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View Full Version : Sound Quality Test - Static + Distorsion


Maticek
07-18-2005, 09:01 AM
I've seen in the news that there is a new version of Aeroplayer available. So I downloaded the trial and decided to do a little sound comparision - Aeroplayer 5.5 vs. Pocket Tunes (latest version 3.10). This is not a real test as there are several factors that could fake the results.

I used KOSS earplugs (http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/04ProductDetailCall?ReadForm&Portable+Stereophones^SPARKPLUG)and played songs from the harddisk. The songs were: Satriani - Stary Night (mp3, 192kbps), Joss Stone - Sleep Like a Child (mp3, 192kbps) and Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams (mp3, VBR 320~160kbps.


Satriani's Stary Night was quite good, the beginning had noticable less static in AeroPlayer than in Pocket Tunes. At the end I had 2 empty seconds (a piece of song, where silience was recorded) and static was really heavy with some distorted sounds (i've noticed that with many songs at the end) regardless of the player. Still I think AeroPlayer was a bit better here.

Joss Stone's Sleep Like a Child, a balad turned out to be the most problematic sound in case of static. In my opinion Pocket Tunes was the better here, with less static noticable in the chorus. But the easy parts are really awfull on both players, especially the ending distorted sounds.

Green Day Boulevard was, as espected the most enjoyable. To notice the static I really had to concentrate. Nevertheless it was clearly noticable. Static was almost the same here.

In Aeroplayer the sound is richer, the high tones are clearer and the basses are more intensive. I had no EQ set on both players.
It's worth mentioning that according to my test Aeroplayer had less lag issues whe brosing trough the menus, although with PT 3.1 there is no more lag when setting the volume (Ok, I experienced it once). The lag with background play is definitely better with the new verison of PT.
Sadly I found a bug, that makes my LD rest everytime I try to connect to the wifi while listening to music in the background. Aeroplayer had no such problems.

I started writing to state my opinion on the static and I somehow ended up comparing the players. So to return back to the static I don't believe that the static can be corrected by the kind of player you use. Could a rom patch kill the static, what do you think?

SoS
07-18-2005, 10:01 AM
dont know about static but good to hear from a satriani fan!!

Cerebasan
07-18-2005, 12:54 PM
There really needs to be some definite work done on the static issue. It's really bad. Palm really messed up on this one. It's definitely a hardware fault.

Dick Tracy
07-18-2005, 02:52 PM
From what I have read in other forums Picard is working on this for TCPMP and you might want to try headphones with 32 Ohm impedance rather than 16 Ohm.

Maticek
07-18-2005, 03:04 PM
In TCPMP 0.66 the static is also bad or did you mean a future version?