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Sony Xperia 5 IV Audio Review

Rate this smartphone audio

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 32 22.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 68 48.6%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 29 20.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 11 7.9%

  • Total voters
    140

fordiebianco

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Triggered much? No. Just kind of annoying to have someone else making decisions for me, regardless of whatever government or entity they may be.
Like allowing you to carry guns or not having health insurance if you choose to?
 
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Sony's very expensive Walkman players also have only 1VRMS output for SE and 2VRMS for Balanced, what will you expect at the output of a Sony phone? I have the feeling that Sony is always overrate by everyone. For me, there will be no meaning of sound when the output does not have enough power. Apple's dongle with only $9 will also have 1VRMS output. I think this is better to pay for simple things that are born but not to use.
 
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xeizo

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I have the 5 IV, yes it's tiny - and very light - which I like as I think phones has been becoming too large. Regarding HP out, while not immensely powerful it can drive cans like ATH M50x, SHURE SRH840A, Aurvana Live, MDR-1AM2 and Beyer DT900 Pro X to ear bleeding levels. You don't HAVE to use a Hifiman HE6 on a phone.

Yes, there is processing going on, as Dolby Digital is on by default. Amir could have turned it off in settings to get better readings. Sound is subjectively very good, no distorsion and no noise. The killer app is Wavelet which works flawless on Sonys Android 13, you can get really good sound IRL(Wavelet recently had a Android 13 upgrade).

Battery life is silly good, which is also a great feature.

Camera is good enough, I don't care much about photography.

My BT Sony cans works flawless using LDAC.

The phone is waterproof, both IP65 and IP68 and has the latest Corning Gorilla Victus glass, so should be durable.

It takes 1TB SD cards.

If I absolutely must use a hard to drive can, I have the SXFI-stick, a miniscule Xiaomi dongle and the Topping NX-1, but it's nice to don't have to use a dongle. There are lots of good headphones that dont need more power than what the 5 IV provides. I hope Amir found out that you have to accept a warning box to get to higher sound output, as default is indeed limited.

So far I love the phone, it's virtually the exact same size as my old LG G7 which has a top tier ESS DAC inside and which Amir praised but which subjectively doesn't sound any better for normal listening imo. The gamechanger is Wavelet as i see it, not which DAC. I had a Xiaomi in between the G7 and the Sony, and I was indeed missing the HP out.
 
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KxDx

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The whole reason this is forced on us is to upsell what you say: a wireless earbud. There is no technical reason to have taken out the 3.5mm jack as evidenced by this flagship phone having plenty of room for it.
This is the truth. Apple started this shit, conveniently right after they bought Beats. "Courage" my ass.

I'm sick of narrow phone screens. I read side to side, not top to bottom. My favorite phone ever was the damn Blackberry Passport because of how easy to read the wide screen was. It also had a painfully powerful headphone jack. Damn I still miss that phone.
 
D

Deleted member 35357

Guest
I have the 5 IV, yes it's tiny - and very light - which I like as I think phones has been becoming too large. Regarding HP out, while not immensely powerful it can drive cans like ATH M50x, SHURE SRH840A, Aurvana Live, MDR-1AM2 and Beyer DT900 Pro X to ear bleeding levels. You don't HAVE to use a Hifiman HE6 on a phone.

Yes, there is processing going on, as Dolby Digital is on by default. Amir could have turned it off in settings to get better readings. Sound is subjectively very good, no distorsion and no noise. The killer app is Wavelet which works flawless on Sonys Android 13, you can get really good sound IRL(Wavelet recently had a Android 13 upgrade).
DT 900 Pro X.
I have those as well, though I haven't tried them on the Sony 1 IV yet. So they can be used on these without troubles I see?
Good to know & thanks about the hint about DD setting for future reference.
 

Billy Budapest

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This is the truth. Apple started this shit, conveniently right after they bought Beats. "Courage" my ass.
Apple is often reactive rather than innovative, but here you are right. In an effort to streamline, simplify, and make thinner, Apple was among the first to ditch the TRS plug.
 

Jmudrick

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I have some fond memories of my Sony Walkman w800i.. The LG phones can still be had for cheap, but no security updates,etc
Not true. My T-Mobile LG V60 is on Android 12 and received the usual security update a couple months ago. 5G, headphone jack , 1TB drive, wireless charging, great battery life (70 hours audio playback time), 4K 10 bit video capable.... For a quarter the price of the Sony.
 
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tifune

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I do. Wanted to avoid it but seems not possible. I am waiting for Feb 1 announcement of S23 if I go that route. I realized that with wireless charging, I can use the USB for audio and still be able to charge, albeit with the phone in the cradle of the charger.

