[Duncan]

Quote:

 
No. Why do people listen to those who did not test things thoroughly...meh, whatever.
 
I'm telling you, the DAC inside the phone is excellent, and sounds excellent. Believe it, or don't believe it, your choice.
Here are some measurements for you:
http://dl.project-voodoo.org/RMAA/reports/nfb-12-galaxys-voodoosound-load-hd650.htm
And note that is measured without an external amp on the galaxy S, while the nfb-12 has a powerful amp inside it. If Galaxy S had a better headphone amp inside it, the measurements would be even better.
 
The only reason NZtechfreak heard an improvement in sound when he plugged in the E7 is because of the amp. I challenge him to plug in a pure amp, without a DAC inside, and he will hear the same improvement.
That's the same reason why I hear a MONUMENTAL, night and day difference between using the headphone out of the phone, and using a good quality amp between the phone and headphones. It literally goes from sounding like muddy quiet mess, to sounding unbelievably good by any standard. As I said already, impossible to tell which is which in a blind test between Galaxy S and a 800$ DAC.
 
And there is no crackling when using the Galaxy S as source, I never heard any crackling, or distortions, or anything of that sort.

 
Just to make sure there is no confusion - the Galaxy S may not have crackles / pops, but the S3 does - Categorically, without a shadow of a doubt...
 
...We are all talking about the same device?!
 
Anyway, I'm more than happy running the Fiio E7 / E11 combo, if I am missing out on something by having an extra box in my chain, so be it - I know what sounds good to me, whether it is backed up objectionally, or with graphs etc...
 
Oh, and the little tiny Monster Trumpets definitely are not full sized, and the poor little phone cannot even drive them with authority...

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

 
Just to make sure there is no confusion - the Galaxy S may not have crackles / pops, but the S3 does - Categorically, without a shadow of a doubt...
 
...We are all talking about the same device?!
 
Anyway, I'm more than happy running the Fiio E7 / E11 combo, if I am missing out on something by having an extra box in my chain, so be it - I know what sounds good to me, whether it is backed up objectionally, or with graphs etc...
 
Oh, and the little tiny Monster Trumpets definitely are not full sized, and the poor little phone cannot even drive them with authority...

 
 
Since the beginning I was talking about Galaxy S, not S3, which is pretty obvious if you read carefully.
 
And you're probably not missing out much compared to any amp + dac combo, regardless of price.

 

[xeizo]

Quote:

 
Just to make sure there is no confusion - the Galaxy S may not have crackles / pops, but the S3 does - Categorically, without a shadow of a doubt...
 
...We are all talking about the same device?!
 
Anyway, I'm more than happy running the Fiio E7 / E11 combo, if I am missing out on something by having an extra box in my chain, so be it - I know what sounds good to me, whether it is backed up objectionally, or with graphs etc...
 
Oh, and the little tiny Monster Trumpets definitely are not full sized, and the poor little phone cannot even drive them with authority...

 
It certainly has not unless you're distorting/overdriving/excessive equalization something on the way, I've had the SIII since the day after the launch. The international version. And I definitely have no crackles and pops when listening to HQ material ie Spotify Premium with Extreme setting or UPNP with FLAC, I use no other equalizer than the one built into the Volume+ app and only depending on which can I use, one has to take care of the maximum output level from Volume+ though as the sound clearly is clipping if running extreme settings. It's not hardware clipping but rather similar to the software clipping which can be heard when using Pulseaudio on Linux if having it set up the wrong way(on my Linux box I have to turn down Alsa a bit to not soft overdrive Pulseaudio). But that's clipping I'm talking about and it doesn't sound anywhere near crackle and pop, it's just clipping and it is easily avoided by not maximizing every knob in every app.
 
My SIII sounds as fluent and calm as my two Xonar soundcards, so either you have a faulty sample or you have setup something the bad way.
 
One oddity though, the stock rom for SIII is running Linux 2.6.35 but my sample is running Linux 3.0.0, probably because of carrier demands. My rom have never been updated, so it's the one my carrier supplied. What I know of Linux is that there where rather big improvements to the audio stack in kernel 3.0.0 so that may be worth considered as an alternative explanation for strange behaviour differences between units. For custom roms I guess there are a variety of different kernels to choose from, but if one decide to run Voodoo sound when it's ready one has to use the same kernel as Supercurio uses ie stock-kernel even if it is a custom-rom. Unless obtaining Supercurios source code and compiling it oneself, but I don't know right now which license he uses. Anyway, my current setup sounds pretty sweet so I'm not in any hurry to try Voodoo Sound even if my curiosity will drive me to it later 

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

 
It certainly has not unless you're distorting/overdriving/excessive equalization something on the way, I've had the SIII since the day after the launch. The international version. And I definitely have no crackles and pops when listening to HQ material ie Spotify Premium with Extreme setting or UPNP with FLAC, I use no other equalizer than the one built into the Volume+ app and only depending on which can I use, one has to take care of the maximum output level from Volume+ though as the sound clearly is clipping if running extreme settings. It's not hardware clipping but rather similar to the software clipping which can be heard when using Pulseaudio on Linux if having it set up the wrong way(on my Linux box I have to turn down Alsa a bit to not soft overdrive Pulseaudio). But that's clipping I'm talking about and it doesn't sound anywhere near crackle and pop, it's just clipping and it is easily avoided by not maximizing every knob in every app.
 
