Sound Volume 3rd Party Players

[dwaalspoor98]

Volume in 3rd party music players is really low.

By using ALSA commands on the command line I can get the volume to a normal level. When I just bought my D3 I made a small application in Java to control the ALSA volume, this works until you touch the hardware buttons, then the volume will be reset again.This is really annoying, so I hacked this functionality into Rockbox. But since I'm not a Java developer this is really time consuming. And I would like to be able to use other players then Rockbox.

My D3 broke 7 months ago and a long story but I have got it finally back and it's working fine again but I am still fighting against the 3rd party player volume issue. I probably could hack an application which solves the issue but this is still not a clean solution and pretty time consuming since I have to look everything up I try to do in Java.

Does somebody have a cleaner/better solution?

Edit add some more info:
This is what happens when you switch from the Cowon Music player to a 3rd party player:
- Front Left: Playback 125 [98%] [4.00dB]
- Front Right: Playback 125 [98%] [4.00dB]
+ Front Left: Playback 110 [87%] [-11.00dB]
+ Front Right: Playback 110 [87%] [-11.00dB]

The output comes from alsa_amixer which I installed manually.

The volume gets decreased, and since I use pretty big headphones this is not always loud enough..

[NonApplicable]

Originally Posted by dwaalspoor98

Does somebody have a cleaner/better solution?

Turn up the volume...

[dwaalspoor98]

Originally Posted by NonApplicable

Turn up the volume...

Thanks for your constructive answer, really useful

[mishaan]

There is an other change when running...
stock Cowon music Player:
I/AudioPolicyManagerBase( 953): dev = 4, st=3 idx=49 vol=0.891251 (mode 0 force
0 spdif 0 hdmi 0 bt 0)

Third Party player:
I/AudioPolicyManagerBase( 953): dev = 4, st=3 idx=49 vol=0.891251 (mode 1 force
0 spdif 0 hdmi 0 bt 0)

I don't know what does "mode" stand for..? maybe un/capped mode (mode 0 -> +6dB ; mode 1 : -5dB)

[darkinsomnian]

This is also driving me nuts, sorry i know this doesnt help but i do feel your pain, its like it reverts to the EU limited levels no matter what countries firmware you have installed. Cant believe they dont fix it, must be simple as, is there any method for letting Cowon know about this so they can address in future updates?

[NonApplicable]

Originally Posted by darkinsomnian

This is also driving me nuts, sorry i know this doesnt help but i do feel your pain, its like it reverts to the EU limited levels no matter what countries firmware you have installed. Cant believe they dont fix it, must be simple as, is there any method for letting Cowon know about this so they can address in future updates?

Why you want the volume any higher anyway? Cranking up the sound to the maximum settings is extremely harmful to your ears.

[darkinsomnian]

Because quite simply i like to experience bass at high volumes, yeah i know its very damaging but trust me there are plenty worse poisons you can subject youself to in life; funnily enough ive just come back from a hearing test today and apparently its totally normal, thats despite me having enjoyed my music this way for the last fifteen years, so yeah perhaps my hand will be forced yet and you'll find me listening to melodic classical come my pasture years, but not just yet...

[dwaalspoor98]

Originally Posted by NonApplicable

Why you want the volume any higher anyway? Cranking up the sound to the maximum settings is extremely harmful to your ears.

Did you ever heard about physics? Some headphones needs way more input to drive. because of a higher impedance, but I guess you live in a small boring world, where everything is secure and the same. And also if somebody want to blow up his/her eardrums, it's their own choice/responsibility... Could you please stop with your useless comments in this thread? Thank you

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have decompiled the Cowon Music APK and this is the code they use to switch between the 'volume modes':

PHP Code:

  public static void a(Context paramContext, boolean paramBoolean) {
    if (paramBoolean)
      ((AudioManager)paramContext.getSystemService("audio")).setVolumeMode("0");
    while (true)
    {
      return;
      ((AudioManager)paramContext.getSystemService("audio")).setVolumeMode("1");
    }
  } 


I am getting really close, but unfortunately I do not know a lot about Java (still administrating Java clusters for quite some years :p).

I thought I was there and have written some code but then faced the next issue, Cowon customized the 'android.media.AudioManager' classes, so my code won't run because it can't find their custom setVolumeMode method. Many colleagues of me are Java developers, but I am currently traveling so I can't ask them...

