Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › Holy carp, have you tried Rockbox's 5G iPod Hardware EQ?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Holy carp, have you tried Rockbox's 5G iPod Hardware EQ? - Page 2

post #16 of 121
8/19/06 at 3:02am
I hope i can appreciate this out of the headphone out...
Reply

Gear mentioned in this thread:

post #17 of 121
8/19/06 at 3:15am
Thread Starter 
<Yoda> You will be...you will be... </Yoda>
Reply
post #18 of 121
8/19/06 at 3:34am
I have tried it using the headphone out with my senn 595 and I must say that there is a LOT of difference. I'm gonna try it with some ogg and mp3 later and will post my comments tomorrow.
If anyone is interested in the link, here it is (I downloaded the daily build and the hardware eq wasn't there, so this is the place to download the firmware):

http://www.rockbox.org/cvs.shtml

everyone: enjoy it!

Sebastian
Reply
post #19 of 121
8/19/06 at 5:22am
Question, a little off topic: I read a Cnet review a while back (yea, they are a little slanted, but still) that rated mp3 players by the quality of a track when tested in mp3, 320 kbps, no EQ and thru a Grado (SR60, I think). According to that list, iPod was the worst of all, and Sony was in the lead, with iAudio and iRiver trailing. My question is, is this software or hardware? Is it the iPod firmware that is causing lower quality (supposedly) that has been fixed thru Rockbox or is it hardware related? I have wanted to buy an old iPod and mod it out with a new hard drive, a new battery and Rockbox but I have been a little worried because quality is always at the top of my list.

Thanks for any help! I hope I am being clear.
Reply
post #20 of 121
8/19/06 at 6:57am
I have to say I prefer hardware eq on also (with my rockbox ipod 5g,) and I never usually like to EQ.
Reply
post #21 of 121
8/19/06 at 9:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastianbf
If anyone is interested in the link, here it is (I downloaded the daily build and the hardware eq wasn't there
The hardware EQ should be available in any daily build from August 15 forward. However, there were some major improvements made to the button-handling system on August 16, which naturally caused some bugs that were squashed over the following couple of days. If you use today's daily build, you should be fine.

For installation instructions for Rockbox, click the documentation link on the Rockbox front page and follow the links for the Rockbox Manual. There is a separate manual for each supported Rockbox platform, containing installation instructions specific to the platform.

Note: the hardware EQ is available *only* on the 5G, and not other versions of the iPod.
Reply
post #22 of 121
8/19/06 at 10:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1979
According to that list, iPod was the worst of all, and Sony was in the lead, with iAudio and iRiver trailing. My question is, is this software or hardware? Is it the iPod firmware that is causing lower quality (supposedly) that has been fixed thru Rockbox or is it hardware related?
I dunno for sure but the HD5 had a bass boost even though the EQ was off. Bangraman, memeber here, did a test that proved that.
Reply
post #23 of 121
8/19/06 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
For the (late) record, I've never seen a picture of a real carp; it looks way uglier than what I've seen in video games

And for me, the Hardware EQ can NOT handle deep bass, like "Supermassive Black Hole;" it totally distorts to kingdom come. I saw the gain on +12 dB on both Bass and Treble with this EQ that may have contributed to that distortion; a +12 dB on Bass is extremely , and the iPod output simply cannot handle it.

I have tested two days worth of CVS builds, btw...same problem.
Reply
post #24 of 121
8/19/06 at 4:40pm
To be honest Im shocked at the improvment of sound quality. And there I was about to blow £400 on some E500 because I thought my E4's were crap. Now It looks like I'll be keeping my Ipod until the day it dies. The sound I have is amazing, everything is seperate, my vocals are in one place, my highs sound far away from my ears and the bass is right next to my ears. It almost like a stage presentation.
Reply
post #25 of 121
8/19/06 at 6:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AtheisticFreedom
And for me, the Hardware EQ can NOT handle deep bass, like "Supermassive Black Hole;" it totally distorts to kingdom come. I saw the gain on +12 dB on both Bass and Treble with this EQ that may have contributed to that distortion; a +12 dB on Bass is extremely , and the iPod output simply cannot handle it.
Just out of curiosity, what happens if:
  • You turn on both the hardware and software EQs,
  • You keep all of the settings on the software EQ flat (zero gain), and
  • You set the "pre-cut" on the software EQ to -12dB,
  • You use the hardware EQ as noted above.
I don't know the answer to this. I have no idea where in the signal path the pre-cut is applied. If it is after the hardware EQ, then this will just result in the same clipping at a lower volume. Otherwise, however, it might be a way to apply large of amounts of gain through the hardware EQ without clipping.
Reply
post #26 of 121
8/19/06 at 7:04pm
Thread Starter 
Woohoo, never mind.

