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> Right now I'm absolutely astonished at how difficult it appears to be to just listen to music with a good pair of headphones. Is it not 2018? The media is ful

• saagarjha 8y ago
  I find this especially humorous given this: > Although Android is Free Software, meaning I can modify the code, it would probably take me months to learn enough about music decoding and the Android-media-player-service to write a fix.
  • benj111 8y ago
    Is it actually open source in that you can actually submit a fix though? Judging by the awful 'random' I would suspect not. (I havent used it I some time so it might have been fixed, but you used to get clustering of tracks from a given album)
    • klipt 8y ago
      Submit patches: https://source.android.com/setup/contribute/submit-patches https://source.android.com/setup/contribute/submit-patches
  • TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Android may be "open source", but it means little if you're not a company wanting to write their own clone, or a security researcher. Would I be able to fix just the media player service, and make my smartphone use the fixed version? Without flashing it with a brand new OS, losing data, warranty, OEM drivers, and ability to receive security updates? Didn't think so. Android "open source" delivers only half of the expected value.
  • Rondom 8y ago
    I think it is just a matter of what one is most comfortable with. The HW-solution is a nice challenge, but I am sure, there are simpler ways to solve it. On a sidenote: I would be surprised if the issue he has is systemic too Android devices in general. I am sure others would have noticed it if was that widespread that it occurred on all devices.
• drops 8y ago
  Makes me wonder if the guy wants (subconsciously or not) to have more problems with technology he’s using just to have an opportunity to tinker with it to make it better. Certainly seems like the type. Not necessarily a bad thing, though, but in such case he might as well drop the complaining tone.
  • humanrebar 8y ago
    The real shame is that "tinker friendly" is a premium feature now.
  • Rjevski 8y ago
    I see this a lot with Linux and non-stock-Android users.
  • wingerlang 8y ago
    Probably, I have spent 100s of hours to make my iPhones better when in reality they would have worked just as well without the modifications. I frequently see people complaining and finding issues just so they can try to fix it, rinse and repeat. This also leads into his statement. I own an iPhone and I kinda know what's going on beneath the surface. I can open up disassembled binaries and anyone can look at the headers from google within seconds. That in turn would lead into that 99.9% of Android users have no knowledge of how Android works, so his whole statement is kind of odd.
• ignoreInstinct 8y ago
  Yeah, but what really gets under my skin is that every other company out there is okay with producing garbage. Meanwhile, Apple produces things that work comparatively well, doing what you expect and then, claims that reasonable functionality is premium. And then catches shit for being pretentious. So, let's step through that once more: - garbage is normal - functional and interoperable is premium - premium is pretentious - also, add $1,000 for the name brand The author simultaneously complains that nothing works, but refutes using the only thing that works because it represents training wheels that are too fashionable and ostentatious. We can have nice things because that's for babies, and also too overtly glamorous and bougie. I just want shit that works out of the box sometimes. I also don't need X-Files alien logos and red backlit Hunt For Red October themes everywhere. And oh yeah, let's not get started on OEM spyware masquerading as harmless adware. (Cough! Lenovo! [0] Cough! Intel Management Engine! [1] Cough!) [0] https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Security-Malware/Malware-preloaded-on-new-computers/td-p/3876408 https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Security-Malware/Malware-preloa... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine#Security_vulnerabilities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine#Securi... Will someone other than Apple please step up to the fucking plate and not just dump trash onto the shelves at Best Buy?
  • danw1979 8y ago
    Not everything at the <£100 price point is rubbish... I recently got a £20 Havit Bluetooth receiver and connected it to a pair of £70 Sony MDR-7506 headphones. The receiver drives the headphones louder and with less distortion than my iPhone can, and the battery lasts for a few days of intermittent listening. Whatever loss is introduced by the aptX coding is invisible to my ears. I'm blown away by how good this setup is given the price and there shouldn't be any dependency on an expensive source device to run it.
    • dep_b 8y ago
      The DA on older iPhones is mediocre, the DA in those lightning converters is even worse. Try a separate DA if you really want quality audio output.
• ThJ 8y ago
  This guy is both smart and stupid at the same time.
