2. tech-talk
  3. 1229212989

Telephones for Audiophiles?


This may be slightly off topic, but I was thinking of Audiogon today when looking at Blue Tooth devices.

I discovered yesterday that I have over 10,000 rollover minutes on my cell phone.

Why?

Because I absolutely can't stand the way it sounds. On reflection,I dont know how any self respecting audiophile could stand the static, the drop outs, and the general fidelity that makes a Bose wave radio sound like a cost no object, state of the art, high resolution device.

If I am dying of a heart attack and need an ambulance, I might reach for my cell phone.

But otherwise, I go out of my way to wait for a land line and feel like I am insulting anyone if I put them on speakerphone. How people talk on cell phones for hours, or try to conduct any serious business on them is beynd me.

Is anyone else here sensitive to this? Are there any telephones, whether wired or wireless that have met your audiophile standards for clarity or quality?

And if I have to use a mobile phone, is there a wired or wireless headset or earpiece that sounds better than others?

Thank you.
cwlondon
electroid
283 posts
 
The old 3 watt analog phones of the 80's sounded better for sure. They dropped out as much or more because there were far less cell repeater towers then. Phones now are only 600mw. The digital sampling rate is so low thus the crappy sound. No phone can change that. Sure some sound "better" than others.

I only use hard wired land lines at home too. We do have one wireless for convenience. We also have one cell phone for for my wife to take when she goes out.

ET
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
The digital sampling rate is so low thus the crappy sound

I believe traditional analog landline phones have a bandwidth of 300Hz to 3.4kHz. Pretty narrow, but still quite capable of pleasing sound with a good mic and earpiece. I don't know what the audio sample rate is in cellphones, but I suspect it is capable of capturing something approximating that bandwidth or better. I suspect the most major culprits are the cheap tiny microphones, which on a flip-phone or bluetooth headset are alongside the face instead of in front of the mouth, and the cheap tiny earpiece speakers.

Regards,
-- Al
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
I suspect the most major culprits are the cheap tiny microphones, which on a flip-phone or bluetooth headset are alongside the face instead of in front of the mouth, and the cheap tiny earpiece speakers.


My cellphone is audiophile quality;

- it includes a battery (just like the Merlin BAM)
- I can feel the vibrations in my waist when someone calls (amazing LF response)
- it produces a beautifully lifelike image (at the push of button)
- it glows a really cool blue color in the dark (great at concerts)
- it has a volume control (and it is always either to loud or to low)
- it has a forward and rear radiating tweeter (for better ambience hit the "speaker" button)
- it came with an extremely expensive power cable (costs nearly as much as a completely new phone to replace this! yikes!)
- it does the most amazing audiophile disappearing act (everytime I have left it somewhere it is gone by the time I go back to look for it)
- the surcharges on my monthly bill look just like the multiple options on most audio equipment
- like any high quality audiophile system you must leave it ON at ALL times ready for use (in case she who must be obeyed calls!)
- my provider is always trying to sell me an upgrade!
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
LOL!

-- Al
wireless200
415 posts
 
Landline is 0 to 4 KHz. (sampling rate 8 KHz and 8 bits for 64 kbs. Nyquist rate must be twice highest frequency). This is why a T1 is 1.544 MB/sec. 24 trunks times 64 kbs plus some overhead bits.)
What people don't know about cellphones is they're not sampling in the normal sense as we think of it as audiophiles but actually all the sounds are *synthesized* by vocoder. Your phone takes pitch, inflection, tone, etc. information and sends that information over the air and the vocoder merely re-synthesizes that information into sounds. That's why digital phones sound that way. They normally transmit 13 kbs at most. Average is much lower. It's done that way for capacity reasons. Much less information per user needs to be transmitted that way. The vocoders used to be, probably still are, set up for particular languages as well and that has an effect, if you're speaking another language than the country you're in speaks and has the phones set up for.
More to discover