This are the libraries which are customized by Cowon, and of course they did not release the modified sources (which I think they should because of open source licenses, blablabla)...

~/Android/D3/update 4.55$ grep -r setVolumeMode *
Binary file system/lib/libandroid_runtime.so matches
Binary file system/lib/libmedia.so matches
Binary file system/lib/libaudiopolicy.so matches
Binary file system/lib/libaudioflinger.so matches

[NonApplicable]

Originally Posted by dwaalspoor98

Did you ever heard about physics? Some headphones needs way more input to drive. because of a higher impedance, but I guess you live in a small boring world, where everything is secure and the same. And also if somebody want to blow up his/her eardrums, it's their own choice/responsibility... Could you please stop with your useless comments in this thread? Thank you

Yes I "did ever heard about physics". I have no clue about what you are babbling on about. High Impedance(you said way more input) phones are meant to be run through an amp or professional grade equipment that can handle the phones. It is not efficient to crank up the volume to get good levels, because you will still get crappy signal no matter what the volume. MP3 players are semi pro gear. Always remember that.

Originally Posted by darkinsomnian

Because quite simply i like to experience bass at high volumes, yeah i know its very damaging but trust me there are plenty worse poisons you can subject youself to in life; funnily enough ive just come back from a hearing test today and apparently its totally normal, thats despite me having enjoyed my music this way for the last fifteen years, so yeah perhaps my hand will be forced yet and you'll find me listening to melodic classical come my pasture years, but not just yet...

I'm glad your ears haven't suffered! Eventually it will happen though. I used to listen to music as loud as you did before I became a music producer. Since then I have learnt a lot about how to listen to music and the human ear. I understand why you want the bass cranked so high, its only natural. The human ear frequency curve naturally has a huge boost in mid range frequency(we perceive high and low freq less). That is why the Cowon EQ & Mach3Bass are so great, because they allow us to get that bass boost without compensating with volume.

The optimal monitoring level for music is 85 decibels(dB). This means, unless you have hearing damage, you should listen to your music at this level and change the EQ and various settings to suit your preferences. Scientifically, this volume best matches your natural hearing curve and gives you the best representation of how the music was intended to be heard.

Ghost frequencies exist also. If we listen to music above 100 dB this ear phenomena occurs. Two frequencies 50Hz apart will start resonating sounds that don't actually exist in the mix. This of course muddies mixes but we also don't hear the music the artist intended us to hear.

Forgive me if I am off topic, but this stuff is really important if you want to listen to those hot tunes into your 70s. Now that Ipods, earbuds, and headphones, have become popular on a massive scale, I promise you, in the next twenty years the amount of people with hearing damage shoot up through the roof.

[dwaalspoor98]

Originally Posted by NonApplicable

Yes I "did ever heard about physics". I have no clue about what you are babbling on about. High Impedance(you said way more input) phones are meant to be run through an amp or professional grade equipment that can handle the phones.

To learn about impedance and headphones please see here: http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-impedance

In other words, if I use my 'portable' Ultrasone Pro 900 (Impedance 40 Ohms), and if I listen for example to Pink Floyd I almost don't hear anything if I have the capped volume level.

It is not efficient to crank up the volume to get good levels, because you will still get crappy signal no matter what the volume. MP3 players are semi pro gear. Always remember that.

I am 31 years old and own quite some PRO gear, I could buy a pretty nice NEW car, if I would sell my gear. And I also have a few headphone amplifiers, DAC's. I don't have a clue how Cowon does it, but they drive my headphones better (for my experience) then my 700$ portable DAC/Headphone Amp combo, not totally true but still I prefer to just have the D3 with me instead of 3 pieces of gear And the device doesn't sound bad at all at high volumes, even with 'loud' recordings.

I'm glad your ears haven't suffered! Eventually it will happen though. I used to listen to music as loud as you did before I became a music producer. Since then I have learnt a lot about how to listen to music and the human ear. I understand why you want the bass cranked so high, its only natural. The human ear frequency curve naturally has a huge boost in mid range frequency(we perceive high and low freq less). That is why the Cowon EQ & Mach3Bass are so great, because they allow us to get that bass boost without compensating with volume.

