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[Nicholas T]

Hi,

I'm after some direction in how to best set up my music to play on my phone (Samsung Note 4).

I'm gradually re-ripping my CD's to FLAC and I'm wondering what the best Android music app would be to play FLAC? I currently use PowerAmp.

Also, Is it possible to keep my PC music library synced to my Phone in some way including Playlists?

Thank you.
Nicholas

[RoderickGI]

I'm wondering what the best Android music app would be to play FLAC?

I can't really recommend one as I haven't tested many, and there are so many of them. I'm still using Sony's "Music" App from "Sony Mobile Communications" for synced tracks. It does a good job and plays FLAC files.

But you might have a look at MO 4Media. It is more than just an Android player, as it is Media Center aware and will play directly from the server. But it can download files, and I think it will play files stored locally if you want to sync them to the Note 4. Not sure. It plays FLAC though.

Then of course Gizmo and Panel are available free, but only play directly from your MC Server. No playback of local files.

I'd be interested to hear what other people recommend. There was one new App that people were raving about a while back, but I didn't take enough notice to remember its name. Doh!
EDIT: It might have been Pi Music Player. I haven't tested it. Might only play MP3s.

Also, Is it possible to keep my PC music library synced to my Phone in some way including Playlists?

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync_Handheld

[thecrow]

For me it is all about sound quality, and as such I would recommend "USB Audio Player PRO" as it has the ability to bypass the Android audio system and play direct to the phones DAC.
This is a much cleaner path and allows true high res sample rates and bit depths.

In the same way that JRiver is able to bypass the Windows audio system by using ASIO or kernel streaming.

[RoderickGI]

"USB Audio Player PRO" looks good. It can make best use of the audio chip on my Sony Xperia XZ Premium as well. Might have to do some testing. Comparison to the Sony Music player.

[jb82]

GoneMAD music player was about the only app that was able to perfectly scan my 100 GB of aac files on micro SD when I switched to android about 4 years ago.  Haven't since had a reason to switch so I'd certainly recommend it.

I use syncme to copy my aac and m3u files from my nas to a folder on my phone's micro SD card over wi-fi and point GoneMAD to that folder in the library scanning options. Syncme is another great little android app. Rubbish GUI but rock solid at what it does.

[Nicholas T]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I'm working my way through this learning curve.  I didn't even know what a DAC was 2 days ago.

My birthday pressie yesterday was a set of Sony WH-1000XM3 Bluetooth headphones and so for now, I will be listening to all of my music via Bluetooth via my Samsung Note 4. My understanding is that the music data is transferred to the headphones via Bluetooth using the aptX codec and then the headphones onboard DAC QN1 chip decodes this.

Doesn't this mean the phone's DAC is bypassed?

Would the Android audio drivers or 'USB Audio Player Pro' drivers (etc.) also be bypassed? I don't know how the audio drivers fit into this path or what they do.  If they are bypassed, then it wouldn't matter what player app I use would it?

When using Gizmo to stream FLAC files are they compressed along the way?

Btw, I have read that PowerAmp 3 now uses its own audio drivers. Not sure how true that is.

Cheers.
Nicholas

[thecrow]

Doesn't this mean the phone's DAC is bypassed?
Would the Android audio drivers or 'USB Audio Player Pro' drivers (etc.) also be bypassed? I don't know how the audio drivers fit into this path or what they do.  If they are bypassed, then it wouldn't matter what player app I use would it?

I have no experience of Bluetooth but you are correct the phones DAC will not be used in this situation.
USB Audio Pro does have an option to use their Internal HiRes audio with Bluetooth output and say "audio may arrive cleaner before it is sent to the BT receiver. Does not work on every device" so may be worth a demo to see if you hear any difference.

Poweramp 3 does also have true HiRes support for some phones but I gave up on it after it stagnated in beta for over a year without any updates although it does now seem to be back in active development.

[Awesome Donkey]

If you're using Bluetooth headphones, just know Bluetooth is limited to 48 kHz and the media player add you're using will have to likely resample everything to 48 kHz for it to work correctly.

[Nicholas T]

Thanks.

I'm guessing that because I'm ripping my own CD's to FLAC I'm never going to get above 16Bit/44.1khz anyway?  In that case, I'm supposing Bluetooth isn't my limiting factor for better sound quality for now.

I spent a bit of time comparing PowerAmp 3 and USB Audio Player Pro last night and I could hear a subtle difference but couldn't decide which I preferred. They were both very clean but the spaciousness was different and some instruments were more pronounced. But maybe that's just an EQ or Effects setting?

I do prefer some aspects of USB_APP UI though but unfortunately, it didn't pick up a lot of my album art and didn't merge albums with the same name (with multiple CD's) into one Album, as PowerAmp does. I think the Album Artist field would solve that in USB_APP though but would require more work on my part.

I'm starting to eye off what my next phone should be to provide better sound. It looks like newer phones have much better DAC chips. 

There are a lot of links in the chain to better sound!

[biblio]

I use samsung music which i've found to be the best for "on-phone" music playback.

I've tried a few but i've found the simpler music players work best on android. for remote music access i use Dsub with an apache server.

I haven't done much in the way of syncing from applications, i run some python scripts to create a folder and copy the files to my storage.

[mattlauck]

Blackplayer EX (by FifthSource) is by far the best music player that I have ever used.
It is a paid app,but has a free version to try.
It has a very high level of customization and features.
The team behind it seem to innovate much more than most and really keep polishing it up and trying their best to overcome the many hurdles and limitations that Google has with their music player setup.
I like it because it is great looking and is very intuitive to use.

