Does Overcast sound significantly better than Pocket Casts and Castro [POLL]?

I have heard many people say Overcast sounds better than Pocket Casts and Castro. I have tried all three and to my ears they all sound about the same sounds the same. Perhaps, as I am aging, my hearing is getting worse lol

Therefore, I am curious to get to the bottom of this. Is Overcast, in fact better in terms of sound or Not?

Please cast your vote:

  • Overcast sounds significantly BETTER than Pocket Casts and Castro
  • Overcast sounds about the SAME or SIMILAR as Pocket Casts and Castro

0 voters

Maybe people think louder (Voice Boost) is better?

And for podcasts (with mainly conversation) that might actually be true?

Interesting @rob you say that. However, all three of them have their version of voiceboost so not sure if that indeed is the case.

I use Overcast because of the speed-options and skipping silence. “Sound” is not that much important to because of the noises around me.

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As far as I know both Pocket Casts and Castro have variable speed and skip silence features.

@Hoppel Is Overcast doing something different?

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Sound is dependent on the speakers it’s coming out from. It might sound sub par on a pair of $10.00 headphones, good from Apple ear buds, very good from Apple air pod pro and the same time on a HiFi sound theatre set up it might sound exceptional. So it’s much dependent on the output device.

No wonder that’s why any audioholic would tell if it pleases your ears then that’s the device for you.

Also you need to ensure at what quality of downloads are the various podcasts are playing. Are they downloaded at same bit rate, are they streaming, are they on Wi-Fi or cellular.

With all things being constant, the one that feels better to your my ears, the ease of use, and the layout of the app is what I would pick up. For me it’s Overcast I landed upon after trying many podcast apps.

No, just started with Overcast. Tried the other two, did stay with Overcast. Maybe its time to checkout those again.

I voted for “sounds about the same” but I think Overcast does sound better but just not significantly so. I think volume boost works better on Overcast than on Pocket Casts and Castro. Skip silence is pretty much the same for me on all of them. The primary reason why I use Overcast though is that the sync is more solid than any of the others.

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I think they’re about the same. I think I preferred Overcast’s skip silence marginally more (IIRC it speeds up on silence instead of actually skipping, which sounds more natural), but I mainly picked it because a) a single dev builds it and b) I can fall back on the web app (or the Overcast iOS app on my M1) on desktop, vs needing to pay for Pocket Casts’ desktop app. Never tried Castro.

In my opinion, Overcast implements high speed playback best of the three.I can easily listen to spoken word podcasts at much higher speed than with Pocket Casts. And I think Overcast is much better than Castro for same, though it’s been a few months since I used Castro so I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on it.

I’ve got moderate tinnitus and a bit of hearing loss, so I’m far from being an audiophile. But I do love listening to podcasts, and listen to so many that I push the limit of high-speed playback to get maximum podcast playback.

And there was me thinking it was a poll on app names. ooops. :roll_eyes::rofl:

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The silence skipping in Overcast just somehow seems better implemented. Other apps that try to mimic seem very choppy compared to Overcast (to my ears anyway) for some reason.

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I find Overcast and Castro about the same on silence skipping, but Overcast’s voice boost worked better for me, based on a couple shows that have required a little more fiddling with the volume since switching.

Pocket casts sounds just as good to me. And I’m a lifetime member so no subscription.

Overcast’s voice boost is the best by a long shot. The compression and EQ Marco is using gives people’s voices clarity and increased volume without distortion is incredible. I find that you can hear the difference best in a car while driving.

This is coming from someone who uses Pocket Casts. I love the way Overcast sounds but Pocket Casts has a few more features I like.