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Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (Sprint SGS2)

post #1 of 13
10/10/11 at 12:42pm
Thread Starter 

Does anyone use this phone as an unamped source?  Any thoughts or comments on sound quality?

 

Thanks!

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post #2 of 13
10/10/11 at 1:33pm

Definitely not. The SGSII has to have an amp. Sound quality is disappointing (ie. worse than the ipod/iphone). However, I heard there are ways around it if the phone is rooted. You should search the threads. It has been discussed many times here and you can find out in more detail on the other threads.

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post #3 of 13
10/10/11 at 2:48pm

Currently I have one I9100 and I don't even think try to amplify that crappy output signal. Nothing good can come out there. Worse sound quality in a cell phone ever. My 5 years old Nokia N95 8Gb or my 2 years old Nokia N97 sound way better straight out of the jack

 

If you don't mind that derelict quality of the Sammie, you can try Cyanogenmod 7 with the DSP and PowerAmp Pro player, but doesn't get much (or any) better, tbh.

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post #4 of 13
10/10/11 at 10:11pm
Thread Starter 

Ick.  That's quite disappointing.  I definitely don't mind getting balls-out hacktastic with the phone (my WebOS phone is currently running a custom kernel pushing a 200% overclock over stock CPU frequencies with compcache swapping) but I was hoping for at least half decent quality as I finally broke my venerable Cowon D2 and don't have the funds to buy another stand-alone DAP.

 

Any thoughts on how it would compare to an iPhone 4S?  My wife is getting an iPhone at the end of the week (on Sprint, huzzah!) and I am still undecided as to if I want one for myself too or if the SGS2 will be my phone of choice.

 

Thanks!!!!

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post #5 of 13
10/17/11 at 4:25pm

I know I am late to the thread but I was not impressed with the Epic 4G, nor the Epic 4G touch. The Samsung Fascinate was better when my wife had one. Hell the Droid X was brutally better. You really didn't need power amp, but for the EQ yes. I really though Sammy had some sound, I was wrong. The Epic 4g Touch is a little better than the Epic 4G, I really hate it's sound quality, but the overall phone is decent enough for me not to get the iPhone 4S

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post #6 of 13
10/17/11 at 4:44pm
If sound quality is a concern, then definitely chose the iPhone 4 over the Galaxy SII. The iPhone 4 is a wonderful sounding player.


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post #7 of 13
10/17/11 at 5:46pm
Thread Starter 

I got an Epic 4G Touch.  Sound quality is indeed mediocre.  I have yet to sit down and compare it to my wife's iPhone 4S, but I will soon and will post my impressions either here or in a new thread (which I'll link) depending on how much time I have to do it.  I really don't want an iPhone, I hate Apple.

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post #8 of 13
10/18/11 at 7:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazirker View Post

I got an Epic 4G Touch. Sound quality is indeed mediocre. I have yet to sit down and compare it to my wife's iPhone 4S, but I will soon and will post my impressions either here or in a new thread (which I'll link) depending on how much time I have to do it. I really don't want an iPhone, I hate Apple.


I hated apple to, but i was tired of androids lame sound quality and finally got an iphone 4 this last summer. Im not looking back.


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post #9 of 13
10/18/11 at 11:46pm

i agree with SLARE.

 

back to basics on me on the Galaxy 2 portable music: stock IEMs, samsung media player with Custom Equalizer (inverted U boost at 500 and 1k), normals sound effect. Music clarity and Bass enhancement effects are quite OK too.

 

that way i lower my expectations and guess what - it doesn't sound half bad for no additional costs!

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post #10 of 13
10/19/11 at 6:06am

I'm driving my Senn HD 25-1 II's through my GS2 (Sprint) using Power Amp to EQ and an E5.  With some tweaking I got it to sound... decent.  True enough that Samsung have shafted the music playing abilities on this device, but I use it on the bus and on my lunches on a busy university campus so  I'm not expecting pristine sound but I was surprised at how well Warpaint's album sounded on it yesterday.  Just my 2C.

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post #11 of 13
10/19/11 at 8:57am
Thread Starter 

I find the output slightly muddy and a little dark, which isn't the greatest match for my Atrios.  If I still had my HJE900's, it might actually be a great fit as those tended slightly towards sibilance, but who knows.  I'll have to A/B with Touchpad, Pre and Fiio E7/E9 to see how those compare.  Oh, and my wife's iPhone 4S, still gotta do that comparison too...

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post #12 of 13
10/22/11 at 8:14am

If anyone's interested I did a quick review with my SGS2 + Phonak Audeio PFE122 VS IE7. I also tested with and without FiiO E7 as an amp.

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/575703/galaxy-sii-which-iems#post_7839802

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post #13 of 13
10/25/11 at 12:25pm
Thread Starter 

Just installed the Starburst ROM, v1.8.  While it is difficult to A/B this versus the stock ROM, I think it sounds better.  The boominess is slightly reduced and it is a bit more crisp.  It still isn't a great source, but it helps.  There are also some DSP settings which can be tuned to help.  The difference I'm hearing is small, small enough that it might be placebo, but I'll take what I can get.

 

Nice review amanp, btw.

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