yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
See above, I quoted Supercurio as saying he expects the same audio performance as the S1 (of course if USB Audio works then we can have even better quality).
[Galaxy S III General] bala_gamer:
its better than s1 as per the spec sheet posted by supercurio ...
[Galaxy S III General] FIREONHIGH:
s3 is sounding much better to my ears after reading this..
[Galaxy S III General] ph00ny:
It sounds like someone is listening upstairs
[Galaxy S III General] ivAnash:
Ya.. That's something encouraging..
[Galaxy S III General] tbong777:
Hell NO!! It is the reason I will consider buying this phone and have high Hopes for the Note II if I wait for that instead. If the SGS II had not been so much better than the in many ways flawed Captivate I would still be using it for the DAC and your app.
[Galaxy S III General] Caladbolg:
I'm liking what I'm hearing about this DAC. I didn't mind the EVO's, but if the SIII's is this nice, I'll probably buy a 64GB SD just to load on FLAC's.
[Galaxy S III General] pachi72:
I hope the speaker in the back is loud..

sent a 96gb N7000
[Galaxy S III General] OrrPenn18:
Yes atlast a Woflson! :D Happy days are back again!
[Galaxy S III General] dagrim1:
Will this mean proper recording as well?

The SGS2 is again extremely disappointing in that area, think I remember the sgs1 was good after the voodoo app so hopefully one can finally make a decent recording at concerts with the sgs3...

Meh, not too impressed by the s3 but it does have some nice improvements over the sgs2.
[Galaxy S III General] Bajaj_86:
Is this mean that this audit hardware is the same or better than iPhone 4S?

I used to owned Samsung Galaxy Note, but sold it because the audio quality is much worse compared to my iPhone, especially when i plugged it into AUX in the Car.

Please advised.
[Galaxy S III General] g4rvd4:
Just wanted to clarify something with you audiophiles.. :)

I'm planning to buy a Sennheiser PX 310 BT for use with the S3. Will it be perfectly compatible? Will it be overkill for the wolfson dac? Or is it the other way round with the Wolfson requiring better equipment to make use of its capabilities? I don't know much about this stuff, so hoping you can guide me... :)
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
If you are looking for audiophiles' opinion, you should head over to head-fi and ask them instead. Most people here think Beats as high-end cans. Back to your topic, if you are going with BT, you wouldn't be utilizing Wolfson DAC and furthermore, I can't comment on BT's sound quality as I haven't heard any audiophile's opinion on BT cans as most of us don't even consider that as an option(because of inferior sound quality).
[Galaxy S III General] g4rvd4:
I posted there yesterday but didn't get a reply yet. Anyway I also wanted to ask specifically about the S3. So the DAC is used only when wired headphones are used? It won't be used over bluetooth? The one I'm planning to buy has a wired option also.

I read headfonia's review of the PX 210, which is basically the same thing without noise cancellation, and they have mentioned it is an excellent model especially because of the AptX. It has no perceivable difference from a wired pair.

http://www.headfonia.com/sennheiser-px210bt/

It's a good read and the title is very interesting. :)
[Galaxy S III General] MrPhilo:
Sennheiser aren't bad but still a bit pricey for something you can get which is better. Get SoundMagic, you won't be disappointed ;)

Never get Beat's. Beat's headphone are just an overpriced headphone, along with it's equalizer.
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
Are you set on that pair of cans or are you simply asking for a suggestion? In order for me to suggest cans, it'd be better for me to know what you are looking for, kind of music you are listening to, are opened cans acceptable to you?, what's your budget?, did you try any cans in the past and liked a certain brand's sound signature?, etc

Never heard of that brand so I can't comment on them.

Sennheisers make some of the most fantastic cans out there, HD598, HD600, HD650, and HD800.
[Galaxy S III General] g4rvd4:
Never heard of soundmagic, do they have any aptx headsets?

About beats, I know they're not really quality stuff. :)

I have never used headphones before, only IEMs. And not quality stuff, only brands like Philips or Skullcandy. I have also tried my friend's Sennheiser IEMs and liked them.

And no, I am not set on those cans, they just happen to lie on the border of my budget limit and have all the features I want... basically I'm looking for bluetooth with aptx (with a wired option), great sound quality, and good noise isolation/ cancellation. Aptx headsets are really hard to come by right now and the Sennheiser PX series are pretty much the only ones of good brand.

Budget is $300 max.