About my ears I don't know how they 'survived' after being to hundred's of raves, having more then 1 KiloWatt in my small car for years with a 40 KG oldschool rockford sub. I think I still hear a lot better then most people..

The optimal monitoring level for music is 85 decibels(dB). This means, unless you have hearing damage, you should listen to your music at this level and change the EQ and various settings to suit your preferences. Scientifically, this volume best matches your natural hearing curve and gives you the best representation of how the music was intended to be heard.

Ghost frequencies exist also. If we listen to music above 100 dB this ear phenomena occurs. Two frequencies 50Hz apart will start resonating sounds that don't actually exist in the mix. This of course muddies mixes but we also don't hear the music the artist intended us to hear.

Clear but some music like Gabber, Dubstep etc. you need to feel the bass. IMHO it almost can't be loud enough :p And yes music should sound clear and shouldn't distort but in the end it is about emotion, and moods. And I can enjoy REALLY LOUD music on hundreds of kilowatts system non stop for days. That why they invented house parties/raves I could also enjoy some nice acoustic or whatever music on low volume levels on my HI FI set.

Forgive me if I am off topic, but this stuff is really important if you want to listen to those hot tunes into your 70s. Now that Ipods, earbuds, and headphones, have become popular on a massive scale, I promise you, in the next twenty years the amount of people with hearing damage shoot up through the roof.

OK, here we go, why do I reacted like this, I paid quite a lot for the D3, expected a lot and I am one of the really early adapters and it was my most unstable device ever... But still I loved the device SQ. Then after 3 months it broke, sent it back to South Korea for repair 3 times before it got repaired properly.. Now I have got it stable not with Gingerbread and love the device more then ever with all it shortcomings, except for one little thing the volume cap.

I have already spent way to much time trying to solve this, and the frustrating part is I know I can fix it, but work on average a freaking 50/60 hours a week and have to much hobbies, projects going on..So I started this thread, so it would maybe help, and yes it helped already a little with the hint from mishaan Then I get a mail for every reply and got your not so helpful posts. Which are IMHO off topic, blablablabla, thanks for taking care and warnings . I don't know where in the world you live but I would like to let you listen to my headphones on the D3, I would sure you would understand why I want that damn volume cap fixed properly.

I know many people would be happy with a 'proper' fix for the volume cap issue..

Please understand some people simply want the remove the volume cap for whatever reason. Some people pimp their car, some people like other crazy shit....

PEACE!

[NonApplicable]

Originally Posted by dwaalspoor98

And I can enjoy REALLY LOUD music on hundreds of kilowatts system non stop for days. That why they invented house parties/raves

Dude, everyone thinks their invincible. I get it. The reality is being at a indoor concert for 15min will do irreversible damage to your ears. Is it noticeable? A little, but the hazard is how frequently you attend. That's why people seriously into concerts wear earplugs.

Originally Posted by dwaalspoor98

In other words, if I use my 'portable' Ultrasone Pro 900 (Impedance 40 Ohms), and if I listen for example to Pink Floyd I almost don't hear anything if I have the capped volume level.

I know all about Impedance. I own Beyerdynamic DT100 headphones that I use for studio use. The cans are 400 ohms and I can still get a good amount sound(bad quality though) out of my D3. For low impedance phones like yours, you should get a decent volume out of them even with the volume cap.

Regardless, your solution is simple. Carry a portable amp around with you if you are bringing your Pro 900s on the go. Not only will the amp enhance the sound(especially bass), but will easily drive your phones. Otherwise you should invest in a good set of IEMs.

[mishaan]

There is one another "strange" behaviour: By setting ro.config.music_vol_steps to 40 , volume mode still changes, but there is no more volume increase when launching Cowon music player...
And by setting it to 80, max volume level in normal mode is still capped to 116 (amixer), but stock player still uses default scale (volume maxed out at 50 and not rising if set to 51+). That means one can be surprised if (s)he set the volume to 51 and launches the stock player inadvertently :x...

Also the volume idx returned by AudioPolicyManagerBase is stuck to 40 when using a third party player :/

To get a temporary boost, open Mic Recorder and press home (not back). The sound volume should still max out until an other app takes control of the "audiopolicymanager".