I'm a bit of a sound-a-holic, being a composer and heavy duty listener, and I've noticed a couple of annoying things about the N900 and it's sound quality.

What I've heard is that the problem has to do with Pulseaudio doing a sample conversion to 48Khz and some software equalizing to make the audio sound better and as worst, automatic limiting to create the so called "wall mix" effect to get higher volume output but killing the dynamics of the track as a side effect (I read that it's a protection so you won't drive too loud volume on the speakers to make them overdrive/break). As much as a normal consumer wouldn't mind these things, they add unnecessary overhead to the N900 cpu and distort the sound in a way that makes me quite annoyed.

As much as I hate to come to the forums asking for someone to make me software that prolly will take days and days to get finished, It's beyond my skillset to code an app that would bypass PA and let me listen to the tracks I've got on the phone as they are (and lets me play tracks managed in a folder/album structure and not just by 1 genre/playlist/etc like the built in one). And I think I can manage to mind the soundvolume without any built in burst protection. Another possibility would be to create a hack on any of the current players to get them bypass PA?

Meanwhile I'll just have to carry another player with me.