Some basic tips to enjoy better music on Android smartphones

Some basic tips to enjoy better music on Android smartphones

Android for everything!

One of the greatest trends of the modern age is that, we're tending to use all-in-one devices more than our ancestors ever had had the scope of using. And the result is that, dedicated devices such as cameras, portable music players etc. are falling into invisibility. While it is definitely good in many ways, such as allowing us more time to focus on getting actual work done, giving us more portability and flexibility, it does take its toll when it comes to really advanced levels of working, such as getting decent quality music.

Most people are not very much worried about music quality anymore, and can do with pretty much anything tolerable and understandable. Headphones and headset devices, inclucing bluetooth headsets, have really contributed their share to making our audio experience better, but still I find things are somewhat lacking at times.

I am the proud possessor of an old (by today's standards) Phillips GoGear Muse (8 GB version), which incorporates Phillips's legendary FullSound technology and a pair of decent noise-cancelling headphones. The Muse is indeed a device to be proud of, when it comes to audio quality. It does have its own series of neat basic features, such as the ability to play pretty much any general audio format through at it, 3D audio, a virtual 3D photo album, sound recording tool, FM radio and recording, basic .txt file rendering (although believe me, it's far from being anything close to an e-reader, or even an Android phone) and decent video playback. And added to that is the extremely low weight and thin aluminium body. Overall, it costed me around Rs. 9000, back in the last quarter of 2010 here in India. But later, in 2012, I bought my beloved Micromax A110 Canvas 2 5'' phablet, for Rs. 10000, and switched to it from my old LG Optimus Pro c660. Everything worked smoothly, save and except the audio quality. And what could I really expect from such a low-cost phablet? (I didn't intend to spend much on it, because I already had a repository of other devices such as a Rs. 45000 laptop, a Funbook P300 tablet, a HCL desktop, the GoGear device I already mentioned as well as my Nikon P510 camera, and a couple of extras).

Good quality headphones should
be a primary priority. 

However, with some bit of experimentation and tweaking, now I have upgraded the audio quality of the device. And here are some tips which you might find interesting, if you're like me and willing to get the most out of your android.

Tips to improve audio quality on android smartphones

1. Use headphones: Despite the fact that we can use the smartphone's built-in speakers to enjoy music anywhere, a set of dedicated headphones is always better. This not only helps you enjoy your music privately, but additionally it helps save a bit of your precious battery life.

I specially mention this well-known fact because here in my localities, especially the aged folks dislike using headphones. And yet they expect sound quality rivalling that of dedicated boomboxes.

2. Using good quality headphones: This is merely an extension of the previous point, but however this is often overlooked. Most of us would use the headphones that come bundled with the phone anyway. For example, when I bought mine, I got a set of moderately well headphones. They were not noise-cancelling ones anyway, and soon I got tired to using them. Next, I bought a set of Livlife headphones, and they too couldn't live up to the task. And finally, I switched to a pair of Phillips metal-bodied headphones, and now it's working very nicely.

Most of the time, we remain contended with the packaged pair, and never even think of trying high-fidelity ones. But believe me, better headphones can make sound output drastically better.

Usually, I have seen that bluetooth headphones provide better audio quality compared to wire headphones. But a problem with this is that, we will need to turn bluetooth on everytime we intend to listen to music, and battery expenditure will be much more. Another problem with these headphones is that, they won't support your FM radio app, forcing you to switch to the lines of Tunein and other internet radio applications.

Maven music player packs in a number
of digital environment settings, left-right
balance settings, and a built-in powerful
equalizer. 

3. Music apps: Although the stock music player is quite good, its 3D effects are a bit problematic. Two of the best audio players (both being free) I discovered on the Play Store are Maven player and Apollo. Apollo should be used in the case you'd want to have a minimalist and fast player, which can just play your music. Maven on the other hand is more advanced, and bundles a number of additional features such as Left-Right balance, XOME-i setting, MEX sound output and so on. Maven is, in a way, all about quality. Another major benefit is that, many of the advanced tweaks such as cross-fading of music, come as a part of Maven itself, and you won't need to worry about activating them manually.

However, many have reported that after installing Maven, their default music player or Apollo app simply goes berserk and doesn't open. In that case, you can simply uninstall Maven and your apps will continue to work for you.

Android and music, both are all about freedom. 

4. Custom ROMs: Despite the fact that stock ROMs are often very stable, in order to boost the audio quality you are always heads ahead with a custom ROM. I'd say that CyanogenMod ROMs I didn't find much effective so far as sound quality is concerned. And whatever your device is, you can most probably find a good set of ROMs boasting better audio. Trying them can be useful.

5. Sony Xloud+ClearAudio: Sony's Clear Audio architechture can help improve sound quality on many devices. However, how much your device can benefit from it depends on the brand, software and hardware configurations. Despite that, installing it can be useful if you're especially using a high-end device.

Installing the Sony Xloud+ClearAudio flashable zip is easy, and can be performed with the CWM recovery very fast. Alternatively, you can install PimpMyROM (beta) from the Play Store and install the package from there.