[LajostheHun]

Onkyo HF premium for me. The EQ is linear phase as opposed to minimum phase that most everybody else uses, which tend to create phase distortions. It won't work with an HRT microstreamer, but works with all other of my DACS no problem.It does work with my 200GB card with no issues[ LG V10].

 

[ikonomov]

  The only thing I don't like about PowerAmp is I find it sounds warm compared to Neutron. It would be great if the sound was more balanced without having to mess with the EQ.

Isn't this a warm and comforting thought, having one player sounding better than another...  Still it is hard to argue, but I am from the camp that has all my music in 16/44.1 lossless, accept the limits of human hearing, and blame the sound engineers for not properly mixing when a 24/192 manages to sound better.  The rabbit hole goes deep indeed, when one starts to look for SQ in places where there is none to be found.  At the end of the day all this talk is good for business so we must scribble on.

 

[ikonomov]

Onkyo HF premium for me. The EQ is linear phase as opposed to minimum phase that most everybody else uses, which tend to create phase distortions. It won't work with an HRT microstreamer, but works with all other of my DACS no problem.It does work with my 200GB card with no issues[ LG V10].

I don't think for normal EQ curves this matters at all.  Both have the potential to create distortions, and they slightly differ where they would do it along the time line, but I think neither can be considered more precise than the other.  Lowering the preamp gain should take care of it in both cases.

 

[LajostheHun]

I don't think for normal EQ curves this matters at all.  Both have the potential to create distortions, and they slightly differ where they would do it along the time line, but I think neither can be considered more precise than the other.  Lowering the preamp gain should take care of it in both cases.

Lowering the preamp gain will only prevent clipping in case the user boost certain FR's too much, it won't do anything for phase anomalies they might create. IIR will create odd and sometimes unexpected drops or boost in amplitude of the signal where it is not expected, VS FIR that remains linear, however it's latency or group delay is larger than of IIR's. FIR's are also less efficient so requires considerably more DSP processing. I would think this is a primary reason why it's hardly ever used on applications like these.FIR's are much more common in Room correction softwares such as Audyssey and Dirac, and also plug ins for PRO-Tool for mixing and mastering. While I would agree with you that the audibility of the differences may or may not be obvious to some, they can be scientifically measured and presented, something that can't be said about a lot of claims on this board and many others as well.

 

[ikonomov]

"I don't think for normal EQ curves this matters at all."  NORMAL here being the key word.  Plug-ins for mastering software should have the ability to choose both, as can be seen on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efKabAQQsPQ .  Room correction software, and especially the high quality ones that you mentioned would be concerned about having to deal with weird room acoustics where certain frequencies might have to be shaped very precisely, where something like "unexpected drops or boost in amplitude" would be a concern.  For a portable audio player, which should only have to deal with smooth curve adjustments that shape the output for headphones I don't see how this should be a concern.  My claim is only concerned with the practical application of the EQ in a smart phone, and I stand by it.  In terms of theoretical measurements I am not certain that there is a clear advantage either.  The latency introduced by FIR can also introduce problems if one is concerned with the "theoretical measurements", and it might not give better results across the board for different types of music for all EQ settings.  This would be especially true with the limited capability of the hardware that a smart phone would have.

 

[ikonomov]

I've decided to stick with jetAudio for now.  On my phone I get some weird sound behavior by the default settings, but disabling AGC, HRA sound engine, resume fade in/out, track change crossfades and setting for gapless gives the desired effect of sublime playback experience.  I did get a few full screen ads while playing around with the player, which I hope won't ruin it for me in the long run.  I found the 10 bands of the equalizer even on the free version of the player (the paid version gets 20!) much more useful than what's offered on most of the other players having an extra band at the highs.  (jetAudio: 60... 3.4k, 5.7k, 9k, 13k) vs (32... 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k)

 

[Joe Bloggs]

The real advantage of the Onkyo EQ lies in it letting you specify arbitrary EQ curves without being limited in frequency precision as in the case of a traditional x-band graphic EQ or having to derive the final EQ curve from a combination of several filters as in the case of a parametric EQ like Neutron's. For casual tone-shaping EQ the Onkyo EQ is the most fluid experience and it is made possible by its FIR calculation method.