My SIII sounds as fluent and calm as my two Xonar soundcards, so either you have a faulty sample or you have setup something the bad way.
 
One oddity though, the stock rom for SIII is running Linux 2.6.35 but my sample is running Linux 3.0.0, probably because of carrier demands. My rom have never been updated, so it's the one my carrier supplied. What I know of Linux is that there where rather big improvements to the audio stack in kernel 3.0.0 so that may be worth considered as an alternative explanation for strange behaviour differences between units. For custom roms I guess there are a variety of different kernels to choose from, but if one decide to run Voodoo sound when it's ready one has to use the same kernel as Supercurio uses ie stock-kernel even if it is a custom-rom. Unless obtaining Supercurios source code and compiling it oneself, but I don't know right now which license he uses. Anyway, my current setup sounds pretty sweet so I'm not in any hurry to try Voodoo Sound even if my curiosity will drive me to it later 

 
I suggest you try checking out the "Official sound quality" thread at XDA, it most certainly does have intermittent crackles - check the thread for more info but dozens have confirmed this (and they have been captured in tests by a sound engineer, and some of the forumers in contact with Samsung engineers say that they have acknowlged the fault). It is related to the phone going to sleep with the screen off and power-savings settings kicking in.
 
If you are Rooted and running a CPU governer set to on-demand then you won't hear the crackles, similarly if you listen to music with the screen ON you won't hear the crackles, users of WinAMP and Spotify say they do not hear them either (presumably because they do not let the phone fall into deep sleep, which seems likely to be true for Spotify at the very least as a streaming app). I expect that is true for the UPNP set up you're using too.
 
EDIT: Should mention with the different SoC in the US variants there may not be crackles like in the International version.

 

[WakiDabeast]

Quote:

Then don't say the S3 can't drive any headphones to comfortable listening levels. The S3 is a portable device, designed for use with portable (presumably low impedance, high sensitivity) headphones.

do you think  they run headphones as loud as the iphone?

 

[GaryAR]

I think the file type may come into play as well, I am using aiff files and have no problems whatsoever. It seems like most of the xda people are using mp3's. 

 

[MikeB123]

Quote:

do you think  they run headphones as loud as the iphone?

 

They are loud enough to make you go deaf.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

do you think  they run headphones as loud as the iphone?

 
The volume output is lower than the iPhones (on stock at any rate).

 

[DrFeelgood40]

First post here
 
I'm looking at using the S3 in a different way, but as this thread is by far the most detailed view on the S3's audio capabilities that I've found, I'll post it here!
 
I'm coming from a car-audio perspective, where being able to use the S3 as a source is a great opportunity. For this, I'm specifically interested in the quality of its digital output, as I'll be doing a great deal of offboard digital processing on the signal (for interest, it would connect to one of THESE which will handle all of DAC, crossovers, slopes, EQing and gain). Is the S3 the answer to my needs...?
 
Many thanks!

 

[WakiDabeast]

Quote:

 
The volume output is lower than the iPhones (on stock at any rate).

yeah I just got them, they are about 90-95% of the iphone volume on stock, but with voodoo and the volume unlock it will probably be at least on par. SQ is relatively good, I'm sure with voodoo it will surpass the Iphone 

 

[danny93]

Quote:

yeah I just got them, they are about 90-95% of the iphone volume on stock, but with voodoo and the volume unlock it will probably be at least on par. SQ is relatively good, I'm sure with voodoo it will surpass the Iphone 

There are various hacks already out if your rooted...many are incorporated into kernels like Siyah, it can make volume output ridiculously loud, it has DAC direct feature too! 
 
Voodoo pre release is apparently on the horizon though so if your not rooted already then just wait for that IMO 

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

There are various hacks already out if your rooted...many are incorporated into kernels like Siyah, it can make volume output ridiculously loud, it has DAC direct feature too! 
 
Voodoo pre release is apparently on the horizon though so if your not rooted already then just wait for that IMO 

 
The DAC direct and oversampling settings available via Siyah kernel don't appear to make any difference, I'm assuming their implementation is broken since it is based on old Voodoo Sound code for the Galaxy S1. Still worth it while awaiting Voodoo from Supercurio though as the amp settings and stereo expansion do help.

 

[Gladzilla]

could some one recommend a micro usb to usb for my s3 and a good dac?
 
my phone is on verizon and is rooted.

 

[evilhippie]

Sanoxy Micro USB to USB OTG Cable - Amazon.com
 
This should be the cable that you're looking for.

 

[sanity8me]

Quote:

could some one recommend a micro usb to usb for my s3 and a good dac?
 
my phone is on verizon and is rooted.

 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-USB-OTG-Host-cable-4-Samsung-Galaxy-S2-I9100-SII-/251081031162?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item3a75987dfa

I just got this one for my S3 which was recommended by NZtechfreak on his blog.
 
I'll be giving it a shot with my old Go-Vibe Petite which has a Burr-Brown 2072 DAC...