[HowTo] Tuning Up the BT Sound - Samsung Galaxy S9 Guides, News, & Discussion

Improve Bluetooth Audio on Your Galaxy S9 with Custom Codecs
Many Samsung fans were excited when the Galaxy S9 kept the 3.5 mm headphone jack. While this is a rare delight in 2018, you also have the option for high quality audio playback over Bluetooth. When used with compatible headphones, the S9's new Bluetooth audio codecs can greatly improve audio quality.
Starting with Android Oreo, Google added several higher quality bluetooth audio codecs. In essence, a codec is the algorithm your device uses to send audio information over the air. Each codec varies in quality and can only be used with compatible pieces of hardware, such as speakers or headphones.
Previously in Android Nougat and lower, users had no option to choose which codec was used in cases where multiple were available on your audio device. For audio enthusiasts, this new flexibility is a big improvement.
The Galaxy S9 offers SBC, AAC, aptX, Samsung HD, and LDAC codecs. While SBC is the default option, it's incredibly easy to change to any of the above options. Let's take a quick look at changing the codecs, then run down what each offers.
Step 1 Enable Developer Options
The first step is to enable Developer Options on your Galaxy S9. There is a quick and easy-to-follow guide on doing that for the Galaxy S9. Head to Settings –> About Phone –> Software Information and tap "Build Number" 7 times.
Next, navigate back to Settings and select Developer Options.
Step 2 Select a Bluetooth Audio Codec
Select "Bluetooth Audio Codec" from the list of Developer Options. Next, you can select any of the aforementioned codecs from a popup that will appear. Of course, to decide which to enable, it helps to know what the advantages are to each codec.
What Each Bluetooth Audio Codec Offers
Here's a quick summary of the available Bluetooth codecs on the Galaxy S9 to help you choose which is right for you. Remember, though, most Bluetooth accessories only support certain codecs, so check the user manual on your Bluetooth headphones or speakers to make sure the option you choose is supported.
SBC: the standard mandatory Bluetooth audio codec. Varies in quality with respect to the connected headphones or speakers. Bit rate ranges between 192 and 320 kbps, typically considered the lowest quality compression available.
AAC: Popular codec used in most streaming services, like YouTube. Many Apple products also support this codec. Compression quality around 250 kbps for transmission.
atpX: Qualcomm's proprietary codec, saves on data rate compared to the previous methods. Transferring quality of 352 kbps.
LDAC: Sony's proprietary Bluetooth codec. Has a wide range of quality options from 330 kbps up to 990 kbps. The highest quality option supports 24-bit, 96 kHz audio. This is generally considered one of the highest quality codecs, but is not available on as many pairs of headphones as the previous codecs.
Samsung HD: Samsung's Proprietary codec. No public information available on specific bitrate. Available on all Samsung audio hardware.
Step 3 Configure Codec-Specific Options (Optional)
In addition to manually switching codecs, there are a more Bluetooth settings of interest within Developer Options. If you went with the LDAC codec, for instance, there's an option to manually set the quality between the 330, 660, and 990 kbps modes. While this is nice for audiophiles, it is best to leave this to the system if you're unsure of your connection quality.
If you're wondering whether or not your headphones support a particular codec, the technical specifications on the retail box or product page should have this information. At this point, nothing beats a wired audio connection, but it is encouraging to see Android and Samsung heading in the right direction.

Can you get it setting to stick? I go into dev settings, change it from sbc to aac (or anything else) leave dev settings, go back in and it is set back to sbc

Weird.
I didn't recognized that.
Maybe it's only possible with root....i don't know.
I have to investigate this weird thing.

