A constant question (especially since the N800 vs. iPod touch article) is "how good is the Internet Tablet's audio?"

The thing is - I am not qualified to answer. I have no idea. My ears can't tell the difference. Can I get regular (and high-end audio aficionados) opinions on this?

the ipod touch has better audio quality, this is not surprising as the ipod touch is more music oriented. however, i still believe the SQ on n800 is superior to that of the iphone.

The quality is good but the connector sucks...

Instead of a separate Mic jack and a clean, 3 pole audio out jack; the tablet combines the two with a proprietary, 4 pole A/V jack.
Getting clean audio to a standard 3.5 audio in jack found in cars and stereo equipment has been problematic.

It would help if Nokia provided such a patch cord though.

BTW, it's not the equipment that limits audio quality. MP3's @ even 192kHz leave something to be desired... IMHO

Your ears can't tell the difference, or you don't have the cans to tell the difference? Cheapest solution: research the matter, and find a pair of headphones that suits your listening style. Maybe burn them in for 5 days (and in that interim, compare them against your usual pair of earbuds/cans so you can pick up the usual headphone freak differences, then do a blind side-by-side comparison.

If that's too tough for you, feel free to send me an iPod touch, and I'll be happy to run them out.

As it is, I'll say that the n800 don't produce noise like my cheap PC headphone jack.

If you can't hear the difference what 'sthen the problem?
Or you're happy with the result or not, no?

But I did not knew about the jack... makes my orderd N800 little less attractive....

I am a bit of an audiophile but I have a really nice setup with an iRiver H320 and an external amp for my IEMs. This is way better than what you get out of an iPod and it definitely sounds better than the sound coming out of my n800.

However, I am curious about whether or not it is possible to connect a USB soundcard to the 800 through the USB OTG connector. If it is possible, then I would like to purchase iBasso D2(still under development). The combo of n800 + D2(or other USB DAC) has the potential to be the best portable audio setup on the planet.

The iRiver H120 has optical out, but it is an old player and is still HDD based. Being able to use the n800 along with some advanced music applications such as Amarok simply cannot be matched by anything else(Rockbox is awesome, but Amarok is awesomer.

The iBasso D2 is finished but apparently they are having problems getting a case supplier for it

http://ibasso.com/ShowNews.aspx?ID=63

This is not going to come cheap though. Id say about $150 minimum, and even then there is no guarantee that it will actually work with the n800s USB slot.

There are other USB DACs as well, but iBasso has made some nice stuff in the past, and I am looking forward to this one.

As far as the cable goes, I haven't had a problem (so far) with getting decent audio out from the n800. But that design has given me problems insofar as only Nokia's earbud headset (that I know of) uses it for microphone as well.

Honestly, it is something of an issue, but ITTs are not billed as PIMPs, and as pretty as Apple stuff is, it's about it's about as audiophile as Bose stuff: pretty, pricey and consumer grade.

the n800 makes a fine pmp. quality is on par with the 5g ipods. just make sure to get a decent app. nokia's media player has crappy navigation and no eq.

and the supplied earbuds SUCK. even apple's supplied ipod earbuds are 10x better.

i use a pair of shures, so music sounds amazing. i use ukmp and canola.

Having had both devices (about to part with the iPod to go back to the tablets), I can't tell the difference. Using the same headphones, sound quality seems to be the same for me. And I can usually pick out small quality differences. But I wasn't using Nokia's Media Player, I used Canola.

The audio quality doesn't even begin to compare to my $4500 receiver/amp, or even to a cheap $500 surround system, but then again it's not really meant to. Audio/multimedia might be an important part of the Internet Tablets, but it's not the only thing it's designed to do. Compromises have to be made for an all-around device, as opposed to a true stereo which only has to one thing well: audio.

I'm not one of those idiots who buys $7000+ speaker cables, but I do consider myself a discriminating listener and I'm satisfied with the audio quality of the Internet Tablets for general purpose listening.