Comments on: N97 Audio Quality: Nearly Perfect, Rivals iPod Touch

By: nase

nase — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:30:12 +0000

my n97 has rubbish sound output from the onbord speakers. I wish id never bought it. id rather have 1 decent speaker than stereo nonsence. the equalizer and bass boost do nothing. half the band mite aswell not be playing . no bass what so ever. i know there small speakers but geez . theres more frequency range from pissing in a tin can. total waste. there not loudspeakers they are over stressed earbuds.

By: nase

nase — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:30:12 +0000

By: theallseeingi

theallseeingi — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:44:41 +0000

Ah yes, for sure. We all “see” that the sound is superior when you use an iPhone. But we don't hear it. Because it doesn't sound that well.

We all know that Apple's Audio Playback Devices are mediocre. They have a flat sound and can't deliver the details and transparency other devices can. They're missing the punch when needed, too. OK, if you just use the cheap in-ears that come with the devices you'll be happy to have a gadget to show off that about almost everyone else has meanwhile. Boring. But we talk about the sound quality here. Apple has no chance vs. the N97. Not the iPhone nor the iPod can keep up with the N97/5800XM. Take a pair of HD25-II or Pioneer HDJ-2000 and plug them into your device and you'll notice a big difference between the Nokia's superior sound quality over the Apples. Both headphones are used by professionals because they have a clear sound with great frequency separation with no glossing over. Still, no iPod or iPhone/N97/5800 can keep up with the reference PMPs currently available. But if you have to make a choice and only want one single device to carry with you to make phone calls and listen to music, you should get one of the Nokias. The built-in speakers speak for the 5800, many other (not sound related) things for the N97. Period. What's left for the Apples? Multitouch, maybe.

By: n_kp_2000

n_kp_2000 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:12:03 +0000

I dont agree here. I am having N97 and apple iphone both . And I can see iphone's music quality to be quite superior to N97.

By: abee230

abee230 — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:05:15 +0000

well i agree that the n97 loudspeakers are not the best when compared to other models but however the use of headsets is near perfection! its like other phone! good sound quality! but mine is having a problem ! the fm tranmitter is not available in the my phone! i think its due to the update i made!

By: simonthedrummer

simonthedrummer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:47:30 +0000

Just done an A/B test with my laptop ac97 soundcard(ibm t43). the n 97 is better. more detailed midrange and only a slight rolloff noticeable in the very high range. the rollof makes it sound better tho. less brittle. then i compared it to my edirol ua25 external sound card. the soundcard was obviously better but not by as much as i had thought. the test was done with arcade fires tunnels neighbourhood#1 in flac. the test with the edirol was obiously unfair bacause of the different interconnects needed.

By: LessThanDoug

LessThanDoug — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:33:30 +0000

Agreed. Audio quality is fantastic through the 3.5mm jack on decent headphones. They should've done the same with the stereo speakers.

By: therioman

therioman — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:10:14 +0000

I am pretty happy with it, but only when I use my headphones of couse. The supplied ones are as usual total rubbish. Apart from a couple stupid bugs with my N97 (which seem to be known issues) I am very happy and have finally ditched everything else I own…

By: Lesiki

Lesiki — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:16:44 +0000

I'm very happy with the sound quality on the n97, but really hate the non-gapless playback. We all have that favourite album where one song just leads into the next perfectly, and don't want to hear a half-second gap between the two.

Other than that, I think the n97 works beautifully for music. I use 'iTunes Agent' to sync it through iTunes, but from the look of the new Ovi suite, using the software provided may not be as cumbersome as it once was.

Great site btw, keep the posts coming! I want to make the most of this great phone.