  • slx26 8y ago
    or smart and annoyed
    • pdimitar 8y ago
      Smart and biased. Drinking the Apple hate juice in particular. I envy the people who have the free time to tinker but what they keep forgetting, time and time again, is that they are the minority. Many people have happy family lives and prefer to spend most of their leisure time with people -- or non-tech hobbies. I do enough programming already, thank you. (EDIT to add: and not everybody is in perfect health shape as well, so they use their free time to recharge -- not to work some more. Stress and overworking come with an army of health issues. Climbing a hill with a 50kg backpack, to give an analogy, is not as easy as it looks like from the side.) I respect smart hardware technicians but he lost me as an audience with his Apple hate.
      • shaan7 8y ago
        +1 on "hate doesn't work". Just adding a perspective that you might be missing. The stuff that OP described doesn't really feel like "work" to him. To him its the exact thing you described - it helps him recharge - so that he can go back to "work" the next day :) [P.S. "I do enough programming already, thank you." doesn't help as well. To get an idea of how sad it is to read, imagine if someone tells an artist "I do enough painting already, thank you.". People love to do different things, and that is okay.]
        • pdimitar 8y ago
          Yep, I know it helps them recharge. But I find it sad how oblivious they sometimes are that others might be so beat up that they need an almost passive recharge. :( As for my programming, I actually do some small work outside of work hours on my own enthusiastic basis. But I have to tell you, even this minor 4-5h a week thing took me years of recharging and healing before I felt the passion for the first time in years and years. (As an aside, we the techies need non-tech hobbies but that's just an opinion.)
• mirkules 8y ago
  I chuckled when I read: > Although Android is Free Software, meaning I can modify the code, it would probably take me months to learn enough about music decoding and the Android-media-player-service to write a fix. Followed by: > APPLE IS A SYMBOL OF PRETENTIOUSNESS AND IGNORANCE - YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS So iPhone users don’t know how their phone works, but Android is awesome because it’s open source and the freedom you get with that but it’s too complicated to learn how it works. Okay.
  • zanny 8y ago
    Yes okay, its about having the choice and the option. Its rooted in the fundamental instinct to cling to freedom and seek it out. Even if you don't make a choice, having the option to is still empowering, because the absence of a choice tells you someone else made it for you. For many, that could be the same choice they would have made. That doesn't give any condolence to those who would have made a different one, but weren't given the option.
    • mirkules 8y ago
      I understand the need for people to feel like they have a choice by using free software (the choice to modify it if they want to), but at this point it is just an illusion unless you are prepared to dedicate a huge amount of time. If you practically couldn’t do it even if you wanted to, does it still mean you have a choice? It’s a different time today than it was 40 years ago when RMS modified printer drivers, and software is much more complicsted than it used to be.
      • jolmg 8y ago
        Totally depends on what you're thinking of modifying and how you want to modify it. Some experience gained through one modification also carries over to others, even when done on different programs. I've done modifications that only take a few minutes, and I have my systems setup so it's really, really easy to pick a package by name to modify it and distribute the mods to all my machines, complete with version control. I very much appreciate the ability to modify the free software I use.
• Nashooo 8y ago
  Same thoughts except with my Android phone and Bose QC. Wireless, noise cancellation and never any problems with explosive noise. Also it is indeed 2018 so what's he doing with ripped CD's, there are a lot of streaming services out there right now.
  • kgwxd 8y ago
    Many people perfer to own instead of lease, even in 2018.
    • thanatropism 8y ago
      This is fine if you're "stuck in your ways" (I want to use a less loaded term but can't come up with one) and have a collection of music you enjoy and have stopped keeping up. It's not even keeping up with current music; as I go from my early to my late 30s, the pop landscape has gone from parseable to alien. But there's still good music coming out and older good music you didn't know about. Hell, I only discovered the gigantic German composer Paul Hindemith six months ago.
      • icebraining 8y ago
        From what I can tell, the streaming catalog is still a small subset of the CD catalog, so if you're into discovering new music, you're restricting yourself by only using the former.
        • wilsonnb3 8y ago
          You are restricting yourself to a subset by streaming, but that subset probably contains more music than you could listen to in a lifetime anyways.
