N95 8GB: the Good and the Bad are Covered, Now for the Ugly
I’ve discussed the good and the bad with regards to the N95 8GB, some here on SiMo but mostly elsewhere as this handset has been discussed ad nauseum throughout the blogosphere. One thing that hasn’t been discussed very much - and I find this incredibly surprising - it the audio quality.
The N95 8GB is the King Kong of do it all handsets, at least until the N96 is released. It’s supposed to be a multimedia phenom as the hoards of marketing would dictate. A multimedia computer. But forget about the marketing, plenty of you have used this handset. Great 2.8″ display, 30 fps video recording, a host of music, video and streaming possibilities, etc. The thing that continuously amazes me however, the the incredibly sub par audio quality I have experienced with Nokia handsets.
It’s a shame really. I have so little to complain about when it comes to the N95 8GB. It seems like the only real downsides however, are huge ones. The amazingly inadequate transfer speeds brought on by USB 1.1 and the terrible OEM email support are other examples. This however, is my big one. I’m an audiophile through and through, and every time I use my handset to listen to music I die a little inside. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration…
I don’t want to get too deep into this rant, but as Nokia pushes its new music store, Comes with Music, and so on; I sincerely hope that this issue is addressed. I’ve used the N95 8GB with the included ear buds, the aux-in in my car, top of the line studio monitors and everything in between. Unfortunately even the best of the best can’t salvage the audio hardware in this handset. In fact, most mid-range MP3 players I’ve used significantly trump the audio quality of the N95 8GB (and other Nokia models). I love having one device that can do it all so to speak, so I often bite the bullet and just use the N95 8GB as a music player. You know that face you make when you taste something extremely sour though? That’s the face I make each time I start up a music player on my N95 8GB.
The first thing I’m going to do once I get my hands on the N96 is load up a few MP3s and fire up the music player. I really, really hope that I am pleasantly surprised.
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I've discovered that the best thing is to buy head/earphones with an attenuator. Then you crank up the volume on the phone almost to the max and set the attenuator on your earphones cord to minumum. That way it filters out all of the audible layers of hiss.
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The earphones that come with all N series are a joke (bar the N93i music edition), I opted for a good pair of in ear Sennheiser CX300 and they work a charm both with the N95 and N82. When it comes to Music playback only the N81 can do a decent job.
I agree Nokia has overlooked the audio playback quality on their handsets, they should take a look at the Samsung range for some hints.
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Just to further clarify, at one point in time or another I've used my N95-3 or N95-4 along with AKG K240s, Etymotic ER-4 in-ears, three different pairs of Shures, Ultrasone PROline 750s and various others including the OEM buds. Suffice it to say I've given it a good amount of testing. I've yet to be anything but disappointed.
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The way to go to produce a sound that is atleast on par (maybe even better depending on your musical preferences) with higher-end DAPS is to use dynamic based canalphones or IEM's. More specifically, ones with good bass impact, warm mids and rolled-off highs. Tweak the EQ somewhat and you might not be to far off from musical nirvana....
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Plus the N91 quality will be standard on all upcoming Nseries devices, this is evidenced by the N78's capabilities.
I also read a review by Eldar over a MR, he said the N96 audio is much better than the N95 series, but he'd expected more from the dedicated audio unit the N96 has. He had a proto so may be it'll improve?!
Time'll tell! :)
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