Sound Quality on PDA Phones??

[Guest Malkatraz]

Is there differences in sound quality on particular pocketpc's? ie. Do you get 'mp3-player' like sound quality from a pocketpc? Will a device running a co-processor (nVidia Goforce, ATI Imageon, Qualcomm MSM) have a better quality output than one without one of these chips? There don't seem to be too many tests on this. I want my next device to have the best sound quality possible but I don't know whether I should aim for a device with a GPU. nVidias Goforce GPU's (eg. the 5500) promise 'ipod-equivalent' sound quality. I know that particular chip has the SRS WOW functionality built into it but don't know what sort of effect this has on the output.

I have owned a Mio A701 and, either due to the hardware, or due to the very cruddy headphones that come with it, the sound quality was pretty poor. I never got a chance to purchase some good quality headphones to test whether it was this that was holding the sound quality back.

So I need to know whether there firstly is a noticeable difference between devices, and also what parts of a pocketpc's hardware effect the quality...

[Guest 40th Floor]

Audio isn't a function of video so a co-processor won't matter. Assuming equal audio quality then it comes down to the player.

If you don't assume equal audio quality, then you've got a long job ahead because, like you said, no one cares to compare (it's an awfully subjective thing, anyway). There were some outright bad ones (C500/SMT5600, very bad artifacts -- periodic tzzzzzt noises -- when playing high frequencies, to name one) but otherwise devices are probably close. Some will be better, that's for sure. Anyway, the player I mention in that thread would make even the worst-sounding device sound better than the best-sound device using other software. No joke. Headphones are very important; even more so than the device, but not more than the player (in this particular case). It helps to have a 3.5mm jack, too. BT headphones are an option, but many players don't play well (skip a lot) with those. At least one player (I know of two) works very well with BT headphones (right, the one in the link). A good source (quality mp3, m4a, wma, etc.) is also important.

But no, you won't find things like measured distortion, frequency response, power use, and so on. It'd be cool if someone knew how to measure meaningfully, and had the time to do it. I suspect few do.

Edited April 20, 2007 by 40th Floor