From: Andreas Stemmer <groovingandi_at_gmx.de>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 12:59:09 +0100

Linus Nielsen Feltzing wrote:
> Following a discussion about sound quality on
> funmp3players.com, a new
> issue has come up. Some listeners have noticed that Rockbox has a more
> pronounced stereo separation than the original firmware, and that may
> be one of the reasons that people feel that Rockbox has worse sound
> quality than the original.
>
> Opinions? Comments?

1) I can't hear this effect, even with the best headphones.
2) I can't imagine why a more pronounced stereo separation (if there's one)
should sound worse.
3) I generated a mp3 with a 500Hz sine on the left channel and a 1kHz sine
on the right (and vice versa) and tested it with both firmwares and an
oscilloscope (flat settings). There's no measureable difference, any stereo
separation issues would have been visible in the waveform.
4) I don't think that Rockbox sounds worse than the original firmware at
all.

I mainly use my jukebox in noisy environments, so you can't call me
audiophile. As musician, my ears aren't too bad, but I don't hear the
difference between a cheap 2.5mm² speaker cable for 1€/m from the DIY store
and a 4mm² high end speaker cable for >20€/m.
I did some detailed sound tests lately to tweak my sound settings. Of course
there's a difference between the jukebox and a high end cd player, but
that's a problem of the mp3 format and the small design and not firmware
dependent. I was not able to detect any difference in sound between rockbox
and the original firmware.

In every day life, rockbox sounds much better than the original firmware
because cfg files make it so easy to have the best settings in each
situation.

Andreas
Received on 2003-11-19