sound on Sansa e200

[skatanafas]

hi, what do you think about sound quality on sansa with rockbox?....When i compare it, it looks to be much better with original firmware. I tried to set in RB everything, but quality of sound is not good!!will be it improved??...or its only my proplem?
Thanks and sorry about my english  

...i have sansa e260 non R

[Flake]

Pity but while playing there're a lot of fillippers and stereo pan walks around. Is it that "not as original firmware sound"? It's annoying a little, even sansa control sometimes responses in a 5-10 seconds!! Looks like theres not enough CPU for rockbox

[GodEater]

Looks like theres not enough CPU for rockbox

More like :

1) It's a really new port so expect teething problems.
2) It's yet another PortalPlayer based device that we've got working through guess work and partial reverse engineering. Until the platform we're running on is documented, getting ANYTHING at all out of it should be considered a work of genius. My hat is off to dan_a and the rest of the devs.

[ndoak]

For a quick fix there is a build for the sansa in the unsupported builds forum which includes patches which address sound and usability issues on the Sansa. Alternatively, I have compiled a build of rockbox which includes http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/6908 a patch fixing the audio glitches in rockbox and http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/6913 which lessens the slowdowns while buffering tracks. You can find it at http://www.ndoak.com

[Flake]

To tell the truth the sound quality hasn't changed at all (it should?), but the EQ - is the best and the most flexible portable mp3 player EQ I've ever seen! Thanks guys for that (especially for Q and Cut Off modes). With rockbox sound settings I have achieved sound much better for my headphones comparing original firmware.

I believe rockbox will work more efficiently soon.

[skatanafas]

...when I tested it, I join my Sansa to active 2-way reproductors(SP-HF 1250X /40W RMS) to  listen all differences and play 192kbps mp3(hung up/madonna-from my sister:) my music isnt good for it)...I dont know how describe that....with RB wasnt sound so rich....its like u have sound system 5.1 and detach center speaker and subwofer when i overdraw it..but differences was wide. sure i tray all EQ setups etc...

I sad already...maybe its only my problem!!!

[skatanafas]

2 Ndoak: Thanks for tips!!!!...i try it

[saratoga]

"Isn't as rich" usually means you have the volume set differently.  Since the hardware is the same regardless of the firmware, the only differences should be volume and stability, which Rockbox currently has issues with on the Sansa.  

There was some talk today in IRC about how these problems could be resolved, so it seems like the current problems will be resolved relatively soon.  

[skatanafas]

believe me...i dont mean different volume set. RB can influence many sound setups so I thought that can influence resulting sound quality. I tray it now with headphones...EQ off in both firmwares and I swear RB is worse. WHY I??

pls how to use files xxx.path? sorry for stupid questions, I cant find it. Im rookie, i have rock box 3 days

[Febs]

If you really want to test Rockbox's sound quality against the original firmware, I suggest that you do this:

1.  Hook up your Sansa to the line-in of your computer.
2.  Use an audio editing program like Audacity to record a clip of music played on the Sansa with the original firmware.
3.  Record a clip of the same piece played on the Sansa with Rockbox.
4.  Use Audacity to trim the files so that they both start in exactly the same spot.
5.  Normalize each file so that they are precisely the same volume.
6.  Use Foobar or a similar program to ABX the two clips.

You could also use RightMark Audio Analyzer to compare the output of the player with each firmware.

These procedures will give you much more accurate results than simply trying to conduct an uncontrolled, sighted test.

[Flake]

mmmmm, the volume is more quieter than original firmware with the same "sounding" (less then 30-40%)

[skatanafas]

2 Febs:
I cut 2 min from 192kbps mp3
here is results from Right Mark AA:
http://kyselaokurka.wz.cz/sansa/Comparison.htm     ....I don't get it

i captured it in Goldwave 5.19 to wav file in best quality to test...one file has  +-50MB
there is this 2min clip converted to mp3  "from" original firmware:
http://kyselaokurka.wz.cz/sansa/ORIG.mp3

Rock Box firmware:
http://kyselaokurka.wz.cz/sansa/RB.mp3

..EQ off in both

[saratoga]

2 Febs:
I cut 2 min from 192kbps mp3
here is results from Right Mark AA:
http://kyselaokurka.wz.cz/sansa/Comparison.htm     ....I don't get it

That just looks like noise.  I think you didn't play back the test signal correctly, and RMAA is just analyzing the hiss in your sound card.  Try again, this time making sure you have everything hooked up right, and that the volume in RMAA reads correctly (it will tell you if the levels are correct).

i captured it in Goldwave 5.19 to wav file in best quality to test...one file has  +-50MB
there is this 2min clip converted to mp3  "from" original firmware:
http://kyselaokurka.wz.cz/sansa/ORIG.mp3

Rock Box firmware:
http://kyselaokurka.wz.cz/sansa/RB.mp3

..EQ off in both

As Febs said, you'll need to adjust the two clips so that they start on precisely the same sample.  Its not possible to compare them otherwise.  And you should not be MP3 encoding them.  Theres also not much point in uploading them until you've ABXed it yourself.

Personally, I would just do the RMAA test.  It will take 1/10 the time, and is a much more powerful test.  Theres really no sense using ABX here, its just too difficult.

believe me...i dont mean different volume set.

You sure about that?  The sample you uploaded has the volume off by 1.5dB, which certainly IS noticeable.  If you had the volume off before, that would certainly explain why they sounded different.  In general, you should never trust a listening test where you have not confirmed that the volumes levels are well within 1 dB.

[DukeLuke]

I was curious and recorded a short sample from both RB and the Original firmware.
But using an analyzer turned out to be quite useless since there's too much background noise in the RB-sample.

What I can tell from this is that I'm jealous at how good Skatanfas' RB sounds
Here's what I got: 1. RB 2. Original FW

[skatanafas]

thanks for help! I must stop solve this nonsense...have no time...I discovered rockboy short a moment ago
it can be only my version of placebo ef.

RB is great!!I HATE serching songs in/for/about (im not good englishman) tags and making half hour playlists...in orig. firmware was it horrible!!!