        • PascLeRasc 8y ago
          Good news - you can do both! I use Spotify for regular everyday listening and finding new artists/new albums by artists I like, and I collect vinyl for fun and to support artists more directly.
• blattimwind 8y ago
  > I enjoyed reading this. The whole time I thought however: that’s not an issue on my Apple devices. Except newer iPhones requiring a dongle to use headphones.
  • Rjevski 8y ago
    A dongle is ~10$ and you can pick one up anywhere. This horrible contraption he had to build just to enjoy music costs way more in time & money.
    • blattimwind 8y ago
      It (the dongle) is still wholly unnecessary.
• jf- 8y ago
  > APPLE IS A SYMBOL OF PRETENTIOUSNESS AND IGNORANCE - YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS Is this guy for real? I don’t know the nitty gritty of how most of the things I use work, I’m only concerned that they work. Sounds like sour grapes.
  • jf- 8y ago
    After re-reading the blog, I feel a bit bad about the negativity I and others expressed here. If you do read this xylon, don’t take it to heart! Also thanks for sharing your circuit, it certainly provoked an interesting discussion.
  • mikestew 8y ago
    I’m only concerned that they work. Which, as you allude to, is not guaranteed no matter what it says on the tin. Samsung is my go-to for that point. Not that features were half-assed, or kinda worked. No, having an icon on a screen does not count when what backs that icon doesn’t even pretend to do what it says. (To be specific, their fitness stuff was literally laughable in how broken or, lets be honest, how unimplemented it was.) I think what gets missed is that the “Apple tax” (the “M$” for the 2000s, indicating the writer is to be ignored) is actually the “not a broken POS, and does what you thought it would do” convenience fee. Oh, sure, there’s Pixel and the like if you don’t like Apple. Last I looked, you’ll still pay the “Apple tax” even if it goes to Google. And I swear, the next neckbeard ranting about how people don’t how their tech works either better take public transit to work, be ready to rattle off the Otto cycle used by their ICE car, or STFU.
    • PascLeRasc 8y ago
      I'm also excited to hear about their farming techniques.
  • fredsted 8y ago
    The guy is soldering a bunch of stuff to listen to music, so he's obviously not Apple's target market. Maybe he likes over engineered solutions? At least, it sounds like he just likes being contrarian. Android or Linux is not helping him much in this case, that's for sure.
• shaan7 8y ago
  Its not an issue on Android devices as well, I've no idea whats broken on OP's setup.
  • jowsie 8y ago
    It's a well documented issue. Maybe your headphones and/or ears just aren't sensitive enough to notice the issue. Plenty of people don't see the difference between flac and 240p youtube uploads, after all.
    • shaan7 8y ago
      Hmm, did you make the 240p vs FLAC strawman deliberately? Or is the bug (as you're able to reproduce it) really that bad? I know OP was using high-end headphones but I expected at least a slight hissle. (My attempts to reproduce were with a PX80, S2PGFY-003, JBL Pulse and Bose Companion 50. I included the speakers because I couldn't get the headphones to do the trick)
• HyperTalk2 8y ago
  I'm not sure why Apple is receiving any sort of praise here. I was constantly assaulted by an "explosion of noise" glitch when working with Logic Pro in OS X. I could have the system volume level set to the lowest possible setting (25% of 1 notch), and yet I'd still occasionally get deafening explosions of noise as if I had the system volume set to the full 16 notches. The explosion is just short enough that there's zero chance of you having any hope of ripping your headphones off as quickly as possible to spare your hearing. No, by the time you hear the explosion, it's already too late. I did in fact start losing my hearing from this and completely gave up on making music.
  • vonseel 8y ago
    That sounds like a hardware problem or drivers issue. If it was a software problem, why give up on music when there are other options both free and paid like Reaper, Ableton, etc. which run perfectly fine? I have not had any of the issues you are complaining about in Logic Pro X, FWIW, on multiple laptops and hardware audio interfaces over ~6 years of use.
• gyrgtyn 8y ago
  All my apple stuff makes an annoying pop sound any time the music stops for more than some amount of time I don't know. Bluetooth and analog do it.