950/950 XL sound!

[Armen Barseghyan1]

The sound is worst I ever heard! (if I speak about sound, it means I speak about headphones sound. And it means that I checked and compared sound, using very good headphones and even amplifiers) .Even lumia 520 have a better sound. My 820, 930, 1520 sounds perfect, I really enjoy listening to music. But 950 xl... Foooo!! Even no dolby! Virtual surround function.. Did u hear what it does with sound? And that equalizer! 6200hz is mid range frequency, so where is high frequency controls? A most cheapest china mp3 player have a better sound and more controls

 

[MBytes]

Honestly, I just use headphones. I don't get why anyone would use phone speakers. They are all crap in any cases.
And I am not saying this as a "Microsoft defense", I am being perfectly honest, Laptops, tablets, a phone speakers are total junk, even those that reviewers says that they good. Yea sure good in comparison, but in reality they are ****.

 

[peter leung 10586]

Honestly, I just use headphones. I don't get why anyone would use phone speakers. They are all crap in any cases.
And I am not saying this as a "Microsoft defense", I am being perfectly honest, Laptops, tablets, a phone speakers are total junk, even those that reviewers says that they good. Yea sure good in comparison, but in reality they are ****.

I never use phone's speakers too due to the same reason you mentioned. but I sometimes use laptop's speakers in the situation that I show something to my colleagues.

 

[Armen Barseghyan1]

I'm speaking about headphones.. Would be not normal to speak about equalizer and speakers)))

 

[Armen Barseghyan1]

I'm speaking about sound quality and equalizer, so it means i'm speaking about headphone sound. About "...microsoft defense"-I'm a fan of MS and Windows (as u see i have few lumia phones). About speaker- speaker is good, no low freqs, but it's clear and loud, which is good for message/call sounds and alarm. I think no one listening music via phone speakers

 

[MBytes]

I'm speaking about sound quality and equalizer, so it means i'm speaking about headphone sound. About "...microsoft defense"-I'm a fan of MS and Windows (as u see i have few lumia phones). About speaker- speaker is good, no low freqs, but it's clear and loud, which is good for message/call sounds and alarm. I think no one listening music via phone speakers

Ah ok.
I use my Lumia 950 XL as an MP3 player (Groove Music subscription) extensively. It actually replaces my Zune, as Microsoft pulled the plug on Xbox Music Pass (aka: Zune Music Pass). On my desktop, I have an old but still true ASUS Xonar STX dedicated sound card. While the Lumia 950 XL doesn't match the sound quality of my dedicated sound card (which is understandable), the sound quality is superior of the Zune, and fairly close to my desktop dedicated sound card, in terms of sound quality. Mind you, I don't use on either a super good headphone/earphones either. But for me they are adequate considering budget.

For earphones, I use Sennheiser CX 3.00 which are like ~$50 U.S earphones (based on amazon). I use them outside and on the bus. And for home/work I use headphones, I have the Audio Technica ATH-M40x, which are like around $100.

 

[Armen Barseghyan1]

Just all old lumias were better, and it's not a problem to make a full freq range equalizer I think... But no... They broke audio settings Instead of fixing.

 

[MBytes]

Don't know, if you have a decent headphones/earphones you should not need to touch equalizer.
Depends on the implementation. If it is a hardware equalizer it is limited to what the sound chip offers. If it is a software, then you can what you want, but now your use more CPU power to process the sound, and usually doesn't do a good job, in terms of output result compared to a similar hardware solution.

 

[Armen Barseghyan1]

Smartphone is not a pro sound device, that's why we need equalizer.. But.. Question is not about "who needs", the question is why did they create half equalizer? Why WP must have bad and not complete EQ (and just only syatem preinstalled). Any other OS developers knows that high frequency means from 8 to 16Khz, and for microsoft high frequency is 6Khz. I like high freqs and even on pro sound systems I make highs a bit louder. On my Lumia I can't. On any cheep andeoid device it's possible, on my flagship WP devices-no! Lumia 930 sound is perfect, and no need to use equalizer. But 950 Xl sound is bad, and needs some enhancements. I have a flagship device with sh***ty sound. That's why other OS based phones are more popular

 

[MBytes]

Ok so then post as user feedback. If you have a lot of votes, maybe Microsoft will update it.

 

[trmnrs]

I agree entirely and understand exactly what you're talking about.

I've had the Lumia 920, 830, and 1520 and in my opinion, the 920 sounded the best. There was no clipping or distortion of bass at max volume like the 1520 does, and the max volume was very loud. The 830 is second best, followed by the 1520 which isn't the best at booming bass, but still has relatively loud volume and a good equalizer range.

One of the reasons I held back from getting a 950/XL is because of the terrible headphones audio quality. Max volume on the 950 is comparable to volume level 20 on previous Lumias, and the equalizer range is absolutely terrible. Mids take over the whole sound spectrum and it just sounds messy and low quality compared to previous models.

This has nothing to do with the quality of headphones you buy either. I personally like punchy bass and crisp highs--something you simply can't get from headphones alone and would need an equalizer for. Plus, my (second) Lumia 1520 is nearing the end of its life and I'd rather not buy another one of them given its screen issues.

I really hope they get absolutely everything right with the future flagship because the 950/XL was definitely a let-down in that respect as well.

 

[scandiskwindows9x]

is amazing that even windows 10 have not dolby headphones, sound leveler and flip for silence and my old Lumia 820 had all those things for sound, about equalizer have no idea always windows been sh*****t in terms of equalization and frequencies ranges for the eq

 

[WillBthr]

My criteria for accessing the quality of the 950 XL is as follows:
Is the audio quality of the headphone amplifier linear in it's frequency response and is the distortion low.

I would never use the internal equalizer (or any other effect, especially a "leveler" as some phones offer). I just want accuracy based on my reference material (recordings I've made in my studio) and the comparison to my reference audio equipment (studio digital audio workstation and its related audio system).

I need to listen to a master recording in various formats (wav, mp3 etc) on a "typical" system ie. headphones, in-ear headphones, car etc.

I've used the 950 and the XL models for this purpose for the past month or so and I've found them both to be credible. Listening was with Sennheiser HD600 over-ear headphones (same phones I've listen with in the studio with RME and other equipment) and Sennheiser CX 3.0 (I think that's what the model is) in-ear headphones that perhaps represent "pretty good" certainly compared to most in-ear phones.

If your phones are ok/accurate why would you want to change the tone via equalizer from what the original artist/engineer intended? Leveler=cotton in your ears. I always suggest that effect be TURNED OFF. Beyond horrible. Ruins the frequency balance, sound stage, sense of depth, not to mention the dynamics.

My listening test results have been that the headphone circuit/amplifier in the 950 series MS phones are quite respectable. Not so much a subjective judgement but a subjective comparison to my studio headphone playback system directly off the DAW (digital audio workstation.