yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 4 General] LimboLevelUnlimited:
Don't quite follow. Registered after lurking for at least a year to post this...

I have a pair of klipsch x10's that I love, but plugging them straight into my laptop or galaxy nexus for me was atrocious. This got me looking into DACs/Amps, and I bought a Fiio E7. This thing sounds amazing on my laptop when it's being used as a DAC via USB, the difference is insane(wtf laptop, I paid $1500 for you). At some point I want to try a better Fiio product but I'm perfectly happy with the E7(the interface sucks but you hardly ever use it).

Unfortunately the DAC can't be used with the Galaxy Nexus, but the amp does make the sound more bearable, especially when turning up the volume(on the Amp).

Now for the Nexus 4, I tried it first straight into the phone and I was really impressed by the sound, subjectively I thought it was really good. Using the amp and Nexus 4, I felt like the amp made it sound slightly better but I think that was just some placebo because there really wasn't any discernible difference.

I have not tried to go from using the DAC on the E7+laptop to just the phone but I will at some point. I expect the laptop+DAC to sound a bit better, but not by much; I am biased towards the E7 in my expectations so it may not be at all.

tl;dr To me the N4 sounds worlds better than the GN with my Klipsch X10's.
[Nexus 4 General] [hfm]:
Not quoting that large post but I agree. N4 sounds better than the GNex. I use Klipsch s4a with comply foam tips.
[Nexus 4 General] noobdeagle:
car sound ? it sounds perfect in my car........streaming via bluetooth :p
[Nexus 4 General] bass++:
if the sq of this phone is really better than others, then good for Google and LG, but i have been so disappointed in smartphone sq that i already bought another Cowon player. i don't care about not having DSLR camera quality, but i bought expensive headphones and listen to lossless. i am actually glad i got a pmp again because now i can be ok with 16gb of storage! :good:
[Nexus 4 General] alpha beta gaga:
off topic i know but which cowon did you get? i'm thinking of doing the same : )
[Nexus 4 General] raptir:
I have a pair of ATH-m50s, which have 38ohm impedance, and the Nexus 4 powers them with no issue. I've seen everything from 35-45ohms quoted for the Beats Studio, but they should be fine.
[Nexus 4 General] PlanBSTi:
Just wondering does the music player actually makes a difference? I might rebuy poweramp again if that's the case. I'm not a EQ guy. I prefer not using it as I find it takes away a bit of the quality.
[Nexus 4 General] alpha beta gaga:
word of warning. if using play music, poweramp does not 'see' those files stored locally
[Nexus 4 General] [hfm]:
I stopped using power amp once play got gapless. That was the only feature keeping me from switching.
[Nexus 4 General] dcdttu:
I have the same issue. I have a custom stereo in my Civic Si that maxes out at 40. With my GSM Galaxy Nexus at near full volume, I could comfortably listen to music with the car's volume at around 15. At 25 I could make my ears bleed.

On the Nexus 4 at FULL volume I can easily turn my car all the way up to 40 and it still isn't that loud.

They need to adjust this, big time. I've never experienced a phone that was so incredibly quiet.
[Nexus 4 General] djemgee:
Thanks a lot matey, puts my mind at rest! Roll on delivery date
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
You don't need to eq but if you understand frequency charts and how to compensate with an eq you need to boost your higher frequencies. I forgot where the rolloff is exactly, the Qualcomm sound chip rolls off in the higher spectrum.

I voided my warranty.
[Nexus 4 General] chrondroid:
I previously owned iPhone 4 and then SG3 which I was using Klipsch S4's for many months (about 13 in total now)

The iPhone 4 was great overall although I found the highs were a bit harsh but other than that, the volume was always strong and more than enough, when I upgraded to the SG3 I noticed a small difference in sound quality and had to have the volume up a bit louder than the iphone to hit the volumes I was getting previously. The EQ on the SG3 however was horrid. When you tried to boost the bass it would hit a limit and suddenly instead of boosting low freqz it would simply reduce high freq. All I could think of was "wtf?". In terms of overall quality the iPhone was trumping my S3 and I was a little surprised. Please note that for both I used stock music player.

Fast forward to the last 2 weeks after I sold my S3 and bought the N4 and I couldn't be happier. The EQ works properly and the sound is as good and as balanced if not more than the iPhone 4. Definitely better than S3. The only thing is the volume doesn't go as high as the iPhone did. For which I don't care anyway, the Klipsch s4 are very clear and bright with deep bass so I really don't need to push it more than this anyway.
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
The Wolfson 1811 is a couple of notches better than the wcd9310. The wcd9310 noise floor is high and doesn't produce as much volume.

