'Galaxy S6 sound quality is best'

Kim Juntai, senior vice president at Samsung Electronics' audio research group, poses with Galaxy S6 and a headphone during an interview at the company's technology compound in Suwon on the skirt of Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Samsung expert vows to boost audio features

By Kim Yoo-chul

Samsung Electronics has dramatically upgraded the sound quality of its flagship Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge mobile phones , a senior executive said Thursday.

“Sound quality is an important part of the multimedia experience on all mobile devices. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have had an overhaul in surface design and Samsung paid more attention to how important sound quality is to the overall experience,” said Kim Juntai, senior vice president at the company's audio R&D group, during an interview with The Korea Times.

The executive stressed that his team is proud to have what it calls “organic sound” inside the two new Galaxy phones.

“In order to understand the importance that consumers place on mobile audio, Samsung teamed up with other business divisions to have the best components for natural sound,” he said.

Kim has been working in the audio industry for almost 30 years and is now in charge of developing audio technology for the world's biggest smartphone manufacturer.

The executive said the concept of audio has shifted from just receiving and calling as more smartphone owners use their device for mobile media.

“As the S6 and S6 Edge are premium devices, Samsung decided that audio quality was a very important purchase consideration. By developing new software systems and structures, we've sought to offer clearer sound to users regardless of the external environment,” the executive said.

Software tweaks have strengthened the bass-heavy equalizers, improving sound quality markedly without sacrificing clarity and neutrality, he said.

As for which part Samsung focused on improving for greater sound quality, the executive stressed its best efforts went toward audio codec.

Audio codec is a computer program implementing an algorithm that compresses and decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file or streaming media audio coding format.

“The codec chip is really important for clear sound. Samsung has developed new codec chip-embedded technology for speakers, amplifiers and receivers,” he said.

“That was a huge challenge. Samsung returned to the basics for the all new Galaxies, our team also had to start from ground zero. But it paid off,” Kim said.

As mobile phones are getting slimmer, Kim said his team had seen some difficulties realizing natural sound in a limited space.

Parks Associates recently surveyed about 1,000 smartphone users in five countries ― the United States, France, China, Korea and Germany ― and in the United States, it was those phone movie viewers between the ages of 35 and 44 who say that sound quality was important when watching films on smartphones.

New ecosystem

Mentioning Samsung's moves in developing a new ecosystems for hardware and software, the executive said the company is also on a track to create an ecosystem in audio technology.

“Through the Samsung Mobile Accessory Partnership Program (SMAPP), Samsung is collaborating with top-tier audio firms such as BOSE. This is part of our strategy to construct an audio ecosystem,” Kim said.

Given Samsung Electronics' leadership in home appliances and smartphones, the executive said his team is positioned well for further expansion.

“Smartphone is everywhere. You need high quality sound from wearable devices, online streaming amid connectivity. Audio technology is expandable and Samsung is ready to lead the trend,” Kim said.

For customer satisfaction, Kim said his team runs various units to receive real-time feedback from users to reflect different requests from people in all walks of life.

Understanding cultural difference is another challenge, he said.

“This is why psychoacoustics also matter. Sound quality might not be a crucial selling point, but enhanced mobile audio features have a clear and immediate impact on the smartphone experience,” he added.