Increasing External Speaker Sound in CM11

UPDATE: Flash-able zip now available. UPDATE2: From some research the snd_soc_msm is Qualcomm specific. After looking at the file/directory name it actually becomes a little more evident: “sound, system-on-a-chip, Mobile Station Modem”. The following post should apply to recent Android phones with Qualcomm a MSM8960 chipset. I have never really been super happy with how my phone sounds while running CyanogenMod. It isn’t the sound quality that bothers me. It is the fact that the phone sounds much quieter than what I think it should be. Being that I pretty much left TouchWiz as soon as a version of CM … Continue reading

Fixing USB DAC Issues

So I got this wonderful amp/DAC combo and headphones. Guess what! There is a terrible audio popping while listening to music on my computer! How can this be?! I spent so much money and this DAC is crap! Oh wait, it’s not the DAC. Or the amp. Or the headphones. The first thing I did was Google to see if there was some known issue with the ODAC or Windows 7 and USB Audio. I found this thread on Head-Fi which referenced the ODAC. I also remembered a while ago that I dug out my old SoundBlaster Extigy external sound … Continue reading

O2+ODAC Combo By JDSLabs and Beyerdynamic DT-990 Headphones

As I mentioned in my just posted headphone article I ordered an O2+ODAC Combo from JDSLabs. I’ve now had the amp/DAC combo with my DT-990s for about a week. I’ve been wanting to write a full article about both the amp/DAC and headphones but wanted to give them some time to make an impression. O2+ODAC Combo The O2+ODAC combo from JDS Labs is an awesome little amp and DAC. It’s  very powerful for a little guy. I didn’t opt for the higher impedance headphones so I can’t be 100% accurate in saying that it shouldn’t have trouble driving anything you … Continue reading

Done With WinAmp

I’ve been using WinAmp for the last 11 or so years. I’ve been a loyal fan of “whipping the llama’s ass,” but it seems as if development and functionality died out long ago. I mean look at WinAmp’s website! It looks like it’s stuck in the early 2000’s web design. I’m all for not fixing what isn’t broken, but their player seems to still be stuck in the Windows XP era. I mainly used WinAmp for streaming from my favorite classical station 99.5 All Classical and some other ShoutCast stations. Lately I’ve noticed some odd sound effects and weird behaviors while streaming … Continue reading