yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 6P General] hibby50:
First of all, I have nothing to say about the 6p's jack as i haven't used it yet and keep a small ipod in my car for music. I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile, but I am a music lover and have configured many many systems for my listening pleasure, and I gotta say man, you're missing out if you don't mess with software enhancement. You will never here music the way the artist intended unless he is playing right in front of you. Even if you have lossless flac files on the greatest system in the world, it still needs to be adjusted for the acoustics of the room its in and the position of the speakers. By the time it gets onto your phone it has been tweaked and mastered to the point that the artist probably didn't expect it to sound as it does. What if your speakers don't have loud mids or highs? you gotta turn them up to hear the closest thing to what the artist intended!'
[Nexus 6P General] Darkestred:
The headphone jack is not much better or worse than anything out there. It's no worse than my lg g2, sony xperia z3v or the moto x. Sound quality is good. Nothing more nothing less.

Used on this phone: Phonak pfe122, Vsonic Gr07 and the LZ-A2
[Nexus 6P General] droidguy22:
quoting from head-fi thread:

"Got a 32gb black graphite the audio quality is underwhelming to say the least. First thing I did was plug in HD650 just for kicks, that didn't go well as expected but I use it to test how powerful it is. Answer: not very. Which is fine.

Tried 3 iems and 3 headphones. ATH IM70, Xiaomi Piston 2, Sony H-3 and then M50X, Sony 7520, Shure 1540.

I like that selection for portable use because of the v shape with enhanced bass and very present highs. IM70 and H-3 are hissy with some players, very quiet here which is good but it just doesn't have any soundstage to it. The M50x is notorious for a small soundstage but I've found that properly amped they are pretty damn good in that department with great imaging, not so here. The Shures are easy to drive with my Nexus 6 and especially my Nexus 9 but the 6P simply can't do it. Sony 7520 are already boomy as it is which I like but on the 6p it is overkill and again the soundstage makes an already compromised headphone in that department even worse. Piston 2s aren't as detailed as they are on my Nexus 6 which is kinda the Pistons saving grace for a $20 iem. Overall I'm disappointed and am sending it back, these phones are already too big as it is without carrying extra gear. But the even tho it seems to be a very good phone, it doesn't really offer anything new to me as a previous Nexus 6 user. Fingerprint and camera I don't care about but the stereo speakers and headphone jack quality I do care about and the Nexus 6 is better in that department. Bigger screen and just as fast so I'm just not sure what I'm upgrading for exactly. Nexus 9 sounds better than both by a wide margin (except for crackling at higher volume steps which is annoying) and the nexus 5 was not great but it was certainly passable, ditto for Nexus 6. It's a shame Google regressed in this area. LG V-10 here I come.."
[Nexus 6P General] StephenMSmith:
Bluetooth is noticeably worse in my 6p than my previous G3 and G4, ostensibly due to lack of AptX. Does anyone know what bit rate this phone supports for A2DP?
[Nexus 6P General] anglerstock:
I am very happy with custom equalizer settings applied on poweramp. Device rocks.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
is that the poweramp equalizer or the OS built in one?
[Nexus 6P General] anglerstock:
Poweramp equalizer. Apply it for headphones, bluetooth and speakers and all is good.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
Yeah that's what I use. Inbuilt Equalizer is pants
[Nexus 6P General] maigre:
I appreciate the comments here about the 6P's audio issues. Something to consider if I get a new phone in the near future. I'd have bought the 6P without a moment's further thought had I not read this thread. Anyone tried Viper4Android or EXTREMEMusic with this phone? Does it help much if it works at all?
[Nexus 6P General] eep2378:
The Nexus 6 was pretty weak in terms of sound quality as well. I did use Viper with that device it made a big difference. I would imagine it would be similar with this device.

Sent from the Islet of Langerhans
[Nexus 6P General] syntrix:
Send from your pancreas? What?

Sound is average here, and I'll agree that the built in eq (play music) is crap. A good set of cans makes all the difference. :good: Guessing you need root for viper.
[Nexus 6P General] eep2378:
:) another medical professional here? Lol yeah you need root for Viper.

Sent from the Islet of Langerhans
[Nexus 6P General] syntrix:
No, just an observant citizen that is educated. Freakin' weird sig, unless maybe you are a diabetic.
[Nexus 6P General] eep2378:
Ha-ha. Your the first one that had mentioned it. Nice pick up :) lol. How bout this one? ?

