Sound Quality

[jawaknight01]

hey, i just put rockbox onto my x5 (did the dual boot thing), and am wondering how to match the sound quality of the original firmware.  Are there any plugins that will deliver the same quality as found in the original firmware?  When I first played songs through Rockbox, I noticed that the sound was not as rich and dynamic.

[Fairy]

hey, i just put rockbox onto my x5 (did the dual boot thing), and am wondering how to match the sound quality of the original firmware.  Are there any plugins that will deliver the same quality as found in the original firmware?  When I first played songs through Rockbox, I noticed that the sound was not as rich and dynamic.

The original firmware colors the sound with digital EQ's, bass boosting and other processing which alters the sound and destroys the original quality I.M.O.

Rockbox gives a natural sound.

[Josef K.]

Did you try equalizer (which is much sophisticated then in original fw) and crossfeeder? Did you read "Configuring Rockbox: Sound Settings" section in the RB manual? With the Rockbox you can make your X5 to sound the way you like it.

[mkeroppi]

I believe the x5 is bundled with BBE sonic maximizer. It's a mastering plug-in used comercially that gives the effect you've described, especially on unprocessed music.


for more details.

[kilr0y]

+1
Today I decided to stop using Rockbox on my Sandisk Sansa Clip+ player...
First day i bought the player, i had installed Rockbox (heard about it when met with Sansa c250).
But since I switched to Foobar2000 from AIMP (www.aimp.ru) on my PC, because using Sennheiser HD415 headphones. Maybe not well known model, but estimated by www.drhead.ru as 7/10 for sound quality (when more popular Koss Porta Pro are 8.7/10,  10/10 has Sennheiser HD800, what costs $1,5K and has nothing to do with Sansa Clip :-)))
After comparing different soft players I realized that Foobar gives more clear & dynamic sounding to my headphones.
So after some time of using Foobar, I started notice that sound quality on my Sansa Clip+ is poor compaired to my PC's playback. I was surprised! Knew that output SNR of Clip+ is 92dB and it must provide very good sound qulity.
Than i reboot my Clip+ to original firmware and noticed better quality of sound it gives!
Yes, Rockbox unfortunately sounds worse than original firmware
Too bad, because Rockbox is very easy to use and has many useful options in comparison with original firmware...
Now i deleted Rockbox from my player

[saratoga]

After comparing different soft players I realized that Foobar gives more clear & dynamic sounding to my headphones.

The sound quality of all software players is essentially identical.  The specification for each audio format defines how to decode them correctly.  If something decodes a file other then the way the specification defines, it is broken.

Regarding rockbox and the sandisk software, if you expect them to sound different, you will be disappointed.  Rockbox has a more flexible EQ and the option for crossfeed, but will otherwise produce identical output.