I'm not sure how anyone could say that Trophy's sound quality is better.... Myself, I think a 12" speaker that has three 4" tears in it, with a hand full of sand and gravel on it, being driven by a 1952 amp with three burned-out tubes sounds better than Trophy, but that's just me.... And I was only the first chair cellist in my high school orchestra, so I don't have much of an ear for sound......
Seriously, though, the loudspeaker on this thing easily outdoes my old Trophy (and my wife's Trophy was the one with the bad speaker - mine was fine), but when you plug in something to the headset jack, be it speakers, headset, or a cable to the aux input of the car stereo, the graphic equalizer and dolby settings come alive in the settings (dumb place to hide them), and now you're rockin'. And yes, they make a HUGE difference. I use it in the car, hooked to the stereo listening to podcasts mostly, and occasionally music, and at work, playing more quietly, listening to music in the background (office setting), plugged into a set of computer speakers. Sound quality is just fine.
Talking on the phone, with it on speaker - yeah, if you crank it all the way up, it'll distort. So don't crank it all the way up.