yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neok44:
i'm confused about the sound from the headphone jack being bad.

Now i don't claim to know much about audio stuff but i've used around 10 different devices in my life with headphones and i've never noticed any difference between them.

So how does the headphone jack have crappy audio.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] loonie01:
Sound is fair from the speaker. Its not loud either. Don't expect to rock out using the speaker either.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hemidroids:
Get yourself a $59 iHome Bluetooth speaker. Big sound from a little package. Its about the size of a 20oz bottled water.

http://www.ihomeaudio.com/iDM12BX/
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Locklear308:
I am worried too...can someone do a test? Or video?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] fixyourtech:
If you guys expect audiophile quality from a $200 tablet your buying the wrong product.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Michael_W_L:
Audiophile, no. At least matching the $100 Nokias, yes.

Clean flat output isn't difficult to achieve, rather soft than bad.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] woundedworld:
I agree, I am definitely not expecting Cowon quality. I would like to at least be able to enjoy music with a decent set of cans. If it can match my $40 sansa fuze, i will be happy!
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Locklear308:
We have a Quadcore, and a Super Display, which are both beyond 200 dollars, asking for at LEAST Standard good quality is completely acceptable.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] fixyourtech:
Sansas actually have pretty good quality.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Nexus 7 has worse sound quality than the fuze.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neok44:
I don't expect great quality from the speakers.

What worries me is that android police says the headphone jack quality is terrible, and i don't understand how that can be.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] altrikdout21:
I don't get that either. I just need some decent speakers that don't sound like an autobot, and maybe decent headphone output for when I use it.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Locklear308:
We need someone who has one to show a video on it!
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CooLoserTech:
looks like Beats Audio and Voodoo Sound needs to be ported over. we need Matr1x kernel
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neok44:
want to bump this because i know others as well as myself are still confused as to how the audio from the headphone jack can be bad.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Locklear308:
Yeah, if it's only a software issue, then my fears are resolved. There are great people with great minds here, who work hard to allow us to enjoy our devices to the fullest.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
You cannot fix a bad DAC with SOFTWARE. Beats is a joke, its just an equalizer essentially.

This bad DAC rumor is seriously making me consider cancelling my order. Almost all devices now have a good DAC in them recently, for Google to put in a bad one is shocking.

---------- Post added at 03:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:07 AM ----------

Time to panic; the optimus 4x is also a plain jane Tegra3 device and gsmarena has similar complaints as android police about the N7:

http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_4x_hd_p880_review-review-780p5.php scroll to the bottom. GSMArena is one of few review sites that tests audio output with objective measures. Sadly they dont do tablet reviews.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Michael_W_L:
Objectively, yes the numbers are crap. Though I know your high end headphone amps purposefully introduce crosstalk, so that isn't a worry. Cnet only mentions speaker-phone output, which isn't what is important here.

The international one X has got usable measurements and is using a Tegra 3 as well. I did not check, but I think the amplifier section is outside the SoC. If that is implemented properly, there will be no issues at all.

The 4x has crap measurements, they should be better. Important to note though, is that the crappiest part is the dynamic range. Noise and IMD are bad, but are not going to be audible 90% of the time.

The One X is improved on that, showing that it is possible to do something to improve the numbers.

So, IF Google has done all around testing, it should have flagged the audio output immediately. Then they would have done something about it.

If not, we have a problem.

Holding out on my pre-order until someone tells me it is at least compareable to my laptop... <if it can't beat that, then I will wait until next year for the obvious refresh>
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
i believe HTC has used their own DAC in the one X whereas the 4x HD uses the reference chipset. not sure though

---------- Post added at 03:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 AM ----------

it's frustrating to me that this is still an issue in modern devices. i have an htc sensation right now, which is essentially on par with the iphone 4s -- the 4s has, essentially, the best DAC in smartphones. Because apple actually cares about their hardware, while apparently google is ok with killing audio quality if it costs an extra $0.50. And I mean, I get it, it's a budget device, but to me, sound quality is up there with the IPS display -- it's something you cannot skip.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] woundedworld:
Agreed. If this is to be a media consumption device, sound is a big part? I can't imagine it being worse than my optimus v.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Souai:
i think theyre moving into tablet reviews though.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_2_70_review-review-781.php galaxy tab

hopefully they review the nexus too.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neok44:
Alright, for someone who is NOT an audiofile and just wants to have good quality sound when watching a movie/TV show, on par with my Asus Transformer (tegra2) or Galaxy Nexus.

Is my pair of headphones going to sound okay? or am i basically forced to buy bluetooth headphones to get anything near decent quality sound.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
While sound quality itself is very objective, perceived quality is very subjective. I have no idea what "ok" is for you. For me, I thought my Nexus One sounded like garbage and it is evidently an order of magnitude better than the lg 4X HD / Nexus 7.

