Apple Devices Vs Android Devices - Music Volme Strength

aeneas1

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Dec 14, 2013
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for years, since 2007 or so, i've used an ipod touch to stream music in my restaurant (connected directly to powered commercial bose speakers), at first i primarily streamed mp3 files, then i quickly moved to pandora's paid service, which has been great. from the get-go i never liked the ipod touch because, imo, it made the simple task of transferring mp3 files from my pc to the touch unnecessarily laborious, requiring a host of itunes related software/bloatware to run/launch, which continued to run in the background until killed. in fact it was such a pain in the arse that i stopped using mp3 files altogether and just stuck with pandora. anyway i've been wanting to ditch the touch for quite some time and finally got around to it recently, i purchased an asus 7" tablet (memo me172v).

the thing is, the output volume level for music is very low, much, much lower than the ancient ipod touch i was using. as a test, i also tried a galaxy s4 and an iphone 5 - the volume output level from the galaxy s4 was the same as the asus tablet, very low, while the volume output level of the iphone 5 was the same as the ipod touch, very strong. in fact setting the volume level on either android device (asus tablet, galaxy s4) to max is the equivalent of setting the volume level on either apple device to half way, i.e. the volume strength of the apple devices is about twice as strong as the android devices. so what's the deal, what's going on here? is this a known issue with android devices? granted, i doubt that many android users use their devices to output music to external speakers, nonetheless it's my primary use.

i've tried downloading all sorts of "sound/audio" apps, boosters and equalizers, a couple have helped a little bit, but nothing i've found comes close to pushing the levels to that of the apple devices. there was one app that looked promising but the developer noted that it only worked on rooted devices - the gang at xda is working on a root for the asus tablet model i have, but they haven't entirely cracked it yet, so my tablet remains unrooted. so does anyone here have any recommendations? if there's not a device fix, is there perhaps an external booster device that might work? any help would be very much appreciated.
 
In my experience, the iPhone was notably louder than my G2 and especially my Optimus G Pro. I guess it really depends on the Android device. I'm sure many here will tell you that there Android phones are much much louder than anything Apple could ever create.
 
It depends on the DAC and gain use. Apple devices tend to use Wolfson DAC which is high quality for headphone/line out. The ohms of the device plugged as well plays a part as well. Maybe you should switch to a passive speaker and use a dedicated speaker amplifier.

If it's a powered speaker, you could introduce a headphone amplifier in the mix to make louder, just be careful with the volume to not blow your speakers. I think the Nexus 5 have digital audio out by USB so you could use a "USB DAC for headphone" that has amp built in.

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hey guys, thanks for your input... re passive speakers, definitely don't want to go that route, the commercial speakers i have are excellent (and expensive), couldn't imagine ditching them just because i couldn't get an android device to work the way i want with them and, as i mentioned, both apple devices i tried work perfectly well with them, outstanding in fact. not sure what i'm going to do at this point, really hate the idea of having to go back to the ipod touch (truth be told, i'm not a fan of any apple products, was really looking forward to dumping the touch when i got the asus tablet), i may try an external amp of some sort, maybe an external headphone amp. i might also try to root my tablet with what the guys at xda have come up with so far, although they said it could cause problems because the kernal will be outdated after rooting, just very disappointed.

anyway, low volume output with android devices looks like a common gripe, came across this post shortly after i made my post:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-7-tablet-2012/224365-headphone-output-volume-low.html
 
I wonder, does Apple have an exclusive deal on these high quality Wolfson DACs? If not, it'd be interesting to note which Android devices use these or DACs that are just as good if not better. For headphone listening I output to either a HeadRoom Total BitHead ($130) via USB or to a Burson Audio HA-160D ($1,200) via USB. Audio quality, IMO, shouldn't be an afterthought.

gp8.3
 
I wonder, does Apple have an exclusive deal on these high quality Wolfson DACs? If not, it'd be interesting to note which Android devices use these or DACs that are just as good if not better. For headphone listening I output to either a HeadRoom Total BitHead ($130) via USB or to a Burson Audio HA-160D ($1,200) via USB. Audio quality, IMO, shouldn't be an afterthought.

gp8.3

With my Nexus 4, I had to root and install a custom kernel that support "Faux sound". Nexus 5 have Faux kernels too. It lets me raise the gain of the internal headphone amp. https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=com.teamkang.fauxsound&token=N9jcuCW6

The Original Galaxy S, Galaxy S3 and S4 have Wolfson DAC. I don't have any inhand to know for sure how loud the gain is, although I can assure its chip with high sound quality (unfortunately Samsung mess it up with the S4 by auto upsample all 44.1khz music to 48khz). The Galaxy S is the best sounding Android phone I've heard by the way (with "Voodoo kernel", which is implemented in CyanogenMod for that device). Wrote more about in the bottom of this post: http://forums.androidcentral.com/an...every-cell-you-have-ever-had.html#post3319605 Audio benchmark: Samsung I9000 Galaxy S review: From outer space - GSMArena.com, it's still nowhere as good as a classic Sony Walkman, but in term of phones it's up there with the best.
 
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With my Nexus 4, I had to root and install a custom kernel that support "Faux sound". Nexus 5 have Faux kernels too. It lets me raise the gain of the internal headphone amp. https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=com.teamkang.fauxsound&token=WgeIqyrO

The Original Galaxy S, Galaxy S3 and S4 have Wolfson DAC. I don't have any inhand to know for sure how loud the gain is, although I can assure its chip with high sound quality (unfortunately Samsung mess it up with the S4 by auto upsample all 44.1khz music to 48khz). The Galaxy S is the best sounding Android phone I've heard by the way (with "Voodoo kernel", which is implemented in CyanogenMod for that device). Wrote more about in the bottom of this post: http://forums.androidcentral.com/an...every-cell-you-have-ever-had.html#post3319605 Audio benchmark: Samsung I9000 Galaxy S review: From outer space - GSMArena.com, it's still nowhere as good as a classic Sony Walkman, but in term of phones it's up there with the best.

Thanks

Optimus G Pro
 

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