Database Info

Quick intro to transcoding your media files to HE-AAC v2

In the AAS forums, I've been asked to elaborate on how HE-AAC v2 (eAAC+, HE-AAC2 etc.) files can be created. HE-AAC v2 is the latest and without doubt the BEST sound encoding technology (if you want to store HUGE amounts of songs using as little storage as possible). Audio files encoded with HE-AAC v2 at 48 kbps sound equally good as MP3's at 128+ kbps and Ogg Vorbis / WMA files at around 96 kbps.
As has already been explained in my related article, few Windows Mobile / Symbian / Palm OS players support the format, but their number is continuously increasing.
Probably the best and fastest way of converting files to the HE-AAC v2 is as follows:
1. Get the free (it’ll suffice – no need for the commercial, Pro one), Full version of WinAMP.
2. Mass-select the songs you’d like to convert in the upper right corner of the window (that is, the individual song list), right-click and go to Send To: / Format converter:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
3. set the parameters as can be seen in the following screenshot:
Make sure you double-check you set “Channel mode” to Parametric Stereo so that version 2 of HE-AAC will be used, not just the plain version 1. Also, instead of 32 kbps, you might also want to go for 48 kbps for slightly increased sound quality. But no more: over 48 kbps, HE-AAC v2 will revert to v1 (Parametric Stereo won’t be used any more).
After this, you can easily start the mass-conversion by pressing OK. The results (.AAC files), by default, will be stored in the directory specified in the uppermost text input field. They can be directly played back by Music Player in newer N-series Nokias natively supporting the format (the N95, N81, N82 etc.), the free (!) TCPMP on Windows Mobile and Pocket Tunes on Palm OS.
Note that the above tutorial is about encoding standalone files. As far as transcoding live radio streams into HE-AAC v2 is concerned, I'll VERY soon (hopefully tomorrow) publish the Audio Stream Transcoding Bible, which will be a god-send for everyone that can't listen to certain radio stations on his/her handset and/or want to minimize data usage.

I dunno... I've experimented a lot with AAC v2 (HE-AAC) but imo ogg still sound better... the bass is more defined in AAC v2 at 48kbps but the rest doesn't sound really natural.
The middle frequencies sound much better in ogg and overall the music sound warmer and more natural even att the same kbps. I think one thing that really helps ogg vorbis in lower frequencies is the variable bitrate option. Without selecting variable bitrate the HE-AAC tune will sound better though...

owziee said:
I dunno... I've experimented a lot with AAC v2 (HE-AAC) but imo ogg still sound better... the bass is more defined in AAC v2 at 48kbps but the rest doesn't sound really natural.
The middle frequencies sound much better in ogg and overall the music sound warmer and more natural even att the same kbps. I think one thing that really helps ogg vorbis in lower frequencies is the variable bitrate option. Without selecting variable bitrate the HE-AAC tune will sound better though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comments.
In general, now that you can get storage for really cheap, I recommend AAC+v2 mostly for radio stream (trans)coding for GPRS or other, heavily bandwidth-constrained clients - at it, it's just unbeatable. I've directly compared it at 24...32 kbps to that of OGG - there is just no comparison.
This is why I've emphasized "only if you really need to save storage" in the article.

[APP & GUIDE]: Volume+ - Increasing your music gain & quality through your headset

