[ZTE Axon 7 ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Deve] Oki:
I personally know very well what Viper, Dolby and many other technologies do to the signal. I am a MSEE with plenty of experience in audio, video and signal processing. It is true that many people are touching things randomly and mixing processors and equalizers destroying any trace of the original sound and wasting processor power. For instance I still can't believe some people is still using Atmos when listening to music. My wish would be to have Viper updated to be able to process HD audio up to 32bits/192KHz while using the best DAC and hardware driver available. Sound libraries are good, but static, and most of them are only used when the app is asking for them, and that is not common, unless you have a complete suite like Sony. Nonetheless I also listen to music using Spotify like a lot of people does, and watching music videos using youtube. I want to have a built in solution not just for listening to my HD audio collection, but also something that could increase the perceived quality of the streaming media. In this case Atmos and Viper are the best option for most people.

On the other hand, I have to agree with [MENTION=5073877]Lycidias[/MENTION], when you don't have premium monitors and are using headphones under the $200 mark, you have to compensate some deficiencies. Same happens with the perception, not everyone perceives the same way so a correct psophometric tuning is required for each person. In most cases it is not just a linear perturbation, that can be compensated with a linear filter and Viper has some pretty nice tools to compensate that. The audiophile point of view is that the music should be experienced the way the author did without any modification, but it is almost impossible to get to that since the hear of the author is totally different than yours of mine. It is like a painting, the color and light distribution of the room is critical when evaluating the color, the spectrum, of the painting. We can't experience the original color the author intended to be, since we can't experience it within the same light field. Years ago I was into the audiophile POV, fighting against EQ, processors, etc. Now my point is different, since it is impossible to experience the sound the same way the author did, I am more focused on finding the best way to experience it depending on my mood. For instance in the mornings I do not like bass at all, but at night it helps me to relax, even when listening the same music. Now, I want the best processor, taking care of the attack of the bass, adding non linear processing without hurting the texture of the rest of the instruments and vocals. I hate when bass covers the rest of the sound or saturates the signal. I also do not like those songs that add noise or vinyl artificial sound, the same way I hate the quantum noise of heavy compressed streaming music. This is why I really miss Viper to be able to process HD audio. I would like to have the best of both worlds, a highly configurable solution (not just choosing among predefined profiles) and a high definition audio system, with good hardware and software. The Axon 7 has very good hardware, the AKM DAC is really good, but very tricky when coupling it with a generic Android OS. I do not have time to get into the configuration and baking an Android distro with all the tweaks I want. What you are doing with SNAPPATCH is really interesting and if you manage to force the use of the AKM DAC then It would be a great milestone.

I would miss a lot your contribution and these interesting conversations if some day you decide to leave XDA. I hope to see you around here for a long time.