However, for a given EQ correction curve and putting aside whether the filter is IIR or FIR, I submit that it is actually better for the EQ to be minimum phase rather than linear phase. (Yes FIR EQs can also be made into minimum phase) This is especially true given that headphones are essentially minimum-phase systems, and a minimum-phase EQ with a curve that corrects a given pair of headphones' deficiencies will also happen to *correct* phase deficiencies rather than add to them.

Meanwhile, the Onkyo EQ settings can actually be edited in text form and exported if you root. The EQ files are located in data/data/com.onkyo.jp.musicplayer/files/Preset_EQ. Unfortunately, only accessible by root.

 

[ikonomov]

I couldn't agree more with everything you said Joe.  Putting this FIR vs IIR aside, which to me is a moot argument, I really loved the fluidity of the EQ in Onkyo as I mentioned in my first post here on this thread.  I only wished that it allowed the export of a preset, because if possible I would definitely be tempted to test editing it in a text editor to try to precisely correct certain peaks and dips in the highs of these damnable earphones.  I looked at looked for a file that the player saves, but I couldn't find any.  Maybe output the video of the phone to a monitor, and use a Bluetooth mouse? lol

 

[ikonomov]

Meanwhile, the Onkyo EQ settings can actually be edited in text form and exported if you root. The EQ files are located in data/data/com.onkyo.jp.musicplayer/files/Preset_EQ. Unfortunately, only accessible by root.

They must not be showing because my phone is not rooted.  Ah, this complicates things! lol  I think I'll stick for now with the stock ROM as I'm still waiting for a stable version of CM13.  Just to let you know that you are my friend now on this awesome forum.

 

[ikonomov]

I'm posting my EQ settings, in case anybody is interested for Westone UM3X and possibly ES3X.
 
Frequency    60    100    240    500    1k    1.8k    3.4k    5.7k    9k    13k
dB                 0       -2      -3        0       0       3         7         7       0       7
preamp    -7
 
I used a few sine tones I generated from here http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_sinetone.php , two logarithmic sweeps 30-1000 and 1000-15000 from here http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_sweep.php.  I also used http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9N9KxfsJVuo/Ug1Kibx-NhI/AAAAAAAAIIs/QOBJSJZ1CSs/s1600/ow.jpg this response graph as a general guideline.  There is very sharp audible peak at around 5k that doesn't show up on this graph most likely because it was smoothed by the settings he used to plot it, but otherwise the improvement to my ears is huge.  I cannot believe two years ago I didn't believe in the use of EQs!

 

[johnnyb]

I've been using USB Audio Player Pro. Seems to be good enough on sound quality - can't tell the difference against Foobar on a PC. Also it is actively maintained. Works for both Usb to DAC (my primary use) and piping audio to the HP jack.

 

[ikonomov]

When I was searching for different players to test I came across it and really wished to try it, but unfortunately the developer doesn't have a trial version.  Looks really nice from the photos.  I understand that everybody has to pay the bills, but out of all the players I've tried, I think Onkyo HF is the only one with the right idea.  Provide a free player, with a set of premium features that the people that need it would be more than happy to pay for it.  Having a small horizontal bar with ads is perfectly acceptable also, and a great way imo for the developer to get supported.  When it comes to a music player for android I think there is still a great momentum from five years ago to pay for a player, because there weren't any alternatives then.  However after my spree of player testing I'm not so convinced that asking for money up front is appropriate anymore nor the best business model to follow.

 

[Madcat207]

Maybe it wasn't always there, but they most certainly do have a trial:
Quote from their play store link:
"Please try the free trial here: http://www.audio-evolution.com/downloads/USBAudioPlayerPROTrial_2.6.4.apk "

 

[TSpoon1313]

Poweramp on my note4 is my favorite way to listen to my music using headphones..

