Difference between output plugins

[JakeOrth]

Hi!!

There's two ways of output plugin:

1/audio track output

2/ openSL ES output

What's the difference between???

Thanks

[NickIst]

12 hours ago, JakeOrth said:

Hi!!

There's two ways of output plugin:

1/audio track output

2/ openSL ES output

What's the difference between???

Thanks

Very short answer: the second one is better.

[JakeOrth]

35 minutes ago, NickIst said:

Very short answer: the second one is better.

But sound quality?

[NickIst]

15 minutes ago, JakeOrth said:

But sound quality?

The sound quality is better because the second one bypasses the Android audiomixer which can degrade the output quality and can cause large latency. Sorry I'm not a dev or something like that. The only source I found was https://casediletanta.blogspot.com/2018/10/Poweramp-v3-803.html but it's in Russian and devoted to the older build (and it has some unexplained tweaks). So it's better to ask someone more competent.

[overdose]

the second one is more like a ''pure output''. 

Note that if you're using something like DSP manager or Viper4android, like Nicklst said, it will bypass it. 

I did a lot of tuning with ATHM50 headphone and viper4droid, with a nice convolver driver, and subjectively, I like more the sound from viper4droid, even if my phone is compatible with HD output and I run FLAC files.  

[NickIst]

51 minutes ago, overdose said:

the second one is more like a ''pure output''. 

Note that if you're using something like DSP manager or Viper4android, like Nicklst said, it will bypass it. 

I did a lot of tuning with ATHM50 headphone and viper4droid, with a nice convolver driver, and subjectively, I like more the sound from viper4droid, even if my phone is compatible with HD output and I run FLAC files.  

Viper4droid is a great tool for tuning, the new PA took at least one feature - output bypassing of the Android mixer. But generally yes, viper can sound better at least because it proposes a lot of profile for headphones and some other options for tuning which it seems the PA doesn't have.

[blaubär]

On 12/20/2018 at 1:36 AM, JakeOrth said:

What's the difference between?

Both are interfaces that a music player can use to put out the audio data it has processed.

Audio Track is the Android standard, Open SL is another option to do the same. See Wikipedia:

OpenSL ES (Open Sound Library for Embedded Systems) is a royalty-free, cross-platform, hardware-accelerated, C-language audio API for 2D and 3D audio. It provides access to features such as 3D positional audio and MIDI playback. It is made for developers in the mobile and gaming industry and is working toward allowing for easy porting of applications across multiple platforms.

[maxmp]

On 12/20/2018 at 4:49 PM, NickIst said:

The sound quality is better because the second one bypasses the Android audiomixer which can degrade the output quality and can cause large latency.

Not true (more or less true for Hi-Res variants).

OpenSL is the default output in PA, it's a bit more battery/cpu optimized, but some devices actually may have issues with it (as OpenSL is not tested by OEMs so well), thus AudioTrack output exists as a backup.

(AudioTrack can be selected by default for some devices/outputs/Android  versions).

Also some devices have a bit different volume level for OpenSL (vs AudioTrack) - for unknown reason (oversight/bug in ROM).

[यsh प्रtap]

So which output plugin is better for headphones and earphones...

1. OpenSL ES Output

2. AudioTrack Output

3. HI-Res Output

[andrewilley]

2 hours ago, यsh प्रtap said:

So which output plugin is better for headphones and earphones...

It's up to you and your device. If you have good quality headphones and some high-res audio files than Hi-Res would definitely be the way to go. Hi-Res may still sound better for you anyway, but it does consume more power so you may prefer to stick with standard modes if you can't hear a difference.

AudioTrack is the built-in Android audio processing system that also supports manufacturer-installed add-on and audio tweaks (which you may or may not want- and if you don't want them, why complicate the audio chain?).

OpenSL ES (Open Sound Library for Embedded Systems) is a royalty-free, cross-platform, hardware-accelerated, audio API. Generally it should provide a cleaner audio path. Probably.

But in the end, choose what sounds best to your ears and performs best on your hardware.

Andre

[CarlFredricksen]

So if I use USB to listen to my tone signal via Android Auto in the car, HiRes would be best?
Whereas what is AAudio?