35 replies to this topic

[daveyman1]

I'm sold on this phone but really need to know what the audio quality is like through the headphone socket. I listen to a lot of classical music so it needs to be loud and have good depth. I'm coming from a Sam Gal Apollo which is good but never matched my Nokia 5800 or SE w810i (the best of the lot). How does this phone compare-I've my own selection of headphones as I'm sure the free ones aren't up to much?

Forgive me if this has already been covered elsewhere but I have searched in vain through the posts already.

Many thanks in advance for your help,

Daveyman1

[jikobutsu]

The audio qaulity is standard really,just like all androids apart form high end devices,but none of that matters.

What matters is two things:

1) Headphones
2) Music playing software


I personally use sennheiser headphones,and poweramp from market,which is by far the best in sound quality.

[Prog_Drummer]

Personally I get quite a bit of hiss but then I'm used to using a Cowon music player so might be being harsh

Edited by Prog_Drummer, 01 June 2012 - 10:40 AM.

[timfimjim]

Prog_Drummer, on 01 June 2012 - 10:40 AM, said:

Personally I get quite a bit of hiss but then I'm used to using a Cowon music player so might be being harsh

I get hiss too. For listening to classical music it would be more prominent.

But it's worth it for the phone and price. I use a separate mp3 player for music anyway

[kradcliffe]

The headphone volume is far far too low basically.

Keith

[jikobutsu]

I think it could do with a few more notches to the volume,but its reasonably loud enough with noise cancelling headphones and poweramp which has preamp.
So I dont agree that its far far to low,unless one has the B882 rom or has flashed custom rom without getting audio fix.

[daveyman1]

Thanks to all for this info.
Do you think any future firmware/software updates might improve things?
I do have some good headphones so will give it a go and suppose I could always carry my sansa clip if it's dire.
Cheers,
D

[Davidoff59]

try in the shop before you buy.

[weckl]

daveyman1, on 02 June 2012 - 10:04 PM, said:

Thanks to all for this info.
Do you think any future firmware/software updates might improve things?
I do have some good headphones so will give it a go and suppose I could always carry my sansa clip if it's dire.
Cheers,
D

The Dsp sound manager will improve a lot the sound experience. Special effects like fade crossing between songs, equalizer, bass enhancer... There is a chinese rom with dsp installed for the u8818.
http://www.cyanogenm...s/dsp-equalizer

Edited by weckl, 02 June 2012 - 10:47 PM.

[daveyman1]

Does anyone think that there might be a genuine huawei OTA software fix for audio improvement in the future. Do we need to complain to Huawei direct and say it's not good enough etc or do you think it'll get sorted in 'due corse' like a lot of other glitches?

Hope this gets to be an issue for them as it's an important aspect of many people's phone usage and it would be a shame if such an excellent handset is compromised thus. Particularly as the SAR level is nice and low so that we won't fry our brains listening to our Mp3s

[Davidoff59]

I don't think they will fix it, at least not on gingerbread anyway. We may have more hope on the ICS 'demo'.

[thrifty_paul]

The sound quality is as poor as on my old HTC Hero. There is a varying background buzzing, which I assume is interference from the high frequency circuitry  (processor?). The only way I could solve it is with Blutooth headphones. I have just put this down to the devices being cheaper than Apple. My old ipod nano had perfect sound in comparison to these Android phones. For classical music, no chance, I can't listen to spoken word podcasts due to the background noise. Also the sound output is very quiet. Paul

[daveyman1]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll just have to hope that ICS improves things I suppose. How can some phone manufacturer's get it right even in lower end devices (partic Samsung) and others not, I guess it's 'priorities'?
Out of interest is the sound really bad when watching video too?

[sikejsudjek]

This can be 'fixed' by using an external volume control. By cranking up the volume on the phone to near max, and turning down the external volume this hiss is reduced relative to the sound output.

My in ear headphones were high volume output, and impossible to turn up enough to mitigate the hiss without damaging my hearing. Now they sound actually very good. Zero hiss. I'm also using poweramp with some preamp gain (5db) and mid range cut to compensate for quiet mp3's. This way you get the max signal out of the phone relative to the hiss which is at a constant level.

