Audio Quality

[Gymchick]

Are there any plans to increase the bit rate that songs are encoded
that go onto the slacker portable?30kbps is really low,regardless of
whether its accpro 2

[jalpert]

Are there any plans to increase the bit rate that songs are encoded
that go onto the slacker portable?30kbps is really low,regardless of
whether its accpro 2

What don't you like about the audio quality? Surprisingly I think the highs and lows are really good, it's the mids that seem a little distant to me. I guess my only little complaint is a general flatness. I think it sounds way better than XM and better than sirius. I agree 30kbps is really low, do you think you'd be happy if they bumped it 25% to 40kbps?

[FrankS]

Right now, all music loaded for stations on the Portable Player are encoded as 40kbps aac-Plus V2.

The music through the web player can either come as 128kbps MP3 or 40kbps aac-Plus V2. The Web player automatically switches between the two if it detects a slow network connection or has problems streaming the MP3s. So it's possible you've been listening to the aac files and never known.

[gottahavetunes]

I the way it sounds after a low and high end boost. Way better than XM which now sounds muddy to me.

[jalpert]

Yah, I was being sarcastic when I asked if 40kbps would be better

[acedoc]

I have found the sound quality to be surprisingly good. My only complaint is that there is no volume normalization, which leads to an occasional jump in my car after turning up a low volume song. Of course commercials for car dealerships and monster truck rallies had the same effect while driving and listening to terrestrial.
In the car, I have found a bit of increased bass and mid range, with a bit less treble seems to give a bit more depth to most music stations. Curiously, some of the older music, has a bit more thinness, and sometimes I'll make an inverse 'U' on the equalizer.
All that being said. I find it superior to anything I've heard on others' satellite systems, and miles ahead of FM.
I would suggest some volume controllable noise canceling .

[ekucera00]

Has slacker went on record, recognizing the audible hiss. It seems many people have noticed and it has even been mentioned in many of the reviews.

[gottahavetunes]

Has slacker went on record, recognizing the audible hiss. It seems many people have noticed and it has even been mentioned in many of the reviews.

Many people? I don't believe I've seen one post from an owner talking about audible hiss. Gotta link to the thread on this?

[jalpert]

Has slacker went on record, recognizing the audible hiss. It seems many people have noticed and it has even been mentioned in many of the reviews.

Many people? I don't believe I've seen one post from an owner talking about audible hiss. Gotta link to the thread on this?

The hiss is not a complete myth. I have used the slacker with their earbuds, my JVC HANC250 headphones, my ford tourus with a tape adapter into a stock deck with stock speakers, and my 350z via aux in to a kenwood deck and bose speakers. The hiss existed ONLY with my JVC headphones and was ONLY noticable between songs. The player was plugged in, and if I recall it might have been refreshing, so it could have been some kind of power or wifi interfearance, which might or might not be the fualt of the slacker, but on a scale of 1 to 10 this is about a 2 on the scale in terms of a problem. But some people really do hear it.

[Kimper]

I have listened to the slacker unit on a variety of different sound equipment. To my ears it is CD quality. The hiss exists ONLY between songs and when paused, so it is irrelevant. There is total silence in quiet parts of songs which is all that matters.

[ekucera00]

http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/slacker-portable-player-2gb/4505-6490_7-32370611.html

http://review.zdnet.com/mp3-players/slacker-portable-player-8gb/4505-6490_16-32745548.html

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/02/slacker-porta-1.html

http://slackersocial.com/index.php?topic=66.0

I'm not saying its a huge issue and it may be related to the head-phones, but it's possible it's related to the LCD or the amount of power provided to the headphone jack. Maybe they are simply defective and should be exchanged since only a few people have reported this. I'm just saying that if i heard a hiss in the background or in between songs it would get returned immediately.

[FrankS]

Just FYI, we actually are aware of the hiss, and so far, our engineers have done a fantastic job of reducing it to near inaudible levels, at least on our test units in-house. (I couldn't hear it anyway anymore.)

This will be given out as a firmware upgrade which, as soon as its finished going through QA testing, will be released. We'll let you know when that is.

[ekucera00]

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

[fredgy]

I recently received my unit back after it became unresponsive during the field test. I've been listening with multiple different high end headphones. The issue with the audible hiss appears to be related to the type of headphone used. It is very noticeable when listening with very high end Shure ear canal type headphones and personally, I find it very annoying. However when I use Senheiser open air headphones, it is barely noticeable. Ultrasone Icans are slightly more noticeable but nothing like the in ear models but they are slightly more "enclosing" than the Senheisers. It's very interesting! I'm trying to figure out why some headphones exacerbate the hissing noise. I imagine that the noise is at a certain frequency that in ear models either "play better" or possibly over represent. Any engineers have any idea? Any new firmware updates coming out that may reduce the problem? I did see the previous post that this is being worked on. Thanks. This is a wonderful product.

[PatentGuy]

When refreshing via WiFi, I have detected some very low level RFI. With the volume turned almost all the way down I can hear it with very sensitive headphones. I cannot hear it with my Sennheiser headphones, but they are not as sensitive as my Sony headphones. (I need the volume level set higher for the Sennheiser to have the same music sound level as the Sony's.)

I can only hear the RFI when the music volume is so low that I can hardly hear the music. The RFI noise stops when I stop WiFi refreshing.

At normal listening levels, the RFI noise is not detectable. I am very pleased with the sound quality. I normally play the Portable through a CMoy headphone amp connected to my sound system.

[fredgy]

That's interesting about the wifi refreshing although that didn't seem to be the issue with me. Do you have any ear canal headphones? I only hear it with that type of headphone. I don't hear it when the music is playing but I'm going have to sit down and listen to some quiet music to see if it is present in the quiet passages. The sound overall is pretty good to me.

[PatentGuy]

That's interesting about the wifi refreshing although that didn't seem to be the issue with me. Do you have any ear canal headphones? I only hear it with that type of headphone. I don't hear it when the music is playing but I'm going have to sit down and listen to some quiet music to see if it is present in the quiet passages. The sound overall is pretty good to me.

I don't like the ear canal headphones, so I never use 'em. I use Sennheiser open headphones mostly late at night when it is quiet in the house. I use the Sony Walkman-style headphones at the gym, where it is never quiet. My office sound system is low-to-mid-end audiophile quality. I have never heard the hiss that others speak of.

[DaMenace]

Here is update from Wired.com from last week that would be interesting to note.

[fritzpw]

Is there anyway to know if you are on the hi or lo stream?