Will it be OK? It depends on what OK means to you.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neok44:
if it's on par with the transformers tegra2 then i should be fine. if it's worse than that then i'm basically buying a $250 paperweight because i will be using this with headphones A LOT.

seems like more and more i'm just getting pissed off at Asus killing the memo to make this. that device was so much better and for the same price i'm paying now.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
asus likely would have used the nvidia reference chipset anyway. blame nvidia for specifying the worst DAC ive seen in years, blame realtek for even manufacturing such a pile of **** in the first place
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blank264:
Don't believe what anyone says without measurements. Can anyone prove that audio on this sucks. Many of the 'audiophile' crowd are audiots in my opinion.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Locklear308:
Seriously, people from the I/O event, just let us know if it sucks or not.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thephased:
If it's just a problem of the audio sounding flat, couldn't someone just get DSP Manager from CM7/CM9 working on the Nexus 7? Not sure if there's other libraries that go along with that though. Would we need a full CM port to get DSP Manager working?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
For the last time, you cannot fix bad hardware with software. Bad things happen, usually involving distortion, and in this case, distortion is one of the chip's inherent problems.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] neok44:
did the tegra2 have the same dac as the tegra3?

i ask because my tegra2 TF101 Transformer's sound never bothered me at all, so if it's the same on the N7/T3 then i'll be fine.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] el56:
If the Bluetooth audio is OK and you like your headphones, consider a Jabra Clipper. I've been very happy with mine and look forward to trying it out when my N7 arrives.

It has a mic too, so I will be testing it not just for music but also for Skype and VOIP calls. And since it can pair with two devices I would hope to have it working with my phone and N7 at the same time.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gavinfabl:
That Jabra looks very smart. I have the old version of the Jabra street, also very good but I recently got a Samsung HM3000 (might be HS3000) Bluetooth with aptx to pair with my Samsung S3. The bluetooth sound is better than the wired solution.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] haloimplant:
If the N7 gets numbers like that Optimus 4X this is the most worrying piece of information I have seen yet. 70 dB dynamic range and 0.8 THD is complete junk.

I won't be using headphones too often most days, but when I do it shouldn't sound like crap.

For reference cassette systems typically delivered 50-70 dB SNR, CD audio is theoretically 98 dB while CD/MP3 players generally deliver 70-90 dB. So we're on the very low end of digital players on the edge of cassette territory...sounds pretty bad I'm thinking I will hear audible static and other junk if this is true. That's before even getting into the distortion.

---------- Post added at 04:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

EQ won't fix bad noise/dynamic range either.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gavinfabl:
Not looking for class leading audio, but if it is that bad I will return it. Pointless have a media centric device with below par audio. Won't pass judgement until I hear for myself.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demandarin:
the app called volume+ will solve any nexus 7 sound issues. its a true volume booster. not a glorified equalizer that claims to boost volume n make it sound better. this can be done with tablet speaker, headphones, and Bluetooth. in addition to boosting the volume, there's different sound profiles and an equalizer also if you want to mess with that aspect too.

when Transformer Prime first released, people complained volume wasn't loud enough. then we came across the volume+ app. man, lol, my prime is loud as hell now. almost too loud. sound quality is great also. I increased the tablet speaker and headphone jack volume. now I have no issues with low volume or sound quality. you can get it from the app store. but the developer also links his website where you can download it for free there. I tested this with a decibel meter. with and without the app on the same test sound sample. the increase in decibels/volume was dramatic. it works great!

also if this is using the same sonicmaster audio quality as in prime, then the nexus 7 will be fine. I will still add the volume+ app to my arsenal as soon as I get nexus 7. beat part is root is not needed for this to work. developer recommends this app be used in custom roms but found out it works great on stock also. custom roms just really bring out the best in it.

no distortion. only time there will be distortion is if you increase bass levels too much or something. has bass boost also along with beats audio profile if you wish to use that profile.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] haloimplant:
Actually thinking about this it is possible that a software fix could help if bad software choices (like digital attenuation) have aggravated the weaknesses of mediocre hardware.

The SGS for example has a great DAC chip but it was only OK until Voodoo Sound came along which uses the analog attenuation instead of digital. It's possibly that better software can bring the performance of these Tegra solutions from poor to acceptable. It is hard to believe that the DAC chip itself has such terrible performance, I'm in the data converter industry and 70dB DR and 0.8% THD for an audio DAC is atrocious. Realtek would be embarrassed if that is all the chip can actually do when used properly.