[APP & GUIDE]: Volume+ - Increasing your music gain & quality through your headset
Hello guys and let us begin!
During my cohabitation with my beloved Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 , I had always one complain.
The bootloader was locked , battery life was awfull , there was no incall volume , camera gave too noisy pictures , the stock ROM was laggy , we didn't have fps uncaped...
...no seriously just one complain. I could never enjoy music being played on my headset using my mobile phone.
At this point many negative people may say that Android is not a music/multimedia platform and the hardware provided (headset etc.) is not of the best quality. Agreed! But I will answer we will have to work with what's being given.
So after using several custom ROMs equiped with DSP Manager I wasn't exactly getting the result I wanted. I had several undesired results such as:
The first few seconds of the song being played didn't actually play.
The bass was off the hook resulting in my headset playing a farty noise in my ears whenever there was a song that demanded deep bass.
I had generaly low volume resulting to not being able to listen to my favourite music while on my 3 hour bus travel every day to my university...
After some search around market and xda-developers forum I found the Volume+ application which is descent in it's free version BUT performs wonders as a paid version.
Now what I'm about to say onwards is about the paid version which in my humble opinion deserves its money.
AS THE DEVELOPER SAYS , I REPEAT TOO... THIS APP CAN GO -VERY- LOUD. I AM IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE IF BY YOUR OWN MISTAKE YOU DAMAGE PERMANENTLY THE SPEAKER OF YOUR DEVICE.
First of we begin by setting any other equalizer stock or non stock to OFF. And if there is no disable option then we select the "FLAT" preset (that goes for stock Music player that can't disable its equalizer).
1.Then run Volume+ and chose Headset Settings.
2. Tick Speaker Modifications under Settings to Enable it.
Do not enable Virtual Room Effect. It's all about distortion imho.
3. Do -NOT- touch Basic Settings at all.
Basic Settings give some pre-made presets and none of them is good enough for x10. They all lack something and francly I've never been satisfied.
4. Tick Speaker Modifications under Advanced Settings.
That's for enabling the advanced equalizer to allow us to set each frequency channel independently.
5. Apply the following values.
Now these are the settings I use and I'm so much satisfied with them. They give me a rich overall volume , with correct frequencies.
At this point I want to say that if any other user has settings that believes are better than mine, feel free to post , share and explain!
Code:
Low: 100
Low/Mid: 120
Mid: 105
Mid/High: 100
High: 95
Volume Level: 7
Bass Boost: 8
Echo/Delay Level: 4
6. Although this application claims not to need a restart of device I strongly DISAGREE!
Reboot your device after you are done and under no reason should you kill the Volume+ service in case you are using a task killer/manager. Just add it to exceptions/white list.
So once you are done your settings must look exactly like this:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
How/Why:
In case you liked the result you can go on reading.
Those settings were not copied or found around the internet although I'm pretty sure anyone can Google and find something similar.
Those settings came from me and took quite a lot of my time since the whole process of "perfecting" them was listening to a bunch of different favourite songs (each song has its strengths and weaknesses) tweaking , restarting and again from the beggining. That's the best way to work with this application and needs quite a lot of patience but produces a neat result.
That being said , I want to say that my thing about music is that I'm a mainstream freak. So the songs I used to make my configuration are limited to certain kinds such as House , Electro , RnB/Hip-Hop , Pop , some slow Ballads. So for hardcore (Psy) Trance , (Death/Black) Metal , Opera listeners out there ... well guys , don't expect miracles!
Sample of songs used:
(Youtube quality has no relevance I just wanted a way to present them to you. I have those songs in full quality in my SDcard ofcourse.)
1. Claydee & Dimension-X - Call Me
(Pop with great vocals and hints of electro sounds and steady beat)
2. Alexunder Base ft. Mirela - Feelings (Club Version)
(Nice deep vocals and smooth bass. Also deep steady beat)
3. Fly Project - Goodbye
(Pop - High pitched tones during the reffrain natural and distorted guitar notes included)
4. Ela Rose ft. David Deejay - Lovely Words
(Nice deep bass , deep vocals , ambient sounds at the beginning)
5. MIMS - Move (If You Wanna)
(RnB - Very deep strong bass , human speech , harsh mid sounds like percussion)
...and about 20 others!
Regards!

Reserved for future use and because I can!

It can damage speaker if you play song via speaker,but if we play it via headset,possibility can damage out headset too ?
sory bad englsih

hiddenfr said:
It can damage speaker if you play song via speaker,but if we play it via headset,possibility can damage out headset too ?
sory bad englsih
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not likely unless you do something incredibly thoughtless which again I can't be sure because headset and speaker are far different in technology.
Mr_element from Tapatalk for Android.

