[KElyas]

I get a much louder sound with the stock music player and absolutely no distortion at even the highest volume. Whereas with foreign players, such as PowerAMP and PlayerPro; distortion with the bass is very apparent when at a fairly high volume and they seem to have a volume cap too. Though that would probably be for the best with the ungodly amount of distortion that I can imagine would arise if I boosted the volume.
 
What's weird though is that once I click on the stock player while playing music from another app the distortion diminishes and the volume pumps up as if I am using the stock app. Does anyone else have/had this problem and do you know of a way to fix it so I won't be restricted to the stock app. By the way, I'm using the Cowon Z2 and the low volume is sufficient in quite areas but outside it's just not enough with my headphones that aren't very good at canceling noise. Thanks for reading.

 

[phlashbios]

I have had issues like you describe when having several different music players installed. I find having PowerAmp and NeutronMP installed on the same device, gives me all sorts of sound problems, even though the stock android player continues to work fine.
 
My advice would be to stick with just one third party music player. Without doubt on Android, the best for audio quality is NeutronMP and if you have a high end device, it has specific variants of the player that will take advantage of high end hardware. It is also the only music player I am aware of on Android that uses 64bit audio engines. It has a zillion different options for the audiophile to play around with too. Balanced against that, it's interface is not very nice to use.
 
For ease of use, combined with a good quality (but not as good as NeutronMP) sound, my recommendation would be Power Amp. This has a nice interface and works well with its default configuration. It doesn't have the amount of settings to fiddle with that NeutronMP does though.
 
So, all in all, pick one player and stick with just that one. Both of the players I mention are available for free trial and are just a few £/$ if you decide you like one of them enough to buy it.
 
 
EDIT: Forgot to say, ensure you shut the device down and restart it between trying each music player. Some of the music players are extremely badly behaved and hold open hardware channels to the headphone socket to detect the insertion and removal of headphones and also hold open background processes to enable quick startup of the player.

 

[KElyas]

Quote:

I have had issues like you describe when having several different music players installed. I find having PowerAmp and NeutronMP installed on the same device, gives me all sorts of sound problems, even though the stock android player continues to work fine.
 
My advice would be to stick with just one third party music player. Without doubt on Android, the best for audio quality is NeutronMP and if you have a high end device, it has specific variants of the player that will take advantage of high end hardware. It is also the only music player I am aware of on Android that uses 64bit audio engines. It has a zillion different options for the audiophile to play around with too. Balanced against that, it's interface is not very nice to use.
 
For ease of use, combined with a good quality (but not as good as NeutronMP) sound, my recommendation would be Power Amp. This has a nice interface and works well with its default configuration. It doesn't have the amount of settings to fiddle with that NeutronMP does though.
 
So, all in all, pick one player and stick with just that one. Both of the players I mention are available for free trial and are just a few £/$ if you decide you like one of them enough to buy it.
 
 
EDIT: Forgot to say, ensure you shut the device down and restart it between trying each music player. Some of the music players are extremely badly behaved and hold open hardware channels to the headphone socket to detect the insertion and removal of headphones and also hold open background processes to enable quick startup of the player.

Thanks for replying. I uninstalled all but one (PowerAmp) of my music player apps and restarted my Cowon Z2 but unfortunately nothing had changed. Thanks anyway.

 

[KElyas]

Anyone else? I really don't like the stock music player on the Cowon Z2. Are there any music player apps that won't have distortion and a volume cap?

 

[RingingEars]

My Z2 will be here in a couple days. I'll install poweramp and neutron and report back if that helps...

 

[KElyas]

Ok, thanks. Just remember to install Google Play beforehand.

 

[Canofcant]

Neutron is the dog's danglies on my Galaxy S3. I've tried Power amp, PlayerPro,
N7 and the stock player, and for sheer sound quality and flexibility, Neutron trumps them all.

 

[KElyas]

Quote:

Neutron is the dog's danglies on my Galaxy S3. I've tried Power amp, PlayerPro,
N7 and the stock player, and for sheer sound quality and flexibility, Neutron trumps them all.

 

Neutron also has a volume cap though

 

[KElyas]

Quote:

My Z2 will be here in a couple days. I'll install poweramp and neutron and report back if that helps...

So did you notice the same issue as mine?

 

[truckdriver]

Some of these quirks (for lack of a better term) seem device specific, or even Android version specific. PlayerPro sounded best on my HTC HD2 (with cooked Froyo rom). I think Neutron was louder on a specific Gingerbread rom. Poweramp was always (and still is) the best on my Galaxy S2.
 
On my Galaxy S2 replacement, (only lately) I'm noticing a little buzzing sound just before a song starts or shortly after it stops. As of this problem, the S2 lacks energy and clarity. As songs taper off, I can hear some artifact noises using Poweramp. I haven't dropped the phone or anything so I think it's operating system related. With the official T-Mo' version, you don't have much control on removing stuff and shutting down (preferred) background processes. The replacement S2 is very noticeably slower than my first (and rooted) S2. I'm going to root the replacement S2, install a different rom, and see if that helps with the distortion issue.
 
I didn't have this distortion issue on my first S2. However, with my first S2, it did seem like music was louder and livelier using the original Gingerbread than with any version of ICS (that I installed later).
 

 

[RingingEars]

Quote:

So did you notice the same issue as mine?

I haven't installed them yet. I'll try neutron later this afternoon.

 

[supersleuth]

On my HTC One V I'm having excellent results and no problems with Poweramp, nor with Google Play Music when I stream the music I've uploaded to the Google cloud.

 

[RingingEars]

Installed the free version of neutron. No distortion that I can hear. As a matter of fact I will be purchasing this app. So many more settings than Jeteffect.
Installing poweramp now. I'll get back to you in a bit.

 

[RingingEars]

Ok KElyas.
I get obvious distortion with poweramp. I don't with neutron. To bad too because I like the layout of poweramp better.
After install and reboot neutron found my music libraries automatically whereas poweramp I had to point to them manually(not sure if that's makes a difference).

 

[KElyas]

Quote:

Ok KElyas.
I get obvious distortion with poweramp. I don't with neutron. To bad too because I like the layout of poweramp better.
After install and reboot neutron found my music libraries automatically whereas poweramp I had to point to them manually(not sure if that's makes a difference).

Unfortunately my trial for Neutron has expired but I may consider buying it, I just really don't like the UI. For some reason though, I can still use poweramp and playerpro even after they said the trials expired and I've reaslised that for the most part they are sufficient, but in a loud environment due to vehicles I may need Neutron or stock so I think I may just live with stock and poweramp or playerpro Thanks. btw I don't have the same problem as you do with poweramp.