HTC Incredible :: Somewhat Scientific Look At Audio Quality

Jun 27, 2010

Today I hooked up the headphone outputs of my D.I. to my M-Audio Profire 2626 audio interface and sat down to do some semi-serious testing. I tested using 3 seconds of white noise (to test frequency response), a 20-second 20-20k sweep (to test phase coherence), and the Apples in Stereo's "Sunndal Song" (to test the ability to rock). Signal generation and MP3 conversion were done in an old version of Cool Edit Pro, and Incredible recordings and wave comparisons were done in Cubase 5. I was going to take screen caps and make a whole big thing about it, but, as an older and wiser man once said: I went into these tests being completely happy with the performance I'd got from the Incredible so far, and expecting it to pass with flying colors.

Sadly, I was just a little bit disappointed. Firstly, there appear to be major sample clock issues. "Sunndal Song" is 3:30. By the end of which there was a perceptible audio delay of roughly 35 milliseconds (the D.I. was playing back slightly more slowly than the source file). Meow, that may not sound like much, but trust me, it's an eternity. Oddly, I didn't hear any pitch-shifting occurring, and I have a really, really good ear for that kind of thing. So it's not a sample rate issue, just a clock issue. Obviously, no cell phones are going to have word clock sync or s/pdif output (and s/pdif output would have defeated the whole purpose, which was to test the DACs). I had not expected perfect sync from the Incredible;s DACs, but I had expected better results than I got.

Secondly, on every recording that I did, the Incredible appeared to be playing everything phase inverted. I switched cables and inputs on my interface, just in case either of those were faulty. Meow, this is not a huge issue, since it was phase-inverting both stereo channels at the same time. It's end-user transparent, but definitely not as it should be from a technical point of view. But what I was most concerned with was frequency response. The goal for any digital playback device is accuracy you want the music to be reproduced in the most faithful and accurate manner possible (with the highest, one might say, fidelity). In this area, the Incredible's measured results were pretty good. Here's a link to a screenshot (I don't want to risk the dreaded sidescroll and incur the wrath of the forum).
http://www.fornicorns.com/spectrum.jpg

The green lines on the bottom are the Incredible's measured audio output, the red lines on top are the source file. The Incredible does a pretty good job of both matching the subtle inflections of the original test file, and staying flat up to 20k, above which it drops off pretty quickly but that's fine, since a) that's all the frequency response that was advertised, b) no headphones can reproduce frequencies that high and c) no humans can hear them anyway. Which is why I'm at a loss to explain the very real difference in what the human ear hears from the Incredible when playing a song. I A/B'ed "Sunndal Song" repeatedly, and there are some very real and discernible differences between the Incredible's recorded playback and the source file. I used this song specifically because it's one that I had ripped from CD myself, so I know the files on the incredible and on my computer are identical. The low frequencies (bass to most of you), while it was certainly there, sounded almost compressed. Nothing was gone, but it certainly didn't seem to have the dynamic range (or "punch") that the source MP3 did. At some point, I may revisit this and do specific testing to see if there's any kind of bass compression algorithm built in to the D.I.

It would make sense for HTC to do this because loud, low frequencies with high fidelity would draw a significant amount of power from the battery. The midrange, while it didn't seem to be compressed, was definitely more pronounced and noticeable. The easiest explanation for this would be that HTC built in a mid-boost, but the white noise tests show this to be false. The high frequencies seemed to show the greatest fidelity, without any noticeable compression or attenuation, though the seemingly more pronounced mids tended to distract from them. The good news is that neither my ears nor the Profire saw anything even approaching clipping. The D.I.s audio output was actually very low, but it's designed to drive a pair of headphones, not function as a +4 dBu pro audio device. So I guess my subjective verdict is that, while the Incredible's DACs didn't perform as well as I'd hoped, it's nothing I am going to lose sleep over. It's still fine for riding my bike, plugging into the speakers at work to listen to Pandora, and everything I intended to use it for. Will it ever integrate into my live rig as a sample player? Probably not.