Xperience Z said:
Weird.
I didn't recognized that.
Maybe it's only possible with root....i don't know.
I have to investigate this weird thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Terrible of them to give us the option but it not actually work

The codec is still set by the device you're using. It could be different in the S9 but on my Pixel 2 XL I can change codecs from the Bluetooth screen. If I set my P7 Wireless to use HD audio, when I go to developer options Bluetooth codec is already set to AptX. If I untick HD audio then Bluetooth codec changes to SBC

Hahaha wow.
i chatted with the German Samsung Support 5 minutes ago:
(German Model with Exy Core)
Me: Hello, I have a technical question. If I activate the developer options in the mobile phone, I can determine the Bluetooth codec for the transmission manually. If I choose a codec (for example atpX or AAC), then I go out of the developer options and go back in, the codec is switched back to the standard codec "SBC ". How can I permanently change the codec?
Samsung Support: I'm not allowed to tell you that. In the developer options you have unfortunately nothing to look or to do and may not be used. I'm sorry.
Me: It is my device. I bought it. I'm allowed to do what I want do with it. If the users have nothing to do there, why did you implement/integrate it in the open-source operating system "Android"? Everybody can activate the developer options without opening the bootloader or messing around with the KNOX. So?
"Supporter left the chat."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very unfriendly Support :crying:

That is terrible support!
But I figured it out, I connected my bluetooth headphones that use aptx and I went in and it was set to aptx, and I could change it between aptx sbc and aac (ldac didn't work so these headphones don't have it apparently)
So the phone goes off whatever the headphones talk in

Revenghost said:
Can you get it setting to stick? I go into dev settings, change it from sbc to aac (or anything else) leave dev settings, go back in and it is set back to sbc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'll change to the selected codec once you connect the device, provided the device supports that codec. Can't change codecs unless a codec compatible device is connected.

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Related

Request: Sound Equalizer / Presets

Hi, I know it is annoying to start new threads But I have a request (if possible). Can a Sound Equalizer be ported to the android music player or presets such as Rock, POP, Classic, etc. if not, is there any particular 3rd party Music Player which brings a built-in EQ or Presets?
I did a basic research about this and found nothing helpful. just people who wanted to unload their awful day and bad mood on me. sorry and thank you.
i don't think it is possible with android at the moment....
Need API to allow audio stream manipulation. Same issue as video codecs and why Coreplayer team bailed on trying to port their killer app to Android.
Need direct hardware access for core functions such as audio and video. Anything else would be a stuttery cpu choking mess.
Thank you for your responses, guys. At least now I know I would have to stick to buying my headphones with internal amplifier and/or noise reduction if I want some significant changes in the music sound.

