Android: Neutron Music Player
Aug 19, 2016 at 9:35 AM Post #466 of 1,374
 
 
That's how Neutron Audio Hardware settings look on my HTC 10. 48000 Hz only despite Marshmallow 6.0.1, 24-bit/192 Khz ability and 32-bit output shown in settings (64-bit version). Activating  Follow Source Frequency doesn't help either. 24-bit/96 Khz source FLAC still as 48000.
I hope Neutron just wrong about his own info and actually use 96 Khz output for 96 Khz files and 44.1 Khz for standard 16-bit 44.1 Khz files.


 It is a bug.
Mojo among other items reflected an accurate output in both kitkat and Marshmallow on my Note 4.  I would deselect 32 bit and let your outboard DAC
do it's job. Also select the follow source freq.  If it is 16 bit 44.1 it should output to DAC as such
 
The Mojo was good for 2 things besides great sound and that was comparing 2 earphones at the same time with dual HO outs and the sample rate indicated by the color.
 
Aug 23, 2016 at 2:14 AM Post #467 of 1,374
 
 It is a bug.
Mojo among other items reflected an accurate output in both kitkat and Marshmallow on my Note 4.  I would deselect 32 bit and let your outboard DAC
do it's job. Also select the follow source freq.  If it is 16 bit 44.1 it should output to DAC as such
 
The Mojo was good for 2 things besides great sound and that was comparing 2 earphones at the same time with dual HO outs and the sample rate indicated by the color.


I don't use external DAC/AMP. Deselecting 32-bit = no 24-bit/96 Khz files without resampling.
>Activating  Follow Source Frequency doesn't help either. 24-bit/96 Khz source FLAC still as 48000.
And 44100 will show 48000 too.
 
Aug 23, 2016 at 6:19 AM Post #468 of 1,374
It's been a while since I last posted, but here we go...
 
I'm re-evaluating my music player options and have always like the principle of putting sound quality first. Since recently getting a OnePlus 2, I've had a revival of interest in this as the OnePlus 2 has the best sound of any of my android devices, pushing me to look for those extra improvements.
 
I tend to use my AKG K451 headphones the most but also use Beyerdynamic DT770s when I can. I also use Sennheiser CX300-ii when going to sleep.
 
On paper I'd have to put Neutron first (though I've been a long term Rocket Player user) so have been carrying out side-by-side testing with Neutron, Rocket and PowerAmp.
 
Still using the Eval version, and Neutron is coming out on top but it has been crashing quite a lot.
 
My impression is that Neutron has an unrestricted sound-stage where the others feel closed in (when making a direct comparison). It feels precise and detailed and very open.
 
Taken on their own, all the players sound good, and may suit some styles of music more than others, so just like headphones and speakers, there is not one 'perfect' player.
 
I'm running it at 64bit, Audiophile Resampling, with the equaliser and pre-amp on and using the same file for each comparison.
 
As I've had to get the sound level consistent when swapping between players this has required a bit of tweaking of volume and pre-amp levels. I've found that once starting Neutron again and turning the volume up and down quickly the player seems to close itself.
 
I'm running it on a OnePlus Two mostly, but also a Nexus 7 (2013). On the Nexus 7 it has crashed to the point I had to force the app to stop to recover (during which time there was a nasty sound continually playing). On the OnePlus Two it has disappeared completely including any sound.
 
Of the two devices, it is interesting to note that on the Nexus 7 the difference is more obvious with Neutron really standing out. On the OnePlus 2, it is closer and I would not be disappointed by any of the apps.
 
Still not quite hit 'buy' yet, but coming around to it.
 
I probably need to get myself a portable headphone amp now as the OnePlus 2 did seem to struggle with the DT770s.
 
Edit: Just bought a Topping NX3 and FiiO L16 as a starting point into headphone amps.
 
Aug 27, 2016 at 2:07 AM Post #469 of 1,374
  After trying and uninstalling Onkyo HF Player and USB Audio Player Pro, I'm enjoying Neutron more than either. Connects easily to my DAC/Amp., SQ is superior, highly configurable, and while others note the UI is antiquated, it functions well for me. I did have an issue where AGP would inadvertently re-set to a high dB at start of each track, causing quite a jolt to the ears, but now I leave pre-amp. gain set to zero and usually off, no problem since.
 