HTC Incredible :: Somewhat Scientific look at Audio Quality


HTC Incredible :: Audio Recording Quality Very Low

May 14, 2010

Voice recorder and all other 3rd party apps record audio like absolute garbage. I am very disappointed. Such an awesome camera and camcorder but it sounds like I am speaking through a damn kazoo. I am dying to know if it's firmware or just cheap hardware, not to sound bitter but the iphone has a SUPER high quality mic being that Incredible just came out I was very surprised at the low quality of the audio recording

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Aug 5, 2010

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Yes, I did turn on the higher quality sound in the Pandora settings.

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May 14, 2009

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Jun 15, 2010

I'm coming from an iPhone 3G, and I have Shure SE115 earbuds. I don't find the audio quality of the Evo to be anywhere near the quality of my iPhone. I don't find the audio quality of my iPhone to be as good as my gf's zune hd. If I put the same song on both my iPhone and Evo, it is immediately apparent to me which one is which. The Evo doesn't go as loud, and it just sounds a lot more flat, and way less crisp. We're talking night and day here, at least IMO.

I don't consider myself an audiophile by any means, but this feels like a huge downgrade to me. I've tried using both the stock music player as well as Doubletwist. It's so sounding. I think I'm probably going to return it, and go with a new iPhone. Anyone else generally unimpressed by the audio quality of the Evo? I'd imagine my beef is with the hardware, and it's pretty unlikely that a 2.2 root would fix my problems.

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HTC EVO 4G :: Finally Happy With Audio Quality

Aug 21, 2010

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Installed the paid version of MixZing - the price was kinda steep but well worth it since it comes with an EQ. Boosting the overall gain tweaking the low frequencies has done wonders - best music app IMO hands down!

(Following Requires Root and NAND):
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Nov 17, 2010

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Nov 1, 2008

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May 28, 2010

I've been trying to digest every possible piece of information I can on the Evo, and have been very anxious to get one on June 4th. But something I'm finding very little info or comments on is how terrible the audio quality is on video recordings. It's surprisingly very bad. The video quality is looking good, but that makes the bad audio just that much worse. I've noticed this on every sample video I've checked out on You Tube. It seems that it is slightly better on the Incredible, but still pretty sub-par. If you watch video recorded from the Motorola Droid or iPhone, you can hear what a difference it is. Is this just a HTC thing, or is it something that can be adjusted?

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Mar 24, 2010

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HTC EVO 4G :: Low Quality Audio Ever Be Fixed For Video Recorder?

Jun 15, 2010

The audio being recorded is horrible. Will there ever be a fix for that because I'm considering taking my EVO back.

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HTC EVO 4G :: Audio Quality Jerky When Taking Video

Jul 6, 2010

Frankly, I'm fine with the video quality. It could be a lot better but I don't use my phone for anything serious. The audio quality is horrid. I pulled a video into MediaCoder to find out why. That is 12.8kbps at 8,000hz sampling rate. To put this in perspective; A low quality MP3 is 64kbps at 44.1khz (44,100hz). That is 5 times the bit rate and more than 5 times the sampling rate.

A decent quality MP3 is at the very least 128kbps. The audio that the Evo camcorder app is 1/5th the quality of a crappy MP3. This is a rather simple software fix. I'm not a programmer but I know how audio and video codecs work and I see no reason for this limitation. The phone can record excellent quality audio. Just download a recording app and try it. HTC or a third party developer needs to get on this. The reason the video is a bit jerky is that it is recorded at 10.01 FPS...

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Nov 28, 2012

I just recently got the new Nexus 4 and have been playing around with free SIP calling. I got everything working with PBXes.org and Csipsimple, but I'm noticing the audio quality that the people I'm talking to is really bad because of PBXes.org poor codec support (all are 8khz boo). Are there any other SIP providers that let you pair to google voice and support at least some 16khz codecs or G.729 for free?

