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Rockbox mail archiveSubject: Rockbox Sound QualityRockbox Sound Quality
From: Douglas Anthony Cooper <dysmedia_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:37:01 -0500 On Thursday 11 September 2008 20:43, Douglas Anthony Cooper wrote: >> Another interesting point: I get *superb* sound quality via the >> headphone jack of the iPod 5G when I boot into Rockbox. The iPod's >> native OS sounds considerably worse: less clarity; narrow soundstage, >> etc. An article I just read >Where, please? The test is here: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=6139.0 >> suggested this shouldn't be the case: >> graphed outputs from both systems are identical. >What are the "graphs"? If you mean analogue sound waveform output, then >identical means identical. If you mean spectrum-analyser-type frequency vs. >amplitude charts (sometimes likened to graphic equaliser settings) then this >can mean anything, really. They're frequency response graphs, using Rightmark Audio Analyzer >> So what's going on here? These are mostly AAC files at 160 kbps, and MP3's >> at approx. 192 (VBR). I'm pretty sure it's not the placebo effect -- the >> difference is pretty obvious. >There's no reason why two different codecs (in this case, the "dec" part) >can't produce noticeably different results from the same input (I assume you >*are* playing the exact same files when comparing the two systems, yes?) Of course. >I'm not familiar with the original firmware on the iPod 5G - can you play a >lossless (eg: WAV) file and see (hear?) if you notice any difference between >the two, thereby identifying whether it's the codec algorithm which is >causing the distinction? If you look at the page I refer to, you'll see that he provided for this possible discrepancy: he tested the codecs with identical compressed files, and managed to produce precisely the same results: which is to say, no difference between the graph produced on rockbox and the graph produced by the same file decoded via the original firmware. Am I missing something here? (Yes, I know the pitfalls of the placebo effect, and I haven't performed a rigorous double-blind test -- but as I say: the differences are not subtle. And I haven't tried lossless yet -- it's not really of interest to me, although it would probably interest people here a fair bit.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- List admin: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html Received on 2008-09-12 Page template was last modified "Tue Sep 7 00:00:02 2021" The Rockbox Crew -- Privacy Policy |