I used Foobar2000 to apply ReplayGain on every song, and since stupid iTunes couldn't recognize the change in any of the song files' tags, I restored my iPod (aka wiped it clean), re-filed all my songs onto the iPod, turned on Hardware EQ w/ ReplayGain on (no clipping enabled), and...w00t! Deep bass w/o showing any distortion, as far as I can tell.

Dear gawd, screw getting another amp. This EQ makes the PA2V2 shine to my K701s like never before. And I'm still using this through my headphone out! Imagine this on a line-out...

EDIT: Never mind, just tried heavy techno and it went bad again...

FURTHER EDIT: Excellent, I finally got around to following through with Febs' educated guess, and it works.
Reply
post #27 of 121
8/20/06 at 6:54am
anyone know if skipping issues have been addressed in ipod builds?

i'm still up for rockbox even after uninstalling, due to the skipping (which is a MAJOR issue for me)... was told not to use certain features, basically whittled down to not using it at all (!!), my music is 192kbps mp3 cbr or higher, & i'm not THAT desperate that i'd re-rip all my CD's just for the sake of having a second o/s on the darned thing. sound quality is one thing, skipping (a gap with NO music in it) is faaaar worse imo
Reply
post #28 of 121
8/20/06 at 8:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fierce_freak
This is probably a dumb question, but if one never EQs this will have no impact, correct?
I've got the same question, some posts seem to imply that the hardware EQ is unlocking some hidden potential not being utilized in the Wolfson DAC. So how exactly does this Hardware EQ work? Is there instant gains simply by turning it on and not EQ'ing?

Note: I don't own an iPod right at the moment but will be getting one in the next week or two so I'm not familiar with the settings of either the iPod or Rockbox.
Reply
post #29 of 121
8/20/06 at 9:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nvkid909
anyone know if skipping issues have been addressed in ipod builds?

i'm still up for rockbox even after uninstalling, due to the skipping (which is a MAJOR issue for me)... was told not to use certain features, basically whittled down to not using it at all (!!), my music is 192kbps mp3 cbr or higher, & i'm not THAT desperate that i'd re-rip all my CD's just for the sake of having a second o/s on the darned thing. sound quality is one thing, skipping (a gap with NO music in it) is faaaar worse imo
There is still skipping if you use CPU-intensive features. These include:
  • Software EQ
  • WPS screens with peakmeters

However, as I noted earlier in this thread, the hardware EQ does not cause skipping. So yes, to that extent, skipping issues have been addressed. There has also been progress made on implementing use of the second core on the PortalPlayer chip. Once this is accomplished, audio will be decoded on on the second core and other functions handled on the first core. This should eliminate skipping issues entirely.
Reply
post #30 of 121
8/20/06 at 12:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Febs
Just out of curiosity, what happens if:
  • You turn on both the hardware and software EQs,
  • You keep all of the settings on the software EQ flat (zero gain), and
  • You set the "pre-cut" on the software EQ to -12dB,
  • You use the hardware EQ as noted above.
I don't know the answer to this. I have no idea where in the signal path the pre-cut is applied. If it is after the hardware EQ, then this will just result in the same clipping at a lower volume. Otherwise, however, it might be a way to apply large of amounts of gain through the hardware EQ without clipping.
WHat if instead of leaving the Software EQ on as you prescribe you use the LOw SHelf Filter in the Hardware EQ to adjust the gain downward. Such as 2 for my UM2s to match my Hornet low gain setting?
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Portable Source Gear

Gear mentioned in this thread:

Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › Holy carp, have you tried Rockbox's 5G iPod Hardware EQ?