :) All this yamaha is crap is well... exaggerated in my opinion although if you don't have the right cans and the combination, you will get get crap sound. having said this, even on SGS1 and nexus S with voodoo sound, if you use crap music player from market, it will sound muddled again.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] betoNL:
Getting root, sure...

But flashing mod roms on a brand new device that is about to get a whole new firmware update, is something else imho.

But then again, I have the feeling that some posters here, never got their hands on the Note, to begin with....:eek::D:D

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[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] koniakki:
What about Custom ICS CyanogenMod style...? :D
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] blackstar84:
I am an audiophile, does any one know, if you use an external USB AMP will the audio get processed through the yamaha chip at all ? or just the CPU ?

I do not want the Yamaha ship to colour/destroy the sound.

In ICS it will be possible to use external amps...like this (which I am planning to buy) http://jaben.net/shopping2/Porta-Tube_Plus.html