[GUIDE] Enable OTG on NEXUS 7 without Root + Read MKV with DTS audio

Hi,
I think you'll all agree that the NEXUS 7 is a great small factor cutting edge tablet who miss a critical specification: A microSD card reader...
Even with the 32Gb version, it quickly fell short as soon as you load some home HD movies (720p or 1080p MKV) due to the usual large size of these files (5 to 25TB).
On the top of that, most of the video player recently drooped the DTS audio support due to some licenses issues (and potential legal suits).
So, if I resume the situation:
- we have a great tablet with all the (Tegra 3) horse power required to play great HD content BUT a space storage
- one of the mainstream audio codec lack support...
From there, you can either root your NEXUS 7 and twick it the way you want or re-encode all your existing HD content to a lower quality format with a audio codec supported (AC3 for example)
I say NO as there is a plan B who can allow you to do the above without any root or kernel modification.
#1: ENABLE OTG
You are going to need:
- One special OTG cable (Available on eBay for £2)
- One apps called "Nexus Media Importer" available on Google Play (for few quids...)
And that's it.... No need to root your tablet and lose your warranty
#2: ENABLE DTS
You are going to need:
- One app called "MX player" available on Google play as well (there is a free and a premium version without adds)
- Some specific compiled codecs for the Tegra 3 architecture - Go to the thread bellow as a member call "ktsamy" has kindly already compiled the codec for our architecture.
(download the "Arm_v7_Neon version")
- Once you've got the zip, extract the folder (you can rename it if you want) and copy it somewhere in your NEXUS 7.
- Now, open MX Player and clic on the 3 dots on the top right + settings
- Select Decoder and make sure to select all the option below "Hardware decoder" EXCEPT "Correct aspect ratio"
- Scroll down to the bottom and click "Custom codec"
- Navigate to the codec FOLDER you just copied in your Nexus 7 and click "OK" (Do not select any files in the folder)
- At that stage MX Player will ask to restart to load the new codec
and Voila!!!
If you connect a USB key with a standard MKV (with DTS audio or not) to your Nexus via the cable (Default Nexus 7 Kernel ONLY support NTFS not exFAT by the way), the application you have just purchased on the market should open automatically. If you select a movie and press the play button, you will be presented with a window to select the player you want to use (select MX player + Always and the windows will not popup anymore) and few moments after your standard MKV will start.
I've got myself a "small" 120GB USB key who follows me everywhere on which I have all my best movies.
You can theoretically plug a portable 2.5 HDD as well but it will really depend of its power consumption (I hear some Toshiba are working great) but I will personnaly stick to USB key as the power drain is minimal.
Hope you enjoyed this and feel free to ask any questions.
I'm not getting this. I always re-encode my movies that I want to watch on my phone or tablet. There's absolutely no reason to have a movie in a format that is beyond the pixels available on the device. That just makes for larger files because it is not the pixel dimensions that provide quality, but the bit rate at which the movie is encoded. I try to keep that at around 3000 for the small screens, which results in a 2 hour movie being about 2-2.5gb in size (all my rips are from BD discs). As for multi-channel sound...why? I watch my movies with headphones, mainly on planes. I run an equalizer to get that 5.1 simulated surround sound, but true surround sound cannot be had with stereo headphones. The Nexus' speaker isn't stereo, so what would the advantage be to output DTS audio to it? If you are outputting the sound to an amplifier, why would you watch a movie on a 7" screen when you probably have a large screen HDTV right above that amplifier you're using? And where is the memory stick if you have the OTG output tied to your amp? You aren't getting DTS audio from the minijack. Watching movies and videos on a tablet is a convenience for most and doesn't require full HD or DTS to be enjoyable. Sounds like a good idea on paper, I just don't get the point.
I agree with you on the non necessity to have such a high bit rate and resolution and/or DTS audio on the tablet BUT you are missing the point...
The objective here is to AVOID any re-encoding effort as it simply doesn't make any sense re-doing your entire 1080p/MKV library just for the sake of watching a movie on your NEXUS 7
I wouldn't redo my entire collection. All my BD rips are stored on a NAS and WD Live Hub in lossless MKV format. When I know I will be traveling it is easy for me to fire up PavTube's Ultimate BD Converter and do a quick conversion or two, then transfer them to my Nexus. My main flying is FL to CA, so 4-5 films is more than enough for a round trip flight. With an OTG cable I could carry even more on a mem stick. Works for me.:good:

How to enable bluetooth audio codec "aac" on note 5 without a custom rom.

Hello guys,
I have a Note 5 and want to listen to music via my Bose QC 35 II. As these headphones only support SBC, which is quite basic and the slightly better AAC codec, no Aptx streaming is possible. It is sad that the good sounding aptx is not available, so i wanted to get the best out of it and try to listen with the aac codec. Unfortunately, it is only possible to manually change the bluetooth codec in Android Oreo. Is there a way be it an additional app or similar actions to manipulate the bluetooth audio codec even in Android Nougat?
Thanks in advance
Yunna.xD said:
Hello guys,
I have a Note 5 and want to listen to music via my Bose QC 35 II. As these headphones only support SBC, which is quite basic and the slightly better AAC codec, no Aptx streaming is possible. It is sad that the good sounding aptx is not available, so i wanted to get the best out of it and try to listen with the aac codec. Unfortunately, it is only possible to manually change the bluetooth codec in Android Oreo. Is there a way be it an additional app or similar actions to manipulate the bluetooth audio codec even in Android Nougat?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should probably change the subject of this thread to "How do you..." as your current subject implies you actually know how to do it, while you are actually asking how to do it.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
see my post here for a similar issue that I was able to workaround fairly easy
TLDR: You need root, edit your build.prop (using text editor, some app from the play store, etc) and change the following key: persist.vendor.bt.a2dp_offload_cap
by removing -aac from the string.
I'm sorry if it looks like I'm spamming I just encountered this issue on a lot of forums with no result and I do hope that this will help some