I listen to different kinds of music, including classical, pop, rock.

My main question, however, was whether the cans that I'm talking about would be compatible with the S3 in terms of quality.
[Galaxy S III General] schrickm5:
Dear Audiophiles....

Has anyone tried a pair of IE80 Sennheiser yet on the SGS3 (or otherwise), are they worth it....?
[Galaxy S III General] ZeneticX:
can anybody confirm whether the sound streamed to a apt-x Bluetooth headset is processed by the wolfson chip?
[Galaxy S III General] schrickm5:
I think I read in this Thread some where that BT is not processed by the phones chip.
[Galaxy S III General] g4rvd4:
But can some knowledgeable person please confirm this, I too am interested in knowing this.. :)
[Galaxy S III General] BladeZero:
I also read to it doesn't go through the chip, and if it did voodoo sound would have a bt options in the app

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[Galaxy S III General] bjrmd:
Bluetooth uses a compression/decompression algorithm to transmit data, just like wifi or your cell signal. Then the Bluetooth dongle(receiver) has a DAC (digital to analog) and a small amp to convert to a signal for the headphones. Even if the bluetooth transfer was lossless, the DAC/amp in the dongle may not be as good as your cellphone.

Another example is if you used bubble upnp or the like to stream your tracks to a network enabled high end receiver - the DAC/amp in the receiver would be the ones doing the sound conversion.
[Galaxy S III General] Erahgon:
The Wolfson chip is a DAC, i.e. a Digital to Analogue Converter. Since converting to and from digital to analogue degrades the signal quality every time it's done (and inefficient) , it's best to keep it to a minimum.

Bluetooth data is transmitted digitally, so I can confirm through logic that it does not (need) to pass through the DAC when streaming through a bluetooth headset and is completely dependant on how good the bluetooth reciever is at DAC-ing.

To minimize the amount of data sent across the limited bandwidth connection that is bluetooth, the digital audio data is compressed (usually in a lossy format). Simply put, Apt-X is a more streamlined codec (when compared to the regular A2DP profiles) ensuring this data to have a much better quality when it is decompressed.
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
Since you are pretty much set on only BT capable cans, I can't really suggest any because I don't really know about BT cans.

My current one of my IEMs is IE8 which is practically the same thing with different design and they sound great and fits my need. I don't know how to respond to are they worth it? question because if you are asking to an audiophile, he'll say they are but if you are asking to an average joe, he'll say why would you spend that much money on some earphones?

It really depends on how much you want it, how about Westone4 or Sony MDR-EX1000? How about custom IEMs? :)

bjrmd & Erahgon are correct in that BT cans would not utilize Wolfson DAC. They would have their own independent DAC.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
been enjoying your work on Fascinate and Charge, next will be GSIII !! :D
[Galaxy S III General] alpha-niner64:
Can anybody here tell me between Beats and Voodoo which one sounds "louder"? I'm aware of the SQ between the two, but no one really commented on the loudness of the two.
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
Almost certainly Voodoo will be capable of considerably more volume.
[Galaxy S III General] TotallydubbedHD:
I'll try and give you guys a good idea of the SQ of the S3 vs S1 with my PFE232's ;)
[Galaxy S III General] g4rvd4:
By that logic the Wolfson DAC will not be used with wired headphones either, because the digital signal is converted to sound only in the headphones just next to your ears, same as wireless ones. So obviously this is not the answer.
[Galaxy S III General] tolis626:
Wrong.Bluetooth functions in a way that does just that;it bypasses the internal DAC.Now,if the played file has a high enough bitrate(FLACS maybe?),the compression/decompression algorithm isn't too lossy and you shed a ****load of money for a pair of bluetooth cans that have a very good DAC,then maybe you can reach the quality of a mid-end wired pair of cans.And still,maybe.

Still,seeing that you guys here have a nice discussion going on,I thought I'd jump in.I'm not an expert or anything,but still know a few things.

So,about a month ago,my old cans broke(Basically the contacts in the 3.5mm jack got ****ed up) and I bought new ones.However my budget was kinda (very) limited,so I couldn't exceed 50€.I then happened to stumble upon the AKG K514MKII and I liked their looks,so thought I'd try them out.And sh!t,they sounded really good(At least for their price point-46€).My GS2 isn't able to drive anything too good anyway,so with these I am,for the time being,more than pleased.My only problem is noise isolation-I can here most of the stuff happening around me if music isn't playing loudly enough,but bleh,I can live with that.So I'd recommend AKGs,especially if someone doesn't want to sell their car to buy a pair of cans. :)

On another note,I'm curious to see how the GS3 will do when plugged in to my PrimaLuna RCU amplifier and Vienna Acoustics speakers.For the S2 these are more than overkill,as well as for any other mobile device I've tried so far...
[Galaxy S III General] Clau1998:
What is your model of USB audio stick?

