Nowadays, many mobile phones are selling their own sound quality, and with them come a variety of dazzling sound effects, such as Dolby, SRS and emerging beats. Are these effects really useful for users who often listen to music on their mobile phones? Can these sound effects really "improve" the sound quality?

Test environment:

Mobile phones: iPhone 5, Galaxy Note II, ZTE U985 and other Android phones.

Headphones: customized UE10, VC02, Earpods, etc.

iPhone

For the iPhone, its own sound effect settings are not too complicated, but there are also quite a lot of preset sound effects, such as the common "Hip Hop", "R&B", "Rock" and other sound effects adjusted according to the music style, and of course, some rare ones such as "Treble Booster", "Treble Reducer" Equalizer options (the following screenshot is from iPhone 5, Settings → Music → Equalizer).

Hearing sense: although there are many choices, none of them seems to really reach the level of "good listening". Most equalizers seem to be icing on the cake, and the sound is more degraded. Of course, compared with the equalizer of some old iPods, the equalizer of iPhone 5 will not pop, nor will it be as "tasteful" as the sound effect of some Android phones. However, compared with turning on the sound effect, the author prefers to turn off the sound effect. I suggest iPhone users turn off the sound effect.

Android

Compared with the slightly "monotonous" sound effect of iPhone, the sound effect of Android is more colorful, and various sound effects and patents emerge in endlessly. Here are some common sound effects.

This is the sound effect part of the music playing interface of Samsung Galaxy Note II. You can see that there are more than a dozen preset sound effects, including "bass enhancement", "treble enhancement", "virtual 7.1 channel" and other slightly exaggerated sound effects. It also supports custom equalizers. Galaxy Note II can give full marks on the function of equalizer, but how about the actual effect?

Bass enhancement

The volume of bass has increased a lot, and the sense of sound surrounding has also increased a lot. But the sound field has become more strange, and the voice has been completely covered by low frequencies. In general, I don't feel very good.

treble boost

The high-frequency extension has been improved to some extent, but the human voice has become very sharp, the dental sound has also increased, and the voice has become thinner. After listening for a long time, you will feel very tired.

fictitious seven point one Vocal tract

This name is unreliable. The sound became very loose, the dental sound became more, and the bass went down a little. In order to create a "three-dimensional sense", too many things have been sacrificed.

Beats

Now many third-party ROMs will have built-in Beats sound effect and Sony's BRAVIA ENGINE, the two "emperors", to improve their own sound and display effect. Of course, there may be a gap between this and the original effect, but you can also know a little about the characteristics of the technology itself from here.

Listening sense: Like Beats' earphones, Beats' sound effect is also characterized by a lower side and very strong taste. It may be pleasing to some low-frequency control users, but from the perspective of music appreciation, this sound effect is not desirable. Now most HTC phones are equipped with this technology, and it seems that there will be long-term cooperation

Dolby Sound

Dolby is a kind of sound effect that many mobile phones will use now, especially many domestic brands will use this technology, and what are the characteristics of this technology? Generally, Dolby sound effects can be divided into several different tuning styles, and some brands even have more than a dozen different tuning styles.

The way shown in the following figure is very undesirable. There are only two modes: music and film, and Dolby sound effect cannot be turned off

Hearing sense: the first feeling is also the enhancement of low frequency. The volume sense of low frequency is much stronger, and the sound surrounding sense is also improved, but the texture of low frequency is not so good. In addition, the volume of Dolby becomes much higher immediately after it is turned on. Users are advised to turn down the volume before switching to Dolby. After opening Dolby, the voice will appear dry, and the high frequency will be very harsh, which is still difficult for the author to accept personally (because different tuning styles are different, only the default Dolby sound effect is discussed here).

summary

In general, users listening to music are still not recommended to turn on these sound effects. After this listening test, the author's biggest feeling is that many sound effects can be increased in low frequency to meet the "public taste", but in fact, the result of doing so may be counterproductive, and these sound effects are not so flattering, Even many sound effects will have a negative impact on the voice and sound field. For mobile phone manufacturers, what they should do more should be to improve the sound quality, rather than blindly emphasize the sound effect.