Poor sound quality on X5 with RockBox

[Taurus]

What headphones do you use?
I'm a bit worried; if it really clicks that terribly as you say - why don't i hear them?
And what versions of rockbox do you use?

Answer those questions and we'll be a bit further enlightenment...
If I duplicate your setup i'd hear your clicks too - right? (as long as the clicks aren't higher than ~19khz)

Yeah, try these EQ settings! As I said, I didn't hear the clicks with EQ off either. But I'm sure if I had Vol +6 with EQ off, I'd hear them too. It's just that this is too loud for me

By the way: In OF with EQ, MachBass, etc. OFF I heard clicks on:
- Startup (one click, loud)
- Volume change (while paused or running a track that has a long silence in it ) from ~Vol 30 on upwards. I cannot hear the volume change clicks beneath ~Vol 30.
Maybe there are clicks on track change too. I just couldn't put the volume up that much without permanently going deaf or seriously disturbing the guys in my office
Maybe I'll try it at home with (passive) speakers.

I think the main problem is that Rockbox allows you to 'mess' around with the EQ much more (e.g. more loudness) so you hear more clicks than with OF. But I still think that there are clicks that could be avoided in RB (track change for example?).
What bothers me too is the HDD noise. I didn't hear any HDD noise in OF...

[nicolinux]

I just tried here : when I put the volume at the maximum, yes I can hear clicks. But I have to go around -4 to heat something and only around -1/0 to clearly hear them. I didn't try with music because I want to save my ears a little longer.

I used no EQ and I made the test with and without the remote (it's exactly the same).

After that, I tried at "normal" volume (between -40 and -30 for me) and I didn't hear anything at all, even if I listened very very carefully. So, for me, this isn't a problem at all because I'll never listen at those high volumes...

I think the headphones are very important too. I don't really know the technical aspects, but I believe the more impedance there is, the less you should hear those clicks. I use Sennheiser HD555 which have an impedance of 55ohms. It's not that important but it's more than most of the "little" headsets (excuse me, I can't find the exact word in english...).

Speaking about remote, I must say that Rockbox is really better with those little sounds which were present with the OF (mainly when scrolling in the files). As with the Iriver (I had an H120), there isn't any sound... Rockbox is better with this sound aspect...

[tvg]

Speaking about remote, I must say that Rockbox is really better with those little sounds which were present with the OF (mainly when scrolling in the files). As with the Iriver (I had an H120), there isn't any sound... Rockbox is better with this sound aspect...

What do you mean "better"? Better to have almost unheard clicks? Or what better? I tell you the conditions at those the clicks are heard well and annoying.
What is your conclusion? What is the point where sound is better in RB than OF on X5? Do you think that it would be better to leave "better" sound as is, enjoying beautiful games and fonts and menus in RB?

[nicolinux]

Speaking about remote, I must say that Rockbox is really better with those little sounds which were present with the OF (mainly when scrolling in the files). As with the Iriver (I had an H120), there isn't any sound... Rockbox is better with this sound aspect...

What do you mean "better"? Better to have almost unheard clicks? Or what better? I tell you the conditions at those the clicks are heard well and annoying.
What is your conclusion? What is the point where sound is better in RB than OF on X5? Do you think that it would be better to leave "better" sound as is, enjoying beautiful games and fonts and menus in RB?

I'm not sure I undersand you very well... Yes, it's better because there isn't any clicks. But do you have the remote ? Because it's not the same clicks...

I did other tests and I heard other things. The "clicks" when the volume is at maximum can be heard in the OF too. So I suppose it's more an hardware issue than a software one.

And I did heard some little "clicks" when playing or pausing and when changing track. But I didn't paid any attention to them until now, since they didn't bother me at all and since I hear them only at higher volume as usual.

[tvg]

Can anybody tell me, are these clicks heard on IRiver or iPod? Does this mean iaudio is technically inferior than others?

[AlexP]

I can't hear them or iriver h140 - I luckily also have a H140 that doesn't tick with the remote, so I don't know if that might be related.

[tvg]

Thank you very much, Llorean and others, who supported me. Thanks to Mike Sevakis (26/08/2006), the problem with inaccurate stop is solved! The stops and starts are accurate and almost as in OF. Light clicks are heard on volume change, but nearly the same as in OF, though RB still has a huge click on shutdown.

What is really annoying me, it is still (4) number from my first message. Light clicks, which are hear while listening to FLACs at normal volume. I cannot figure out how are they created and where from do they go... But they are:
1) Heard at -36 volume (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in quiet place (Koss Porta Pro)
2) Go in 3-packets: (click-click-click)=1-1.5 sec.
3) Sometimes they are not present.
4) Reproducible from time to time
5) They are some kind of CD clicks, but neither original FLAC or FLAC in OF reproduce these clicks.

I think they are not present in OGG files. Any ideas, please? I beg these clicks ARE present and they are NOT of a hardware cause. On FLACs. 44100, 16 bit, ripped from CD.

[bk]

I've noticed sporadic clicks/skips with long low-bitrate Ogg files on X5. They occur every 10-30 seconds and are like a 1-2 second audio dropout. The files are around 32kbps mono (22050 Hz), from 3-4 hours long. They don't occur on a PC.

I haven't been able to consistently reproduce the problem, otherwise I would've filed a flyspray report.

[Llorean]

The Rockbox resampler is less than ideal, so anything not at 44.1kHz may have fairly noticeable artifacts.

[jhMikeS]

Light clicks are heard on volume change, but nearly the same as in OF, though RB still has a huge click on shutdown.

The big click at shutdown was solved a long time ago my RaeNye by powering down the TLV320 nicely. x5 just has a whoosh like OF. I enabled zero-crossing detection for the volume control which softens it up as much as it will ever get without software intervention.

[tvg]

The big click was solved when RB shutdowns properly, it happens every 1/2 time. Every another 1/2 time it shutdowns inproperly and, of course, there is a huge click. But may be it is another problem and should be noted in separate thread.
MikeS: but the most meaningful problem is sporadic clicks during playback... Is it possible to discover it somehow?

[tvg]

Nobody cares. unfortunately...

[Bagder]

Nobody cares. unfortunately...

Yes we do. But you are a troll and do obviously not deserve quality replies.