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Anyone else annoyed with low headphone volume?

S

slugger09

Well-Known Member
I'm used to an iPhone, this thing at max only goes to 2/3 of what an iPhone does, I've tried things like Volume+ and it doesn't do anything only make the music distorted and unlistenable not actually any louder. Now I appreciate I'm gonna get "I can't listen to it at full volume" replies, but I am saying its no where near the volume of an iPhone. Its ok in quiet environment but outside or at work any ambient noise is clearly heard over the top, its a real let down for me this and to be honest it can be smart enough to launch missiles but if I can't hear my music I couldn't care less what else it can do.
 
PowerAmp has a preamp built into it, I wonder if that would help. I haven't tried it with headphones, but it boosts the volume for line out.
 
PeaveyAxe said:
PowerAmp has a preamp built into it, I wonder if that would help. I haven't tried it with headphones, but it boosts the volume for line out.
Click to expand...

Tried that, again it goes so high and distorts and its not even that loud, when up full you can clearly hear ambient noise.
 
Yeah i know what you mean about the earphone/headphone sound quality. I use to have a iphone4 and any earphones i used on it sounded fine. As soon as i tried a pair of sennheiser earphones on my galaxy s2 they sounded distorted.
I found the samsung earphones that came with the phone sounded better than the sennheisers? So then i tried my beats by dre headphones and they sounded great. So maybe try some better headphones with the galaxy s2. Shame the galaxy s2 didn't come with beats audio inside : (
 
I have a set of sony in ear headphones & they work great. Good volume with no distortion. I haven't even tried the ones that came with it. Ive just swapped from an iphone & have had no problems so far.
 
I use the headphones that come with the SGS2 and they're loud enough for me.

If you use other headphones then go for sensitive ones.
 
Unfortunately Samsung used a much worse audio codec (Yamaha) in the Galaxy S2 than they did in the original Galaxy S (Wolfson Micro).

They talk about in-depth in the review on Anandtech:
AnandTech - Samsung Galaxy S 2 (International) Review - The Best, Redefined

It's a very detailed look - check out those (saddening) spectrograms!


They mention that Galaxy S2 has "high output impedance".



A notable side effect of this characteristic is that the headphone output becomes less loud with low impedance cans.


Output impedance doesn’t have much effect on 300 Ω gear, but on common 16 Ω earphones:

  • Gain is lowered, hiss level is reduced: nice bonus
  • Frequency response shift: less bass, more highs. Okay if the tiny speakers was too bassy, terrible if the headphones were bright already.
As a result, Galaxy S II might play well with some equipment but also reveal the worst side of other with harsh and aggressive rendering.


This output impedance is why opinions about Galaxy S II audio are so contradictory in forums: experience can vastly differ depending on your choice of headphones.
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Im happy with the galaxy s2 audio. Does help if you have good earphones/headphones and all your songs are at the highest quality.
But yeah i could tell the difference straight away from iphone4 to galaxy s2.
But i'll live with it, like i said i have a good pair of headphones which enhance the audio. Other than that i love this phone :)
 
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