Damien Saunders

The HTC Magic came out recently, so far its a exclusive to Vodafone. As a phone it has all the features you could desire, but its music player needs an over hall – first problem is the volume, its just too quiet.

In a crowded room, on the London Tube or just working out at a gym the volume from the HTC Magic’s is just a whisper of what it should be – or am I going deaf?Critcally I’m one of those people that always has the volume set to full – to drown out the outside world and I use in-ear headphones so you don’t listen to my stuff.

I put the HTC Magic through its paces using the standard in-box headset, a bluetooth stereo headset and using my top end Sony headphones plus an HTC USB to 3.5mm adapter.

Thats right the HTC Magic only has a USB port for power and accsories, HTC says this might change in the future. The phone’s media player also only has a volume control and no equaliser tools – and no Android apps as yet have this.

HTC’s own headset

This is not one to wear in public or at the gym, its big and bulky with its own rectangular volume controller. The high notes and vocals sound clean – its good for midrange but lacking bass notes. Listening to Underworld’s Everything Everything was nice – the downside was the noise leakage as I could tell people on the Tube didn’t like it.

Bluetooth Stereo headset

Listening to the same Underworld album was just upsetting. The same headset coupled with the Sony Ericsson W715 provides a great aural pleasure.  The HTC Magic bluetooth audio channel must have a volume limiter. I could hear everyone on the Tube and that annoying gym pump music.

USB to 3.5mm with Sony Headphones

This was the surprise winner … never using a USB to 3.5mm adapter, I thought it was going to impact the audio quality. Across the ranges, the audio sounds clear and vibrant. The volume passed through was also good enough to convince me to use it.