Sent from the Nodes of Ranvier
[Nexus 6P General] syntrix:
OMFG, hahahahaha :) stop it! hahaha

Oh yeah, sound and stuff :)
[Nexus 6P General] zedmarcus:
My last couple of phones before this have been the HTC M8 and LG G4.

I've rooted and installed Viper4Android on the 6P and have to say that to my ageing ears, through my perfectly adequate (but not audiophile quality / priced) wired headphones, the sound quality is as good as or better than both of my previous phones. I've found a nice IRS sample from here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2439254 that I've applied, and can truly say that by tweaking V4A to my liking I am more than impressed with the sound I can get from it.

As others have said here, if you're looking for a extreme high end audiophile phone from which to enjoy your music, download your FLAC files, buy yourself an expensive pair of high end headphones, then buy yourself a phone with a good DAC which is capable of outputting music to a quality you will be happy with (such as the mentioned LG V10).

Look around and do some investigation before you buy something. Don't buy it, then ***** about the fact it hasn't got a, b or c, or doesn't do a, b, or c. You're not happy with it, maybe look harder before you buy your next one.
[Nexus 6P General] AhsanU:
Not sure what kind of music the OP listens to, but I listen to a lot of metal, and I can usually tweak EQ's to my liking. Scooped mids usually does the trick.

I'm not a major audiophile, but having recorded guitars professionally and things of that nature - it doesn't sound bad at all.
[Nexus 6P General] Timmyfoxeh:
To be honest.. I hear no difference with my Sennheiser HD650, Momentum nor IE80 in side-by-side testing between the Nexus 6P and HTC One M7 after adjusting the volume levels to be the same.

I also compared the Nexus 6P with aforementioned headphones and IEMs to the headphone output of my Yamaha RX-V773 as well as an O2+ODAC combo and uh.. no real difference there either.

I think any concerns about the audio quality should quite irrelevant as difference between different playback devices and software is miniscule so long there's no actual processing/modifications being done (i.e. DSP/EQ). The difference is in the actual music file as well as the headphones being used. As long as the processor is capable of decoding the file properly (in the case of a compressed file, including FLAC), the DAC is capable of processing that information and the amp is able to amplify it without any errors, the process should be completely transparent; Digital information goes in, equivalent analog audio comes out. The difference that is heard is probably a difference in amplitude, loudness, and not actual sound quality.

---

Perhaps try using a dB-meter to set the volume levels of your different devices to be exactly the same between each of the devices you're comparing, then have someone assist you in plugging your headphones into each of the devices in a random order to perform a true blind test and see if you can tell them apart?

I might add, by the way, that I don't trust much at all of what is said on Head-fi. That forum is filled with misinformation, confirmation bias and people claiming to hear and know things based on nothing but general assumption with no actual scientific information to back it up.
[Nexus 6P General] Chord_Hugo87:
not complaining about the headphone but the speaker seems like it too fragile, whenever I listen to anything with slightly lower quality (youtube) it peaks and crack....sure its clear any one know a good fix? I been seeing Viper4A but i am not sure if that is just for headphone or speaker too. any help would be appreciated.
[Nexus 6P General] habs101:
Well according to gsmarena, they don't like the sound on this device via headphones at all, lots of cross talk and low valumes
[Nexus 6P General] Chord_Hugo87:
get a DAC and problem solve, I haven't use my headphone with a phone in a while. I have my Chord Hugo for portable.

I'm not surprised though since the Speaker isnt tune very well. Chinese Quality...O well
[Nexus 6P General] WizeGuyDezignz:
The point is that you shouldn't have to get a DAC and have to carry it around with your smartphone. Genuine flagship smartphones took care of this already. Like the Note 5 and LG V10 for example. The Note 5 has a Wolfson DAC built in which sounds great for a smartphone.

When I had the 6P, it sounded like trash with my headphones. Even full volume wasn't enough for me.

This is another reason among many why the 6P is the price that it is. Corners had to be cut to hit the price point that it's at.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
All the Nexus phone I've had have been trash with music. SD audio chips must be $hit cause i've yet to have a good sounding Nexus.

