10 replies to this topic

[Liamness]

I'm wondering, now many of us have had our Crescents for some time now, what do we think of the audio quality? I'm not so much talking about the call quality, but the fidelity of the headphone output. I understand it's a cheap device but I've been a bit disappointed tbh. When listening to quiet passages of music, particularly with higher quality headphones, hiss is obvious. In fact, I imagine it's quite intrusive even with poor to average headphones too. I also think the maximum volume is fairly low, which means I can't use it with my HD25s for example.

Firstly, I was going to ask if any of you have experienced similar issues. Secondly, I was hoping to bounce some ideas around, and see if there's anything we can do about these things. The hiss is probably due to poor internal shielding, which I could investigate if I'm feeling brave. To that end, If anyone has taken an OSFII apart before, anything to watch out for? The second is either due to a genuinely pathetic inbuilt amplifier (I don't believe that's the case), or perhaps something that could be fixed in software. There are apps that boost volume, but I would guess that this would introduce clipping. Other phones have had their volume boosted at the kernel level, but obviously that would be a tremendous amount of work if our phone doesn't use the same IC for audio.

[Dazzozo]

Liamness, on 05 May 2012 - 07:48 PM, said:

I'm wondering, now many of us have had our Crescents for some time now, what do we think of the audio quality? I'm not so much talking about the call quality, but the fidelity of the headphone output. I understand it's a cheap device but I've been a bit disappointed tbh. When listening to quiet passages of music, particularly with higher quality headphones, hiss is obvious. In fact, I imagine it's quite intrusive even with poor to average headphones too. I also think the maximum volume is fairly low, which means I can't use it with my HD25s for example.

Firstly, I was going to ask if any of you have experienced similar issues. Secondly, I was hoping to bounce some ideas around, and see if there's anything we can do about these things. The hiss is probably due to poor internal shielding, which I could investigate if I'm feeling brave. To that end, If anyone has taken an OSFII apart before, anything to watch out for? The second is either due to a genuinely pathetic inbuilt amplifier (I don't believe that's the case), or perhaps something that could be fixed in software. There are apps that boost volume, but I would guess that this would introduce clipping. Other phones have had their volume boosted at the kernel level, but obviously that would be a tremendous amount of work if our phone doesn't use the same IC for audio.

I've personally not noticed any hissing and I generally have pretty decent quality, even with the ZTE-supplied earphones. As far as I'm aware no one has taken apart an OSFII and has lived to tell the tale on Modaco.

Additionally I'm pretty sure volume can be adjusted in both the OS and the kernel. I have encountered low volume, even on the highest setting (though that might explain me not noticing any bad quality).

[Liamness]

Tried opening it up. One of the screws only came part of the way out and then refused to budge any further. I need a better screwdriver.

I recorded the output from the phone, just so anyone who thinks they might have the same issue can compare. It seems to struggle during quiet moments, with strange artefacts being introduced. It's particularly noticeable when a track is paused and then restarted. This sample is a max volume also, so the issue would be worse most of the time. The base level of noise is quite poor too (you can hear the difference when the amp cuts out after an idle period) but that I'm not too bothered about, it's no worse than the early iPods for example.

[Dazzozo]

Liamness, on 08 May 2012 - 01:37 PM, said:

Tried opening it up. One of the screws only came part of the way out and then refused to budge any further. I need a better screwdriver.

I recorded the output from the phone, just so anyone who thinks they might have the same issue can compare. It seems to struggle during quiet moments, with strange artefacts being introduced. It's particularly noticeable when a track is paused and then restarted. This sample is a max volume also, so the issue would be worse most of the time. The base level of noise is quite poor too (you can hear the difference when the amp cuts out after an idle period) but that I'm not too bothered about, it's no worse than the early iPods for example.

I'll probably try artificially increasing the volume either in the kernel or OS later to see how it handles.

[Liamness]

Cheers dude.

[Pinguy]

I have had ago at porting both Xloud and BeatsAudio. BeatsAudio is just a no go. No way of getting that working. Xlound kinda works but is very unstable and does make some music/sounds sound really odd.
The phone has just got poor hardware so the only thing that can be done is to increase its max loudness.

As Dazzozo points out this can be done in the kernel. But this is just going to oversaturate the sound issues even more.

[Bouncer5]

Long ago on GB I used this app. It may be helpful to some.

[Liamness]

Using a much improved screwdriver, I made short work of the stubborn one, and set about working on taking the plastic cover off. I released all the clips but one- the bottom right. Just doesn't want to budge. Pretty sure the only way I'm getting it off is by breaking it. Grr. I hope I'm missing something, as otherwise I'll never be able to get a look at the inside.

I put the phone back together and everything is still tight. No internal components are attached to the cover anyway, so it's not like I could've done any serious damage.

[t0neloc]

Hi . I'd interested to know if anyone has any further comments on the crescent's audio quality.
I'm looking for a very good quality replacement for my current phone, an orange san francisco v1 - the Zte Blade.
It's a great phone but let down by the noise it makes when the sound level decreases to zero.
What I mean is that there is a kind of fizzing noise which is particularly noticeable in quiet sections. It seems to do it both when changing tracks or if the level within the track goes to zero.
I've tried various headphones with both the standard 3.5mm 3 band jack and the correct 4 band one. Also all kind of software changes.
Nothing improves it. This problem has been noted before in the Blade forum with no solution. It seems to be down to poor shielding.

So, after all that - is the Crescent any better?
Thanks

[garry71]

The sound quality for music isn't brilliant,  a bit towards too trebley.  Haven't tried any audio apps for it though, apart from how it comes out of the box.
The fm radio seems to pick up a bit of interference from the phone.
I wasn't expecting hi fi from a cheap smartphone though, considering my sony walkman cost twice what the phone did.

[Liamness]

No, it isn't any better. I use it more often to play music via bluetooth in my car rather than using headphones, so it's not a big issue. If I listening to music more often on the go, I'd probably have to consider getting another phone tbh, because of the hissing and static and the poor maximum volume.