I voided my warranty.
[Nexus 4 General] dagaetch:
for anyone using Poweramp with the N4, can you share your EQ settings? I don't really understand the frequency charts and all that, I'm just looking for the best natural sound. Thanks!
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
i forgot where i saw the frequency chart but it was pretty flat and only rolled off at the higher frequencies. without the chart i can only give advice from a mental image. boost your 4k a hair, your 8k a little more, and 16k a couple more notches. you'll notice you're frequency chart at the bottom should have a gradient ramping up. to boost bass a little, notch up the 31, 62 and 125 to personal tastes. but that won't give natural sound. if somebody can give the measurements or find the graph posted online you can get a better eq.
[Nexus 4 General] sqs1shu:
I use Klipsch S4 as well, N4 is pretty good with it. I used an iRiver (spell?) PMP before so I have something to compare. gsmarena review is out and it confirmed my experience in area of audio quality, very good. Happy with my new toy :) for the money. Let me just say N4 has weak points in other areas, but for the money, nothing beats it.
[Nexus 4 General] i.l.p:
It will depend to a great extent on which headphones you're using, i'm using Sennheiser IE7's and all i need to do is turn up the treble dial about half way, just mess with the treble dial and you'll get somewhere near neutral.
[Nexus 4 General] -Mindroid-:
GSMarena benchmarks

GSMarena posted audio benchmarks.

http://www.gsmarena.com/google_nexus_4-review-860p8.php

The GS3 and iPhone5 are about 8dB louder which more than double.

Other than the that the sound quality measures great.
[Nexus 4 General] porkchopbolt:
You won't be disappointed. Great volume levels with the phone using beats :thumbup:
[Nexus 4 General] kayateia:
Same problem here. The audio is so quiet that it's nearly unusable. I'm so sad because audio playback in the car is a core function of a mobile device for me, and with my N4 turned up all the way, Play Music's EQ maxed out, and the car stereo turned so loud that the static almost drowns out the music, it's just unusable. My stereo receiver at my house has a similar issue -- ~35 for the average audio source for a good volume, 50+ for my N4.

I've had such good luck with my N4 compared to the common flaws, I guess I had to hit one sooner or later.
[Nexus 4 General] red12355:
Get a $20-30 amp or something. Not an ideal solution, but it works.
[Nexus 4 General] kayateia:
No, it's not an acceptable solution. How many separate devices and dongles and power sources do I need to have to use this phone as it was intended? First USB OTG (which may still yet not work with the external power anyway), and now something as fundamental as the audio output.

I did a less qualitative test on my home stereo. It's not super high end, but it's not cheapo either. I took an iPod Touch 2nd gen and loaded the same song, same MP3, on both devices. Built in music player on the iPod, PowerAmp on the N4. EQ was off/flat. Both devices were set for maximum volume output. I found a comfortable listening level for the iPod at a volume setting of 40 on my amp. I switched to the N4, and it sounded like that faint hold music you hear on the phone. I had to boost the amp's volume to 53 to get a similar level. I switched back and forth a few times to make sure I wasn't off. 53 on the iPod was painfully loud.

This amp is able to be turned up that much with no distortion or static, of course, so for watching things on home theatre once the SlimPort cable comes out, it'll be okay. But e.g. it's been worthless in the car, one of my major use cases. YouTube, Netflix, and Play Music have all exhibited a volume issue on the speakerphone too, so I don't think it's related to the headphone jack only. Even connecting to a Bluetooth Jawbone Jambox caused me to have to boost the volume way up on the Jambox to get a similar sound output as my Nexus S or netbook. On the other hand, switching the volume on the N4 and hearing the beeps to guide on the volume were plenty loud.

So I think this is a software failure for media stream output. I'm hoping that's the case anyway. I really don't want to have to RMA :(
[Nexus 4 General] Explore3:
One of the speaker boost apps might work in the car.
[Nexus 4 General] kayateia:
I played a bit with EQs in PowerAmp and Play Music, boosted them all the way up. The audio was noticeably flattened (so it was working) but it wasn't any louder. I think it's hitting a limit in what changing the audio stream can do.

