[Xperia Z3 General] RockStar2005:
Know your MP3 quality before judging the Z3..........................

To those who complain about hearing distortion, I think what must be addressed is the fact that if you play lower quality mp3s on your device, the odds of hearing distortion will increase significantly. My own definition of "lower quality mp3s" is if the encoding/bit rates of your mp3s are below 256 kbps (kilobytes per second); anything at 256 kbps or higher will sound noticeably better (320 kbps is the highest quality mp3 bit rate in existence). One way you can tell is when you hear drum cymbals at like 128 kbps vs 320 kbps, the ones at 128 kbps will sound like they're being played underwater. lol

This pretty solid Z3 review by Forbes Magazine includes a section reviewing the phone's audio capabilities:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/09/21/sony-xperia-z3-review/

An excerpt from that audio section further explains my point:

I found that at high volumes the speakers were slightly too loud when on my desk, but also the distortion level was noticeable. Part of that will be the encoding of my MP3 collection, as the alert tones

are far clearer and do not suffer from the same distortion

(presumably these use the Hi-Res Audio built-in to Sony’s flavour of the OS). With most people listening to music through the speakers you might want to look at higher encoding rates on your MP3 collection if you can. Sony does attempt to upscale the fidelity of MP3 and AAC files but

if the initial MP3 is poorly coded it can’t work miracles

.

So there you go. What that means is check the bit rates of the songs you download. If they're below 256 (though higher is better), try to find other sources to download from. iTunes Store typically sells mp3s at 256 (used to be 192), which is fine, but I would check maybe Amazon or even other sites for higher bit rate mp3s. The site I use only charges like 10-16 cents a song (though you have to prepay), and they typically have 320 kbps versions of the songs available, especially newer songs. That site is: http://www.iomoio.com/index.html. They have a HUGE library of songs, and if you prepay a certain amount or more (see site for details), they give you bonus credits that could take years to use up. lol I've been using them for some time now with no problems! Now, if one album by an artist doesn't have 320 kbps, check other albums by that same artist or band (like a greatest hits album etc that may have the same songs on them too), and there you may find the same songs but at higher bit rates (FYI).

I should also add that although Hi-Res seems to be automatic on the Z3, the DSEE HX option (to make low-res mp3s sound better) however apparently has an on/off switch in the Sound settings, and I think the default for it is off. So you may have to switch it on manually. See short official Sony video here for a visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjRAQ6AlmII&list=PL7CrlqRu8QgSi_gVXBYdLAvF-4YZFN8jn&index=19

P.S. Ok this is only somewhat related, but this video was simply too cool NOT to share with you guys........... :cool: enjoy lol:

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/sony-xperia-z3-underwater-unboxing-26-09-2014/

RockStar2005