[Kyrts]

 
 

 
However, is there some kind of secret limiter or automatic gain control in Android? I swear there are a few tracks that just don't hit as hard as they did with the HTC One S. Trying PowerAmp, the Sony Player, all the different effects types, nothing conclusive so far. It's almost like track intros and quieter passages are louder than the actual tracks sometimes, it's driving me nuts. I'll try running the amp louder and the phone quieter to figure it out.

 


They do AGC (automatic gain control) so yes, quieter parts might play louder because the AGC does not engage and REAL LOUD parts play at lower than expected volume.


 
Done some testing on this, gradually increasing db on some mp3 sound, it works exactly as described above once the loud parts exceed a certain level, but you can hear everything in the background real good because of so much increase in db, yet the loud parts remain at the same constant level specified by the AGC.

 

[FROMNOW]

i think about sennh mx/cx 980/985 which have volume wheel

or getting ~20 ohm impedance adapter to calm down the sound volume.

I would prefer headphones.

I read some info on impedance adapter. I don't quite understand it but they seem to distort sound. I wish I didn't know all of that now or that I would understand more. It looks like some smartphones, headphones,.. distort more than others. Even the option from the HTC 10 asking me how I want the sounds actually bothers me. I don't want all of that, I want to play the sound as it is I don't want to increase or decrease anything give it to me as it is I don't listen to music it doesn't need to sound pretty it needs to be as it is.

 

[artpiggo]

I would prefer headphones.

I read some info on impedance adapter. I don't quite understand it but they seem to distort sound. I wish I didn't know all of that now or that I would understand more. It looks like some smartphones, headphones,.. distort more than others. Even the option from the HTC 10 asking me how I want the sounds actually bothers me. I don't want all of that, I want to play the sound as it is I don't want to increase or decrease anything give it to me as it is I don't listen to music it doesn't need to sound pretty it needs to be as it is.

In theory yes it distort a little but You should try AB test whether your ears are sensitive enough. Otherwise what you hear is only decrement of volume w/o any distortion at all.

Other option is you need to find headphone cable modify shop to request him make cable that has volume control. But in this case I pretty sure it degrades sound more than using impedamce adaptor (i recommend UE buffer jack anyway it is good quality)

Using ext amp also an option but I dont think you are comfortable to carry stuffs.

Maybe consider bluetooth headphone??

 

[FROMNOW]

What buy?

I want to stream HD sounds uploaded on YouTube. Least distortion possible.

What headphones have low distortion? I have Sony mdrv6 which people call studio headphones without distortion.

What smartphone has low distortion?

If it is not "audio smartphone", what dac has low distortion? Dragonfly?

Lastly I need to avoid the inefficiency that I have right now which I'd that my HTC 10 plays music too loud on YouTube. I tried all kind of apps that stream YouTube none of them reduce the volume. On one I could even see that the HTC 10 when streaming YouTube goes from 0% (mute) to 7%. The 7% volume setting is already too loud. I'm willing to spend all that money but this 7% ruins it. I have 10 days to give it back.

Can some of you check if your device has the option to stream a YouTube sound while having the volume really silent like at 1% which should be not/ barely audible.

iPhones seem to not have this YouTube volume impediment. However they have no good dac so I would buy iPhone + dac. I don't need the latest iPhone unless it would help in some way in regards to audio and/or distortion or maybe there are certain better combos of iPhone xyz + dac xyz. Again I am interested in low distortion and it wouldn't surprise me if some cheaper phones or at least if some cheaper dacs have less distortion it is not about creating a beautiful sound it is about playing what is there.

Very long post. I love you all Sorry for my bad mood.

 

[FROMNOW]

In theory yes it distort a little but You should try AB test whether your ears are sensitive enough. Otherwise what you hear is only decrement of volume w/o any distortion at all.