I'm not sure how the volume booster apps work, but I guess the main one people use (Volume+) doesn't work on JB. So.. no good :( Can anyone make a recommendation of something to try?

Apparently some people in the Google Code bug report are starting to request (and be granted) RMAs over the issue. So whether it's a hardware issue or not, it's getting some recognition now. 'Course RMA means dealing with Google CSRs and Google shipping and fulfilment so yeah.. :eek:
[Nexus 4 General] bigmase521:
Try the BEATS+XLOUDER! 4.2.1 [07/12/12] JB Louder Audio Improvement Patch

Had also been experiencing the low volume output but clearly it's a software problem. I found this about a week ago: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2025486

Works great, sounds great, increases the volume by ~7dB, and has great EQ's + effects. Have it working just fine with PowerAmp, just need to turn off "Direct Volume Control" in PowerAmp Settings > Audio > Advanced Tweaks.

People have posted a bunch of examples in the thread for settings, just play around with them and tweak to your liking. My N4 sounds great in the car via line in finally, but then I also bought this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i00

Sounds GREAT over bluetooth and so much louder. Can barely turn it up past 10 without blowing my ears out and the sound quality is MUCH better than the line in I had been using for years. Also don't have to take the bumper off my phone every time I get in the car. Best $40 I've spent in awhile and mad at myself that I didn't do it earlier.
[Nexus 4 General] kayateia:
I'll have to try that, thanks!

I've done some more testing, and I'm not really sure what to think at this point. I plugged in some earbuds (hadn't done that, actually, since I don't usually) and less than half volume was enough to be uncomfortable. It seems like at this point the only thing that's having trouble adapting to my N4's low volume is the car, so I may just focus on finding a way to fix that if the software tweak doesn't do it. It's less onerous to have extra stuff ride around in there than to have to carry it with me.
[Nexus 4 General] :
There was a Nexus device fix for this somewhere around here.. Nexus Louder, I think it was! Not 100% sure, but I'll let you all know if I can find it.
[Nexus 4 General] SpawN-:
Am I the only one to find the sound of videos really too acute ?
[Nexus 4 General] ssnr:
I actually didn't find the sound that bad I recorded a video with loud music playing. During the play back the sound wasn't bleeding my ears compared to my old HTC lol
[Nexus 4 General] kayateia:
I did try the Nexus Louder (linked before) and found that it helps. This is really nice. The volume is still quiet, but it's better than it was, and I find that it's usable in the car now too. I still have to turn the car audio up a little way, but it works.
[Nexus 4 General] dario3040:
Well, it sounds a lot better than the Galaxy Nexus/Nexus S for sure.

Not bad Qualcomm, not bad.
[Nexus 4 General] heat361:
The sound is great with the beats equalizer turned up. Sound was clear and loud specially when enabling the dynamic range.
[Nexus 4 General] rumthin:
The sound through bluetooth and plugging headphones directly into the device is nice and loud. Unfortunately, I have to jack the volume up really high when I plug it into my car.

I'll probably end up buying an aux amp and leaving it in my car...
[Nexus 4 General] mycrownvic02:
My nexus arrives monday. I have a feeling that I will need to pick up a fiio e6. I use grado sr125i's headphones. While they do have a low impedence, they aren't as easy to push as most closed cans,becasue they are open. My friends ipod pushes them great though,.. I hope I can get some good volume from the N4 though. Well see..
[Nexus 4 General] biffsmash:
Sound quality is excellent on the phone, unfortunately the volume is far too low. No mods seem to do much about that and there are no kernels out that I know of that help either :~(
[Nexus 4 General] Chughes13x:
SR225i's here, Grados FTW! And if you need an amp I suggest you check out the PA2V2, they're made custom to each order and the customer service is the best you will ever see. Theyre only $75 and drive my SR225i's well.
[Nexus 4 General] svengalis:
Do you have to be rooted to use this?
[Nexus 4 General] mycrownvic02:
^^ Im going to try that louder audio improvement once my phone comes in, and yes you have to be rooted..
[Nexus 4 General] Globespy:
I guess i must be hearing impaired as my etymotic er-4p are way way lower volume than my old vibrant.......even using poweramp the volume is way too low even at max.
[Nexus 4 General] biffsmash:
The nexus volume output is, when compared to the HTC One X, 25% quieter than that phone.

I've used SGS3 headphones, technics and sennheiser, all of which blow my ears on my SGS3, but are very very quiet on this phone.

