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post #46 of 205
10/19/10 at 8:28am

I remembered it cuz i saw the BOM for N8 and 5800 and further research revealed the same chipset for majority of Nokia's S60v5 devices.

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post #47 of 205
10/21/10 at 5:06am
Thread Starter 

So the N8 is no upgrade from the nokia 5800 in terms of sound quality?

That's a major fail since the n8 is suposed to be their top-end multimedia device.

 

What do you think about the line out of these phones? After some listening time my conclusion is that I like the SQ of the LO better than HO, straight out of the phone. Which is kind of weird but the soundstage of the LO is way better IMO. If you amp the 5800 in LO mode it really sounds quiet good! You should give it a try. 

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post #48 of 205
10/21/10 at 8:42am

N97 is considered flagship but for most part, the core hardware remained the same as 5800. And N8 (Symbian^3) never been the flagship, it was marketed as midrange smartphone. Meego and Symbian^4 (just scraped last 24 hours) was intended to be flagship platform for Nokia.

 

On 5800, LO at 1/10 sound similar to 7/10 from HO imho

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post #49 of 205
10/22/10 at 1:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by toughnut View Post

N97 is considered flagship but for most part, the core hardware remained the same as 5800. And N8 (Symbian^3) never been the flagship, it was marketed as midrange smartphone. Meego and Symbian^4 (just scraped last 24 hours) was intended to be flagship platform for Nokia.

 

On 5800, LO at 1/10 sound similar to 7/10 from HO imho


 

I thought I read that the N8 was their new multimedia flagship but never mind.

Wat kind of headphones are you using? The LO sounds way different than the HO IMO, the HO has more treble.

I found another difference with the LO btw, you can't use your headphone for making calls in LO mode which might mean that somekind of circuit is circumnavigated. Well I guess everyone hears different.

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post #50 of 205
10/22/10 at 2:28am

I guess it's placebo effect. Try this simple test.

 

Try to get nearest volume matching as possible using your highest impedance or less sensitive headphone cuz it's quite loud. For my case, HO at volume 7/10 and LO at 1/10. Once matched, do a blindfolded test with your partner. Try to tell which on has better SQ. In my case, it's the same most of the time, using custom Mage and newest purchase, TMA-1.

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post #51 of 205
10/22/10 at 4:19am

Nokia N8 is said to be better than iphone in many cases. As far as its sound is concerned:


It has the HDMI connection where you can connect to your home theatre. With HD TV you will get a crisp and clear visual treatment as well as with your sound with the Dolby Digital Plus.

So i guess its even much better

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post #52 of 205
10/22/10 at 10:28am

There's a discussion on a Russian board saying it's not TPA6140A2, but TPA6140 (2000), a Polish board saying it's a major let down and TPA6140A2 etc. Confusing, do someone here know what amp there's inside N8, is it only 25 mW?

 

Concerning HO vs. LO, night and day IME, going from HO and volume regulated by phone to LO and volume regulated by HP-cable resistor. Latest My Dying Bride I'm hearing several layers of whispers, with other records a difference in string attack by plectrum, sloppy grip shifting, difference in mastering bla bla bla and the soundstage.. every instrument have a lot more air, not so congested as before. Now the bands not playing in a shoebox wrapped up in several wool blankets.

 

Some recordings actually sound bad in this mode though, on a whim I had to check out Meshuggah "ObZen". Up until this point the record have been a disappointment, never gotten a kick.. last night was a revelation, all things fell into place. For the first time I'm really into this album, 8-strings downtuned has so much more attack now it's almost scary. I'm even going to say that the deep bass now has an IEM feel to it, it's so fricking fast.. sick!

 

This is the most overwhelming auto-suggestion I've ever experienced... remember when I hit the 4/ 8 ohm switch on my power amps and keeping the volume low, not this time!


Edited by Albedo - 10/23/10 at 12:42am
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post #53 of 205
10/24/10 at 2:13am

Your post was quite technical so sorry to say i could not conclude one single statement out of it :s

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post #54 of 205
10/24/10 at 3:53am

Amplifier are Texas Instruments beginning with letters TPA, HO are Headphone Out and LO is Line Out. I suspect that LO means setting the amp in High Impedance mode...

 

Wikipedia:
In electronics, high impedance (also known as hi-Z, tri-stated, or floating) is the state of an output terminal which is not currently driven by the circuit. In digital circuits, it means that the signal is neither driven to a logical high nor low level - hence "tri-stated". Such a signal can be seen as an open circuit (or "floating" wire) because connecting it to a low impedance circuit will not affect that circuit; it will instead itself be pulled to the same voltage as the actively driven output.
 