All Codecs option in Developer Bluetooth Settings

The last choice of settings under Bluetooth Codecs in Developer Options is "All Codecs". If a device supports multiple codecs, in what order is the selection made of what codec to use?
Is there any difference between choosing "All Codecs" and a particular codec.
Thanks.
ghayes said:
The last choice of settings under Bluetooth Codecs in Developer Options is "All Codecs". If a device supports multiple codecs, in what order is the selection made of what codec to use?
Is there any difference between choosing "All Codecs" and a particular codec.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it just depends on what device you’re connecting to. Aptx is popular for audio on newer headphones and speakers with aptx hd allowing the highest bitrate. LDAC is the Sony equivalent to aptxhd and is on the higher end stuff. So basically, you can force a certain codex if the speakers support it and actually choose a high bitrate below those codex selections in developer settings. You can only chose when it’s connected to the device to see what’s supported. Hope that helps
sino8r said:
Yeah, it just depends on what device you’re connecting to. Aptx is popular for audio on newer headphones and speakers with aptx hd allowing the highest bitrate. LDAC is the Sony equivalent to aptxhd and is on the higher end stuff. So basically, you can force a certain codex if the speakers support it and actually choose a high bitrate below those codex selections in developer settings. You can only chose when it’s connected to the device to see what’s supported. Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does, thanks. Sounds like it is up to the developer of the device to choose the order if their device supports multiple codecs unless a particular codec is chosen.
ghayes said:
It does, thanks. Sounds like it is up to the developer of the device to choose the order if their device supports multiple codecs unless a particular codec is chosen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a pair of headphones, Sony WH1000M3's and they do use the LDAC codec. If I set the option to "All Codecs", they default to atpx, but if I specifically choose LDAC, they use it!
Thanks for info.

Does Mi 8 Have Hi Res Support?

