[Nexus 7 General] jubei_mitsuyoshi:
I have been working on a custom rom for my own peronal requirements, namly

1) low memory use

2) The best true hi-fi sound possible from a nexus 7

3) Getting the most data onscreen as possible

I decided to share my findings in hope that other more knowledgeable can point me in the right direction for my next step :)

1) The lowest memory use rom ( flashed as stock, ie no extra mods and kernel that came with the mod ) i have tried ( having tried about 20 different roms, 32 if you include updates ) is the Vanir based PRIME rom by prime directive

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2098139

As standard that reads an average of 400mb on a newly installed system ( after a full wipe including internal sd data ).

Obviously apps squew these statistics so tests are done with only the OS going, ie no app loaded. In my tests i used a custom gapps with only framework,login,setup,and phonesky, later i integrated those into my test rom.

Now if we flash a trinity ( alpha3 1700oc ) or Omega kernel that goes down to approx 300mb

Now if we load Rom Toolbox Pro, and advanced freeze the crappy google services from playstore and framework ( and freeze the downloaded services altogether ) this goes down to 270mb ( and no loss of function in playstore )

On my test system with the test rom i am using ( incorporating all the above and including multirom ) and 60+ apps ( mainly programming engineering git etc some autostarting ) i am running at 344mb ( measured through settings>apps>running ) or 260mb measured through Trickster mod.

2) I have found combining the KingBeats alsa binaries with V4A frontend gives the best sound in 2 scenarios.

a) Listening through high quality headphones, obviously you will be listening to FLAC's or raw WAVES ( maybe some of the other more esoteric lossless compressors ) and you DO NOT WANT any undue post processing of the digital audio stream ( ie equalizers and various audio effects which claim to "enhance" the sound ) so you use Andless ( which i have now included in my test rom ) which hits alsa directly bypassing the entire android audio enhancement chain. This with the much improved alsa binaries this gives the best sound possible with the on-board electronics.

b) Listening to radio etc through external portable speakers, Bluetooth or equivalent, or listening through crap headphones. Here quality counts less than portability and convenience and big benefits can be gained from post processing the audiostrem, so you are probably listening to streamed MP3 or AAC and possibly further streaming to a Bluetooth device over a VERY low bandwidth link, In this situation i use the included V4A settings util, which seems to be the best in this genera, just turn it on and play with the many settings till you get the mix you desire, this will in no way interfere with the sound quality from andless

3) I have my dpi cranked up to 140 and use my little finger and a stylus, i would like to go further and use desktop mode ( available from trhe power menu ) permanently, unfortunately There is a bug with the pie controls, and pie is not great anyway, so i am looking at integrating this project http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1788518

which has a really sweet touch navigation interface

I know my way round C a bit, lots of linux distro experience, not bad at bash, zero java :)

What do you guys think is my next step, do i need to learn some java and get hands dirty or can i find what am after out there somewhere :)