Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow_Fox 

So far it has been good enough but, I find it funny that most reviewing websites don't review sound quality when the original smartphone boom was partially because ipod fused with a phone.

That boom came from device convergence and ease of use, not because of sound quality.  For most of the population if their phone plays music then it's pretty much "good enough".  But if you really care for SQ on your smartphone reviews then GSMArena is the place to visit since they do provide measurements.

After going through numerous phones I've decided to give up on the convergence thing.  I like the iOS iPod interface but I don't like using iOS as my phone, music playback on Android for the most part is all over the place save for a very narrow selection of phones and apps and with each new generation of phones you have no idea whether the SQ goes up or down, and WP7.5 is fairly ok due to the strict guideline of hardware implementations but it's playback software is limited.

Hence why I decide to build a separate portable rig (see sig), at least now I know *exactly* what I get and not have to worry about losing SQ each time I choose a new phone (which is pretty frequent as I'm a gadget geek).

IF the android folks can implement USB DAC function on ICS, then we can have the best of both worlds. 

I think having a phone with an USB DAC?AMP combo would be still pretty small and portable. 

Also, I hope bypassing the internal dac/amp inside the phone will help improving the battery life a bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow_Fox 

I myself didn't have much choice, I wanted android and captivate was about all that existed on AT&T.

So far it has been good enough but, I find it funny that most reviewing websites don't review sound quality when the original smartphone boom was partially because ipod fused with a phone.

Well, you kinda lucked in to a good choice because the Captivate uses the Wolfson codec, and you can use Voodoo Sound on it.

I do look at the sound quality, but its a struggle to get decent sound. Also you can be limited on what you can get on the mobile provider you use. At the moment I'm using my phone not as a primary player but a backup player. Also because be my phones tend to have better FM reception, than my MP3 players, I tend to use it for that. Or music when I don't want to carry my MP3. But if I use my phone for music or radio, or wifi radio it destroys the battery life. Whereas my MP3 player lasts for much longer even under heavy use. So by having phone and mp3 you extend the battery life of the phone. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow_Fox 
That is good know.

 

You need to have Root Access to your phone (Super One-Click Root works fine), but this app will allow you to access all the functionality of the Wolfson WM8994 hardware DAC installed on your phone:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.projectvoodoo.controlappdonate&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsIm9yZy5wcm9qZWN0dm9vZG9vLmNvbnRyb2xhcHBkb25hdGUiXQ..

It is a paid app (no, I'm not the developer) but you can use the app without having to load custom firmware.  It really does make a difference in terms of sound quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow_Fox 

How much do you take sound quality into consideration when getting a new phone?

After the Galaxy S (with Neutron Media Player) cleared my other pocket of an iPod Touch, audio quality is now up there with price when I get phones. So much, in fact, that I haven't replaced it yet, after I read some of what others wrote about the succeeding versions with the Yamaha chip. I even tried Neutron Media Player with my brother's HTC, the sound was different and too loud without Voodoo Sound Control, so I'm kinda sure it's not all just the media player.