Does xiaomi mi 8 have hi res audio support or bult in dac or somethingelse?
JonathanFreeze said:
Does xiaomi mi 8 have hi res audio support or bult in dac or somethingelse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, all snapdragon devices do. You have to bypass the main audio codecs/OS hand-offs. Programs like PowerAmp is the best for this, and hits the hardware chip directly bypassing the MIUI system to give you 24Bit audio at 192khz. Phenomenal sound. If you also bump the audio amp levels in the OS mixer file, you can get super loud audio in combination. The combo is what i've run on every phone since the HD audio was built-in to the Snapdragon.
Agimax said:
Yep, all snapdragon devices do. You have to bypass the main audio codecs/OS hand-offs. Programs like PowerAmp is the best for this, and hits the hardware chip directly bypassing the MIUI system to give you 24Bit audio at 192khz. Phenomenal sound. If you also bump the audio amp levels in the OS mixer file, you can get super loud audio in combination. The combo is what i've run on every phone since the HD audio was built-in to the Snapdragon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you need to root your phone to achieve this ?
Not for hires audio using Poweramp.
To make louder audio output with mixer file tweaks yes.
JonathanFreeze said:
Does xiaomi mi 8 have hi res audio support or bult in dac or somethingelse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been studying Android audio configuration files and experimenting with HD players for some time and I can say the Mi 8 sound incredibly well with good headphones using the USB-c adaptor included.
The problem with Android Audio is that, in general, Android Mixer will upsample everything to 48 KHz and apply Qualcomm, Android and Miui effects, such as companding, Dinamic Compresssion, and also echo cancellation to voice signal. This is not bad in general, since phone speakers are not of good quality and there is benefit to dynamics and also voice telephony is better with echo and gain which are automatic. But there are many other sound libraries such as dirac, virtualizers that are loaded automatically and used by apps.
The problem is that generic apps like Spotify, Chrome, our Youtube will upsample 44.1 Khz videos and music to 48KHz with fast resamplers, and it shows in both the speaker and headphones. Specific Hi-Res players like PowerAmp or Neutron take advantage of some profiles in android audio configuration files to present audio directly to the mixer without resampling and using high-bitrate. In reality, it is not a special codec or driver, they just use some profiles that are in most recent android phones. I discovered this a while ago and can attest that the Mi 8 sounds fantastic with both PowerAmp and Neutron, when configured correctly. I like Neutron best for better control and customization. It has a toggle for automatic samplerate adjustment and you can check that the output is as source, and use 64-bit codecs with up to 32-bit processing. For example, a same mp3 sounds much better in Neutron/PowerAmp than played in Whatsapp or a generic audio player. Neutron also has a manual hardware preamp gain apart from master volume that is really useful to contain clipping and use the hardware full amplification. Custom kernels have headphone preamps too to optimise power.
I recommend Ainur Narsil mod, it is a twrp/magisk module that tweaks some build.prop audio settings, and it modifies android audio configuration files such as audio_policy.conf and audio_effects.conf to remove these effects and add more samplerates to generic profiles on android. I have taken the time to study these files myself and have discovered that Miui default config does not take full advantage of our Mi 8 Qualcomm Snapdragon audio chipset. Out Mi 8 is capable of dual-sampling playback, that is, it is compatible with 44.1Khz and 48Khz (and multiples) playback so we don't need Android to upsample everything to 48Khz as a generic phone does. Of course, the mixer will upsample to 48 Khz when other sounds kick in (like notifications), but when you use PowerAmp/Neutron with HD output, you can get as close as bitperfect playback, since I think this profiles are direct-pcm and don't get generic effects here. (android audio configuration files such as devices and mixers are complex but a wonder to understand
I have tested Narsil, and while I don't think it improves when listening to Neutron/PowerAmp, it should help with the speaker and apps since it removes a bunch of android and miui effects. I have tweaked a bit further these audio configuration files after Narsil yesterday, and I am happy that it works the way I want. I have checked in terminal audio mixer info that it plays 44.1Khz without upsampling in a generic player. Narsil does just that also too.
Notice that is not convenient to upsample 44.1 Khz content to 192KHz, it is best to play at native bitrate. Bitsample you can set to 24 or 32-bit playback, if your hardware supports it. Mi 8 supports 32-bit. But it will sound as good in 16-bit if the source file is 16-bit, altough mp3s can benefit in 24-bit.
najabi said:
I have been studying Android audio configuration files and experimenting with HD players for some time and I can say the Mi 8 sound incredibly well with good headphones using the USB-c adaptor included.
The problem with Android Audio is that, in general, Android Mixer will upsample everything to 48 KHz and apply Qualcomm, Android and Miui effects, such as companding, Dinamic Compresssion, and also echo cancellation to voice signal. This is not bad in general, since phone speakers are not of good quality and there is benefit to dynamics and also voice telephony is better with echo and gain which are automatic. But there are many other sound libraries such as dirac, virtualizers that are loaded automatically and used by apps.