[nick_sub]

Did you ever buy one daveyman1? If so what did you make of it in the end?

[ahatomastarday]

Just in case this question is still relevant to someone thinking about buying the phone, I'll comment on it.

Volume is decent (although not super loud) and music sounds okay in general, but the signal to noise ratio is far from good, to be honest. There's a very noticeable hiss, probably due to internal noise generated by the electronic components of the phone. Using good quality headphones can help a bit but it's still prominent. It won't disappear with updates and it'll probably be even more noticeable with classical music.

If you're a bit of an audiophile, you're going to notice it for sure. I'm okay with it for casual listening (some music and podcasts while commuting; since there's quite a lot of external noise in those situations I don't notice the noise of the phone's audio that much) but I wouldn't use it as my main audio player (not at home, for example).

Edited by ahatomastarday, 03 September 2012 - 07:19 AM.

[nick_sub]

Thanks for that. I now use my phone as my main MP3 player. I had a ZTE Blade previously which wasn't very good, and now have a ZTE Skate which is much better. I would be interested to hear comparisons from anyone who have previously owned a Skate particularly.

[Potatoes]

The majority of folks using mobile phones as music players will likely be using ear bud type headphones, they'll tend to be low impedance and high sensitivity which makes them easy to drive with a good volume range on portable devices. My ear buds have an impedance value of 18ohms and sensitivity of 108db and I get a very noticeable hiss, my Grado 225's on the other hand are 32 ohms and 98db sensitivity and I don't hear any hiss even in a quiet room. Same goes for the Sennheiser hd555 and hd580's I have lying around but these are much higher impedance headphones. So if you're out to buy some new earbuds look for ones that have a higher impedance and or sensitivity but likeahatomastarday I can't hear it while I'm out and about commuting which tbh is the only reason I'd listen to my phone for music.

Alternatively you can add resistors to increase impedance, use a volume volume control adapter which is basically the same thing or build a hissbuster. They all basically solve this by reducing the volume allowing you to crank up the volume control on your phone without deafening yourself.

I've personally tried a volume control and I built various adapters with resistors in them to try to make the whole unit smaller but just ended up not using them in the end since they add cable length and bulk which was more of a pita than the hiss which I can't hear while commuting

[ahatomastarday]

Potatoes, on 03 September 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

The majority of folks using mobile phones as music players will likely be using ear bud type headphones, they'll tend to be low impedance and high sensitivity which makes them easy to drive with a good volume range on portable devices. My ear buds have an impedance value of 18ohms and sensitivity of 108db and I get a very noticeable hiss, my Grado 225's on the other hand are 32 ohms and 98db sensitivity and I don't hear any hiss even in a quiet room. Same goes for the Sennheiser hd555 and hd580's I have lying around but these are much higher impedance headphones. So if you're out to buy some new earbuds look for ones that have a higher impedance and or sensitivity but likeahatomastarday I can't hear it while I'm out and about commuting which tbh is the only reason I'd listen to my phone for music.

Alternatively you can add resistors to increase impedance, use a volume volume control adapter which is basically the same thing or build a hissbuster. They all basically solve this by reducing the volume allowing you to crank up the volume control on your phone without deafening yourself.

I've personally tried a volume control and I built various adapters with resistors in them to try to make the whole unit smaller but just ended up not using them in the end since they add cable length and bulk which was more of a pita than the hiss which I can't hear while commuting

Completely agree with that. In my post I was talking about my experience with earbuds especifically, since I asummed that's what everybody uses with a phone on the go. With proper headphones the hiss pretty much dissapears (at least I couldn't hear any when I tried the phone with my Sennheiser HD 4-something at home).

[Colin Whiteside]

Audio quality wise this is definitely below my HTC Desire, and my dedicated MP3 player. It starts to distort at high volumes in the low mids and generally lacks definition in the high mids and treble region. You get used to it of course, but for £100 you shouldn't expect terrific sound quality.