Important to me in a Music Player are
1) Flac support/ great sound
2) Easy to bounce from Playlist/Genre/Artist pages.
3) Has an easy to use Playing now Que.
4) Is a nice looking app, with great looking playing now
5) Chromecast support
6) Has a good EQ

I FLAC players I have used:
 
PlayerPro Music Player (I liked it and used it for years but it looks very dated now and has fallen off in features)
Pulsar+ (clean and neat - think it is just almost a re-skin of the standard Google MP3 player.
Pi Music player (seems to be a re-skin as well, as are MANY of the new players out there)
Onkyo HF Player (was OK)
Foobar 2000 - (could not get to work)
AIMP (Awful)
JetAudio HD Music Player (Awful)
n7player Music PLayer (Awful)
Stellio Player (Awful)
(most players are awful)

THAT BEING SAID...
The player will be less important to the sound than how you transmit the music.
To get the very best out of flac files to be sent via Bluetooth, you should try one of the two new codecs included into the new builds of Android and included in many newer Android phones.

Qualcomm developed AptX HD
Sony developed LDAC.

Support is built into Oreo, but phone makers don't have to support them.

Both are said to use a brand new method of 'folding over' of certain frequencies into lesser congested ones.
This is an awful example of what the codecs do, but after reading a few articles and papers on them it is the best I can do in a sentence.
It is totally different than the psychoacoustic model used in MP3 and almost everything else.
It is said to be vastly superior and capable of delivering HD (better than CD) over bluetooth when using HD sources.

The standard Codec for bluetooth is SBC and it is awful.
Apple pushes ACC for better better audio and Qualcomm bought AptX and pushed it for the same.

AptX was the best and was said to be able to get close to 'CD quality' sound but came up short in many uses.

While both AptX HD and LDAC are both 'lossy' codecs, they are more efficient and use more bandwidth to send the data.
So... they better sound.
They are both said to be able to send a file that is audibly the same as a HD (24 bit- better than CD quality)
LDAC supports higher bit rates (24bit/94khz) but adjusts everything on the fly (lowers resolution) to maintain a strong signal.
AptX HD 'only' supports (24 bit/48khz)but is supposed to maintain a more constant average in resolution.

Now, nothing truly matters much if you are streaming 128K Pop music files to a cheap bluetooth speaker or set of earbuds.
But, you are using lossless FLAC and sending to a very well reviewed set of Sony 1000XM3 headphones.
The headphones support both LDAC and AptX HD along with regular AptX.

Sadly Samsung has been kind of a turd when it comes to audio.
The S9 and new Note series does support LDAC, but it left out Apt X HD.

Sadly your Note 4 does not support either.
I think you should get a new phone.

This is based on the assumption that you are choosing FLAC because you hear a difference between it and MP3 (some people can't) and want the better quality.
You got the top rated NC BT headphone on the planet and it wasn't super cheap.
Even if you are 'only' using 16/44 CD quality FLAC files, you should most likely benefit from the improved codecs.

Many even older phones from LG, Oneplus, Sony, and HTC, do support both of the new codecs.
I just got a LG G7 yesterday and am very eager to try the new BT codecs soon, the Quad DAC makes my wired headphones sound very nice!
 
Since you have the wonderfully reviewed Sony and are using FLAC, you should give LDAC or AptX HD a try.

One really good source article regarding these codecs

 https://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/bluetooth-audio-guide

[RoderickGI]

Nice writeup Mattlauck.

[thecrow]

I just got a LG G7 yesterday and am very eager to try the new BT codecs soon, the Quad DAC makes my wired headphones sound very nice!

I too recently upgraded my old LG V10 to the G7.
The ESS Quad DAC is outstanding and prompted me to upgrade earbuds from Sennhieser IE80 to IE800.

I know I am going to sound like a USB Audio Player Pro evangelist but if you have the G7 I would encourage you to give the trial a shot.
It supports bit perfect direct DAC access with files up to 352.8kHz 24bit PCM, it supports DSD pass though to the DAC with files up to DSD256 11.2896Mbit/s and supports the MQA hardware in the DAC without needing the additional software licence.
All only with wired headphones obviously.

[mattlauck]

Thank you, maybe my first post?
MC user for decade+.

Could not find a trial/free version of the USB Audio Player.
I'm always willing to try something new and give it a whirl.

I have tried dozens and dozens of audio player apps over the years and am happy to see a bit of innovation in the field.
Seems USB Audio Player is a new breed of player, was intrigued by the description and thought the screen shots looked pretty good.
Thanks for recommending, I had not heard of it prior.
I will keep checking back for a trial version.

It the meantime I'm loading up a 400GB microSD with sweet sweet FLAC and will keep looking for a great deal on those Sony XM3s.

[Nicholas T]

Mattlauck,

Great post! Very informative and I'll be re-reading it several times.

I agree with you, I need a new phone...for my music!  LOL, I never thought I'd want a new phone so I could experience better quality music!

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this.
Much appreciated.

Nicholas

[8139david]

I have a Galaxy S8 with Sony WH-1000XM2.
Music (flac) is transmitted by bluetooth to the headphones using LDAC (with highest quality chosen). Great!

For a music player on my phone, I use Foobar2000 and am very happy with it.
I just navigate in my music folder (which is organized by genre, then album) to what I want to listen to.