Awesome stuff, I have to say this has my westone 4s spitting out sounds I have not previously heard in my music. Haven't stopped listening to my collection since.

Android music player review - 1. general comparison

I used many Android music players as a music lover and tested them as a member of the team that made a music player app. So I decided to write detailed reviews about pros and cons of some music players in a serial form for one who is looking for a great app. This is the first part for introduction and I will handle the sound review in the next one. I tried to be as objective as I can, but a review is a subjective one after all and my thought could not be same with your opinion.
1. Poweramp
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"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Poweramp is the most popular music player app. I bought it because it's highly recommended online. It provides lots of useful features and skins. You can hear the characteristic sound based on rich bass and use the sound effects like 10 band equalizer, tone, and limit. Reverb effect was also added in the recently released alpha version of Poweramp v3. I prefer its new UI of to the previous one. Although it doesn't leave nothing to be desired in the sound quality but is still a nice player for common music listeners.
*link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxmpz.audioplayer
2. Neutron
Neutron is an audiophiles' favorite among the Android music players. It supports most audio formats and offers a huge number of sound features. It allows users to adjust the sound in great detail but it's too complicated to use though its UI is much better that in the past. If you refer others' settings on the internet and adjust well you can enjoy good sound but it's so tough for me to make Neutron my main player. Anyway, it's ideal for one who need various sound options and 32, 64 audio processing.
*link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mpeval
3. JetAudio
I often used its PC version so I also tried JetAudio app with anticipation. It provides a free basic version without a time limit while Poweramp and Neutron only provide time-limited trial versions. If you buy its pro version you can use 20 band equalizer instead 10 band and unlock the sound effects like AM3D and Bongiovi via in-app purchases. I heard its sound effects would enhance the sound quality and I bought the pro version and in-app products, but sadly, the result didn't satisfy me. I think its sound is worse than other players in this writing.
*link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jetappfactory.jetaudio
4. Rocket Player
Rocket Player is another popular Android music player and provides a free version without a time limit like JetAudio. Paid version provides preamp, 10 band equalizer, replay gain, and etc. Its volume level is quite loud and sound is decent. But it has less extremely low frequency and too much mid. Another issue is that use of 5 band equalizer causes lower volume and worse sound quality. I'm not sure whether 10 band in paid version has the same problem or not because I hesitated to buy it. If you use paid app, please let me know how it is. Rocket Player is a good choice for one who wants a free and decent player yet.
*link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jrtstudio.AnotherMusicPlayer
5. PlankTone Music Player
PlankTone Music Player is a newborn app made by our team. It's not as famous as other players but I think it's worth trying, especially in the sound quality. It provides a trial version and in-app purchase is needed after the trial period. You can hear a high quality and balanced sound without complicated settings. It also let you individually customize sound effects for each song. But it is at an early stage so it does not have features like tag editing or downloading album art and doesn’t support themes and skins, and doesn’t offer various widgets now.
*link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chapter3.planktone
It’s a general review of music players and I will write a more detailed sound review next time. I will handle the sound characteristic, sound effects setting, test result with DAC, etc.

Audio Distortion on 2 channels - Phoenix Android Octocore PX5 - Where to look next?