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Sep 1, 2010

I don't own an Epic but have thought about jumping from verizon to sprint for their superior 3G coverage in my area. The only phone that interests me is the Epic so I have been reading a lot of forums and reviews. I have heard that the Samsung is supposed to have great quality through the 3.5mm(I think because of some pre-amp or dedicated part of the processor. I'm no expert and cant remember what I read and where).

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Aug 23, 2010

I am trying to listen to pod casts on my DX while it is charging via USB. For the first 5 minutes or so it works great but then I start to get static. The static goes away as soon as I unplug the USB cable. Same thing happens in the car while listening to pod casts and plugged into my car charger.

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Jul 20, 2010

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Jun 24, 2010

How is Bluetooth audio quality with your Evo? I'm using a Jabra Extreme earpiece and am experiencing poor audio quality. One person with whom I was speaking said that I sounded like I was running or was in a windy location (I was calling from a quiet hotel room). On my end there was noticeable static. As a test, I hung up and paired the Jabra with my Blackberry 8830, and the person with whom I was speaking said that I sounded a little distant, but otherwise clear. On my end, the audio quality was good.

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Aug 24, 2010

I made the switch from a BB Bold 9000 to the Captivate last Friday and so far I am in love! There is just one issue that I would love to gloss over but it's important given that it is a phone so I'd like your input. There was one other thread on this that sounds kind of like what I'm experiencing but I just wanted to be sure before I go in and exchange it.

When I am on a call, it is rather difficult for me to hear the person on the other end. I have the volume turned all the way up but not only is that not that loud but they also sound muffled. If it were one or the other I might be able to deal, but I never had trouble hearing on my BlackBerry and I never had the volume turned all the way up. It's gotten to the point where I'm unknowingly pressing the phone against my ear really hard so I can hear better. Has anyone else noticed that callers sound muffled? Should I exchange it?

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HTC EVO 4G :: Unable To Record Audio / Video - Low Quality Microphones

Oct 19, 2010

We have one of the crappiest microphones on any phone. I tried to record some audio/video with my camera and the freakin audio SUCKS! what gives? is there anything HTC/Sprint/we can do about this?

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Nov 17, 2010

I recently took my Epic to a concert and recorded some videos. The picture quality of the videos was OK but the audio was amazingly distorted. There was a lot of bass at the concert which greatly I assume distorted the entire videos sound. I am greatly disappointed as I cannot listen to the songs cuz the sound so bad! Is that normal?

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May 24, 2009

As per title, recorded video sound is very bad on my Magic - the sound is very unclear, with a lot of disturbances etc is this normal or did I get a faulty phone.

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Motorola Droid :: Audio / Sound Quality Through Headphone Jack

May 16, 2010

Can anyone please comment on the audio quality through the 3.5mm headphone jack on the Droid? I will be using Skullcandy Titans which are in-ear earphones with noise isolation. I am hoping it is at least as good as that through my iPod nano 4th gen. I know that isn't an amazing benchmark but I'll be satisfied if it sounds at least that good with high-quality audio stored on the SD card. Speaking of SD card, do they still pack in the 16GB MicroSD card with Droids these days?

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Android :: Bad Sound Quality When Recording / Playing Audio Files

Oct 16, 2010

Hey, I have a problem with android programing when I try to record and then play the file that was just recored. I can both record and play the sound but the quality stinks. Its not just bad is really hard to listen to and sound abit like its a computer generated voice. I use the andriod SDK-emulator. The code that sets up the recording looks like this;

MediaRecorder recorder = new MediaRecorder();
recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.RAW_AMR);
recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
recorder.setOutputFile(path);
recorder.prepare();
recorder.start();

And the code playing the file later looks like this;
MediaPlayer mp = new MediaPlayer(); mp.reset();
mp.setDataSource(path); mp.prepare(); mp.start();
I don't know what part that makes the audio file sound really bad or if its just the emulator that makes it bad and that it would work on a real phone.

