[scannon18]

Today I installed Voodoo sound control on my Nexus S and am simply blown away by the results.  My phone had always sounded good, but now it sounds REALLY good.  Better, by far, than my iPod touch.  Better than the Pioneer head unit in my car.
 
I think that the DAC in my phone is even better than the DAC in my Fiio E7 (that would be the Wolfson WM 8994 v. the Wolfson WM 8740 for those who were wondering).  I had been looking at a lot of DAPs that supposedly have great sound quality.  The Clip+, everything from Cowon.  I was even considering the Hifiman HM 601.  But now I am so satisfied with the sq from my phone that I think I will ditch everything else. 
 
 
I am really surprised at the hardware Samsung put in this phone. 

 

[ubercaffeinated]

http://en.goldenears.net/index.php?mid=GR_Mobile&category=279&document_srl=9391
 
The Nexus S has an output impedance of 13.63. 

 

[havoc123]

Not sure about that impedance rating but scannon18 is spot on. I did the same (root+voodoo control plus) a couple weeks ago on my nexus s and it does indeed make a huge difference - I couldn't believe the improvement!
 
It was really good before but sounds incredible now. I'm running ics->voodoo->poweramp->AT esw9's and klipsch iems. The NS supports flac so for me its the perfect setup.

 

[scannon18]

Quote:

http://en.goldenears.net/index.php?mid=GR_Mobile&category=279&document_srl=9391
 
The Nexus S has an output impedance of 13.63. 

 I know the site elaborates on the significance of lower output impedance, but can you elaborate?  Would an output impedance of 13.63 really be a problem for our purposes?
 
EDIT: Also, the sight linked (very interesting btw) tests a Nexus S that probably was not rooted, re-kernaled, and tinkered with using Voodoo Control.  Could these lead to differences in output impedances?

 

[ubercaffeinated]

Quote:

I thought that problems arose from having an output impedance that is higher than the impedance of the headphones.  I know the site elaborates on the significance of lower output impedance, but can you elaborate?  Would an output impedance of 13.63 really be a problem for our purposes?
 
EDIT: Also, the sight linked (very interesting btw) tests a Nexus S that probably was not rooted, re-kernaled, and tinkered with using Voodoo Control.  Could these lead to differences in output impedances?

A high output impedance can distort certain frequencies in ways they were not intended. This effect is especially evident in sensitive headphones and is especially true with multiple balanced armature IEMs (TF 10s are known to be exquisitely sensitive to output impedances higher than 1.25 IIRC, causing distortion at various frequencies). 
 
As for as rooting/rekerneling/voodoo control - I have no idea if it can change the output impedance. If it can, that is great to know.

 

[scannon18]

Thanks for the informative link.  It seems to me that the output impedance is more of a hardware issue than a software issue, so putting in a new driver software might not do much for output impedance. 
 
Still, to my ears, there is no question that the Nexus S is a winner.  I am anxious to listen to the iPhone 4s

 

[scannon18]

Also, what if I attach my Nexus S to my E7, and run headphones from the headphone-out of the E7?  Does this solve our output impedance problem?  I imagine the amp can take the high impedance of the Nexus S better than an IEM can

 

[rainy nights]

I have a Nexus S, I really cannot understand how peolpe could love its sound to the death; it's a buzz every time the screen is on or an app is in use. It's fine of course, but no way it is better than my other players. I have cyano 9, sound improvement on. :rolleyes:

 

[chud]

So you changed the ROM on there which also makes changes to the sound output but you "cannot understand" how other people could be getting good sound out of theirs?
 
Ok.
 
I have a custom ICS ROM but it doesn't make any alleged sound improvements.  Running Voodoo on top of that.  No buzzing to speak of and the sound quality is fine.  
 
Quote:

I have a Nexus S, I really cannot understand how peolpe could love its sound to the death; it's a buzz every time the screen is on or an app is in use. It's fine of course, but no way it is better than my other players. I have cyano 9, sound improvement on.