Other option is you need to find headphone cable modify shop to request him make cable that has volume control. But in this case I pretty sure it degrades sound more than using impedamce adaptor (i recommend UE buffer jack anyway it is good quality)

Using ext amp also an option but I dont think you are comfortable to carry stuffs.

Maybe consider bluetooth headphone??

I can carry all the stuff. It's to listen at home. I need a device that can connect online to stream from YouTube that's why I bought a smartphone.

Looks easier to just give HTC back and buy iPhone + dac.

Thank you man for helping!

 

[artpiggo]

I can carry all the stuff. It's to listen at home. I need a device that can connect online to stream from YouTube that's why I bought a smartphone.

Looks easier to just give HTC back and buy iPhone + dac.

Thank you man for helping!

I see. I think this as an alternative too. Not know that you can turn it. pretty sure you will be happy with iphone + dac combo.

 

[FROMNOW]

I see. I think this as an alternative too. Not know that you can turn it. pretty sure you will be happy with iphone + dac combo.

I really don't know what iPhone or dac to buy. Would certain iPhones have less distortion? How about the no distortion dac ? I don't feel like paying more than 1000 for both. How cheap can I go for the iPhone? Is there a known dac or brand that has low distortion. There must be for people working in studios or something that want to listen to what is there

 

[artpiggo]

I really don't know what iPhone or dac to buy. Would certain iPhones have less distortion? How about the no distortion dac ? I don't feel like paying more than 1000 for both. How cheap can I go for the iPhone? Is there a known dac or brand that has low distortion. There must be for people working in studios or something that want to listen to what is there

It is hard to recommend dac cuz the sound is very very subjective. Just go to local headphone shop and ask them for try out. It is best cuz you are decider not us but I would recommend chord as well cuz I like the sound hehe.

For Iphone, i think it is quite same, just buy which you like to.

 

[eio]

Interesting.....and it supports frequencies in the US.....I just might

interesting...ramos is one of the leading chinese brand in the mp3/mp4 days, their products were pretty average back then....
 
but this is ultra cheap for a es9018k2m + opa1612*1 device!

 

[RicardoB]

Man, to carry this thing around you would need to hire a personal assistant to carry it for you.

Now if it was a dual boot running both android and win10, I would buy it myself right now, then I could do some real usefull things with it.

Just my 2c.

Lol yea it's big but for me it would be a backup phone so it would mostly be home or used as a tablet for watching movies at work with that juicy battery....plus having an amp never hurt anybody

 

[RicardoB]

interesting...ramos is one of the leading chinese brand in the mp3/mp4 days, their products were pretty average back then....

but this is ultra low price for a es9018k2m + opa1612*1 device!

Exactly! I checked some reviews on YouTube and as a phone/media device it's good, I think for such a good price it dosent hurt even though the implementation might be poor I think they will unleash the amp because of such a big battery

 

[FROMNOW]

It is hard to recommend dac cuz the sound is very very subjective. Just go to local headphone shop and ask them for try out. It is best cuz you are decider not us but I would recommend chord as well cuz I like the sound hehe.

For Iphone, i think it is quite same, just buy which you like to.

I see. The thing is for no distortion it's pretty hard to know by just listening. Isn't there some objective data on this. I'll try to look it up.

For other people reading this. Question is: low distortion dac?

 

[Kyrts]

Exactly! I checked some reviews on YouTube and as a phone/media device it's good, I think for such a good price it dosent hurt even though the implementation might be poor I think they will unleash the amp because of such a big battery

On paper it looks good, about battery being big, not so much because of big screen which is main power consumer. Even if screen is kept off, circuits are probably designed for screen being on and drawing most power from battery because of big screen being key selling feature of this phone.
 
The thing about amps used in phones, I mean dedicated ones is that power saving and power draw protection because of all other circuits inside phone is main design goals, advertised heavily in such specific mobile amp chip manufacturer's spec sheets.
 