The Nexus louder mod, does not work with other apps, i.e. youtube app, and the general volume of the phone, e.g. ringtones is not increased with it either.

If you do use the Noosy music player that comes with the mod, you can get that louder through headphones and speaker, but it;s still only using EQ settings, and isn't actually louder.

We desperately need a dev to increased the volume from the phones from the core somehow, as it's far far too quiet.

I tried to use some Technics over the ear headphones on my Nexus and could hardly hear anything out of them, even though they blow my ears on my SGS3 :(

Thank god I don't use this phone as a music player.
[Nexus 4 General] spile:
Does the stock player on the Nexus not support FLAC?
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
I believe the wdc931p supports FLAC natively. Doesn't do 192/24 though.

Sent from my GT-N7100
[Nexus 4 General] Blaiz:
Hi Bigmase521

I can't get the Amazon link to work could you please tell me what that product name is I am interested in a similar solution.

Cheers,

Blaiz
[Nexus 4 General] Adam Hui:
How about this supercurio's opinions :

https://twitter.com/supercurio/status/285076728181841920

https://twitter.com/supercurio/status/285079559483842560)

Imo he's still da best dev in multimedia...:rolleyes:
[Nexus 4 General] codecurmudgeon:
Yes, the audio is good, I just wish the internal speakers and microphone were up to the same level. Internal speakers are very tinny and too quiet, and the microphone is incapable of recording live rock music. :crying:
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
Wow. I thought the earpiece was almost good enough to use as loudspeaker in a quiet environment and the loudspeaker itself is quite good. Only the atrix is the only phone I would give a nod to above n4 because it actually had a little bass. And the microphone seems to be pretty good. It could be the noise cancelation disallowing you from recording something like live music. Noise cancelation tends to have some side effects for other purposes besides calls. It was very hard to make a call in my truck with n4 auxiliary out. Gain was too low. And my gnote2, I can make a call using my speakers on auxiliary but I have to talk really loud and directly to my phone. It is bothersome on longer calls but not too bad on a quick call. The n4 needs more output to the auxiliary jack and it would not be so shabby.

Sent from my GT-N7100
[Nexus 4 General] ruzkay:
In my opinion the audio quality on the n4 isn't good at all

It is acceptable but on my old desire the quality was better (the n4 has less hiss but is less clear)

U cant actually tell the difference between flac and mp3s on the n4 at least i cant (ha fx 40 headphones nothing special but they do give crystal clear audio with the right device)
[Nexus 4 General] codecurmudgeon:
Well what I'm comparing with is an iPhone 4s and an iPhone 5. Each of them is louder and clearer than the Nexus 4, the iPhone5 demonstrably so. I was surprised by this, since Apple has a very poor track record on speakers, even in their computers.
[Nexus 4 General] mELIANTE:
From someone that is still waiting to buy a Nexus4:

Having a Nexus S with Voodoo Sound, how does it compare? The clarity and power on my Nexus S is on par with the best I ever heard, how does the N4 behave? I don't want to lose on sound quality. I'm moving to a big city soon and I need my high sound quality with me while commuting in the public transport . :(
[Nexus 4 General] Globespy:
As a fellow voodoo sound lover on my old vibrant, it's tough to go backwards after supercurios work.

Truth is that you will be disappointed if you are looking for apples to apples comparison.

There are a couple of options (Google play music app with awesome beats or noozy player with eizo rewire), however whilst the sound quality on noozy is actually very good, it lacks the volume of voodoo sound on the Wolfson chip. Google play music with awesome beats has the volume power, but sound is not as quality as noozy.

Poweramp has blocked compatibility with any 3rd part EQ's/DSP's so whilst it was my favorite app, it's no longer used as the volume is to weak for my tastes on the N4.

I love my N4 but can only hope that Google fixes the very low volume (4.2.1) in the next release 4.2.2... But that's a big maybe.

If you don't want to compromise, buy a GS3, root it with custom voodoo supporting kernel and enjoy voodoo sound. It will never be on the nexus 4.

But for an unlocked phone you will pay almost twice as much for the GS3, and the N4 is a better device all round in my opinion if you can live with lower volume until the developers fix it.... Which I'm sure will happen at some point.
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
No gs3. Get a note2 for the extra ram. Trust me. And the note2 is about as perfect as a phone gets even with touchwiz. The same can not be said for the gs3 for quite a few reasons.