I guess you don't buy Nexus for audio quality.
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
Heres a zip for viper4android if you care about sound quality install this, you may or may not have to delete audio_effects.conf from /vendor I did not some do though. Viper let's you literally tweak every aspect of the audio, a true audiophiles dream. You will make this crappy speakers sound crystal clear and loud, same with any headphones, or Bluetooth device you connect to. I have these speakers almost as good if not better than my HTC M8s. I also have a some general Viper profiles I can share I'd anyone wants, one for bass/electronic music and one for Rock/Metal. With these profiles and viper4android in general I have gotten the speaker to easily fill a medium sized room with crystal clear audio quality.

Edit: https://mega.nz/#!kQESnSDa!Wdo94TaFNdxeiNuK2VCUCmFEPaXCmAFaLhun_QHGqco forgot the zip lol.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
But surely if the dac is rubbish, no amount of software is going to make it better. Silk purse n sows ear spring to mind
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
You don't know the power of v4a ;) I was once a non believer as well. Now it's installed on ever android device and I'm about to install it on my windows pc too. But you are correct if the dac is to you might have to do much more compensation but it's working excellently for me thus far.
[Nexus 6P General] Slacker101:
Honestly the fact that we can tweak it and get pretty damn good sound out of the device means the DAC is not ****. Despite all the changes I've made with Viper, the sound is still crystal clear, no hissing, no interference. It's changed my mind from ****ty DAC to just ****ty implementation of sound calibration. It's a shame really because it means that the phone could sound great without having to tweak it had they done a proper job.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
But a wolfson dac would have eliminated the need to root and use viper.
[Nexus 6P General] Chord_Hugo87:
Not all Wolfson DAC have the same quality, the one in note 5 is "meh" compare to my lowest portable DAC
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
Ok, I didn't know that.

What about the one in the Exynos note 4?
[Nexus 6P General] Chord_Hugo87:
Your DAC is embedded with your processor, exynos use Wolfson and snapdragon use the other (forgot brand)
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
Yeah I completely agree but I am glad it is only a software issue that can be fixed! But I agree it could have been implemented so much better, then we wouldn't need to spend so long tweaking to make up for the mistake.
[Nexus 6P General] evocalante:
Well tweaking mixer_path plus elemental x kernel tweaks my headphones are crazy loud and I only have the volume up 3/4th of the way. No problems here
[Nexus 6P General] Chord_Hugo87:
curious...which line did you edit in the mixer_path?
[Nexus 6P General] evocalante:
<ctl name="RX1 Digital Volume" value="90"/>

<ctl name="RX2 Digital Volume" value="90"/>

And elementals kernel manager you can adjust the gain of the headphones.
[Nexus 6P General] Chord_Hugo87:
hmmm interesting, I changed those value, save and but it still revert back to 84. I change the line below

<path name="speaker-left">

<ctl name="Receiver Enable" value="Off" />

<ctl name="Imon Enable" value="On" />

<ctl name="Vmon Enable" value="On" />

<ctl name="ClassD Only" value="Off" />

<ctl name="Boost Output Voltage" value="8.5V" />

<ctl name="Left Speaker Gain" value="20" />

<ctl name="Left Speaker Enable" value="On" />

</path>

<path name="speaker-right">

<ctl name="Receiver Enable" value="Off" />

<ctl name="Imon Enable" value="On" />

<ctl name="Vmon Enable" value="On" />

<ctl name="ClassD Only" value="Off" />

<ctl name="Boost Output Voltage" value="8.5V" />

<ctl name="Right Speaker Gain" value="20" />

<ctl name="Right Speaker Enable" value="On" />

</path>

and it work
[Nexus 6P General] Cleva1:
Well I notice a different in the sound quality based off what I'm hearing whether it's a song with bad levels compared to another song that you clearly hear the difference, or a YouTube video where sound is lower but on tech videos and others the sound is screaming at me.

My thoughts are this is more software than hardware. I've had Samsung devices the last few years and was never fond of the speaker placement. I'll prefer front facing moving forward. I also enjoy stock Android over ANY skin or APP like Nova etc. Keep it plain and simple no rooting etc. Been there done that. I do slightly miss my s-pen but the combined user experience makes this irrelevant.

Anyways the times I do use headphones 3.5 or Bluetooth to hear audio it fairs fine. I never bought into spending hundreds of dollars for beats etc lol.

