Headphone Audio Quality

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King of Heroes

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 26, 2008
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Been using Nokia MixRadio alot, both with earphones and through my car stereo. So much so that its actually replaced my Sansa Clip Zip as my primary source on the go. Audio quality through Lumia 521 was surprisingly decent (though I feel my Clip Zip still sounds better). It made me curious to know what other smartphones have good to great audio quality through 3.5mm out. Anyone have any anecdotes or hard data to share?
 
According to reviews and mathematical/scientific data, the HTC One is currently topping the charts. I typically go to head-fi or avsforum for this information. I use to have the HTC One before the Nexus 5. The One is clearly superior in this category, especially in speakers, but I can still tell a difference plugged in too with the same pair of UE's.
 
CHANG3D said:
According to reviews and mathematical/scientific data, the HTC One is currently topping the charts. I typically go to head-fi or avsforum for this information. I use to have the HTC One before the Nexus 5. The One is clearly superior in this category, especially in speakers, but I can still tell a difference plugged in too with the same pair of UE's.
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I've heard that HTC One's audio is unparalleled, though thats usually addressing the speakers. I haven't seen much if any comments talking about the headphone output (well, until now). Good to know. Any idea what phones might come in second?
 
CHANG3D said:
According to reviews and mathematical/scientific data, the HTC One is currently topping the charts. I typically go to head-fi or avsforum for this information. I use to have the HTC One before the Nexus 5. The One is clearly superior in this category, especially in speakers, but I can still tell a difference plugged in too with the same pair of UE's.
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The tests mean little with aux in. Distortion will typically be VERY significantly lower in that configuration as the load impedance is much higher and thus easier to drive. Distortion will likely be more than 10x as high when using headphones. The THD in many home receivers just going from 8 ohms to 6 gets ~10x worse (at a slightly higher power level).

My LG G2 sounds fine using aux in the car, even though it (and the N5) do NOT do well in headphone tests (which kind of makes me regret the purchase a bit, but fortunately I rarely use it with headphones). I'm not sure I'd be willing to buy an otherwise worse phone unless I were frequently using headphones with it. I don't think the Snapdragon 800 in my G2 is all that good, and almost definitely wouldn't be satisfied with the 600.

Edit 3: I was editing this to mention that I'm dumb and immediately forgot the title of the thread (lol), but OP beat me to it. I'm leaving the post to point out that aux in is much easier than headphones, but yes, HTC One is a good choice with headphones and also with phone speakers (which are also AWFUL on the G2, by the way). Kind of an outdated phone already otherwise.

I'd also look into the Xperia Z1 and see if that's got good audio. I know the One beats the S4 and G2, but I don't know how the Z1 may compare. The Z1 was the phone I really wanted, but they delayed the version with support for AT&T's LTE band 4 for way too long (not sure if it ever came out at ALL, really).
 
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King of Heroes said:
I was asking about headphones and aux-in.
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There are a lot of great phones out there for audio. I personally think the Z1 sounded the best when tested using 555's. My Note3 gets hooked up to my car stereo a lot and it sounds great as well.
 
Ive had the Note 3 , HTC One, and Lg G2 IMO the LG G2 sounds the best headphone wise using Westone W4's, the HTC One is pretty close though, hated the note 3's sound quality
 
Interesting.. Well the LG G2 theoretically should sound better as it has that "24-bit / 192kHz", which is better than the HTC One and the Note 3. I personally have the Z1 and have owned the S4, and I think the S4 sounds better than the Z1. I tested the two device using a pair of K3003i. However, I honestly think that sound is a very subjective thing, so what I hear may be entirely different from what you hear. Anyways, just wanted to add some input regarding your curiosity.
 
I read from head-fi that the Nexus 5 and LG G2 do not sound the same. I have to say that my Nexus 5 sounds muted... Maybe I got used to the loudness of the HTC One, which doesn't speak much about quality; but what's the point if you can't hear it?
 
TheMusketeer said:
Interesting.. Well the LG G2 theoretically should sound better as it has that "24-bit / 192kHz", which is better than the HTC One and the Note 3. I personally have the Z1 and have owned the S4, and I think the S4 sounds better than the Z1. I tested the two device using a pair of K3003i. However, I honestly think that sound is a very subjective thing, so what I hear may be entirely different from what you hear. Anyways, just wanted to add some input regarding your curiosity.
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They tested some phones over on Anandtech and the N5 and G2 (especially the N5) did HORRIBLY. There may be variance between units, but probably not enough to make these phones very good for audio, unless their test results are simply way off.
 
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The speaker on the G2 sucks the HTC one is a lot better..but we're talking about line in quality I cant speak for tests that have been done but I have owned a lot of phones.

Imo the G2 sounds the best, sound is also personal preference I have also flashed viper4android for it so it's improved the SQ and given me a lot of different eq's. I did the same with the One but the G2 sounds clearer and cleaner to me.
 
Are you going to use the phone for calling at all or just in your car? There are a few models of samsungs galaxy phone's that have wolfson dacs and I believe the samsung charge and iPhone 4 have wolfson dacs as well.
 
elzeus said:
Are you going to use the phone for calling at all or just in your car? There are a few models of samsungs galaxy phone's that have wolfson dacs and I believe the samsung charge and iPhone 4 have wolfson dacs as well.
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The DAC isn't actually all that important compared to the amp.
 
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