One quirk is that my album cover art displays erratically. In some instances it shows the back cover even though front cover is embedded into the tag. Does anyone know the schema used to select art to display? Is it first .jpg  format file in folder (hence "back.jpg" would appear as it's alphabetically the first in folder),  the file named "cover.jpg" or "folder.jpg" or can it be set to only use the embedded art? Any help appreciated. Enjoy the music!

For the benefit of others who may have a similar issue, I have realized by sheer luck / trial and error that Neutron's album art display screen has up and down facing arrows on the right sided corners, which change the image file displayed. Now that I know this, I LOVE this feature. I can include the back covers, artist photos or other jpegs in the album's folder and enjoy scrolling through them natively in Neutron while I listen. it is an enriched feast for ears and eyes! Great player, and my next project is to learn how to properly use the parametric EQ! One success at a time. :)
 
Sep 19, 2016 at 11:35 AM Post #473 of 1,374
Quote:



there are so many options. I am confused which do what. I want an audiophile music setting. How can i get it?

 
There is no such thing as a general "audiophile" music setting, there is just a "high fidelity (as much as possible)" setting. For the EQ alone that means using it to reduce the height/depth of peaks and dips in the headphone's or a speaker's in-room/cabin response. At best the closest to some idea of an "audiophile" setting is to smoothen out the peaks and dips first but then the overall result would be to have everything above, say, 2500hz or 4000hz softer than everything else. Either way, this will depend on what headphone you are using, which is why you can save several settings. I have two on my Note3 now - one for my ASG-1.3 (which I use on the go) and one for my HD600 (when the Note3 is docked into my home system). My EQ settings just smoothened out the response on both, but it will not necessarily benefit what you have. So first off when it comes to EQ - what headphones are you using?
 
Similarly you need to understand what those individual settings are for. EQ type refers to how the gain will affect the frequencies, ie peak has a more literal "center freq" that gets the full boost or cut but depending on the width or "Q" value it can affect several or a fraction of an octave higher and lower. High/low shelf puts a flat boost or cut above/below the "center" freq and then the Q affects how far below/above that is affected and by how much.
 
The next is Crossfeed, but this is basically just to deal with the inherent problem that headphones aren't speakers. In the latter both of your ears can hear both speakers including the (hopefully just the necessary) reflections, which helps with positional audio. This is not possible with headphones for obvious physical differences but Crossfeed simulates this by filtering a given range of frequencies above the selected crossover point across both channels. The higher you set the gain the louder the cross-filtration, the lower you set the center frequency the more frequencies get filtered across both channels. This partially depends on the headphone but not simply on whether it needs it more or not as the headphones that really need it will not really benefit from it, because there's a trade off: you trade a seemingly wider soundstage and end up with a deeper soundstage. So while the cymbals move closer to the center, vocals move forward and every thing else moves back, the more frequencies are affected the narrower the entire soundstage gets. Set it too high and the cymbals move to the center as to proportional size of the drum set, but the toms or even the snare might stay where they are. And on headphones that have really bad relative positioning, like Grados (cymbals next to your ears, no depth apart from forward vocals but all drums are forward anyway, etc) everything just narrows with barely any benefit to soundstage depth; on headphones like the HD800 for example the imaging gets even more precise, proportional to the size of the entire soundstage anyway.
 
Apart from that everything else has to do with connectivity (ie which USB driver to use, or streaming, etc), safety or some other way of dealing with gain (auto gain leveling, ReplayGain, etc), and then functionality. 
 
Sep 19, 2016 at 11:48 AM Post #474 of 1,374
I
There is no such thing as a general "audiophile" music setting, there is just a "high fidelity (as much as possible)" setting. For the EQ alone that means using it to reduce the height/depth of peaks and dips in the headphone's or a speaker's in-room/cabin response. At best the closest to some idea of an "audiophile" setting is to smoothen out the peaks and dips first but then the overall result would be to have everything above, say, 2500hz or 4000hz softer than everything else. Either way, this will depend on what headphone you are using, which is why you can save several settings. I have two on my Note3 now - one for my ASG-1.3 (which I use on the go) and one for my HD600 (when the Note3 is docked into my home system). My EQ settings just smoothened out the response on both, but it will not necessarily benefit what you have. So first off when it comes to EQ - what headphones are you using?