I believe for overall purposes the speakers perform excellent especially when the content is formatted right!

If I'm super concerned with hearing something music wise I play it in my car that has a music system to provide crisp audio. If I need to hear and see something I know how to watch it on a TV built for that.

I think phones in general get overstated, and held you such a high level it's futile debating topics like this, especially when there are better options to resolve the petty gripes. It's just a mobile device not a....
[Nexus 6P General] pankaj554:
Nexus 6 is an amazing smartphone, with great features and sound quality of this smartphone is very nice. Balance-wise, it’s largely neutral, though the treble can start to sound a touch thin at high volumes and with lesser quality files.
[Nexus 6P General] @work:
My galaxy nexus wasn't bad for the time and my oneplus one was on a whole mother level from this phone. I'm pretty disappointed.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
Never had a nexus good with music through headphones.
[Nexus 6P General] fastie:
I'm so disappointed with sound quality on my 6p, I don't know if I can live with it like that. Hope it can be fixed with some equaliser if not its going on ebay
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
I doubt it, It's the SD audio chip that is rubbish.

They should have used an Exynos chip
[Nexus 6P General] Slacker101:
I disagree, with a few kernel tweaks and viper for android it sounds far better than stock. As I said before the important part is that the DAC is well shielded. The audio quality is there, it is just poorly configured. I'm coming from an M9, which despite the issues with the CPU is by far the best phone I've heard audio quality wise. I was really annoyed that I had to give it up and no longer have the device. My 6P is reasonably close though honestly. WIth the tweaks it is about at the level my M8 was.

Whoever was comparing the front speakers, meh. They aren't as good as either the M8 or M9 in quality, but they are much louder. I'm sure you can get them damn close if you calibrate them with viper as well, I just don't use them enough to care.
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
+1 this, everyone loves to complain but when people post an actual fix most people ignore it and keep complaining. Get V4A and you can fix your problems the DAC isn't **** it's just shielded. all those complaining, try the above first of just spreading false information.
[Nexus 6P General] matteventu:
I hope you all know that the "sh!tty" DAC of the Nexus 6P is exactly the same of the HTC One M9: Qualcomm WCD9330 (the one integrated in Snapdragon 805/810).

The main difference between audio quality in headphones of M9 and N6P is made by:

- driver/low-level software optimisation ("fixable" on the N6P with viper4android)

- more powerful amplifier in the HTC (not "fixable" in the N6P as it's an hardware thing, only a bit twekable with kernel mods improving the gain, an external "fix" could be an external portable amp)

Anyway of course I would be even more happy if Google would has chosen to use a dedicated DAC, like LG V10, Xiaomi/Meizu phones... Or even the Samsung with the Wolfson integrated in the Exynos (used also by Meizu).
[Nexus 6P General] gibbo82:
When you say poor sound quality, do you mean as in the volume when listening to music via headphones?.

I was thinking of jumping ship, but I'm a big music junkie, & hearing this is a bit off putting!.
[Nexus 6P General] @home:
No the quality of the sound is poor, put against a note 5 or Note 4 the N6P sounds flat & lifeless. I still think it's the SD Dac's that are cr ap.
[Nexus 6P General] @work:
I'm afraid you're a bit off, the s6 uses a discrete DAC and amplifier for music, like other high end phones. It's a Wolfson WM1840. The WCD9330 is useful for things besides just music audio processing and if you care about music audio quality you won't use it for that. And if you do you will be sure to tune it properly. Biggest issue I have with the 6p is going to be a subtle hiss I cant get rid of with v4a and faint crosstalk can't get rid of. I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's a hardware issue.

I dont actually see any Qualcomm chips in the s6 and afaik the 9330 is integrated into the SOC. The s6 doesn't use a Qualcomm SOC.
[Nexus 6P General] chdloc:
This is incorrect, the WCD9330 is a standalone codec that does nothing but audio-related functions. Qualcomm has not released any information on this particular model, but on an older model, the WCD9311 . The DAC part of the WCD9330 as well as of its immediate predecessor, the WCD9320, actually measure very favorably to other codecs (the ones used in newer iOS devices and my 2013 MacBook Pro for instance). Note that the DAC crosstalk measurements become mostly moot as soon a low-impedance headphones are used as they are connected in an unbalanced way (tip-sleeve-ring), which means common ground and, hence, audible signal (cross-)induction due to their low impedance.

