[Android Software Development] Alanon:
I've been using V4A for a long time now, and awhile ago I installed V4A Dolby Digital + Sony Beats Edition ver. 5.5, and was instantly amazed with the sound quality improvement. Soon after that, the development of ARISE had started, and people immediately started commenting on the sound improvement over the previous mods. I waited until a "stable" version would appear, as I generally hate reflashing stuff daily. So today I installed the 1.1.2 version.

My first impressions are... mixed. The music I listened to for comparison purposes was the music I "rediscovered" thanks to Viper Sony Beats, classic RnB/Soul, things like Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers or Percy Sledge, but also some blues, jazz and early rock'n'roll. They had all gained tremendously in sound quality, owing in great amount to the bass and highs compatibility between the utilised libraries and the Dolby soundstage. On the one hand, I can clearly see that the bass was even more improved, it is more noticeable and markedly clearer than in the previous version I was using. However, this seems to be at the expense of the "crispness" of the highs, if that can be used to describe my impression. On the previous mod I was using the DD+ music preset, which to me still has an unparalleled surround effect. Upon listening to several tracks very carefully with various Viper settings (I never used any convolvers, custom presets or whatnot, it's just my own tinkering), I noticed that the sound was clearer overall - the Dolby/Viper combo did have a slight hiss in the background on some tracks, probably due to the nature of two distinct sound filters being applied one over the other. This does not occur at all with ARISE, as the sound is unified. Even the crackling of vinyl rips has a pleasant effect to my ears. However, the vocals (and highs in general), while still being very present and crisp, do have a slightly "muffled" feel to them, even when effects like dynamic bass and viper bass are disabled, and clarity enabled. On the other hand, I can clearly hear a new - and to my ears, quite radical - change in the overall presence of the mids in the sound. They are somehow more pronounced, but lacking in depth? This I really can't explain, as it occurred on just a couple of tracks for me.

Now, I remember how the stock Viper sounded, and also recall the feel of Viper Sony Beats with Dolby off, and I'm willing to "blame" the lack of Dolby for all the "negatives". My guess is that the whole sound changes slightly due to the different feel of the Dolby surround. ARISE itself is leaps and bounds over any viper-only mod. Also, it should be said that although what I've written down might simply be written off as nitpicking, these are my honest first, second and third impressions. Some thought did go into writing them and attempting to describe the differences I could hear. To be perfectly clear, I'm not saying that ARISE is bad, or even that things need to change with the sound config. I do plan to stick with it, and follow its progress. All this being said, I do have a question for the dev. You mentioned that Dolby libraries were included with ARISE. Without a GUI, is there a way of activating a preset? I'd like to see the Dolby GUI option revived in ARISE, at least in some phase of the testing process (it could be that it will have an adverse effect on this new setup, who knows).

Anyways, a big kudos to the developers and thanks for reading this giant post. :p