[fokta]

interesting topic.. since I just join Audiophile and also Note 8 user before.... i tried testing it myself
for me, i find a slightly audio difference when using UHQ upscaling, feel like a really minor boost..

not noticeable when using IEM, only some tricky effect when it's turn on, no difference when listen further. in conclusion, IMO, No difference in IEM, and when using Headphone (ATH M40x, no Amp).

For mobile purpose, I always plug my IEM or Headphone to my note 8.
Some how I understand and appreciate now, why major headphone create sub 100 ohm (or below 50 ohm) impedance to be easly drive by smartphone and the that's the major user are..
just opinion though...

 

[abaniasad]

Hello guys, since I've bought my Galaxy Note 8, I have been extensively trying each and every sound option available on settings. And I saw this one called Samsung UHQ Upscaler.

I looked up some info about it and it seems to upscale all audio to 32 bits, but I found two options underneath this upscaler: Bit upscaling and Bit and bandwidth upscaling

Trusting my ears I found out to be sounding the best when I only enabled Bit upscaling, but I wanted to see what this was doing, so I took measures with my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (2nd gen) connected to my iFi micro iUSB3.0 and RMAA 6.4.1. I also adjusted the input gain when needed to maintain the volume constant.

As you can see in this summary, there is an absurdly abrupt amount of Intermodulation Distortion and Total Harmonic Distortion when bandwidth upscaling is applied. But let's look at the graphs...

No variation on the frequency response, great!

Bit/Bandwidth mode has lower noise but also has some strange peaks arround 200Hz, 400Hz and 750Hz and Bit mode has lower noise without strange peaks.

Now we have a worse dynamic range on Bit/Bandwidth mode. And a slightly better dynamic range on Bit mode compared to having UHQ completely disabled. But it is within margin of error.

Here comes the disaster. Bit/Bandwidth mode is generating tons of harmonic distortion! Bit mode and disabled have the exact same distortion (result within margin of error).

And if that weren't enough, Intermodulation distortion on Bit/Bandwidth mode is crazy high! And again, same results on Bit mode and disabled, if anything, slightly better on bit mode.

Aaand here we have an interesting result. Bit/Bandwidth is giving the worst result by far doing weird things with sub bass frequencies. With UHQ Upsaling disabled, we get better crosstalk up to 5kHz, when Bit Upscaler keeps it lower than -90dB. Amazing!


I have repeated this test a few times and the results were consistent.


Analyzing the results, I see bit upscaling is really making some improvement. And we completely discard Bit/Bandwidth mode.

But now I want to check how does it perform on low volume. Because, as you may know, Android regulates the volume on a digital manner, reducing the overall available dynamic range (truncating PCM packets)

As you can see, we get lower noise, 6dB MORE OF DYNAMIC RANGE, lower THD, lower IMD and better crosstalk.

Exact same frequency response

UHQ Upscaler on bit mode shows a lower noise level specially on higher frequencies. Awesome!

An enormous difference in dynamic range, a whole bit is recovered with 6dBs more of DR.

Significantly lower Total Harmonic Distortion with UHQ Upscaler on Bit mode

Again, better Intermodulation distortion with UHQ enabled on Bit mode

And significantly better crosstalk overall.


Now, my conclusions about this are that indeed UHQ Upscaler on Bit Upscaling mode is the best option objectively talking. It seems to help quantize giving more resolution and lower noise. And I can lower the volume finally without loosing almost any quality.

Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts about it?

Thanks alot .that was a very professional experimentation and got amazing conclusions.

 

[bigshot]

What does "upscaling" mean? Is it some sort of signal processing that colors the sound? If it is, just use whatever sounds best to you. If it's just increasing the data rate, it won't do anything to improve the sound, it can only harm it.

 

[dazzerfong]

Unfortunately, I don't have any testing equipment so I can't contribute anything on that side.

I used to use my S8 for listening to music, and can say the following things about it:

1. I only have UHQ upscaler, and can't select which version it is (Galaxy S8, Exynos)
2. Without EQ, adaptive sound or UHQ upscaler, some of my IEMs hiss badly.
3. Without EQ or adaptive sound, UHQ upscaler audibly changes the sound. In my opinion, it's for the worse (adds a strange crossfeed-like effect). However, hiss is gone!
4. If I move even one slider slightly on the EQ with UHQ on, the UHQ effect is 'effectively' disabled. However, what I noticed was that the hissing in my IEMs is gone.
5. So what I do now, is enable UHQ, move the 16kHz slider up one notch, so I have effectively zero change to the dynamics and with no hissing!

 

[SoraNeko]

Hi, i'm pretty new to the forum, i started posting just today because of free time (finally XD) came across this post, just to say that, in my opinion, the UHD upscaler doesn't actively make a difference, while bandwith upscaling, more even in my opinion (i don't have the equipment to mesure it) makes the sound just harsh (using IEMs)

 

[340519]

I have my tablet hooked up to my benchmark dac1 and I can't seem to disable the uhq. The bit upscaling sounds good to me, but do you know of a way to disable it?

 

[340519]

Well I can't disable it so I have to live with it.

 

[bigshot]

Upscaling shouldn't make any audible difference. Oversampling DACs do it as a matter of course.

 

[imeem]

don't mean to bump a old thread, on my Galaxy S10+, there's no option to disable UHQ Upscaler. only turn on

• Bit upscaling or
• Bit and bandwith upscaling

. with Bit and bandwidth upscaling, I do hear a difference, to me it does sound better on the low end. but idk if it's basically just EQ and some effects. So i use Bit upscaling instead. Ideally i do want it off completely for purist sake.