So back in August I purchased the octocore unit, with Oreo, from Phoenix Android Radios for my 2018 Civic Si. Since then it's been hell trying to figure out the distortion from my Front Left and Rear Right speakers and why fading to Front Left causes extra distorted audio that plays from both Front Left and Rear Right speakers. Same goes if fading audio to Rear Right - extra distortion and also comes from Front Left. Fading to the Front Right or Rear Left sounds normal.
Issue:
Audio sounds distorted - especially in the upper hz ranges (none specific - but not apparent under 500hz). When I use the pre-installed Amp application and fade the audio to FL (Front Left) I also hear audio from the RR (Rear Right) - it is extremely distorted to the point of disgusting and vocals cannot be made out. If I fade to the FR or RL the audio plays only out those channels and sound quality is what I'd expect. It's important to mention that the distortion isn't as extreme when playing on all speakers - but noticeable enough to be annoying especially since I'm positioned closest to the FL. I can only listen to podcasts... playing music is just painful.
Original Theory:
I must have crossed wires somewhere. I tapped/soldered (w/ shrink) directly into the harness of the radio and sent the high-level output directly to my speakers, bypassing the factory amp as Phoenix instructed me. As a sanity test - I tested each speaker individually to check for phase issues. When using an alternate audio source (cheap Bluetooth amp) to send signal, the audio sounded great across all channels. I even intentionally crossed the FL & RR negative wires (maybe I'm colorblind and can't read the labels I put on the wires) and it sounded like what you'd expect... I've wired speakers before and not new to this at all. But I've made mistakes before. I had two friends confirm I'm not crazy here. :victory:
New Theory:
Maybe the radio's built-in amp is trash. So I dished out $140 and bought a 4-channel amp and hooked up directly to RCA outputs. After doing this - not only did I lose the Android sound effects (and other things), but the main distortion was still there. Using the Amp app and fading to either FL or RR would play the exact same distortion from both channels at once. Again, as a sanity check, I plugged my tone generator into each RCA on my new 4-channel amp. Each channel worked as expected. This confirms the wiring after my amp is good. And even if I managed to screw up 4 RCA plugs - it would just swap channels, not cross them. All RCA input/outputs are isolated to prevent touching each other.
Current Theory:
I'm getting some kind of interference, maybe, but it's only affecting two channels? Or there's probably a software/hardware issue. I used FooBar2000 music player to play music and set it to convert the music to mono - the distortion was gone! Then I used the same app to down-sample the songs to mono then up-sample back to stereo (redundant - extra CPU, etc.. I know) but this HELPED the distortion significantly. I can actually listen to a song stored on the unit/usb as long as using FooBar2000 to play it and not Bluetooth or any other apps on Android. This leads me to suspect the pre-installed Amp app is sending wrong signal to each channel or it's from the built-in amplifier.
Testing - Getting Scientific:
I decided I would do a test to see what kind of voltage I'm getting from the low-power output of the RCA and voltage I'm getting from the radio's high-power speaker line at various volume levels using the Amp fader to "all" channels and comparing those results to ones when fading the test-tone to the FL speaker only. For this test - I only used the FL and RR speaker and used a constant 1K tone. I noticed when checking voltages while fading to FL or RR that the voltage wasn't constant. It would move up and down by .01 to .02 volts. Testing while faded to all channels shows a very steady voltage. Here's the results:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
If anyone can help me get to the bottom of this please! I've spent so many hours/days slaving away trying to make this work. I've re-wired everything 3 times because I kept thinking I must have made an issue somewhere as Phoenix Android Radios support team and engineers don't know what it issue is. Latest was telling me to check ground - which I grounded w/ short thick gauge copper cable (multi strand) direct to frame. Confirmed good ground w/ multimeter (was was original ground).
If someone would like a video to demonstrate this better please let me know and I'd be more than happy to record one right away!
Extra Details:

The problem is in software need to install hal9k android 8 or 9 in android 10 i found same problem!

DjGolpeX said:
The problem is in software need to install hal9k android 8 or 9 in android 10 i found same problem!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had same in Wondefo px5 octa core factory rom android 8 in btmusic app high frequences was distorted

Question Audio - better quality, wired & wireless.

