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The best answer neglects to address something I've noticed in the past: Many phones and portable media players seem to clip when you set their volume to maximum

by shawnz 14y ago

The best answer neglects to address something I've noticed in the past: Many phones and portable media players seem to clip when you set their volume to maximum -- that is to say, what reads as "100%" sounds more like "120%". I haven't measured this effect, and I've never seen it documented anywhere, so I don't know whether or not it's just my imagination -- but I've personally observed it with pretty much every phone I've owned. On the PC, though, I rarely set my system volume to anything other than 100%.

mbell 14y ago
In my experience its often that the output driver gets saturated. For example if I plug my old iPod into the standard apple earbuds which have a very low impedance (~25 ohms at 100hz) I can easily push the output stage into clipping. Basically the supply rails can't push enough current and as a result the voltage of the rails sags down low enough to clip the output. On the other hand if I plug in my Sennheiser HD580 headphones with an impedance around 300 ohms I can't push the output into clipping (unless the source was clipped to begin with of course).
cuu508 14y ago
For some phones at least it is not digital clipping, but speaker distorting the sound. A simple test would be to attach speakers or headphones. If it sounds bad both on internal speaker and external speakers, then, yeah, it's digital clipping. If only the internal speaker, then it's simply too weak to handle the signal, or phone chassis starting to resonate or something like that.
goostavos 14y ago
I've noticed this too. I suspect it is, at least in part, due to the poor quality of the DACs on most phones. I used to own a Samsung Moment; trying to listen to music on it was almost unbearable due to the quality. It must have been dumping bits left and right during the conversion. I tried 320kbps Mp3s, Broadcast Wavs, Flac -- it didn't matter everything sounded like it was crushed down to a 32kbps. I'd be interested in seeing a phone dedicated to high quality playback of music. As a somewhat audiophile-ish guy, I would snatch up such a piece of technology.
ynniv 14y ago
Yes, some media players sound louder than others. I haven't verified, but I suspect that they achieve this by purposely increasing the gain and inducing clipping. That sounds dumb, but weak computer speakers can't compensate for low mastering. The proper thing would be to compress the dynamic range, but that's real work compared to just inducing some clipping. Play a song in iTunes at 100% and compare to VLC @ "33%".

by shawnz 14y ago

mbell 14y ago

In my experience its often that the output driver gets saturated. For example if I plug my old iPod into the standard apple earbuds which have a very low impedance (~25 ohms at 100hz) I can easily push the output stage into clipping. Basically the supply rails can't push enough current and as a result the voltage of the rails sags down low enough to clip the output. On the other hand if I plug in my Sennheiser HD580 headphones with an impedance around 300 ohms I can't push the output into clipping (unless the source was clipped to begin with of course).

cuu508 14y ago

For some phones at least it is not digital clipping, but speaker distorting the sound. A simple test would be to attach speakers or headphones. If it sounds bad both on internal speaker and external speakers, then, yeah, it's digital clipping. If only the internal speaker, then it's simply too weak to handle the signal, or phone chassis starting to resonate or something like that.

goostavos 14y ago

I've noticed this too. I suspect it is, at least in part, due to the poor quality of the DACs on most phones. I used to own a Samsung Moment; trying to listen to music on it was almost unbearable due to the quality. It must have been dumping bits left and right during the conversion. I tried 320kbps Mp3s, Broadcast Wavs, Flac -- it didn't matter everything sounded like it was crushed down to a 32kbps. I'd be interested in seeing a phone dedicated to high quality playback of music. As a somewhat audiophile-ish guy, I would snatch up such a piece of technology.

ynniv 14y ago

Yes, some media players sound louder than others. I haven't verified, but I suspect that they achieve this by purposely increasing the gain and inducing clipping. That sounds dumb, but weak computer speakers can't compensate for low mastering. The proper thing would be to compress the dynamic range, but that's real work compared to just inducing some clipping. Play a song in iTunes at 100% and compare to VLC @ "33%".