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Android :: Poor Audio Quality Captured From Microphone With MediaRecorder / Implement Them?

Aug 11, 2009

I've implemented "Audio Capture Setup and Start" example (http:// developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/index.html) with small modification - the output format is MPEG_4 not THREE_GPP.

The result - records with extremely poor audio quality.

Could you help me to understand where is error and how is possible to do really good audio records with Android?

I've done an experiment with Camcorder - standard Android application. Sound quality of the video is same poor. The audio signal is extremely low (quite).

Is it "by design" or may be some hardware problem (T-Mobile G1)?

I've found description similar problem here - http://osdir.com/ml/AndroidDevelopers/2009-06/msg00752.html - "Microphone audio capture with emulator is of very poor quality". In my case this problem reproduces on the real device. Unfortunately I have not found answer. I read about some "custom" encoders.. but have not found any example how implement them.

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Sep 14, 2012

I wanted to know if it is possible to improve to improve audio recorded during a video??

I mean I can record video at 720p 25 fps, but the DAMN audio gets recorded at 12 kbps!!

It's just tinny and annoying sound cuts up all the time.

So it is it possible to increase the bitrate of audio via modifying some system file or changing some parameters in phones hidden settings or something like that?? my phone is a Chinese Zopo PILOT ZP100. .

btw, When I use Sound / voice recorder, it records in 3gppp at high setting with 127 kbps AAC audio.

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Jul 28, 2010

I got my phone on Monday and I've noticed that when somebody is talking to me on the phone it causes a vibration type noise. I've tried lowering the volume but it still seems to be doing it. Not to mention, even with the audio turned all the way up it's hard to hear the people I'm talking to.

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Android :: Microphone Audio Capture With Emulator Is Of Very Poor Quality / Make It High?

Jun 2, 2009

As a first step toward a speech recognition project, we wrote a simple voice recording application based on the information in this thread: http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/threa...

It is working; however, the audio is extremely poor -- too staticy for our needs code...

As a comparison, here is a similar audio file captured with audacity on a PC: http://juzzam.org:9090/myAudioFile_onPC.mp3

Has anyone been able to record high quality audio with the emulator? If not, is it any better on the android dev phone?

According to the documentation of MediaRecorder, there is only one audio encoder "AMR (Narrowband) audio codec" and three output formats--3gpp, mpeg, and raw AMR: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.html

Here is the Activity source: http://juzzam.org:9090/RecordMicrophone.java.txt

We are testing on Windows XP, with a Logitec USB microphone, eclipse ganymede, and we are using all the defaults for an android 1.5 app (no emulator command-line options.. we defined the sdcard in the avd manager).

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Nov 10, 2010

I have an upgrade available atm and I can't decide if I should wait or not. I currently have a Droid 1 rooted/OC'd. My options are either the Fascinate or wait till Jan-Feb. I have zero interest in the X, and can't see "upgrading" to the D2 or the Incredible.

It is probably meaningless to ask the Fascinate community because, like the D1 community, you're probably all biased..but how are you liking your Fascinates? Would you upgrade to it today if you had the choice? What's the highest achievable clock speed to date (stable)? How is audio quality, I've heard of speaker crackling when at max volume?

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Android :: Regular And Scientific Calculator?

Mar 31, 2010

I looked thru lots of calculator apps but they seemed to be either tip calculators or scientific ones. I'd like on that's just like the calculator i use at my desk. I know how to figure out what the tip amount would be so don't really want one that does only that. and the one that seems to be in my Droid doesn't have a % key, unless i've missed it. I just don't see the need to have 2 different kinds of calculators taking up space on my phone.

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HTC EVO 4G :: Get Scientific Calculator When Rotating Phone

Oct 4, 2010

I just realized that you get a scientific calculator when rotating the phone. I plugged in a few items and noticed the sine, cosine and probably other items are WRONG!

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