Sent from my GT-N7100
[Nexus 4 General] Globespy:
The US version of GS3 is limited by only 1GB of RAM, and whilst the international version has quad core and 2gb RAM, it can't operate on US bands so you will be stuck with evo/3g speeds. The nexus 4 is quad core with 2gb ram, and has support for the 1900mhz band which is the international standard for 4G/LTE and is being rolled out on US networks such as T-Mobile in coming months.

As for the Note 2, sure it's a nice product, but to call it a 'phone' is debatable.

Unless you have hillbilly dungaree pants, don't expect it to fit in your jean pockets!

It's a mini tablet, not a typical phone. That's why I have a tablet and a separate phone.

And personally I think it would look ridiculous holding something close to the size of the latest amazon paper bright kindle book reader up to your ear as a 'phone'...lol. You could use Bluetooth I suppose, but as a phone you have to definitely consider it's awkward size. The GS3 is quite a large phone, my girlfriend has one and I find it absolutely on the large side. A note 2 is a brick compared to the GS3.

Each to his own, just make sure you buy Jethro pants if you go the note 2 route.

;)
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
The note2 is fine. The size hasn't hasn't bothered me and parachute pants are not needed.

Sent from my GT-N7100
[Nexus 4 General] Globespy:
It is a huge device to call a "phone", at least IMO.

A picture speaks a thousand words, and I already think that the GS3 is a large phone - I'm pretty sure that it's about the largest and most popular phone at the moment. The Note 2 is much larger. Not knocking it as a very useful mini-tablet but I don't think many people will relish the idea of holding this beast to their ear sitting in a busy coffee shop. And forget about trying to conceal it whilst driving if you forget to hook up bluetooth, that's an accident waiting to happen. :)

http://db.tt/bA4zCYmS
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
I am not ashamed of my phone. Never had a car phone but I had a couple big nokia bricks back in the day. The note2 is child's play.

Sent from my GT-N7100
[Nexus 4 General] -Mindroid-:
Great for headphones

Overall I would rate the sound of the Nexus4 as "usable".

The speaker sounds thin, it distorts easy and doesn't go loud enough.

The microphone is unusable for audio recording, most likely due to the gain being too high.

However phone calls seem to work OK and I'd say they are pretty clear.

People report problems with bluetooth music streaming. I didn't test that but handsfree BT phone calls work fine.

With headphones however, the Nexus4 is great! I wasn't expecting much so I was very surprised

when I first tried it. The stock music player sounds pretty good but the Apollo Music Player

takes it to another level. Does anyone know what audio engine Apollo uses?
[Nexus 4 General] Globespy:
LOL - I remember them (showing my age here).

No worries mate, each to their own. Just trying to help the previous poster get all the information to make the right purchase for him.

I'm considering a Note 2 or Nexus 7 as my Asus Transformer is getting a little old (despite running JB quite well). I just couldn't see it as my dedicated daily cell phone, more a device to catch up on work/email etc whilst traveling. I would probably get the wife only version (like I do with all my tablets), then tether to my unlimited data plan on my phone when I'm not close to a wifi connection.

---------- Post added at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------

I need to check out Apollo player. Didn't like the interface last time I tried it, but if the sound is good its worth a second look.

I have found the speakerphone on my N4 too loud, no problems at all with it. I haven't tried the mic recording so can't comment.
[Nexus 4 General] @rbiter:
The note2 isn't really that big for a phone. I've seen lots of girls with them. The size should only be a problem depending on pants or purse used and or job conditions. The note2 is a stretch for my job conditions but I have managed quite well. I imagine 5" will look pretty darn cute when I start phone shopping again.

Sent from my GT-N7100
[Nexus 4 General] pifsworld:
I listen to a lot of music threw my mobile devices my ip4 then ip5 and the nexus 4 has great sound that I wasn't expecting, I'm using sennheiser cx40011.
[Nexus 4 General] ayang02:
AlsaMixer updated for Nexus 4 support

I've noticed that AlsaMixer has been updated in the Android Market to support Nexus 4. Anyone here know how to tweak those settings? I wish there's this high performance mode like in the Galaxy Nexus....
[Nexus 4 General] MoooN:
Speaking of sound

Has anyone got ac!d mod running

I miss it so from my sgs2

Really need to get it running here but it always fcs
[Nexus 4 General] dark5un0:
Question

Any chance you could tell me if the CLI functionality worked with the Nexus 4 & MW600? Does it show the name or only the number?