Difference in sound quality from stock firmware?

[Jackie78]

Hi,

I just got myself a SanDisk e280 Player, and I am really thinking about installing Rockbox firmware instead. However, there is one thing I am still in doubt, concerning the sound qulity: can I expect the sound quality from this player to be as good with Rockbox, as it is with the original firmware? In a user review at amazon.de, a user writes that with rockbox, the soundquality suffers compared to the original firmware. Is that possible, and why is this the case?

Can you explain why sound quality differs with different firmwares (assuming you don't alter any equalizer settings or stuff)?

Thanks alot.

[scorche]

The sound on Sansa devices used to have many issues (which may be when that comment was made), but they have pretty much all been fixed.

[interframe]

Been using my Sansa with Rockbox for the past 10 months. The sound quality has always been better with Rockbox. In addition the ability to tune the output for a particular set of headphones or listening devise is way ahead of the original Sansa firmware.

[Oyo]

I second the  sound being better. maybe you could say a little more clean and crisp with more detail would be a good way to describe it.

I A/B'd the same file yesterday in both firmwares and found it was like pulling a blanket off of the sound with Rockbox. Very pleasing to me, but some folks might call it harsher sounding.

Give it a try, Dual Booting is allowed, (press I<< while turning power on), so try it! You'll have your choice.

If you like it, you are better off. If not, you are out nothing but a little time.

oyo

[shoe]

I am just curious (and ignorant) about this.  How does one person's firmware cause a different sound than another's?  Since it is just a question of digital info to analog voltage, and the hardware is the same...

I realize that the firmware does make a difference, I have a 4gen Ipod, and I noticed the sound is quite different from the OF.  I found no equalizer settings that could get the same sound as the OF.

[saratoga]

I am just curious (and ignorant) about this.  How does one person's firmware cause a different sound than another's?

EQ + post processing mainly.  Otherwise, it should be the same unless theres a bug somewhere.

[scharkalvin]

Another reason why Rockbox might sound better is the use of different
codecs.  Some will argue that OGG format sounds better than MP3 and
the OF does not support OGG, you have to use Rockbox to do that.

I just got my E270 in the mail from Woot.  Hope to install Rockbox
over the weekend.  (If I get the packman emulator on it running and my wife
sees it I might have to buy a SECOND Sansa.  She's a packman addict).

[Llorean]

Not just that, but even with straight MP3.

If they've "optimized" their MP3 codec in different ways (cutting accuracy in different parts of the code, or similar) it can result in differing output. All MP3 decoders are not equal. Follow that with the fact that the Sansa software seems to do some post-processing on its own (at the very least the louder of the two volume modes seems to add digital gain) it's understandable that there could be some differences, even with MP3 and no apparent EQ applied, because who knows what the Sandisk firmware is doing in the background beyond digital gain, and in terms of the differences in the codecs themselves.