Notices

I admit that traumatic head wounds (seriously) and years in the Marines may have combined to make my brain perceive things “differently” than others, but I am not imagining this:

For whatever reason, the sound from the 3.5mm jack on the N900 is a “lot” better. Highs I was missing are there now (cymbal decay duration is an example) and the mids and lows are still present. Then N900 has gone from a very good, to a great sounding player. Same volume level, which was great already.

I have been testing with the same songs I was listening to that seemed less in quality compared to my G1 and Gmini 402. I can not tell any quality difference between the Gmini and the N900 now. The Gmini 402, by any reviewer’s standard is one of the better sounding devices out there and equal to the Cowan players. Ironic that Archos players since 2005 have poor audio quality (Gmini is an Archos product).

I went through the same song tests with different players and ear buds. Though I appreciate the better sound, I do not understand why the N900 is the same level of the Gmini and better than the G1 now.

The only files I have added since my last tests were the codec pack, BiS, KMplayer and Mplayer. I would not expect any of these apps to impact the sound since not part of framework- correct? I am using the default player for music. Using it as I type this.

BTW: I hope the stuttering sound while browsing is fixed in the update, since it is getting annoying. Assuming it can be fixed, of course.

Coming frm a Sony Walman background I had been prepared to still have the two devices as i did not think the N900 would be any better than the N95 for audion.

But I agree with the above. It sounds fantastic, albeit lacking a bit of volume. Although I miss an equaliser it does mean that there is one less thing to fiddle with incessantly

The wild thingh is mine did not sound this good until around today. The last time I listened using the 3.5 jack was two days ago. Something changed for the better, but I do not know what. All controls used for my comparisons are the same:

Gmini = Amazing
Zen = Very good
G1 = Very good
Archos 5 = poor

N900 moved up to amazing, since the highs are more present now (yes, same ear buds and tunes used to test).

seriously, this happened to me with me creative zen as well.
form one day to the next, i felt that the sound changed in a positive way, although i didnt change any settings (i didnt even added any songs)

i dont know if i'm mad or not.

Guess it must be the head trauma.

personally i think the sound is truly horrible straight out of the N900.
And that goes for both the pre-production N900 and the retail one.

Muffeled mids, total lack of highs and a bass that is, to put it nicely muddy.
Hopefully it will be taken care of with the EQ that hopefully will be implemented in the near future or another media player.

My opinion about the poor sound is based on listening to well known favourite tracks through the following pair of in ear buds:
Shure E2c, Klipsch Image S4, Sennheister CX500 and Sennheister CX 300 II.
Reference player Cowon S9.

Ofc no one can compare the cowon to a phone but the phone makes even the shure e2c buds sound "muddy bass" and never had that before.
Compared to my old N85 with a few EQ tweaks the N900 sounds crap.

Either you had a really great phone sample. or we truly have very differnt sound signatures haha!

other then that the comp... "phone" is totally awesone and the overly cosy/muddy/filtered sound will do

I have the CX300's too, plus 13ohm UE's and V-moda metal. The output is just as good now as my Archos 5. Sound was never as you are hearing and now is better. Not sure if some of the apps I added overrode some basic audio settings (doubtful), but the device sounds fantastic now.

Though MP3 is not the best for benchmarking audio quality, I can say the N900 gets an "A" now.

Funny, but your audio description fits the Archos 5 prefectly Seriously- it does. Archos 5 audio definition sucks.

Possibly it's 'burn-in' of the circuitry. I'm an ignorant person on EE stuff, but I've read about this for dedicated headphone-amps, also headphones proper, so it wouldn't surprise. Some variability in the samples is also a possibility. I'm interested to read something by a qualified test and dismantle-- ie what dac and amp?

yup its the burnin effect on the internal amp..but i will be honest with you..the N900 is pretty average in my respect. MY audiophile listening station is a sansa with line out, going to a nuforce mobile amplifier for the volume control, to my phillips noise cancellation headphones..and the N900 does not even come close to that setup. Listening to Pink Floyd under this setup is different from anything else, the line out really really helps while 3.5 mm top connectors are actually not that great..

Maybe you didn't plug in your headphones all the way untill now ?

Something like that kind of happens on my g1. G1 uses an adapter for the 3.5 jack and if not positioned perfectly, sound does suck.