Hello everyone,
By way of introduction: I'm some kind of audiophile, and really like good quality music, I would like to make my s22ultra to the best mobile device (in terms of sound quality).
I would like to mention a few aspects related to audio in this topic.
1. App for audio (streaming) + audio player
2. Android Auto & sound/music
3. Devices wired & wireless
4. Others additional devices/apps to make sound better quality
What is your experience ?
What are you doing to improve the sound?
Ad.1 - switch from Spotify to Tidal (master,hifi) and think that quality is better - incomparable.
I'm don't using any app too source music - which app is good?
Ad.2 - I was change options with codec in AA by programic options, and its better too ! (see below)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Ad.3 - I use for now Bose QC45 - sound is good but phone calls are much worse, I can hardly hear me, I don't know why
Ad.4 I think about headphone amplifier (dac fiio k5) to make better sound quality - it have sens? AA in car will play better quality (connected by usbc, by phone)?
Someone use a adapter (usb-C to minijack 3.5)? Can someone something recommend?

Poweramp, only .wav, HDCD or higher resolution* files. Buds+** sound pretty good once dialed with the Poweramp equalizer. Next step up be a LDAC bud or headphone solution. Otherwise you're stuck using the inconvenient C port.
*MP4's are ok... better than mp3's I believe
**if you get the Buds+ DO NOT update the factory loaded firmware as it will screw up the sound. They run very good on the factory load, this applies to the last production run firmware.
If you like the Buds+ try to pick up a new pair, not used manufacturer shortly before being discontinued. I don't like Samsung's current Buds lineup... I have 3 pairs of Buds+

Just use an external DAC on USB-C port

Norbertus20 said:
Hello everyone,
By way of introduction: I'm some kind of audiophile, and really like good quality music, I would like to make my s22ultra to the best mobile device (in terms of sound quality).
I would like to mention a few aspects related to audio in this topic.
1. App for audio (streaming) + audio player
2. Android Auto & sound/music
3. Devices wired & wireless
4. Others additional devices/apps to make sound better quality
What is your experience ?
What are you doing to improve the sound?
Ad.1 - switch from Spotify to Tidal (master,hifi) and think that quality is better - incomparable.
I'm don't using any app too source music - which app is good?
Ad.2 - I was change options with codec in AA by programic options, and its better too ! (see below)
View attachment 5753039
View attachment 5753045
Ad.3 - I use for now Bose QC45 - sound is good but phone calls are much worse, I can hardly hear me, I don't know why
Ad.4 I think about headphone amplifier (dac fiio k5) to make better sound quality - it have sens? AA in car will play better quality (connected by usbc, by phone)?
Someone use a adapter (usb-C to minijack 3.5)? Can someone something recommend?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What settings are these from

Pascal536 said:
Just use an external DAC on USB-C port
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This right here.
USB-C to 3.5mm adapters (DAC) - Let's find the best
Now that 3.5mm headphone output is nearing extinction in smartphones, it's time to start compiling the list for the best USB-C to 3.5mm adapter DACs. Many phones don't even offer analog output anymore on their USB-C output , so the only option is to have a dongle/adapter with a built-in DAC...
www.head-fi.org
#donglemadness
ANNOUNCEMENT: Effective July 2023, AndyAudioVault and #donglemadness will be 100% running from YouTube only. This site will cease to exist beyond July 2023. The cost of maintaining this site is som…
andyaudiovault.com
I'm currently using this which is arguably one of the best out there for SQ in the under $15 budget category..

Media Monkey has an excellent AA compatible player app that supports all formats. They also have windows software that will organize your music library, includes a server function to stream to all of your audio systems via Wi-Fi.
Has ripping, formatting and a host of other features that are included in the 'Gold' package.
I've used it for many years and would say it's a must have setup for 'some kind of audiophile types'.
In the car I use AA for convenience. I also use a flash drive loaded with 1,800+ flac files. That sounds superior with the Lincoln Revel Ultima 19 speaker system.
I can't help with the audio settings for the phone. I use it primarily to control my music more so than playback with headphones/earbuds.
Some kind of Audiophile wannabe type since 1982.

using TIDAL HIFI on wired Android Auto

Pascal536 said:
Just use an external DAC on USB-C port
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which do you recommend?