Song/media playback horrible compared to iPhone?

[cledford3]

I'm coming over to VZW/DX from 3 years of iPhone/AT&T experience. (have owned iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS) and I'm for the most part *very, very* pleased with the DX. It answers many issues with the iPhone that are still problems 4 years into the iPhone platform. The one, very big problem I've noticed with the DX thus far is that the quality of audio play back seems horrible - and I I mean really lousy! (sounds noticeably worse than normal FM radio) I am playing unprotected AAC files I purchased when I "upgraded" iTunes after Apple suspended the DRM on most of their library. The songs were synced using Doubletwist. I'm using the the built in music app with the home screen widget for song control. I'm outputting the audio from the DX to my car stereo via a cassette adapter - which has worked fine for over 3 years with the iPhone. (In fact I've been very happy with audio playback from the iPhone)

Has anyone else noticed an issue? I'm not trying to make the situation over-blown, but it was *very* disappointing when I heard the audio playback In short, it is unacceptable. I tried changing the output for the "wired stereo devices" audio effects to "home theater" from "extreme bass" but it didn't help. I also tried surround - neither helped the overall quality, although they did change it some.

The phone was fully charged and actually connected to the charger at the time. I'd found in the past that there was a "sweet spot" with the iPhone as far as device volume and the volume of my car stereo and I tried playing with that, but to no avail.

Thanks for any input. I’m for the most part very pleased with the DX. It has a few quirks, but for the most part (excluding some head scratchers on a couple menu item names, use of hardware buttons for some things that could easily be accessed via on onscreen buttons/objects) the phone crushes the iPhone in features, performance and functionality. Further, the Verizon network simply blows the AT&T out of the water – which really was the reason I made the move. The DX was the compelling final nail in the coffin of my relationship with AT&T – however, I’ve been bitterly disappointed with AT&T for at least the last 12 months – finally having gotten fed up with the dropped calls, failed calls, etc. Things seem to have gotten worse (my opinion) in the last 6 months. I hardly ever get 3G with AT&T in place I used to. Several friends have been getting the same thing with their iPhones. You’ll get 3G, then get dropped to EDGE after a few minutes – seemingly randomly. You have to toggle into/out of airplane mode to re-establish 3G, only to get dropped again a few minutes later. Not good when you really on the data potion of your phone and are being charged a mandatory $30 per month for their data package…

-Calvin

 

[bamfsig45]

My DX has great sound output. I have a Bluetooth adaptor for my car stereo and bluetooth headphones, sounds good. Could Double Twist be compressing the audio or changing the bit rate?

 

[Humpa]

I use my original Droid as my mp3 player in my car. I have a passive eq that has two inputs. One is my head unit and the other I plug into my Droid. The audio quality was better with the Droid than the old Creative Zen I had, plus with "cubed" music player it is a breeze to operate while driving. I am going to get a better quality mp3 player (I lost my iRiver), but in the meantime the Droid is very good - and I wouldn't use an iPod if I was looking for audio quality.

I plugged both my Droid and Droid X into my eq (one in aux 1 and the other in 2). I set the volumes the same and played the same music file and so it was extremely easy to A and B them. I didn't do any extensive tests, but it seemed that they were very similar in audio quality. The X seemed better, but it also had a slightly better cord.

EDIT: and like johnomaz below, all mp3's 192k or above with an occasional 160k in there. You might want to verify with known good quality mp3.

 

[johnomaz]

Ive had great output from my DX. Ive used headphones, stereo cable to my surround sound at home, and even it's built in speaker. All my files are 160kbps mp3 files and not one issue. I'm going to be getting a bluetooth kit for my alpine deck and don't expect any issues. Try converting a few of your files to mp3 out verify what encoding quality they are. Anything over 128kbps should do great. Either that or download a few mp 3 files from the web and test with those too. Best of luck to you.

As for service quality, at&t never gave me issues. The coverage is similar between the two where I live.

Sent from my DroidX via Tapatalk (

 

[sweetdroid]

i fetl going from my ipod touch to the plain droid was a downgrade in sound quality, my buddy thought different, so i guess it depends on what you like ur music to sound like, i like have good treble with base taht is natural, the droid seems to be very song on the base notes, where th ipod sounded clearer on the higher and midrange. that and plugging them into my audio jack in the car, i i had the volume up to loud on the droid, it would have hiccups in the sound like it was being overloaded. i did not have the problem with my itouch. but considering i paid 200 bucks for my droid with 16gig and 220 for the itouch with 8 i guess i cant complain, and shortly after i got my droid, my ipod touch took a crap and i got 243 bucks in bestbuy giftcards bought a bluetooth headset and a usb adapter for wireless on my desktop!

i think it is all preference not so much that one is better then the other.

 

[Humpa]

Not sure what "hiccup" means, but you had something wrong if you experienced that.

One thing for anyone using their Droid in a system. Set the volume to one step below maximum for cleanest sound.

I would assume the Droid X and iPods should be similar in audio quality. The OP has something wrong to hear a drastic difference. Obviously for high quality you do not want either the iPod or Droid X. Maybe a Cowon or something similar.

 

[JonKyu]

I've been pretty happy with using my Droid as an "on the go" music player. My only complaint is with the audio jack. The slightest movement will cause a weird interference, it's really annoying. Otherwise than that it's been acceptable but for longer listening I think I'd go back to my ipod touch.

Sent from my Tapatalk using Droid

 

[darreno1]

So far the sound quality has been excellent from the X with headphones and via the stereo cable in my car. And the stock player with the new bass controls have been a godsend. I've only used the FM player once and it was much better than I expected. No comlaints here.

 

[cledford3]

I found the solution - it was through playingaround with the properties for audio effects. Basically, I realized that you could chnage the behavior of the Equalizer setting to other options. I chose "base punch" and it sounds much improved.

-Calvin

 

[Elkay]

I know that dT also recompresses some items when it syncs. It was recompressing all of my movies to really low bitrates even though I had them already at the optimal resolution for the phone. Perhaps it's doing it with some of your audio files, too? I've just resorted to manually copying the files I want over to the X. Far faster, too.

 

[gonnadie4thegov]

Id convert to mp3

I bet its the aac file type thats messing it up, im actually surprised it plays em

 

[sweetdroid]

Not sure what "hiccup" means, but you had something wrong if you experienced that.

One thing for anyone using their Droid in a system. Set the volume to one step below maximum for cleanest sound.

I would assume the Droid X and iPods should be similar in audio quality. The OP has something wrong to hear a drastic difference. Obviously for high quality you do not want either the iPod or Droid X. Maybe a Cowon or something similar.

hiccup, pretty much like clipping, just like you said i cant have it up to high on the device, either way both were fine, just felt ipod was a touch better

 

[FireDroid]

Mine actually sounds better than my Ipod touch over BT in my truck!! I was shocked this morning as it is the first time I used it. I can even use my steering wheel controls to select songs!!!