What smartphones have the best headphones output?

[desura]

Right now, I'm listening to music on a Nokia 820. I think that the audio is significantly better than my 5g ipod touch. There just seems to be more detail. Only downside is lack of gapless playback (which is jarring).

Any others? I've listened to an HTC Evo 3d...and the sound was horrible. Lots of hissing noise.

 

[Crono]

The One is good (decent built-in headphone amp), and I've heard that the S4 is pretty good, too. What I've read says that the S4 might be better than the HTC One for headphones, but the One is definitely better for its speakers. But both are supposed to be very good versus the competition. I'm very happy with the audio quality on the HTC One, with or without Beats enabled. Beats definitely helps with the output volume and bass when enabled. while off it is good for music with greater dynamic range and detail. You wouldn't want it on for classical music, for instance.

The iPhone 5 is up there, too. I haven't done a comparison with a lot of other phones. The Lumia 920 and 521 I've used, and they are pretty decent.

Head-Fi is probably a better place to ask. I'm sure there are some reviews and comparisons there.

 

[desura]

built-in headphone amp? don't...all phones have built-in amps?

Surprised that the S4 is considered good...I've not really been impressed by Samsung devices. They seem like the Acer of Smartphones.

 

[Crono]

built-in headphone amp? don't...all phones have built-in amps?

Surprised that the S4 is considered good...I've not really been impressed by Samsung devices. They seem like the Acer of Smartphones.

I meant that the built-in amp is good. No idea what they are using, it just sounds pretty good to me versus other phones. I love music and listen to a ton of genres as well as spoken word/podcasts, but I'm not really an audiophile, though.

From reviews, it's a "2.55V headphone amplifier", the same as the one in the Droid DNA, and is also in the One Mini. No other information about it from what I can see.

Not sure about the S4, I haven't used headphones with the device the few times I've played with one. IIRC early reviews said it was good, but some quick Googling now turns up results about distortion. So honestly I don't know.

EDIT: On Head-Fi, its seems a few posters like the Note 2 for its output impedance. HTC One, iPhone 4S/5, and Note 2 seem to be good by consensus. SGS4 doesn't get quite as much love as I initially thought. Some of the early reviews for the GS4 are more positive than what I've read now from forum posters.

 

[kyrax12]

Is it me, or is the S4's speaker really low?

I usually have to turn it to max to have any significant volume changes.

 

[mike5757]

The Galaxy S4 headphone output is pretty good. In my opinion, it's on par or better than my old iPhone 4 which I've read is excellent. I'm surprised the 5G Touch audio isn't as good as the 820's.

One problem with the S4 is when I try to set the volume too high it will give me a message about harming my hearing before letting me change it. If the screen is off, it vibrates and then lets me turn up the volume. Also the difference in volume levels between each "click" is a bit large, probably larger than my iPhone.

As for the S4's speaker being too quiet, I only have that issue when I put it down on a fabric surface. The speaker gets muffled easily. Otherwise, it's pretty darn loud (for a smartphone).

 

[kyrax12]

Does anyone here know what kind of earphones that comes with the S4.

When I got the S4, it came with a set of earphones that I am not familiar with.

 

[dawheat]

Does anyone here know what kind of earphones that comes with the S4.

When I got the S4, it came with a set of earphones that I am not familiar with.

I believe it's the Samsung HS330 - which are basic OEM headphones, but I believe considered pretty good for the category.

 

[Shackanaw]

Brian Klug mentioned this in his Moto X review:

Lately I've been getting more and more jaded about line out quality on devices. There's something about close proximity to a transmitter and the confined spaces in a smartphone that makes getting good clean audio a challenge for everyone. That said I was impressed by the sound quality on the Moto X both on line out, on calls, and on the speakerphone. I'm doing subjective reviews of audio line out quality until we get a new testing methodology from our Display (and Audio guru) Chris Heinonen, after he gets access to a new test bench. I listened to a lot of music while traveling on the Moto X using my Shure SE535 IEMs and came away pretty impressed. I've heard a lot of smartphones that either lacked a lot in the mids, had discernable noise, or various issues driving IEMs at low volume, but I didn't encounter anything negative on the Moto X.

So, we will hopefully see more in-depth and objective analysis of this aspect of smartphones in the future.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The LG g2 should be good, they have made some nice audio improvements. Aside from that Samsung devices with Wolfson audio have always been exceptional, sadly the Qualcomm powered models don't have it.

 

[Brian Stirling]

The HTC One is decent, and better than most, but to drive better quality cans you're better off with an external amp with a bit more umph...

I have the One and added a JDS Labs C5 to drive a good Sony MDR-1R headphone and there more than enough headroom with the amp. Driving the MDR-1R without the external amp you just lose too much, particularly in the lows.

I have also had an iP4, a SGNexus and an HTC Evo 4G and the HTC One is as good or better than the other phones, but, once again, to drive better headphones you need more power than phones have...


Brian

 

[lothar]

What smartphones have the best headphones output?

The phones that have a Wolfson DAC.

 

[Oyeve]

Ironically I find iPhone to have the worse sq for headphones. I say ironic because they are the iPod creators. My s4 and s3 can drive my upper tier headphones rather well and using dvc in poweramp greatly improves sq.