Still even if we get a software fix here at XDA it is bad for Google and Nexus if this thing sounds bad to the average stock user.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
I've said it twice now, so I'll say it again. There is no such thing as a software solution for bad audio hardware. There never will be. This is because of PHYSICS. As in "physical laws which cannot be broken". Ultimately, no matter what you do to the digital waveform, it has to be pushed through the digital-to-analog-convertor (DAC) before it can exit the device as voltage in a wire. If the DAC or the amplifier is crap, then it will turn that waveform into crap no matter what you have done to it in software.

This is one of those hard realities that is not changeable. Another one is "there is no replacement for displacement", which refers to the fact that you can "bass boost" a tiny speaker all you want, but it will never have bass without the ability of a large woofer to displace a lot of air. It's physics. It's immutable, and it is not bypassable.

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 PM ----------

Interesting. So voodoo sound makes use of a hardware feature that samsung was ignoring? Why would samsung have done that?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] haloimplant:
Who knows. Just using digital attenuation was certainly easier (a simple multiplier in code compared to adjusting a hardware setting) and I guess somebody there either didn't know how to do it better or figured most users would never notice the difference.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Locklear308:
I agree with one of you above, if the audio is just ****, it's going back.

There is NO excuse for sub-par Audio quality.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Wilko1337:
As a person who regards audio quality very highly, I too am looking for something that is at least reasonable, even for a budget device. Even nowadays integrated audio is getting indistinguishable from dedicated sound cards unless you have trained ears and/or good reproduction equipment.

Hopefully someone with a N7 can RMAA the headphone output, and also give a subjective view (probably asking way too much ;p).
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rmm200:
Aren't you folks being a little harsh on a device no one has yet?

There is no proof at this point of a substandard DAC.

Next week we should have some actual data to go on.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
The proof is that every other tegra3 device has the same problem, and androidpolice commented in their nexus 7 review that the nexus 7 has bad sound even through the headphone jack. http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/0...droid-tablet-rebooted/#audio-external-speaker

It's more or less a foregone conclusion.

The question is whether its worth returning it over
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bradsh1:
i just tweeted the author of the androidpolice nexus 7 review about all this, and here is his reply.

https://twitter.com/RDR0b11/status/222530864674906113
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Michael_W_L:
Looking at that, I am worried. Simply put, I very much doubt that HTC would have used a different DAC, clearly not by looking at the numbers.

While the chip itself isn't spectacular, a good implementation should have made it at least comparable to most laptops.

I will wait for others, non I/O nexus 7 owners to give comments before making a conclusion.

The chip is crap, but should be relativley crap all round. It should be just as bad, not worse than thhe int. One X
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nxt:
Bump now that normal people have been reducing their orders.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] theoneofgod:
I think the sound through the headphone jack sounds fine. Much better than my Xperia Play.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mr1ncred1ble:
I would call the built in speakers "weak" . I can hear my wife's iPad 2 from the other room with the door closed when she's watching a movie. At half volume you can barely hear the n7 speakers in the same room. I had to push the volume almost to max and set it on a flat surface (or cup a hand behind the speakers) to get "good" sound. I give internal speakers a 5/10 and that may be generous.

Plugging in headphones was not much better. I don't have expensive headphones, just some decent Logitech ones. I usually have them plugged into my audigy 2 zs soundcard so my ears are used to decent audio. I was not impressed at all after plugging them in. Sound seemed muted and had to much bass for me. Pushing the volume up helped but not much. Every cell phone I've ever had sounded better than this via earphones, but after passing them to my wife she said they sounded ok. Audio out via earphones gets a 6/10 from me. Think cheap mp3 player and you'll be close.

Also plugged into a set of Logitech 2.1 powered desktop pc speakers and sound output was ok for personal listening but audiophiles may not be happy. Haven't tried Bluetooth audio or audio via usb if that's possible. Overall sound quality is just ok.

Sent From the Future
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FTMDan:
Hmm, I have a decent pair of earbuds and I'm hearing conflicting reports about the audio via the 3.5mm jack; some say it's fine, some say it's beyond bad. Perhaps it's down to the quality of the source material and the quality of the headphones/earphones themselves that are being used?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] theoneofgod:
Well I tested with a pair of AKG 240s MKII cans, so they aren't slouchers. Sounds fine.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Timbermill:
In my opinion it sounds great with a little speaker attached :cool:
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FTMDan:
See I'm starting to think that the reason there are so many conflicting reports on the quality of the sound via the 3.5mm jack is down to the audio quality/bitrate of the music files used and the quality of the actual headphones/earphones themselves?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] theoneofgod:
I use only 320kbps MP3's for the test. Tested some IDM, Rock.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FTMDan:
Hmm, I wonder..Seems like maybe people are testing the audio quality by using YouTube or generic earbuds?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] theoneofgod:
It's possible. I'll do some more tests (by ear, nothing scientific)

edit: It sounds better than my £1000 av receiver I tell you. Using poweramp and slightly upping the bass tones, makes it really nice. YouTube sounds crap no matter what you do.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FTMDan:
Maybe something like DSP Manager would help out on the Nexus 7 for those who think the audio is really really bad, either that or use some better earbuds/headphones and source material
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] theoneofgod:
Ran a few tests Xperia Play Vs Nexus 7.