How does it compare to the DAC of your Topping tp30?

Here’s my planned SGS3-based rig:

=> USB audio stick from Terratec with CM119 chipset: Terratec Aureon Dual USB DAC ($30)

”If you need HIGH quality sound, we recommend you buy products which built with CM119 / CM108 /CM106 Chipset.”

=> Headphone amp from JdsLabs ou DIY: cMoy ($60)

=> Headphones from Digitech, clone of Fischer Audio FA-003: Digitech Pro Monitor headphones ($50),
[Galaxy S III General] Erahgon:
No. The digital signal gets converted to analogue at the jack interface and not at the earphones' transducer (that is where the electrical signals from the DAC get converted to physical sound pressure).

I don't have the patience to draw diagrams but hopefully this rudimentary tree will be sufficient:

Situation A] With headphones plugged-in: Audio file (digital binary data) -> Wolfson DAC -> Electrical impulses to the connected 3.5mm headphone jack -> along the headphone wires -> transducer -> Sound.

Situation B] Phone loudspeaker (nothing plugged into the headphone jack): Audio file (digital binary data) -> Wolfson DAC -> Electrical impulses to the connected speaker transducer -> Sound.

Situation C] USB connection used as a DAC (i.e. using a digitally compatible USB DAC with a USB OTG cable): Audio file (digital binary data) -> USB MHL controller* -> digital binary data along USB cable -> outboard DAC -> it's connected transducer (speakers or such) where it is converted to sound.

*Not sure about this. Someone please verify.

Situation D] Bluetooth headphones connected: Audio file (digital binary data) -> Bluetooth transmitter -> digital binary data over bluetooth waves -> outboard DAC -> it's connected transducer (headphones or such) where it is converted to sound.

As usual, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! We're here to learn!
[Galaxy S III General] chong81:
I'm getting random crackling noises when playing back flac files using both the stock music player and poweramp on my S3, LE8 stock rom. Anyone else?
[Galaxy S III General] derrickleow:
no such issues for me. flac, poweramp, stock le8 rom.
[Galaxy S III General] g4rvd4:
Thanks! :) I understand now, I was missing the binary to electrical connection.
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
DACs role is to transcribe digital to analog one which is 3.5mm jack. This is what DACs do, make our jacks, 3.5mm, 6.3mm, airplane jack, etc, usable.
[Galaxy S III General] schrickm5:
My current one of my IEMs is IE8 which is practically the same thing with different design and they sound great and fits my need. I don't know how to respond to are they worth it? question because if you are asking to an audiophile, he'll say they are but if you are asking to an average joe, he'll say why would you spend that much money on some earphones?

It really depends on how much you want it, how about Westone4 or Sony MDR-EX1000? How about custom IEMs? :)

Thanks for the reply. I just want a pair of ear phones that are not the limiting factor women listening to music on most portable devices. The IE80 seem like a good all rounder, even though there are more expensive ear sets that have better mid range bass. I don't mind the price. Cheapest in Sweden is 1994SEK.
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
I suggest you take a look at Sony MDR-EX1000 before you pull the trigger. I believe it is somewhat better if only looking at the SQ. But it leaks sound and its isolation sucks compared to IE80/8.
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
My E7 arrived at home today, report back soon with results of testing.
[Galaxy S III General] jakenz:
Fingers crossed! Will give it a go myself with my Total Bithead DAC/headphone preamp once I track down a mini-to-micro USB adaptor...
[Galaxy S III General] alangrig:
Well,

Compared SGS3 to Gnexus, Gnexus sounds way better!
[Galaxy S III General] @home:
:eek: SGS3 must be poor, I didn't think my Gnexus was a patch on the Razr I sold.

I was hoping the S3 was going to be fantastic sounding....I guess not
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
Oh yeah!

