General BlackBerry® 10 Smartphone Functions and Features

[Xandrex]

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cyrilca wrote:

Can't say.

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then why did you ask in the first place?

[zaba76]

I think it's called 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Lol

[cyrilca]

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Xandrex wrote:

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cyrilca wrote:

Can't say.

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then why did you ask in the first place?

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That wasn't a question. "Can't say" is the answer to Zaba76's question.

[interfaSys]

One of the best source of information when it comes to the quality of DACs in phones is GSM arena.

Usually iPhones have the best hardware, probably due to the years of experience Apple had creating iPods.

But BB is improving. Here is what they had to say about the Z10:

"The BlackBerry Z10 put up a solid performance in our audio quality test, demonstrating a nicely clean output"

That's as long as you're not using headphones...

You can check the graphs and how other smartphones performed at this address:

http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_z10-review-886p7.php

[Xandrex]

thank you interfaSys,

I have a question. when you say that the audio performance of the Z10 is good as long as you are not using headphones...
the article mentions that using headphones changes nothing apart fromthe "stereo crosstalk" that jumps from -80.5dB to -45.3dB when using a headphone.earphone. (the smaller the better)
Okay but I have also read that a normal ear cannot
differentiate any stereo crosstalk under -40dB.

Moreoever, if people care about quality, they should have quality headphones/earphones and those quality hardware require less output volume (meaning that with the standard headphones where you would use 50% volume, only 15 volume would be required with for example an Etymotics HF2).

So in the end, is the stereo crossover really a number that we should care about?

It's like HiFi systems that can output perfect 20kHz frequencies, who hears the difference over 15kHz and who has SACD to have media files that can benefit from that?

[interfaSys]

I did not do any research on stereo cross talk before now and it seems you're right, it doesn't matter that much with stereo signals, but -45 db is quite high compared to what others do.

GSM arena always highlights it in their reviews when there is a big jump, probably to show us that the manufacturer did not take all the steps required to minimise audio problems. BlackBerry could have done a better job in isolating circuit board traces, but at the end of the day, nobody will care if it doesn't create any other sort of interference and the rest of the results tend to prove that.

[Xandrex]

This is a very interesting subject, and I am a complete newbie (at the time, I barely understood the Joint Stereo stuff...).

But what does "Stereo crosstalk" mean on the Z10 without headphones ?
There is just a mono speaker (not like the BlackBerry PlayBook), so it should be 0dB and not 90dB. This number "without headphones" doesn't make any sense.

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That being said, the current Z10 music player doesn't even have an equalizer, so the stereo crosstalk is really unimportant currently.

[interfaSys]

It's when it's connected to an amp.

[Xandrex]

ghaaa it makes sense now. Thanks.

[tickerguy]

BTW I consider the Z-10's audio output through headphones (good ones, too) to be in the class of "excellent" if not "star-worthy."

And I for one am personally glad they didn't include distortion-producing and muddying garbage that you find in many of the other phones in their "equalizers" and "sonic processing" junk. 

With good source material the Zed sounds great.  Like the OP here I used my phone as my sole portable music device.  This is one of the deal-breaker areas for me with a phone and the Z-10 passes with flying colors.  Of course if the source material stinks nothing helps.

Incidentally it does a very good job through Bluetooth too; many devices that are ok with hard-wired headphones are moderately poor to worse than that through their bluetooth connections.  The Z-10 maintains its quality.

For reference purposes I'm somewhat of an audio snob (but not over the top in that regard) having a pair of studio monitors on my desk for "computer speakers" driven by a 100W/c amp off optical and a pair of KEF 104/3s in my living room as "fronts"