i do not know about the Note 2, but i have and android mobile (galaxy Ace) the original sound quality is not good, but i installed the DSP Manager and have a good sound improvement, not very clear but ca play with the equalizer and make it acceptable.

i thick all android 2.1 or superior can install DSP Manager just need tbe rooted.

With Symbian you only have some presets to choose from. There's ways to create your own but not included in the base install (as was before).

N9 DAC is really good, so you get more or less what is encoded. If your Symbian phone has "better" sound it's probably because the default EQU is more tuned to your taste and headset than N9's

But There's going to be an HW? equalisator relesed with QuasarMX player in the very near future which might help with your problem. I happened to buy a new headset for specific use myself and after using "bigger" cans before I'm eager to get some of the lost bass back with the new QMX version.

the best sounding S^3 device is the Nokia N8.
it's really good.

that said, the N9 is just a little better than that. So the N9's sound quality via headphones is really great.
The damn thing is pretty loud too! with very little distortion.


The speaker of the N9 though is far worse than the N8's and the N900's

I'd love me some Rockbox to the N9. The stock music app on the N9 is OK but after I got a Sansa Clip Zip and installed Rockbox on it I really wish Rockbox was available to the N9 too.

I used to "tune up" my music by using the EQs most of my old devices had, turning up the low and high frequencies. But one day i decided to stop doing that and enjoy the music with a plain EQ. Since then my music sounds as powerful as before, but now the modified music sounds bad to me.

EQs are make up for music. If you use a plain curve then you are listening to your tracks as the artist and sound engineer intended. But if you use a particular curve then you'll get used to it and the plain music will sound awfull.

I know this is a phone related forum, sorry for the off topic talk, but i had to tell my experience.

for my case, N8 was albeit better than N9 lol