Wrote about my experience with the E7 here: http://www.androidnz.net/2012/06/galaxy-s-iii-usb-audio-is-it-really.html

Lets just say I'm happy and will post up some video the blogs YouTube channel shortly...
[Galaxy S III General] nativestranger:
Yup it sounds worse than my sensation xl which in turn is worse than the nexus one before it. Yes despite the so call Wolfson DAC hype the nexus one is night and day better with the same headphones.
[Galaxy S III General] Kendoji:
Awesome news! Especially as I just got my SGS3 and have an E7 right here. :)
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
Really waiting to see what Voodoo Sound brings at this point, although with an E7 the S III has better quality than all of them, so I'm happy either way...
[Galaxy S III General] LeviathanPT:
So far by just looking at some videos im quite impressed with the quality of the speaker.
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
It's very decent indeed, tried it side-by-side with my One X and it completely shames that handset. Bit quieter than the 4S though (although I thought it sounded better at full volume, just less of it).
[Galaxy S III General] LeviathanPT:
HTC always were awfull with the speakers they placed on their smartphones.
[Galaxy S III General] blashrrt:
What kind of sound quality can one expect of the LTE Snapdragon S4 versions of the Galaxy S	III which most likely won't have a Wolfson chip?
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
Well I don't know if people with poor quality have S4 or Exynox because only Exynox has Wolfson DAC.
[Galaxy S III General] blashrrt:
What are the chances of the Snapdragon S4 version using a wolfson dac?
[Galaxy S III General] LeviathanPT:
50%
[Galaxy S III General] bala_gamer:
make it 0%

as per the sources s4 chipset dosent uses wolfson

here is the source

https://developer.qualcomm.com/sites/default/files/snapdragon-s4-product-overview.pdf
[Galaxy S III General] LeviathanPT:
The source has also this on the botton in small prints "1Specifications vary among Snapdragon S4 processors"

:p
[Galaxy S III General] blashrrt:
I currently have a original Galaxy S and have not been using voodoo sound (to lazy to root since superoneclick stopped working when I upgraded to gingerbread). Would you consider getting a Galaxy S III without a Wolfson dac to be a regression?
[Galaxy S III General] omersak:
http://www.swedroid.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Samsung-Galaxy-S-III-rightmark-audio-analyzer-RMAA.png

http://www.swedroid.se/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-recension/

Damn the U-shaped frequency curve. Why do manufacturers do that?

Supercurio to rescue it!
[Galaxy S III General] jakenz:
Total Bithead DAC + S3 = no joy

Fail. Alas, no recognition by the S3 that my Total Bithead DAC was attached by USB. No change in playback, sound output.

For the record Total Bithead is a battery powered DAC / headphone amp with an option to use either powered USB source to power DAC + amp, or internal batteries to power both. I tried both options, no joy.

Could conceivably be due to flakiness of my jury-rigged USB cable setup (S3 > USB_micro-USB cable > USB female-female adapter > USB-USB_mini cable > Bithead DAC). Not holding out much hope but to rule this out will try again when my squadron of USB-micro adapters arrives from ebay...
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
Ah, shame. Keep us posted if it works with a better cable set up. Was sound coming out the loudspeaker? If not try selected a sound effect in the stock player, it should give you a warning to say they don't work in "line out" if you USB DAC is talking to the phone at all (if it doesn't I become more suspicious about your cables, since you need an actual USB OTG cable, rather than just adapters).

---------- Post added at 10:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 AM ----------

Well now that is very interesting, I finally got around to A/B'ing my HOX and S3 last night (as in before I had a chance to read that and contaminate my listening findings) and was struggling to detect much difference at all, perhaps that is why (although as always you have to take RMAA results with something of a grain of salt, from their test setup description though I think they have a better rig than GSMArena in terms of it looks like their application of headphone load is better?)
[Galaxy S III General] jakenz:
Hmm, I was unaware a special USB OTG cable / adaptor (with some form of internal OTG/host chip I presume?) was required. You are quite right to think the USB cables and adapters I used were all vanilla USB.
[Galaxy S III General] omersak:
seems like the whole wolfson DAC thing was pointless, unfortunately. is it really so hard to do what crapple does with their phones? (with the inferior cirrus logic DACs, no less)
[Galaxy S III General] NZtechfreak:
Not pointless if Supercurio can work his magic, if Voodoo Sound isn't great though then a bit pointless, yes (pointless to the extent that I'll be connecting a USB DAC with a Wolfson to the S3 for listening to music...).
[Galaxy S III General] jakenz:
@ NZTechfreak - Update re S3 > Bithead DAC cabling - thanks for the prompt as I realise now the USB cables and adapters I used to connect my Bithead DAC were not USB OTG spec compliant.