The problem is that generic apps like Spotify, Chrome, our Youtube will upsample 44.1 Khz videos and music to 48KHz with fast resamplers, and it shows in both the speaker and headphones. Specific Hi-Res players like PowerAmp or Neutron take advantage of some profiles in android audio configuration files to present audio directly to the mixer without resampling and using high-bitrate. In reality, it is not a special codec or driver, they just use some profiles that are in most recent android phones. I discovered this a while ago and can attest that the Mi 8 sounds fantastic with both PowerAmp and Neutron, when configured correctly. I like Neutron best for better control and customization. It has a toggle for automatic samplerate adjustment and you can check that the output is as source, and use 64-bit codecs with up to 32-bit processing. For example, a same mp3 sounds much better in Neutron/PowerAmp than played in Whatsapp or a generic audio player. Neutron also has a manual hardware preamp gain apart from master volume that is really useful to contain clipping and use the hardware full amplification. Custom kernels have headphone preamps too to optimise power.
I recommend Ainur Narsil mod, it is a twrp/magisk module that tweaks some build.prop audio settings, and it modifies android audio configuration files such as audio_policy.conf and audio_effects.conf to remove these effects and add more bitsamples to generic profiles on android. I have taken the time to study these files myself and have discovered that Miui default config does not take full advantage of our Mi 8 Qualcomm Snapdragon audio chipset. Out Mi 8 is capable of dual-sampling playback, that is, it is compatible with 44.1Khz and 48Khz (and multiples) playback so we don't need Android to upsample everything to 48Khz as a generic phone does. Of course, the mixer will upsample to 48 Khz when other sounds kick in (like notifications), but when you use PowerAmp/Neutron with HD output, you can get as close as bitperfect playback, since I think this profiles are direct-pcm and don't get generic effects here. (android audio configuration files such as devices and mixers are complex but a wonder to understand
I have tested Narsil, and while I don't think it improves when listening to Neutron/PowerAmp, it should help with the speaker and apps since it removes a bunch of android and miui effects. I have tweaked a bit further these audio configuration files after Narsil yesterday, and I am happy that it works the way I want. I have checked in terminal audio mixer info that it plays 44.1Khz without upsampling in a generic player. Narsil does just that also too.
Notice that is not convenient to upsample 44.1 Khz content to 192KHz, it is best to play at native bitrate. Bitsample you can set to 24 or 32-bit playback, if your hardware supports it. Mi 8 supports 32-bit. But it will sound as good in 16-bit if the source file is 16-bit, altough mp3s can benefit in 24-bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree, PowerAmp is absolutely worth much more than its very small cost which I believe is $3.99 or maybe $ 4.99 It's been a long since I bought it, maybe around 5 years ago and of course I still get free updates. As you know it has every feature that you could want including screensaver animation, ID3 tag editing, and of course the sound quality is untouchable, for listening to music alone, it's perfect.
@JonathanFreeze,
Poweramp uses Dynamic EQ compression combined with the option over using Replaygain which equalises the volume across all tracks while the dynamic compression automatically adjust the sound loudness across the entire EQ spectrum, bringing out the sounds that are too quiet and taming the sounds that are too loud...a perfect balance which maximises loudness without hurting the quality by over compressing and squashing the dynamics.
In addition, it uses convolution reverb, and as @najabi mentioned you can choose to up sample based on what you are connecting to. Whether it's Bluetooth, USB C connected headphones, the built in speaker or a USB audio interface. Personally, I don't feel that it has any rivals and I also like to couple its use with Neutron when listening to music and Neutron is beneficial across the board for all of your audio uses. Our combined comments have only mentioned a few features that the Poweramp program offers. In fact, there are so many features that I could probably stretch this comment out to 2000 words or more talking about them.
Check it, you get to try it before buying! Btw, I just checked the price its $3.99 and it sounds great on the Mi8 : https://powerampapp.com/
Which by the way, although the Mi8 has a single speaker for external audio, the sound quality is very good : Here is an article with an in depth review of the sound quality : https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_8-review-1784p3.php
TLDR: Yes, the Mi8 has great sound, and we like it even better with Poweramp and Neutron.
Regarding Narsil, 
 @najabi I haven't tried it so I will definitely check it. Thank you very much for your vivid description.
Can someone confirm that it can stream audio using the LDAC codec please. I have read conflicting information on different sites. Thanks
Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk
LDAC and tidal masters, sounding amazing. Well happy
Sent from my MI 8 using Tapatalk

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