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What happens when you put together a group of audio professionals in a room and ask them to spend a decade working on an app that will put the experience of listening to music on a level never met before? What if you asked them to come up with a bunch of algorithms that would adjust even the most subtle nuances in music to sound its best based on the era the music was released? You might say it was an impossible task, but the impossible has just become possible. Psyx by Pysx audio touts itself as being the most advanced music player for the iOS platform incorporating over 170 algorithms to give you the best possible music listening experience.

Putting The Work In

When you load up Psyx for the first time, you know you are dealing with something first class. The player has what you would expect in most music players - Shuffle functions, navigation buttons and sorting capability. Its interface is what makes it stand out. Psyx has a clean elegant modern design which could easily make your device the centerpiece of wherever it is placed.

Material can be sorted by artist, songs and album. Album covers if available are displayed along with relevant tune information. Playlists on your device are also accessible. When in Album mode, tapping on an album will reveal the songs contained within. In song mode, tapping on a song starts it and brings up a new display in which the artwork for the song takes up most of the display while navigation and volume controls are conveniently placed beneath it.

Color Me Bad

The highlight of Psyx is the ability to select color profiles to maximize the listening experience of the tune currently playing. Six such color profiles exist – Azure, Gold, Scarlet, Emerald, Ivory and Onyx. Calling up any of the color profiles will display important information about it. Four main attributes are adjusted with each profile – Dynamics, Image Width, Artifact Management and Articulation. Different results are based on – The amount of compression in the song, the era of the song, the playback medium, background environment contamination, condition of the listener’s hearing and the listener’s expectation.

In the information display for each color profile, you get a diagram showing what happens to the image width. With “Scarlett” the “Front” is aggressive, the “Back” is Medium Wide and “Artifact Control” is medium. Additionally, you get an explanation as to what the profile does. The “Azure” profile info says that it is a “percussionist’s dream with smooth high end.  Our favorite was Emerald. We found that the high end was nicely pronounced. Mid ranges were tamed a bit and the low end was compressed giving a nice clean sound.

Verdict

At $6.99, Psyx is not comparatively cheap, but consider this music player to be in a league of its own. This is for the audiophile and music lover to whom detail is a very big deal. Add to that there are no ads to speak of and that it is cleanly designed and very easy to use. We have reviewed music players that cover none of these points and are more trouble than its worth. We hope to see the developer adding more color profiles to bring up the wow factor.

If how your music sounds is important to you, then we strongly suggest you give Psyx a shot.

GMA