Well, just so the answer is out there for the anonymous googler (or MR browser), audio on the Nook Color is terrible. It's easily the device's worst quality.
My only headphones at present are some worn-out Apple earbuds, and I used them once to listen to an audiobook--the only thing I noticed was that the volume was quite low, but otherwise I won't base any impressions on that experience.
Today, however, I decided to compare some music player apps for sound quality, and tried out the NC on three different sound systems in the process:
1) The Nook Color's speaker.
2) Lined in to an iPod dock with an unshielded 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable.
3) Lined in to a shelf stereo system with a 3.5mm-to-dual-RCA cable.
Okay, the built-in speaker is crap, obviously. It's tiny, points backwards, and there's only one. My cell phone speaker can drown it out, though the sound is marginally better on the NC. It's actually halfway impressive the sound quality they get out of the tiny speaker, but I still couldn't imagine using it for music. It's serviceable for tv shows, but I would probably still pop in earbuds if I had them handy.
Connecting to an outside sound system was what really underwhelmed me. For the two systems I tried, the NC produced drastically lower volume than anything else I've ever plugged into them. At what would be a loud volume for my phone, iPod, or an instrument, the NC's output (at its maximum volume) was barely audible. With the systems cranked to achieve an ambient volume, the sound was tolerable, but washed out in comparison to other sources.
There was also occasional skipping or stuttering in playback, which is really odd considering how well the thing handles video.
I'll give it another go when I have some decent headphones, but so far the answer to my question:
Quote:
Originally Posted by taosaur
I'm a low-to-middling audiophile--stock iPod earbuds don't cut it, but standard mp3s on my old iPod Video with $20 Skullcandy buds was fine. Is the NC up to that standard?
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No. No, it's not.