Music quality on Nexus?

[Klaista2k]

How good is the music quality on this phone?

I want this phone but I heard the sound quality is pretty poor... is that true?

[syndicate0017]

Quality is fine. It's not very loud but you can fix that with an equalizer app. I use my nexus for music everyday and I have no complaints.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[dezymond]

I never listen to music with my phone through the phone's speaker, though the few times I did listen to a song or two through it, it did sound pretty good.

[Rsmin]

I find with with headphones it is just fantastic. I have an hour ride from and to work (van pool) which allows me to just sit back and listen the entire time and I think the quality is excellent. Don't care till listen to it without the headphones.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

[Liderc]

A lot of people say their speaker is quiet stock, but I've never had to use an equalizer to increase the volume. Mine is probably 90% as loud as my OG, which was insanely loud.

[nleksan]

As a self-professed Audiophile, I find absolutely no difference between this phone and, say, an iPod/iPhone/OG Droid/Laptop when listening to THE SAME TYPE OF AUDIO FILE. I only use mp3's when I absolutely have to, otherwise it's FLAC or AAC or whatever other type of lossless digital audio I can get my hands on.

I did a back-to-back comparison between my Nexus, my OG Droid, my brother's Droid X2, my girlfriend's iPod Touch (most recent version), and my Dell XPS laptop (didn't use either my gaming rig or my A/V editing rig because they have high-end sound cards that skew things). Just for comparison's sake, I "ripped" a brand new set of music files (full lossless) from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" DVD-Audio and loaded the same files onto each device.
I used my Grado RS2i Headphones (high-end) with a McIntosh Amplifier (24K Gold-plated connectors, 1/4" stereo jacks, 2x3.1ft zero-oxygen pure silver 16ga wiring).

I kept ANY equalizer on the phone/mp3 player/laptop TURNED OFF for consistency, I used the built-in audio player AND WinAmp for all devices....

AND I GOT THE SAME EXACT RESULTS I DO WITH ANY DIGITAL AUDIO!! FILES OF THE SAME EXACT TYPE WILL SOUND EXACTLY THE SAME WITH THE SAME EQUIPMENT.

Same thing happened when hooking these devices up to either my "music" sound system or my home theater system... It was impossible to tell which device was which because everything else was the same.


DO NOT MISTAKE VOLUME FOR SOUND QUALITY!!! Those dumb***es riding down the street in their Civic with cut springs ("lowered") and with every nut and bolt rattled halfway loose from the 4 2500Wx1ch amps they have pushing 2x12" and 2x15" subwoofers that cost them $5K while every other speaker in the car is completely stock? THAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF PEOPLE THINKING "LOUD = QUALITY"! I am not trying to "slam" anyone, or make a heavy generalization, but every person I have known with a car like that (and being into both the "car scene" and the audio scene, I see it a lot) has told me "I threw in a few amps and subs because I just had no low-end, but now the QUALITY is completely perfect" and seem baffled when I or someone else ask what they replaced their other speakers with...

Digital is digital... If you use higher-quality recordings, and at least a $30 pair of headphones, you will get SO MUCH BETTER SOUND OUT OF ANYTHING! The difference between $7.99 Earbuds + 128Kbps .mp3's and $39.99 Real Headphones + Uncompressed Audio Files is NIGHT AND DAY, and you don't have to spend much at all! (Sony MDR-V150/-V500 are excellent, inexpensive headphones for ~$25-$45; if you want advice above that price range, PM me... STAY AWAY from "Beats" ANYTHING)

I hope that makes it more clear...

Good luck and enjoy your new phone!

PS: Regardless of the bitrate of a file downloaded from a Torrent or P2P site, it will sound like S**T compared to having the CD and ripping it yourself - I have yet to find an exception to this rule.

[52brandon]

as a disclaimer, I'm running a ROM on my phone that has the "Beats by Dre" cooked in. And I'm using a pair of Monster Turbine Pro Copper headphones. So my experience may be different than anybody else's

the speaker on the phone isn't great, but notifications are still much louder than my TB. IMO the speaker on every phone is awful for music. As far as music through the headphones, it's fantastic. So much louder, better range, everything than my TB. I don't know how it would stack up to other phones though

[WookieClaws]

Once I found PowerAMP I ditched my Ipod touch and haven't looked back. The GNex's sound is way better than my old X2 (the X2 had music skips), the GNex doesn't. I listen to a lot of music on my phone at work and as my music source in my truck. Through the headphones I think things sound great.

The external speaker is loud enough for speaker phone calls and most things in a quiet environment... but there are times I wish it was louder (crowded restaurant). But as others have said something like Volume+ can fix that (not sure if this is addressed in the committing OTA or not).

Overall though I'm very happy with the sound quality of my GNex; PowerAMP just adds to it for me but I've never been a fan of the stock music player.