Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

I have been using the DROID since the 6th, and I was very pleased at the audio quality of the device. I do agree that the audio amp is a little weak, so perhaps with higher impedance headphones, you may want to suppliment the audio with a headphone amplifier like the Fiio E5. I found the sound quality, not volume, to be superior of the N810, so using streaming audio it's been nice.

I too hope that the N900 has good sound quality for both headphones and and external speakers. Especially since the N900 is such a media-centric device.

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

Sorry General, missed the amp part. Just got spooked since the earlier model Archos 5 that I have also has the 3430 chipset and also has weak dB output like Droid from the 3.5 jack (known issue on A5).

I tested using 13ohm UEs and Vmoda 16ohm buds. An amp will of course make huge difference :)

Added:

The actual quality is not too bad, but less instrument definition compared to G1 and Zen 32gb. I guess everything is relative.

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

I had the same issue on a Samsung Eternity that belon gs to my wife. It seems that these devices are turned down on the Headphone out pro Liabilty purposes. It was easy to get into the Service Menu of the phone and contour the volume control. You could adjust the in call volume as well as the MP3 volumes separately. Perhaps this same functionality can be found on the N900?

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

N900 has an amp so we are good:)

General kindly mentioned in the thread.

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

Even an amp, most likely an opamp, has an attenuator. The Samsung, you could contour all the steps of the volume control separately. such as step 7= -30 dB, step 6= -21 dB, step 5 = -15 dB, etc. all the way up to step 1 which may even be more gain such as +5 dB. This was all available on the Sammy.

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

The N810 has a really awful sound output. It's somewhat helped by the excellent speakers, but it's sad that when you sit in a quiet room and have the volume at one step above minimum, you can still hear the noise floor right there through the built-in speakers, whne holding the device in your hand.. Not to mention the noise floor sitting right in the middle of the music when you use low-impedance headphones...

Which brings me to the next question, any decent headphone amps that aren't noisy at low volume and low impedance headphones? I vaguely recall forum posts saying Fiio E5 is too noisy..

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

Can someone tell me how loud this device is from the 3.5mm jack (using headphones)? I like to listen to my music very very loud.

Just sold my ipod touch in anticipation of the release of this (and to give me money towards the N900 purchase price), Hate ipod like hell and always had Creative mp3 players but they have really lost their way recently. Was going to wait for the Zune HD but then heard its European release was uncertain so I decided to do what I had been saying for years I would rather die than do - buy an ipod. Used it for 3 months then decided I couldn't take it anymore and had to sell it. Was eventually too ashamed to bring it out in public and look like the masses that buy anything ipod related cause they think it makes them look cool. And with the ipod touch being touch screen it meant that when I was on the tube I couldn't skip songs I didn't want to hear.

I know people say ipod has poor sound quality but I am not an audiophile so didn't notice it having bad quality. What I noticed was it was really loud just the way I like it. How does the loudness of the N900 compare?

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

The noise floor with low-impedance headphones is gone on the N900. I almost never used my N810 for listening to music because this was so annoying. Now with the N900 is pure joy :)

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

What do you mean you couldn't skip because it's a touch screen? If you use the Apple earbuds you can skip with the button in-line (just need the iPhone earbuds). You can pause and go back with it too. I think there are even aftermarket ones, heaven forbid you have to show the general public that you own a common MP3 player.

Re: Are we SURE the N900 has good sound quality?
 

What about A2DP quality?