All Qualcomm codecs have a headphone amplifier built-in, which may be (after the headphones themselves) the weakest link in the chain. That's why some manufacturers (HTC for instance) seem to be pairing the Qualcomm codecs with separate on-board headphone amplifiers.

I see issues with audio-quality in the overall analog circuit design and the headphone-amplifier interactions. I've paired my Nexus 5 with high-sensitive, low-impedance dynamic (not balanced armature) IEMs and I can honestly not say that my secondary device (iPhone 5S) or even my 2013 MacBook Pro sound any better given the *same exact* parameters (source material, gains, etc). Note that the effect of "confirmation bias" is extremely strong in the audio domain.

It is true, however, that most manufacturers don't set the digital and analog gains optimally. Generally, you will want to set all digital gains close to 0 dB and the analog gain as low as practical for highest-possible SNR and, in most cases, lowest level of distortion.
[Nexus 6P General] @work:
So why is there a Wolfson DAC on the s6?
[Nexus 6P General] chdloc:
As you correctly said earlier, the S6 does not use a Qualcomm SOC. I'm not familiar enough with the Samsung hardware to know whether they make their own codecs so they may be forced to look elsewhere for a codec. I'm guessing Qualcomm sells the entire "solution" to OEMs (SOC, codec, PMIC, radio, etc), which makes integration a lot easier. Remember that most manufacturers are on a one-year update cycle and it is really difficult and expensive to pick and replace individual hardware components. The LG V10 is a notable exception. It is also possible that Qualcomm does not sell their codec individually. Also, keep in mind that excellent audio quality, unfortunately, is not top on the must-have list for most OEMs. Having said that I think that the Qualcomm audio solution is better than many believe, especially after some optimization...
[Nexus 6P General] aniketkuber:
For everyone who face poor sound quality with the 6p for music, suggest u to try the maven player pro.. Change the reverb setting to 'live' and tweak the equilizer .. U will be surprised .
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
Thank you for clearing up all that false information.
[Nexus 6P General] galaxys:
What's the diff between free and pro versions?
[Nexus 6P General] aniketkuber:
I do not exactly rem but back then I guess it was a trial rather than a free version. Sound quality is the best although not the best UI.. It is smooth and bug free ..
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
OR use viper4android with any music player,for free ;) which if you unlock the ui settings will give you the MOST control.
[Nexus 6P General] aniketkuber:
But that requires root right ?
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
Yeah that does require root and busybox.

Heres some screenshots of all the incredible options you have https://imgur.com/a/pw9s0]
[Nexus 6P General] Mr_S:
I think its working on systemless root iirc

Maybe look in n6 themes and apps?

Bit busy so no time... Hope this helps
[Nexus 6P General] ext109:
I'm using an audio mod that has Viper4Android and options for Dolby (digital+ or Atmos, whichever you prefer) and Beats from the HTC One m7. It makes most songs sufficiently loud and the overall quality pretty decent. I'm using Beats + Dolby Atmos because just Viper on its own made me crank up the audio to 100% and still have too low of a volume in many songs.

Link: http://xdaforums.com/android/software/viperaudio-viperatmos-3-8-sq-driver-t3289075

Sent from my Sexi Nexi 6p
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
You clearly didn't configure viper right, I'm only using a viper4android zip I made and often run the volume at under 50% though my headphones or car audio system. I had it even higher before but I didn't like running my volume at around 25%
[Nexus 6P General] ext109:
It's probably the headphones. On reddit I've read that the impedance makes a huge difference on the 6p, and mine are at 47 ohms relatively high

Sent from my Sexi Nexi 6p
[Nexus 6P General] xSilas43:
Yeah that is very true, you can always bump up the gain in viper that will help counteract it.
[Nexus 6P General] Signal2Noise:
I sympathize with this problem as well man. It's really the only downside of the 6P, and unfortunately, I love my music too.

Here's what I did and maybe it could help you:

I purchased an Anker Bluetooth Transmitter/Receiver on Amazon for $30 to plug into my Shure SE215s. Then, I paired the Transmitter with my phone, and boom. The sound quality is as good as it gets my friend!

I know this thread is an older one, but it's still a very relevant hot topic for many newcoming 6P owners (such as myself!)