Thanks for your comments. My complaint wasn't loudness, but quality. PowerAmp sounded fine, but doesn't recognize the XMP rating system and MMW playlists. The airpods resolved the problem to my satisfaction somewhat, but the GMMP recommended by yarguy (in another thread) really solved the problem.
I realize there is greater quality to be found, with some expense and effort, but I'm good with GMMP and the airpods. FWIW, I was in the market for some BT earphones that would stay put and sound decent. The airport met both of those requirements.
My music, with the exception of early rips were mostly ripped at 320 secure read via MM and Lame.dll. All were ripped from CD (over 10,000 songs). It would be quite a chore to re-rip to another format.

First off I think some of you might be overlooking the simple problems. If your going to buy AirPods and expect high-quality music than you not really listen to high-quality files in the first place. Air-Pods new and old are horrid for the sound quality period. I have some nice 20 dollar earbuds that sound 10x better than AirPods. If all you want is music to just blast into your ear. That's not the sound quality that just loudness. Dre Beats work great for that.

Personally if you having an issue with the sound quality please start with the quality of the recording. What bit rate are you running? The majority of my music files are 320 (ok sound) to Flac (Lossless). Then you need to look at the quality of your headphones. Wireless for the most part are not going to give you the quality you want due to their Bluetooth connection. The Bluetooth connection period loses a lot of the sound. Another thing to look at is you're using a cell phone to play music. These are not designed to utilize DAC Blue Tooth or FLAC quality audio files. The cell phone is killing your music. You can get a wired setup and an amp if you really want to blow your ear out of the water.

Ask yourself this. If you're driving a Geo Metro (Cell Phone) and you strap a rocket to it (Poweramp). It's still a Geo metro but faster. You need to get into an Audi and listen to your music to solve a lot of your quality issues. That is if it's quality and not Loudness. You want loudness don't expect quality with what you looking for.

I personally use this setup:

FiiO M11 (Music Player)
KZ ZS Pro (Ear Buds) This is my cheap version of wired earbuds. HIgh sound quality with 65 drivers in each ear. AirPods has 2 drivers. I have many headsets and if you want more options let me know.
FiiO A1 Silver Amp (Amplifier) This was a 30 dollar item that was outstanding for the price.

Update:
I decided to buy a pair of airpods, and the sound is much better. Obviously, that means the audio quality in PowerAmp is much, much better. But at least I'm finally getting usable quality out of MM. I don't understand why MM is at the low end of the AQ scale, at least in Android.

I can totally agree. In comparison to Poweramp or GoneMad, MMA really sounds poor with same files, same equipment at same loudness, without any equalizer settings on. But MMA is best for syncing with my desktop. For enjoying music Poweramp is my favorite. My main annoyance is, that some songs (mostly rock) will playback with lower volume than others. All files are analysed and gain switched on. MMW doesn't, Poweramp doesn't, GoneMad doesn't.

rovingcowboy wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 2:45 pm Try going to the settings and totally disable Google player. That thing trys to high jack the songs and the audio might actually be from it.

Google player is disabled, and has been since I set up the phone.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 1:42 pm DSD is different from what's reported here. That's related to higher quality audio file support whereas this is about audio quality experienced in MMA with files already supported.

This is not a common complaint. Do you have the equalizer enabled or any audio enhancements apps running on the device that could interfere? Are you saying that the same file sounds much better in other Apps than MMA? Are you listening on device speakers, or wired or Bluetooth headphones?

It's true that MMA relies on the device itself for playback (and format support) for now.

Sorry, I seem to have missed the notification.

• The devices are a Galaxy S7 and a Galaxy tab S3.

• I have tried with EQ enabled and disabled. Disabled is best, both are unacceptably 'tinny', moreso with EQ enabled.

• No enhancement apps.

• I've tried listening with various headphones and device speakers, all with the same poor result.

• The sound is great with poweramp with the same files.

• The earphones I've tried are wired, middle of the road, but produce good sound using poweramp.

I always listen to music on my devices via earphones. The reality is that the MM audio quality is so poor that I very rarely use it. Any help to resolve this would be greatly appreciated. I'd much prefer to use MM.

Try going to the settings and totally disable Google player. That thing trys to high jack the songs and the audio might actually be from it.

DSD is different from what's reported here. That's related to higher quality audio file support whereas this is about audio quality experienced in MMA with files already supported.

This is not a common complaint. Do you have the equalizer enabled or any audio enhancements apps running on the device that could interfere? Are you saying that the same file sounds much better in other Apps than MMA? Are you listening on device speakers, or wired or Bluetooth headphones?

It's true that MMA relies on the device itself for playback (and format support) for now.

I have no issue with the desktop version of MM. Maybe I've been using the desktop version for so long I don't know what I'm missing in other softwares when it comes to AQ. It's disappointing that there's no priority to address the audio deficit in the Android version. I guess my next step will be to look for a player that will be compatible with MM features/format.

Thanks for your comments.

Imaohw wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 6:37 pm

Can I infer by your response that I shouldn't expect MM to incorporate decent sound quality at some point?

If you look at what they have done with MM5 (or not done), I think you would conclude that moving the dial on audio quality is not high on their list of things to do. When programs like JRiver, Audirvana and roon (all more expensive than MM, admittedly) work to provide the highest quality audio, MM5 has made no steps to include higher res formats (such as DSD). I still appreciate MM4's usefulness in organizing and tagging music and syncing it to Android, but it isn't the best music player for Windows or Android. Since I don't use ratings or playlists (I prefer to listen to whole albums and let what I am listening to now determine what I want to listen to next) that Poweramp doesn't import them doesn't concern me.

Hi yarguy. Yes, but the ratings won't import into power amp, unless something has changed in power amp since the last time I tried. That also means the play lists won't work, since they are based on the rating.

Additionally, I use power amp for specific non-music audios and don't want to muddy the waters with 5000 or so songs.

Can I infer by your response that I shouldn't expect MM to incorporate decent sound quality at some point?

You can still use MMA to sync with your desktop. Poweramp will find the files you synced.

I bought the android version of MM a few years ago, but don't use it often because of the cheap audio it puts out. I reflected this in my playstore review and got a response from MM that Android MM uses the Android device's native drivers. This doesn't make much sense to me, particularly since my devices are Samsung Galaxys, which aren't exactly mediocre phones.

I also have PowerAmp, which has fantastic audio, but I have to give up MM syncing to my desktop MM music collection, which is a huge plus, if only the audio were up to par. Not much of a plus since I don't use it due to the poor audio.

So what's the reality? Do I just resign myself to expecting pitiful audio if I want to use MM, or am I missing something? Why would such a great program be relegated to an existence of pitiful audio performance? Doesn't MM care about sound for its Android users?

I hope this issue can be resolved somehow. I've been using MM since 2003 or 4.

Are others OK with the audio?