Phones with good MP3/music playback

d3moliti0n

d3moliti0n

d3moliti0n

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Are there any smartphones out there that excel at music/MP3 playback? The reason I ask is because I am looking into buying a smartphone (my first one) and am hoping that I will be able to replace my current MP3 player by having a fully capable smartphone MP3/music player. It's got to have a good volume and good playback quality both with earphones plugged in and unplugged just through the phone speaker, although the earphones are obviously more important, music through the phone speaker isn't too big a deal, it would just be a nice addition to have.

My budget is around £200 to £300 although I would be willing to go up to about £320'ish. I want a sim-free/unlocked handset aswell as I plan on using a pay monthly sim card.
 
Most smartphones out now have excellent sound quality and volume output. My HTC Desire can power the Sennheisser HD595 very easily with plenty of volume and output some excellent sound at the same time. With Android phones you can improve that further by installing an EQ or DSP management app to tweak the sound to your liking as well so this might be a thing to keep in mind.

As for the playback software itself, iPhone is obviously the best at this but other phones have various apps that are almost as good.
 
I'm looking toward the Android phones to be honest, they seem to be more within my price range as a sim-free/unlocked handset. I have actually been looking at the HTC Legend and Desire more specifically, although I read a post on a forum earlier today that said the Desire's sound/music playback was below average and not too good overall with the volume not being loud enough so I wanted to look into it more before I go ahead and buy anything, as it's too expensive to make an uninformed purchase.
 
Khaaan! said:
As for the playback software itself, iPhone is obviously the best at this but other phones have various apps that are almost as good.
Click to expand...

Disagree with that completely. And you should know better Khaaan! :p

There's a multitude of players for Android, most of which support every filetype going including FLAC and have very good equalizer and library management software (PowerAmp for example). You're also restricted to using iTunes with the iPhone, but with Android you can choose to sync with iTunes or just drag and drop, so you get the best of both worlds.
 
I know man, but in a way it's true I guess :p

Even if I choked typing it!

But we're getting there, maybe we're already there though! I don't use my phone as a music playback device, only streaming online stations via DroidLive and TuneIn Radio!
 
for that price then a galaxy s and something like btunes

for lower price then an unused x10 from ebay and something like btunes, better sound quality but you dont get android 2.2 and have a modded 2.1



to be fair the n8 or the windows7 phones might be better for it but ive not tried any for music yet, i
 
Khaaan! said:
My HTC Desire can power the Sennheisser HD595 very easily with plenty of volume and output some excellent sound at the same time.
Click to expand...
Sorry bout the tangent but do you mind sharing a little more about your software/ROM setup? I'm extremely disappointed in my Desire's sound quality coming through a pair of Shure SE110s. Running either stock sense 2.1 or Modaco 2.2 using the default player or winamp, the output's always very noisy.
 
How do you mean noisy? As in hissing or noise etc?

I ditched the DSP manager app as I was actually happy with the neutral sound through my HD595s.

Running Oxygen ROM btw.
 
Khaaan! said:
How do you mean noisy? As in hissing or noise etc?
Click to expand...
Aye, there's really obvious background hiss in any media player that I've used on mine. It's noticeable any time sound is played back, I can even hear it on text alert sounds :(. There's also a fairly rythmic "pop.... pop.... pop" sound akin to the kind of background noise you hear on cheap laptops.

Khaaan! said:
I ditched the DSP manager app as I was actually happy with the neutral sound through my HD595s.

Running Oxygen ROM btw.
Click to expand...
I'll give both a try sometime. Thanks :)


Edit: Infact, I've just checked something on a hunch and I don't believe ROMs or software will help: With the music app playing some track and the 'Media' volume at zero I can still hear background hissing and rythmic pops. With the phone's radios disabled, in flight mode, the popping stops but the hiss remains.
Edit again: After googling this it seems that higher impedance cans like those Khaaan uses mostly nullify the background noise (makes sense, the low-energy background signals aren't strong enough to actuate the headphone drivers) but sensitive in-ear phones don't.
 
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Could look at a Wp7 device, excellent for music IMO, however probably a bit over budget.

I use my Omnia 7 with a pair of SE110s and have no issue with background noise or distortion. I'd rate it as being up there with my walkman which is supposed to have one of the best SQs around so...

The zune interface is rather nice too, although does have some slight drawbacks.
 
I think I'm going to go for a HTC Desire, it seems like the best all around phone tbh.

Btw, is unlocking a Desire easy? As I can find one for relatively cheaper than buying it from Amazon or whatever but it's locked to T-Mobile, would this be easy to sort out or is it too much hassle?
 
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