[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] obladi64:
Hi,

I have faced to the same link reading several forums included this.

https://twitter.com/supercurio/status/334683618439987200

I though it is not good and also we really can say that it is shame from Samsung. Then I though that after all it is not high end audio system it is just a "phone". Seeing Samsung reaction (nothing) I had to realize that problem won't be solved soon and I (we) have to live together this facility. So it is time to check what is the reality, how ""fuked" "cr@p" this up-sampling is in Samsung. I would have liked to know what it mens for me in practice. Do I really need to worry about the quality ruin?

I did conversion between 44.1 and 48 up and down sometimes due several reason in the past but I did not experienced obvious quality ruin although I didn't search for ti. Now I will. First of all I made a quick example and covert a song up and down three time by using the worst option in Sound Forge 10. The result was terrible. Even my granny could distinguish it with shut ears. Okey it is one more reason to check what this up-sampler causes in the phone.

I chose a 96/24 DTS-MA source for this purpose. I used same record earlier to check the difference between 48 and 96 kHz audio. Many instruments can be found in this record, like piano trumpet orchestra vocal acoustic and electric bass and drums together with many others. So it looked an good example again. I created 48/24, 48/16, 44.1/16 tracks from the original. If it would be important for someone I used iZotope Mbit + Dither and IZotope 64-bit SRC for conversion with the possible best option.

I was interested what I will hear with built in audio and Neutron too. Firstly I checked 48/24 and 96/24 against 48/16. Shortly nothing but it was expected since DAC input always 48/16 bit in Android or S4 as I read it.

Then the more interesting part came. 48/16 against 44.1/16. Well I spend hours with it. When I though that I caught it at last I had to be disappointed in every case when try to distinguish them without knowing what I was listening.

I am almost sure that I could distinguish if I used better headphone, if I had better ears or if I used other records may be but I am also sure that "fuked" and "cr@p" up-sampler is not so "fuked" and "cr@p" at all. On this level at all. May be you can distinguish and can hear the up-sampler effect in a silent room in a silent evening with an high end headphone but try to do same without knowing the current source. If you can hit it 8 times of 10 then please let me know.

Ohh the headphone what I used is the previously mentioned AKG 518. It is not high end but not bad. Further I did not used any tone equalizer or similar childish toys. Only pure linear sound.

So the verdict is that 44.1->48 up-sampler can be disturbing and audible feature (not just) in i9500 theoretically but in practice it is not recognizable among ordinary circumstances with average good headphone. You have to focus on it very much with high end headphone too if you want to hear anything and if you have to focus it could not be so "fuked" right.

I ask all of you if you fell like please repeat the same test on your phone too. I try to share tracks. You can find the 16 bit tracks here.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p513ytbbe97wemt/2hg9FV8fh6

If someone wants the 24 bit tracks too can be found here but checking them on phone doesn't make sense.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oxfyasvrxwtz4xp/h0YRxpc9ar

(Bass is acoustic in tracks A03 and A10 and electric in A08 and A14.)

I hope links work. I am sorry if not.