[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] CPA Poke:
UPDATE 6/3/13

As a flashaholic and a musician, I've been on the search for the perfect audio mod for my phone ever since I first rooted my device and realized such things even existed. I've tried them all, from AwesomeBeats to AC!D Audio, and I've had generally good experiences with them.

However, I did some research and found out that the "conglomeration" of all the different apps and mods within each of them may actually be conflicting with each other to the point that the clarity/bass/quality may actually be getting limited or reduced. (I encourage you to read the info posted in the source threads below, as they offer an interesting insight into how their respective mods work, and what makes them different from the "all-in-one" mods like AC!D)

After using AC!D for a long time, I began to foray into some other options that have recently been developed by the genius folks in the XDA community...and ended up stumbling upon this combination of mids pretty much by chance. However, the instant I landed on it I completely abandoned my seemingly never ending search for the perfect audio mod (or at least the perfect combination, as AC!D seemed to have a different effect (therefore requiring different tweak setups) on every ROM I flashed.

When I flashed MegaBassBeatsv3 only, the bass was ridiculous and grinding but everything else kinda took the back seat (losing some of the mids and highs that make certain songs... Radiohead's Amnesiac and OKComputer albums, for example). When I flashed Viper only, I had a fantastic spectrum of sound and clarity but the bass was lacking (ineffective for the dubstep and rap songs that I may or may not listen to on occasion).

So, even though both mods didn't really advise users to combine with other mods, I figured what the hell. Installed them both, and sweet Jesus - best sound quality I've ever had on both Bluetooth (in my car) and headphones. This was also a frustration I was having with AC!D, that sometimes it would work great in my car but then it would be iffy on my headphones...other times it would be the opposite.

Just some minor EQ tweaks on PowerAmp, and I can now sit back and listen to an infinite array of music genres, on both Bluetooth and headphones, and not have to give a second thought to tweaking anything after my initial setup (of which I set up on Viper and Poweramp only once, and then restore data on those two apps from my Nandroid backups using TiBu).

NOTE: In no way am I a developer, and I had ZERO to do with the actual building of these mods - the mods below are 100% the intellectual property of their respective contributors (see the links below for the original threads on XDA) - I am simply trying to share my setup with others to hopefully improve their music listening experience like mine has.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. You must be rooted.

2. I would RECOMMEND being on ICS firmware or above. I have implemented this mod successfully on both stock ICS ROMs as well as every 4.2+ ROM that is currently available for our device (EDIT: Although I no longer have this device, this mod has been reported working on JB-Official 4.1.2), I just haven't tried on GB. You're welcome to try, I just won't attest to its effectiveness as I have not tried it. Just make sure you grab the appropriate mods based on ICS or JB (there are links to both below).

3. I have been using PowerAmp (available on the Play Store) the entire time I've tested these. Not sure how other players would handle them, but you're welcome to try. If you do use PowerAmp, make sure (a) the Direct Volume Control (DVC) option is switched OFF, and (b) make sure the "enable MusicFX" is turned ON. Google is your friend if you don't know how to do either one of those.

4. All the usual stuffs, you assume the risk, I'm not responsible (nor are the original devs) if you brick your phone, or if you pass out while driving due to the overload of beautiful music coming from your speakers, yadda yadda.

I've attempted to make it super easy to flash by baking both mods into a 4.2.2 AOSP-based (that is very important - don't flash this package if you are on ANY stock ROM) GAPPs package that I flash on each wipe. There is a link to this package below...in which I also have Google Keep and the new Play Store apk in here, as well as some of the other apps that I don't use (Google+, etc) taken out because I always use TiBu to remove them anyway. If you aren't one to flash random zips, feel free to open them up and then open up the original mod zips from the threads below...nothing more added than what's in there. EDIT: It's been a little while since I've updated this, so some of the apps in the package may be outdated.

4.2.2 GAPPs: http://db.tt/FNI7lVgo

ViperFX apk (update v2208):

http://d-h.st/Ctm

UPDATED 6/3/13

Extract the "ViPER4Android_FX_2208_Android4.x_en.zip" from the zip you downloaded above (yes, you read that correctly). Then extract the contents of this zip to your sdcard, and navigate to the extracted files. Click on the "ViPER4Android_FX.apk" file and proceed with installation as you would any other downloaded app.

Instructions:

1. Flash your ROM (clean install preferred...if not just wipe cache/dalvik-cache, dirty flash your current ROM, then flash the GAPPs)

2.Flash GAPPs

3. (ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT USING MY CUSTOM GAPPS) Flash MegaBassBeats.

4. (IF YOU USED MY CUSTOM GAPPS) Install the ViperFX app (only that one, not the XHiFi one that you'll find in the thread below as I didn't have much luck with both of them installed at once).

5. Install *updated 6/3* Viper apk from link above. No need to follow any additional instructions like before, just install the app, choose the Neon9 driver when prompted, and reboot. It's as simple as that now :)

6. DELETE MusicFX.apk from /system/app. DELETE DSPManager.apk from /system/app.

7. Reboot.

8. If you want to replicate my Viper setup, see the link below to a flashable zip I made that SHOULD give you the settings on Viper that I've had success with. ONLY flash that file after you've installed Viper.

9. Also, download this file (http://www.mediafire.com/?9am1sogfq9lm31d ), create the following folder path ( /sdcard/ViPER4Android/Kernel/ ) if it doesn't exist already, then extract the convolver files in the linked zip to the "Kernel" folder in order to enable the Convolver. Two important things to note when doing this: (1) make sure sure the names of the folders are EXACTLY as listed above. If either one isn't spelled correctly, then Viper will not be able to find the files to use in processing. (2) It will not work if you place the files on your external sd card ("/external_sd/", "/storage/sdcard1/"). Depending on which firmware you're running, the correct path will look like "/mnt/sdcard/", "/storage/sdcard0/", or just "/sdcard/" if you're using Root Explorer.

Here are links to the respective threads so you can play around if you'd like:

MBB v3 (for JB ROMs):

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=31204141

MBB v2 (for ICS ROMs):

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=33013589

Viper:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=39156703

So here is the zip that you can flash AFTER you install the Viper app itself that should give you the setup that I currently have for the app, if you wanted to at least start from there and tweak as you see fit based on your listening setup. (I just figured it took me a long time to finally get the right combo, I'd at least share it with everyone else to see if it would work for them)

http://db.tt/QRvCUlvp

Let me know if this works for you guys - again, I'm no dev by an means. But if you run into any issues with setting this up, feel free to post and I'll do my best to help. Or, if you have additional recommendations or experiences you'd like to share - they are welcome as well!