Similarly you need to understand what those individual settings are for. EQ type refers to how the gain will affect the frequencies, ie peak has a more literal "center freq" that gets the full boost or cut but depending on the width or "Q" value it can affect several or a fraction of an octave higher and lower. High/low shelf puts a flat boost or cut above/below the "center" freq and then the Q affects how far below/above that is affected and by how much.

The next is Crossfeed, but this is basically just to deal with the inherent problem that headphones aren't speakers. In the latter both of your ears can hear both speakers including the (hopefully just the necessary) reflections, which helps with positional audio. This is not possible with headphones for obvious physical differences but Crossfeed simulates this by filtering a given range of frequencies above the selected crossover point across both channels. The higher you set the gain the louder the cross-filtration, the lower you set the center frequency the more frequencies get filtered across both channels. This partially depends on the headphone but not simply on whether it needs it more or not as the headphones that really need it will not really benefit from it, because there's a trade off: you trade a seemingly wider soundstage and end up with a deeper soundstage. So while the cymbals move closer to the center, vocals move forward and every thing else moves back, the more frequencies are affected the narrower the entire soundstage gets. Set it too high and the cymbals move to the center as to proportional size of the drum set, but the toms or even the snare might stay where they are. And on headphones that have really bad relative positioning, like Grados (cymbals next to your ears, no depth apart from forward vocals but all drums are forward anyway, etc) everything just narrows with barely any benefit to soundstage depth; on headphones like the HD800 for example the imaging gets even more precise, proportional to the size of the entire soundstage anyway.

Apart from that everything else has to do with connectivity (ie which USB driver to use, or streaming, etc), safety or some other way of dealing with gain (auto gain leveling, ReplayGain, etc), and then functionality. 
I have HD 598
 
Sep 19, 2016 at 12:30 PM Post #475 of 1,374
Try this setting:
 
EQ

Band 1
Center frequency - 30hz
Type - Low Shelf, Q 
Width - 1.0
Gain - +2.0dB
 
Band 2
Center frequency - 2000hz
Type - Peak, Q
Width - 1.8
Gain - +2.0dB
 
Band 3
Center frequency - 11250hz
Type - Peak, Q
Width - 1.8
Gain - -2.0dB
 
Note: 
Make sure subsonic filter is enabled (this is elsewhere in the DSP options
Q refers to width, there's another option there but I don't use it as I'm more familiar with how Q works
 
 
Crossfeed
(This is what I use on my HD600 so YMMV)
 
Center freq - 1250hz
Gain - +6dB
 
Sep 28, 2016 at 3:41 AM Post #477 of 1,374
I cannot select files from my sd card. Can anyone help pls?


That is odd. I have a Samsumg Note 4 and keep all my music files on the SD card. It is the only source I have set up in the media library, and works perfectly.
 
When you installed it, did you allow Neutron to access your SD card etc? It might be worth uninstalling it and then reinstalling to see if you can get it to ask for permission again.
 
Sep 28, 2016 at 6:23 AM Post #478 of 1,374
That is odd. I have a Samsumg Note 4 and keep all my music files on the SD card. It is the only source I have set up in the media library, and works perfectly.

When you installed it, did you allow Neutron to access your SD card etc? It might be worth uninstalling it and then reinstalling to see if you can get it to ask for permission again.
ok i will try
 
Sep 28, 2016 at 4:43 PM Post #479 of 1,374
can i ask
 
so i am stacking my fiio x7 to chord mojo via coax cable, so this means that I am bypassing the fiio x7 dac, and using the chord dac.
 
so in neutron would i ideally choose to choose generic driver or direct usb driver, I know that no usb is in the chain, but I just thought of asking ? or does not it not matter what i choose since i am using coax
 
Sep 29, 2016 at 2:06 PM Post #480 of 1,374
 
so I am stacking my fiio x7 with mojo with dyson coax, now with stock music player in fiio x7 i can see that files that are 24/192 the light indicator is blue but when i play the same file using neutron the light is red
 
any thoughts on this 
 

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