So after a bit of googling re the OTG micro-plug functional spec I see the unique feature of USB OTG cables is the differing use of a fifth pin within the USB connector at the host vs peripheral ends. Eureka! I realise now in my jury-rigged S3 > DAC USB cabling setup I made incorrect use of the USB Micro-B - standard USB cable that came with the S3 - it has the wrong OTG polarity for what I need. Fingers crossed for when the proper OTG plugs arrive...

From Wikipedia: OTG adds a fifth pin to the standard USB connector, called the ID-pin; the micro-A plug has the ID pin grounded, while the ID in the micro-B plug is floating. The device that has a micro-A plugged in becomes an OTG A-device, and the one that has micro-B plugged becomes a B-device. The type of the plug inserted is detected by the state of the pin ID .
[Galaxy S III General] studiominal:
Those RMAA results seem weird

Since GSMArena and the site NZtechfreak mentioned both seem to use a pair of headphones with 36 ohms of impedance or so, I think both should represent similar amount of frequency oscillation when the same load is given. Problem is that no matter how I see it, I cannot stop thinking that some devices are affected by EQ although they've turned off the EQ or sound effects before the test, especially for Xperia S. Those spikes seen in Xperia's frequency response graph leave some clues of equalizer bands at 1kHz, 2.5kHz, 6kHz, and 14kHz range. :confused:

Plus, given that the impedance is the highest at 80Hz for AKG K420 headphones, I don't get it why the frequency response soars high at high pitches around 20kHz both for HOX and GS3. (You can visit here to see what the impedance is like for this headphone) I guess the rig the author of the review used has a sort of problem and leaves a question there.
[Galaxy S III General] nativestranger:
Mine is an exynos quad. Wolfson or not the sound quality is way worse than my nexus one with a snapdragon chipset.

Nobody has the snapdragon s4 version yet.
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
There is absolutely no way that's possible. I've owned Nexus One before and I'm fully aware of what its DAC can do. Because being an audiophile, whenever I buy a new phone, I test it with all my equipments and that means I test from my lowest end IEMs to highest end headphones(HD800 and LCD-2). I've probably spent well over $10,000 last 5 years to fulfill my audiophile addiction and from my experience, the SQ on Nexus One was probably one of the worse qualities.
[Galaxy S III General] eRajesh:
Man! I can't believe the SGS3 even with a Wolfson DAC sounds crap.

GNexus FTW
[Galaxy S III General] celsior360:
Ste you saying that the sound quality is top tierfor the S3?
[Galaxy S III General] Erahgon:
You guys are kinda missing the point of this DAC really...

It's not that it sounds great out of the box (I don't have the i9000 so I can't comment) but the fact that it's schematics and it's drivers' source code are released to allow for modding and creating a better kernel and HAL (please confirm) for this DAC with it's amazing hardware capabilities.

It may not sound mind blowing out of the box, but hold judgment on it till after someone who knows what they're doing (Supercurio looking at you!) comes up with something for this! Can't wait to get one and check it out!
[Galaxy S III General] deaffob:
I can't say that because I don't have S3. I played with my friend's briefly.
[Galaxy S III General] Kendoji:
I certainly don't think it sounds 'crap'. I need to do more listening, but so far it's a clear improvement on the SGS2. I don't think Supercurio has posted his write-up yet, but he tweeted this yesterday:

Working ATM on #GalaxySIII audio analysis. Great and even better with tuning. Beaten −slim margin by cheap Galaxy Tab 2 7.0^^ both #WM1811

My OTG cable should be arriving today or tomorrow. Looking forward to testing with some more USB DACs.
[Galaxy S III General] blueseeker:
I should remind all of you that S1 sounded kinda poor before supercurio worked his magic, so we don't really care how it sounds out of the box, we really care about the hardware included in the phone.

Also, my S2 with all the tweaks and hacks sounds better than the Sensation XL with Beats Audio, so get real that S3 sound worse than Nexus one =))
[Galaxy S III General] IcyAirs:
Just dropping in to say that plugging these in immediately works no problem whatsoever:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-V20-Notebook-Speakers-Black/dp/B0009WKBGC

Don't have any other stuff to test with me as I'm traveling, but I found it pretty amazing that it just works without external power.

edit: with an OTG adapter mind you, just in case someone decides to jump me.