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External Review: Galaxy S II audio analyzed on Anandtech

post #1 of 29
9/11/11 at 11:01am
Thread Starter 

Hey dear head-fi-ers !

 

I wrote a detailed review of Galaxy S II audio, focusing on key points for demanding music listeners like we all are here :)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/13

 

It's not yet an in-dept review, some aspects like performance under load and recording are not present, maybe in a future one;)

 

That's my first review and I'm willing to improve, why your feedback will be very helpful: what's wrong, what's missing, don't hesitate to he harsh ^^

Thanks!

 

Spoiler: not very good.


Edited by supercurio - 9/11/11 at 11:12am
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post #2 of 29
9/11/11 at 1:50pm
49 Ohms of output impedance? You'd better no listen to this with a multidriver IEM. I wish you could review some HTC at some point.

Thanks for a great review.
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post #3 of 29
9/11/11 at 1:52pm
49 Ohms of output impedance? You'd better not listen to this with a multidriver IEM. I wish you could review some HTC at some point.

Thanks for a great review.
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post #4 of 29
9/11/11 at 6:05pm

no surprise. glad i went with an iPhone 4 instead. 

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post #5 of 29
9/12/11 at 12:49am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elfary View Post


49 Ohms of output impedance? You'd better not listen to this with a multidriver IEM. I wish you could review some HTC at some point.

Thanks for a great review.


You're welcome!

Yep because of this high output impedance the standard's maximum phone's output is too quiet for people using 16 ohms with moderate or low sensitivity

 

HTC, yes it might become interesting with the current Sensation/Sensation 4G, and with Beats audio arriving: measuring what is real and what is just marketing should be fun ;)

 

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post #6 of 29
9/12/11 at 12:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonb View Post

no surprise. glad i went with an iPhone 4 instead. 



Why no surprise?

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post #7 of 29
9/12/11 at 2:15am

It's really hard to avoid marketing tricks and that's how reviews like yours are a great asset than can save us hundreds of dollars.

 

The convenience of smartphones is great but unfortunately only Apple has been able to get the sound right providing us with a fantastic sounding phone.

 

I could try an HTC HD7 last month and it surprised me for good even not being on par with iPhones. Previously i had tried some Samsungs and Nokias and they were utterly unable to drive properly balanced armatures.

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post #8 of 29
9/12/11 at 6:47am

I don't know, it just figures that the best phone on the market has crappy sound. The rest of the phone is beastly, why couldn't they have spent a few more bucks to also make it sound at least as good as the original Galaxy S.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by supercurio View Post





Why no surprise?



 

 

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post #9 of 29
9/12/11 at 12:36pm

Just get the first Galaxy S wich got a Wolfson dac on it and install Voodoo . Can't get any better then that.

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post #10 of 29
9/12/11 at 10:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peyotero View Post

Just get the first Galaxy S wich got a Wolfson dac on it and install Voodoo . Can't get any better then that.



But then you are stuck with a single core processor, and a worse screen/camera than the SGS2. 

And any word on the sound quality of the Droid Bionic? I'm pretty satisfied with the Droid X, but I'd like to know how the Droid Bionic, and Motorolas in general do. 

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post #11 of 29
9/13/11 at 4:44am

Awesome review supercurio, very thorough and plenty of backup of your subjective impressions with your test data (should be more of that around here).  Shame about the change of DAC chip and poor results, but your review helps me to decide to keep my G1 so I save money and that's cool.

 

Thanks also for all your work on the voodoo project.  It's greatly appreciated.

 

SGS + Darkyrom + Voodoo sound + RE0 = etysmile.gif

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post #12 of 29
9/13/11 at 3:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elfary View Post

It's really hard to avoid marketing tricks and that's how reviews like yours are a great asset than can save us hundreds of dollars.

 

The convenience of smartphones is great but unfortunately only Apple has been able to get the sound right providing us with a fantastic sounding phone.

 

I could try an HTC HD7 last month and it surprised me for good even not being on par with iPhones. Previously i had tried some Samsungs and Nokias and they were utterly unable to drive properly balanced armatures.


I would say quite the opposite :)

 

Fortunately, Apple devices are far from the only ones sounding right and I think I helped prove it with Voodoo Sound mods on GalaxyS/Tab/Nexus/EeePad Transformer.

 

There are many other manufacturers doing their job right and choosing great audio IC but we simply don't know about it. I help sound reviews will help on this aspect.

 

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post #13 of 29
9/13/11 at 3:58pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by stacey View Post


But then you are stuck with a single core processor, and a worse screen/camera than the SGS2. 

And any word on the sound quality of the Droid Bionic? I'm pretty satisfied with the Droid X, but I'd like to know how the Droid Bionic, and Motorolas in general do. 

 

I'm not sure it's really a matter of $, IMHO more a matter of knowledge, skills and audio culture.

 

But Samsung learn a lot and very fast: if they study this review and methodology, we might see better results in device of generation +1 or +2.

BTW I hope manufacturers will all learn from those detailed reviews.

 

 



Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonb View Post

I don't know, it just figures that the best phone on the market has crappy sound. The rest of the phone is beastly, why couldn't they have spent a few more bucks to also make it sound at least as good as the original Galaxy S.
 



 

 



 

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post #14 of 29
9/13/11 at 7:25pm

@jasonb having worked for samsung in the phone section (no longer working there)  for over 2 years I learnt a bit about how samsung engineer audio into their phones.

 

In true jap / korean mentality they have partnerships with B&O and harmaaan kardon to design some specific phones in a (one of yours , one of ours team design method) so the samsung engineers learn the best practice and then begin to del

 

however whe creating the phone,,just like everyone else they go through benchmark testing and tick a box when they reach their target e.g hiss or harmonics

 

however a phone is a multifunction hub device with so much interconnected circuitry a technological 'jack of all rtrades' the emphasis is not on audio visual any more...its more connectivity, touchand applications performance first then video then audio ...and even then the audio is benchmarked so that it is at an 'adequate' standard they do not shoot for it to be better each time. they would if they could its just theres no market push for that stuff.,  

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post #15 of 29
9/13/11 at 7:26pm

id only use a phone as my source for portability reasons

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