Sound Quality

#1

This might be a stupid question, but after doing extensive testing Vox does sound a lot better to me, less compressed and clearer, why does it sound so much better than iTunes?

#2

Assuming you are listeing to the exact same file, you shouldn't hear much of a difference...
But your mind would probably thinks that vox SHOULD sound better than iTunes.

#3

Tim, thank You for Your question.

As Frank already pointed it, generally it should be hardly possible to distinguish between Vox and iTunes, given accurate testing conditions are met (same file, same loudness/volume, same audio card and speakers, same eq/processing, same room acoustics and so on). However there are couple of places where VOX actually is more focused on audio quality.

Vox is using well-known and highly appreciated audio library called BASS for low-level audio, which, in turn, uses many aspects of the system to play audio (same as iTunes does). This allowed us easily tune-up audio parameters for cleanest audio path possible.

  • Vox doesn't use any "enhancement" to sweet up Your tracks. Sounds strange as 'enhancement' should "improve" the sound, however, it's not true if You are looking for natural sounding music. In older iTunes versions "Sound Enhancer" was enabled by default, so iTunes definitely sounded differently. It is possible that it is still on in Your iTunes preferences.

  • Vox uses more precise sample rate conversion (SRC) algorithm than Apple standard one. It sounds better but consumes slightly more CPU. Of course, this only matters if sample rates of currently playing file and audio card are different. SRC may be bypassed at all when these sample rates are equal, which can be achieved in many cases by enabling 'Sync Sample Rate" option, which iTunes does not have.

  • Vox tries to bypass any system-supplied audio processing as much as possible. It does not use any EQ or Audio Unit unless You specifically enable one.

  • When making decision on internal audio engine parameters we always first thought about sound quality, only after that about CPU/energy consumption or other criteria.

I think these hints give You the idea, but remember these advantages should have very subtle effect notable only to few trained listeners.

Put simply, Vox has another purpose so it uses slightly different approaches in sound.

#4

Solved