When outputs are tri-stated (in the Hi-Z state) their influence on the rest of the circuit is removed, and the circuit node will be "floating" if no other circuit element determines its state. Circuit designers will often use pull-up or pull-down resistors (usually with in the range of 1–100 kΩ) to influence the circuit when the output is tri-stated. For example, the I2C bus protocol (a bi-directional communication bus protocol often used between devices) specifies the use of pull-up resistors on the two communication lines. When devices are inactive, they "release" the communication lines and tri-state their outputs, thus removing their influence on the circuit. When all the devices on the bus have "released" the communication lines, the only influence on the circuit is the pull-up resistors, which pull the lines high. When a device wants to communicate, it comes out of the Hi-Z state and drives the line low. Devices communicating using this protocol either let the line float high, or drive it low – thus preventing any short circuit situation where one device drives a line high and another low.

The PCI local bus provides pull-up resistors, but they would require several clock cycles to pull a signal high given the bus's large distributed capacitance. To enable high-speed operation, the protocol requires that every device connecting to the bus drive the important control signals high for at least one clock cycle before going to the Hi-Z state. This way, the pull-up resistors are only responsible for maintaining the bus signals in the face of leakage current.
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post #55 of 205
10/24/10 at 4:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Albedo View Post

There's a discussion on a Russian board saying it's not TPA6140A2, but TPA6140 (2000), a Polish board saying it's a major let down and TPA6140A2 etc. Confusing, do someone here know what amp there's inside N8, is it only 25 mW?

 

Concerning HO vs. LO, night and day IME, going from HO and volume regulated by phone to LO and volume regulated by HP-cable resistor. Latest My Dying Bride I'm hearing several layers of whispers, with other records a difference in string attack by plectrum, sloppy grip shifting, difference in mastering bla bla bla and the soundstage.. every instrument have a lot more air, not so congested as before. Now the bands not playing in a shoebox wrapped up in several wool blankets.

 

Some recordings actually sound bad in this mode though, on a whim I had to check out Meshuggah "ObZen". Up until this point the record have been a disappointment, never gotten a kick.. last night was a revelation, all things fell into place. For the first time I'm really into this album, 8-strings downtuned has so much more attack now it's almost scary. I'm even going to say that the deep bass now has an IEM feel to it, it's so fricking fast.. sick!

 

This is the most overwhelming auto-suggestion I've ever experienced... remember when I hit the 4/ 8 ohm switch on my power amps and keeping the volume low, not this time!


I agree, I think the LO SQ difference isn't a placebo. I tested it a several times and I got to the same conclusion as before.

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post #56 of 205
10/24/10 at 10:05am

Thanks a lot for understanding my problem. I really admire it smily_headphones1.gif

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post #57 of 205
10/25/10 at 8:19am

Nice to know.

 

Headphone vs. Line out are two different beast, those hearing no difference at least see a difference on the battery drain?

(after I've been driving the signal at max. from the phone I certainly have noticed a major drop in battery life).

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post #58 of 205
10/25/10 at 9:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Albedo View Post

Nice to know.

 

Headphone vs. Line out are two different beast, those hearing no difference at least see a difference on the battery drain?

(after I've been driving the signal at max. from the phone I certainly have noticed a major drop in battery life).



That's for sure, but my battery life is still okay.

 

 

I noticed another interesting frequency response curve btw:

 

gsmarena_a001.png

 

this curve is way better as the curve of the N8, the phone costs 100$

Amped this phone would be an excellent DAP/DAC.

How come this frequency response is better if the chipset is equal?

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post #59 of 205
10/25/10 at 10:11am

Before I used LO and the phones volume control, back then battery life was good. Going max. from phone and using HP-cable resistor drastically changed both sound and battery life.

 

If N8 have the TPA6140A2 it's a major fail, as older models feature the TPA6130A2, as you can see concerning mW -> http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tpa6140a2.html (so odd, it's unbelievable).

 

The RMAA graphs annoys me, their not utilizing Line Out, which would be a whole different story, like reviewing a Class A amp only in AB mode, just so.. aah.. ridiculous as it can get.

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post #60 of 205
10/25/10 at 11:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Albedo View Post

Before I used LO and the phones volume control, back then battery life was good. Going max. from phone and using HP-cable resistor drastically changed both sound and battery life.

 

If N8 have the TPA6140A2 it's a major fail, as older models feature the TPA6130A2, as you can see concerning mW -> http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tpa6140a2.html (so odd, it's unbelievable).

 

The RMAA graphs annoys me, their not utilizing Line Out, which would be a whole different story, like reviewing a Class A amp only in AB mode, just so.. aah.. ridiculous as it can get.


I think your right, the problem is there are just a few people who are realy into hifi audio, most people are kind of ignorant in that matter. Still all this data is just numbers, you can't really tell how it will sounds by just that.
 

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