 

[Deeko]

HTC. Beats isn't a gimmick. The One and 8x have the best headphone output of any phone I've ever had.

 

[kyrax12]

Ok anyone here tried the S4 background noise reduction? Does it work amazingly well in places with a lot of people talking?

 

[zerogear]

Beats is an software equalizer on HTC.

 

[WelshBloke]

The phones that have a Wolfson DAC.

This, pretty much.


Beats are OK if you like lots of bass, they make some of my classical music sound horrible.

 

[BigDaddyD]

Ironically I find iPhone to have the worse sq for headphones. I say ironic because they are the iPod creators. My s4 and s3 can drive my upper tier headphones rather well and using dvc in poweramp greatly improves sq.

Why is this ironic? Ipods are widely known to be some of the worst sounding mp3 players out there. They just happen to be the most commercially successful. Those are two completely different things. There are things that can be done to make them sound way better, and you can check that out on headfi, but out of the box, their sound has always sucked. Many people have been using line out docks on those for years to make the sound passable. a $40 sansa sounds way better than an Ipod. The aftermarket accessories and the interface are what make the Ipod so great. And yes, I have had 3 Ipods. They are great, but could be better.

 

[Brian Stirling]

HTC. Beats isn't a gimmick. The One and 8x have the best headphone output of any phone I've ever had.

I have the One and have Beats turned off. My audio player, Poweramp, has a better eq so that's what I use to adjust the audio. But, the power output from the onboard amp isn't quite capable to properly driving my headphones so I have the JDS Labs C5 external amp to handle that for me.

In my car I have a thumb-drive with 16GB of music that I play through the cars audio system (2012 Ford Focus Titanium with MFT and Sony sound system -- not to bad actually).

The speakers in the One are not bad either, but the quality from my headphones with external amp blows away the speakers...


Brian

 

[Apex]

The phones that have a Wolfson DAC.

I believe it has to do with implementation as well. That's why reviews show the US S4 i9505 (Qualcomm DAC) edging out the International S4 i9500 (Wolfson DAC).

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_i9500_vs_i9505-review-930p5.php

Both are quite clean and flat though.

 

[desura]

re: Beats.

It's just an EQ, right? An EQ that Dr. Dre spent some time on and approved of.

and I honestly hate to think that I'm paying money for some celebrity endorsement.

But...at least with Beats phones you get a guarantee that they put some focus into the headphones output so it isn't terrible.

 

[JAG87]

I've always used the iPhone headphone output and I have never found any issues with sound quality. Funny how some people here are offering advice when they clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

Beats... EQ... lol. Anything done in post processing cannot be used to define sound quality. Wolfson DAC? Please, a DAC hardly makes any difference at all.

The only thing you should focus on is output impedance, and the impedance of your headphones. The output impedance should be as close to zero as possible, and your headphone impedance should be as low as possible to avoid the need to drive the op-amp to distortion levels, or the need for an external amplifier.

If the output impedance is high, then you starting having issues. Your headphone impedance either needs to match or be higher (and you may have to use an external amplifier). If your output impedance is higher than your headphone impedance, you start to completely change the frequency response of your headphones.

Just for everyone's information, iPods and iPhones have use good op-amps with output impedance under 5 ohms, which makes them sound accurate with just about any headphone (although high impedance headphones may need external amplification). So if your sound quality is shit out of your iPhone, it's clearly your headphones.

So OP, next time you think something doesn't sound right, find out the output impedance of the device you are using, and the impedance of your headphones, and you'll have your answer. The former should ALWAYS be lower.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I would doubt anyone could detect much difference between DACs and think the amp is more important. Not snake oil amp stuff, mind you, but many phones have pretty wimpy amps and even the better ones are a little light on power.

There are some headphones and ear buds that are very efficient and can play loud enough with most phones, but many of the better cans are not so efficient and need a more powerful amp to make them work.


Brian

 

[ChronoReverse]

Beats... EQ... lol. Anything done in post processing cannot be used to define sound quality. Wolfson DAC? Please, a DAC hardly makes any difference at all.

The only thing you should focus on is output impedance, and the impedance of your headphones. The output impedance should be as close to zero as possible, and your headphone impedance should be as low as possible to avoid the need to drive the op-amp to distortion levels, or the need for an external amplifier.

While your first statement is technically true, the second part is why so far the phones with a wolfson DAC are better if you have a low impedance headphone. Every phone with a wolfson DAC simply has a better amp capable of driving lower impedance headphones compared to most other phones.

Even for the GS4, while the qualcomm model has similar (or even better) fidelity, the Exynos version with the Wolfson can drive better headphones without an external amp.


Because of the correlation, it was simply assumed causation I suppose.

 

[JAG87]

While your first statement is technically true, the second part is why so far the phones with a wolfson DAC are better if you have a low impedance headphone. Every phone with a wolfson DAC simply has a better amp capable of driving lower impedance headphones compared to most other phones.

Even for the GS4, while the qualcomm model has similar (or even better) fidelity, the Exynos version with the Wolfson can drive better headphones without an external amp.


Because of the correlation, it was simply assumed causation I suppose.

Great, but the DAC has no correlation to what the device can drive. Unless it's some kind of a DAC/AMP combo, the DAC itself just converts digital to a pre analog signal and plays no part in amplification.