Andrewche1_small
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There's a dearth of good music players for Android (Samsung Galaxy S). The best so far is PowerAmp, but the quality's still bad. Is it the hardware?

PowerAmp at least has a nice set of EQ tools and presets, but even finessing those very carefully the audio is much poorer than my wife's iPod nano. Is it true that if you love music you pretty much just want an apple? I don't think I'm being finicky or audiophile picky. The sound is noticeably thin and crackly, via headphones or plugged into a car stereo. Is there a software solution for me? I've tried a few already, including doubletwist (won't store to SD card), Amazon Cloud Player (not very tweakable) and Google Music (same). Even PowerAmp seems to be a bit buggy, not updating the widget consistently and not holding my settings. I'm getting pretty frustrated with this aspect of my new phone. Thanks!

Daily asked in Geek Week 10 months ago | Report
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  • N510833790_3563_small
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    The iPhone and iPod aren't necessarily known for high quality sound. I've never felt the need to tweak any EQ settings ever on my devices. The quality of the audio is almost always limited by the quality of the headphones and the bitrate that your tracks are recorded in.

    I've been perfectly happy with the latest version of the Google Music Player that supports Music Beta.

    It is possible that your particular Samsung device has a defective headphone port.

    Andrew Beck answered in Geek Week 10 months ago | Report
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  • Imgp0063_small
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    Nick Nelson

    Is the sound quality an issue with PowerAmp, or all Music apps on your phone? And is this a recent problem, or has it been that way since you got it?

    I haven't noticed any sound quality issues with my G2, but you might want to check with other people who have a Galaxy S to see if it's a hardware problem or not. If you haven't taken it to the store yet, they may let you exchange it if it is, or at least listen to another one to compare.

    It's possible that PowerAmp is having memory problems if you have a ton of other apps running on your phone; you can try ending those by going into your Settings, Applications, and Running Services to see what's currently running.
    You can also try forcing your phone to look for any possible updates; I know the Galaxy S had some problems initially, but they have been fixed with updates, which your phone should receive automatically. But just to be sure, you can open up the Dialer and enter: *#*#CHECKIN#*#*, which will find any updates.

    As far as other Music apps go, PowerAmp has the best EQ options, so if those are necessary for you then you might want to stick with that. I personally use and enjoy WinAmp and haven't had any problems with it, though it has no EQ options (yet). But it has decent widgets, a smart UI, wireless syncing, and like I've said, I've had no problems with sound quality while using it, though I'm not much of an audiophile.

    Nick Nelson answered in Geek Week 10 months ago | Report
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