[Xperia Z3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] RockStar2005:
Free,

My recommendation would be to leave BOTH on, no matter the type of "phones" you use. At least "Studio" in Surround Sound for sure, as that IMHO does way more for the sound than DSEE HX does. However, try listening to your mp3s with DSEE on and off and see which one sounds better to you. I leave DSEE on b/c it seems to help with my mp3s by "opening up" or unleashing the sound more. Although like 98% of my mp3s are 320 kbps (best quality for mp3s), they're

still mp3s

. lol Meaning, they're still lossy (and compressed). FLACs (CD-Quality or Hi-Res) are compressed too but they're also lossless (no sound data is lost or kept out) so no difference.......they just take up less space than uncompressed song files (i.e. WAV, WMA) do.

Please feel free to post back here after running that test and let us know what you think.

RockStar2005

---------- Post added at 07:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:56 AM ----------

Abhinav,

The first article seems to insinuate that DSEE HX only helps when you use mp3s, though I'm not 100% sure it doesn't help CD-Quality FLAC tracks. I'll assume it doesn't since they're also (still) lossless.

The second article is well-written, but in the end, I go by what I hear, not what I read. It might have a point about 192KHz being too high...... but when I compared a Led Zeppelin track (Babe I'm Gonna Leave You) in mp3 (320 kbps) vs a Hi-Res 24-bit/96KHz FLAC version (using my Z3 ((ClearAudio+ and Dyn Norm off, EQ Off, Clear Bass up max of +10, and "Stereo" Surround Sound option enabled.......PowerAmp on "Rock" EQ preset, Tone and Limit both off)), FiiO E11k amp, and Sennheiser HD 598 premium headphones), the difference was profound to me. I could hear every instrument on its own in the Hi-Res FLAC version........ there was no "stepping on the toes" of other instruments. The mp3 version was also more bassy in a bad way which muddied up the sound, esp the vocals. It was quiter too, also in a bad way, which means I had to put up the volume, which meant being closer to that dreaded "max volume hiss". The Hi-Res version was already louder (which is where the 24-bits help because I believe it means a higher volume output than what 16-bits does), and so I didn't need to raise the volume up as high to hear it clearly.

My cousin noticed the difference too (on his Beats), though not nearly as much as I did, but he also went to a lot of heavy metal concerts back in the day. I did not. lol Now a good question to ask is, would I notice a difference b/t a CD-Quality FLAC (16-bit/44.1KHz) vs a 24/96 FLAC for the same song? I'm not sure. Maybe, maybe not. I didn't understand all of the second article, nor do I have time to read it all right now (school and work), but I did skim/read a great deal of it. I agree it is likely you won't notice a difference as you go "higher" into Hi-Res, but anything that beats what mp3s put out is worth all of our time IMO.

Thanks,

RockStar2005

---------- Post added at 07:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 AM ----------

Augie,

Well said. Everyone's preferences are different, as well as everyone's equipment. So we all should just experiment and see what's best. But it doesn't hurt to read up on what ppl say b/c sometimes others may notice things you don't, and that could make all the difference.

And thanks for the compliment! Much appreciated. I'm glad if anyone and everyone on here benefits from any info I may share in these forums.

Thanks,

RockStar2005

---------- Post added at 07:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 AM ----------

Abhinav,

I simply compare what DSEE HX does to mp3s to what my blu-ray player does to my DVDs.......... it upscales them from 480p to 1080p, but does that make them look as good as the same content does when played from a blu-ray disc? Nope! But it still beats the original 480p version (not upscaled). That is why I leave my DSEE on........ and most ppl listen to mp3s (unfortunately) as do I, and for them, going back and taking the songs from a CD is a lot of work, expensive, and time consuming. So for those reasons I think DSEE is still great because it at least gives them somewhat better quality. Anything that makes an mp3 sound better is wonderful in my book! lol

Yes, great discussion!

Thanks,

RockStar2005