 

[ikonomov]

This is part 3 of my testing of music players  on Android.  My first post is here http://www.head-fi.org/t/638387/best-android-music-player-app/420#post_12607442.
 
I spent some more time with the players today and decided to update my table.
 

 
USB Audio Player PRO: I was able to test it by following the suggested link.  It has the ability to output high resolution audio to a USB DAC, just like Neutron and Onkyo HF do.  Besides that, as much as I looked I could not find any single feature that separates it from the rest of the players, which makes me question its price.  I also did not find the interface superior in any way.  If anything, I would say I prefer using the majority of the other players in the list.
 
Rocket Player Premium: The free version does not have gapless playback, but the premium version does and it works.  There is nothing that makes Rocket stand out from the rest of the premium players, and for the same price I would definitely prefer GoneMad, PowerAmp or jetAudio Plus.
 
Since Joe posted above that on a rooted phone it is possible to export and edit presets of the equalizer in Onkyo HF, I gave it a green square on the EQ as this makes it one of the most capable ones.  It does require a root however, so the red mark for equalizer export still remains, as it is difficult and for some phones impossible to do.  Also I went back to some of the other players to look more closely at their EQ bands.  Most of the players that have 10 bands have their frequencies adjustable at 31, 62, 125, 250, 500, 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, except the following:
Stello (12 bands): 30, 50, 90, 160, 300, 500, 1k, 1.6k, 3k, 5k, 9k, 16k
Deadbeef (10 bands): 60, 170, 310, 600, 1k, 3k, 6k, 12k, 14k, 16k
jetAudio (10 bands): 60, 100, 240, 500, 1k, 1.8k, 3.4k, 5.7k, 9k, 13k
jetAudio Plus (20 bands): 30, 60, 100, 160, 240, 350, 500, 700, 1k, 1.4k, 1.8k, 2.4k, 3.4k, 4.4k, 5.7k, 7.2k, 9k, 11k, 13k, 16k
Depending on what adjustments are more important, this little detail could be important to some people.  I find an extra band above 1k very useful for my particular earphones when using jetAudio.  I would definitely think about it if considering buying a player that has the regular 10 bands.
 
After about a week of using jetAudio one thing that I have come to appreciate is its ability to update its library by using the native media scanner that is built into Android.  It is the most elegant way to do it, and it should work great unless wanting to play files that are not natively supported by Android.  It should have most people covered, as FLAC playback has been in place for a long time now.  USB Audio Player PRO also has the same capability.  Android's media scanner can be restricted by placing an empty file named .nomedia in each folder that is to be excluded from the media library.
 
Update:
I tested today AIMP player and it seems that it is also using its own sound engine and not the native android's and I added it to the table above.  It falls into the same category as DeadBeef and ArmAmp as it doesn't have a library, but it is free without ads and in my opinion with a preferable interface to the other two.
 
Below I'm including another table of all the other players I tested.  They all use android's native sound engine, not FFmpeg decoder, so they have very limited or no equalizers and no gapless playback (unless the phone supports it natively).  Xplay is an exception, but it hasn't been updated in a long time and gapless playback as well as some of the functions in the interface did not work correctly on my phone.  BSPlayer, MX Player, and VLC are all video players and do use their own sound engines for decoding sound, but they don't have built in capability for gapless playback as they seem to be designed primarily for video playback at the moment.
 

 
I have colored Google Play Music, Shuttle and Vanilla Music as three players that might be worth taking a look at.  They are free without ads with a somewhat preferable interface to the rest and all three will play gaplessly on most phones with android 4.1+.  Google Play Music has the benefit of being preinstalled on most phones, Shuttle is lighter than Google, being just a local music player with a basic 5 band equalizer, and Vanilla is among lightest players available that is also open source with a great interface.