I read in here the other fellow asking about no distortion and pure sound, well, at one time I started reading all those tech details about amp chips used in phones and what they do to the actual sound going into them, I mean like multi stage AGC, predictive amplification curves steep and not so steep and chip decides what to do depending on input and such that 'kinda' change what comes out of that chip. Also something called speaker coil protection is meant to limit current going into these tiny speakers because their coils might melt or something, looks more like clipping and power overdraw avoidance at all costs, that is given a more fancy description.
 
If you ask me, these guys designing the chips invent a new way to f...k up mobile phones sound every day.
 
Their problem is that if amp is allowed to draw too much from battery, even momentarily, then an undervoltage might occur, cause we don't know if the battery is even full or almost empty, and if voltage goes too low then all the other circuits won't like it, also voltages available are very low to begin with and clipping must be avoided because the user will definitely notice that, so all those multi stage AGCs come to play, and the list goes on and on.
 
Don't get me wrong here, they probably do their best to improvise any possible way for a kinda decent sounding amp to work with almost no power and no serious voltage and not allowed to draw any more power momentarily and must not clip too, and battery must last a long time cause people won't buy the phone otherwise, and yes, must also sound nice, so go solve that if you can.

 

[Guppy_]

  android audio mixer does only work in 48k...but that's not the whole story.
 
if an audio track is playing in fast/normal/deep buffer mode, it will go through mixer, hence resampled (unless it is 48k already)
if an audio track is playing in offload/direct mode, that means the compressed data/original pcm data is fed to underlaying codec chip driver directly, they may or may not be resampled depending on codec hardware & driver implementation (it's pretty safe to assume the direct mode is not resampled, otherwise it would be meaningless to implement a direct mode)
audio track playback mode can be inspected by "adb shell dumpsys media.audio_flinger"
 
generally all music playback is going through deep buffer mode on android M and above, unless some special trick is used (eg. hi-res path in poweramp, or device's stock music player)

I need this explained to me, like i'm 5! 

 

[RicardoB]

On paper it looks good, about battery being big, not so much because of big screen which is main power consumer. Even if screen is kept off, circuits are probably designed for screen being on and drawing most power from battery because of big screen being key selling feature of this phone.

The thing about amps used in phones, I mean dedicated ones is that power saving and power draw protection because of all other circuits inside phone is main design goals, advertised heavily in such specific mobile amp chip manufacturer's spec sheets.

I read in here the other fellow asking about no distortion and pure sound, well, at one time I started reading all those tech details about amp chips used in phones and what they do to the actual sound going into them, I mean like multi stage AGC, predictive amplification curves steep and not so steep and chip decides what to do depending on input and such that 'kinda' change what comes out of that chip. Also something called speaker coil protection is meant to limit current going into these tiny speakers because their coils might melt or something, looks more like clipping and power overdraw avoidance at all costs, that is given a more fancy description.

If you ask me, these guys designing the chips invent a new way to f...k up mobile phones sound every day.

Their problem is that if amp is allowed to draw too much from battery, even momentarily, then an undervoltage might occur, cause we don't know if the battery is even full or almost empty, and if voltage goes too low then all the other circuits won't like it, also voltages available are very low to begin with and clipping must be avoided because the user will definitely notice that, so all those multi stage AGCs come to play, and the list goes on and on.

Don't get me wrong here, they probably do their best to improvise any possible way for a kinda decent sounding amp to work with almost no power and no serious voltage and not allowed to draw any more power momentarily and must not clip too, and battery must last a long time cause people won't buy the phone otherwise, and yes, must also sound nice, so go solve that if you can.

Interesting....I think what I will do is go into building kernels because everything you said makes a lot of sense, I don't think Ramos put too much work into the kernel since the phone has no update option I was thinking since they have such a nice power pack to play with they maybe tweak the amp for efficient but loud output power maybe close to the v10s high gain or close to x800 levels, if it's even close to x800 with good clarity I would be happy seeing as though it would just be a backup device.