All tests done using poweramp with the equal volume, tone control, EQ settings etc.

Tested with 320kbps MP3:

Rock -> Alter Bridge - Blackbird

Rock -> Coldplay - Easy to Please

IDM -> Anklebiter - University (Access to Arasaka remix)

Loudspeaker:

EQ (Loudspeaker)

Tone Control (Off)

Xperia Play -> Vocals difficult to understand, very low volume, a bit muffled.

Nexus 7 -> Easy to understand vocals, and much louder.

Headphone (AKG 240s MKII):

EQ (Flat)

Tone Control (On, Bass up half way)

Xperia Play -> Decent enough. Literally no bass at all without tone control, a bit quiet for me.

Nexus 7 -> Much, much louder. Overall deeper sound. More clarity, just more enjoyable.

Like I said, nothing scientific, but I do like good sounding music.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FTMDan:
That'll do me. Nothing scientific, but you have a good set of cans and good bitrate audio files. That's much better than these so-called 'reviews' that plug generic iPod earbuds in and listen to YouTube music and say it sounds tinny, quiet etc.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hanthesolo:
Any former Wolfson DAC users who have a comparison? I have a SGP with a wolfson, and I will perform a test later this week ($35 Sony MDR-V150 headphones, and a 320 KBPS soundtrack) when my Nexus arrives.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] General Rookie:
bad audio

Just got my Nexus 7 today. The audio is pretty bad. It gets decently loud but anything higher than 50% volume is distorted and crackly. At 100% its just plain awful. I'm not sure if its defective or crap. Anyone else have distortion?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sassafras_:
As I mentioned in the other thread, it would be really nice if someone could cannibalize the USB audio tweaks Samsung made to the GS3 and get them into CM10 so we could just use our USB DAC/AMPs, which are going to be of inherently higher quality anyway.

sassafras
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nxt:
Got my Nexus 7 finally the other day.

I'm ok with the speakers on it.

It's louder than my Galaxy Nexus, and I listen to podcast and watch youtube on the Nexus 7 and it's fine.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thephased:
Is anyone getting random crackling through the headphone jack? My N7 does this in Google Music and Spotify. Only lasts a second then goes away. Maybe it's an issue because I'm streaming in both those apps? Sometimes it happens at the beginning of songs and I can replicate the sound just by starting the song again. Factory reset made no difference.

I'm also getting random screen glitches when playing music through the headphone jack. A horizontal bar appears, then disappears quickly. I made a thread about it, but no one else seems to have the same issue.

In the process of returning it. Hopefully the replacement has these issues fixed.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FTMDan:
So then, now that more of you have your N7s, anyone got any more comments about sound via 3.5mm jack?
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] garryknight:
Sounds fine to me, though I'm no audiophile. A little too quiet when on a train, for example, and would be pretty useless on the London Underground, but fine for normal use. I'm using Volume+ which seems to work with some apps (e.g. ES video player) but not always with others (e.g. the built-in video player).

--
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] woundedworld:
I have no problems with the sound quality. I'm glad i was expecting something awful, as I am pleased with what I have heard. Is it the best thing I've heard, not really. Is it the worst thing I've heard, not by a long shot. If listening to music, adjust the equalizer. I happen to be very pleased with my purchase. No crackling or buzzing through a pair of earbuds and a low end pair of Sennheisers. I think sound quality was slightly better on my OG Transformer 101.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bhillegass:
The sound quality certainly is not terrible for $200.00 device. I have a much bigger problem with the sound quality on my galaxy nexus. Most of us probably use headphones with volume adjustment mods, and then it sounds like heaven :)
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mattcooper:
A bit of EQ'ing and this sounds awesome (On UM Miracle Custom IEM's and RE-262's).

Stock, no, the sound is quite muffled, but I always heavily eq in Poweramp. Plus I'm real surprised at how good, yet simple, Google Music's EQ is.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] General Rookie:
Headphone and external plugged speakers sound great on my N7. Internal speakers are crap. Have a replacement N7 on the way.
[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] danba:
A custom Nexus 7 interworks with a standard USB DAC:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/and...-issues-priority-with-google/210#post_8565219

modded Nexus 7 > digital audio stream >> USB OTG cable >> USB DAC/amp Turtle Beach MICRO II >> headphones

or

modded Nexus 7 > digital audio stream >> USB OTG cable >> Turtle Beach MICRO II > SPDIF digital audio stream >> SPDIF DAC/amp >> speakers

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