I've used this without issue for some time now, the only complaint is playback briefly stops when you dis/connect charger. No longer available but I see a few alternatives

 

danadam

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Now I'm confused. Isn't USB-C purely digital? How can a passive adapter make an analog signal available that is not even on the connector? Why would one even think to put a CS43131 if there is no analog output for it?
From USB-C Audio Adapter Accessory Mode:
In this mode, all digital circuits are disconnected from the connector, and certain pins become reassigned for analog outputs or inputs.
 

staticV3

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In an effort to streamline, simplify, and make thinner, Apple was among the first to ditch the TRS plug.
Apple removed the Sim card slot on the latest models and put a plastic spacer block in its place:
Screenshot_20230120-135525_Chrome.png

I do not believe that they removed the jack in genuine search for innovation. They just saw a huge market opportunity and took it.
AirPods are a $10b industry at this point.
 

Svensson

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I have the Xperia Pro-1 which is similar apart from camera.

- Nightime pics aren't quite as good as my old Pixel, but not bad really.
- Other pictures are so good that I no longer routinely carry my Richoh GRIII
- IEMs and easy to drive 'phones play very much loud enough and sound very good via 3.5mm built in jack (goes through the Sony DAC)
- 1Tb microSD card holds all my FLAC files
- More serious listening is just marvelous with E1DA9038D dongle DAC and via Qobuz app or UAPP
- Screen and phone shape took some getting used too!
- I also browse, edit photo's / video's, read ASR, clear emails etc. in the tiny executive office that affords peace from the family
 

tomtoo

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That outputpower would take out all the fun. I not liste often loud but if i like to i like to.
 

juliangst

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0.5V unfortunately is quite normal.
There are plenty of high powered USB-C DACs but all lightning DACs I measured only had 0.5-0.7V output as well.
 

Multicore

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The market for phones here in the US is really weak. I currently have a Xiaomi Mi 9T. The features and price suits me well. But the front glass is getting pretty dinged up so I went to look for a replacement. Nothing appealing. Xiaomi has a model I'd like but I would have to get it on a gray market import (ebay) and support it myself (provisioning APNs etc.)
 

Svensson

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Yes to all your points @xeizo
LDAC to my Toping D90SE is excellent.
I'd forgotten to note Wavelet. Brings everything right from my ER2SE IEMs, my Sennheiser HD560S to my old Sony 1000XM3's can be made much better.



I have the 5 IV, yes it's tiny - and very light - which I like as I think phones has been becoming too large. Regarding HP out, while not immensely powerful it can drive cans like ATH M50x, SHURE SRH840A, Aurvana Live, MDR-1AM2 and Beyer DT900 Pro X to ear bleeding levels. You don't HAVE to use a Hifiman HE6 on a phone.

Yes, there is processing going on, as Dolby Digital is on by default. Amir could have turned it off in settings to get better readings. Sound is subjectively very good, no distorsion and no noise. The killer app is Wavelet which works flawless on Sonys Android 13, you can get really good sound IRL(Wavelet recently had a Android 13 upgrade).

Battery life is silly good, which is also a great feature.

Camera is good enough, I don't care much about photography.

My BT Sony cans works flawless using LDAC.

The phone is waterproof, both IP65 and IP68 and has the latest Corning Gorilla Victus glass, so should be durable.

It takes 1TB SD cards.

If I absolutely must use a hard to drive can, I have the SXFI-stick, a miniscule Xiaomi dongle and the Topping NX-1, but it's nice to don't have to use a dongle. There are lots of good headphones that dont need more power than what the 5 IV provides. I hope Amir found out that you have to accept a warning box to get to higher sound output, as default is indeed limited.

So far I love the phone, it's virtually the exact same size as my old LG G7 which has a top tier ESS DAC inside and which Amir praised but which subjectively doesn't sound any better for normal listening imo. The gamechanger is Wavelet as i see it, not which DAC. I had a Xiaomi in between the G7 and the Sony, and I was indeed missing the HP out.
 

staticV3

Master Contributor
Joined
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0.5V unfortunately is quite normal.
There are plenty of high powered USB-C DACs but all lightning DACs I measured only had 0.5-0.7V output as well.
You can get 4Vrms out of an iPhone relatively easily. Just get a thumb drive DAC with balanced output and Type-C female input (Hidizs S9 Pro, MoonRiver2, L&P W2, Quloos MC01, there are dozens really) and pair it with a Lightning to Type-C OTG cable (again, dozens of those online).
 

vkhong

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Aug 13, 2021
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I don't lug big headphones with me outside of home. IEMs is what I use so these phones are fine for me.
I prefer IEMs too. I would go for something like the Fiio BTR5 to keep my phone wire-free. The BTR3 has Bluetooth LDAC which works well with my Google Pixel phone.
 

Severian

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My favorite Android phone ever was the Samsung Galaxy S10e with its reasonable size, expandable storage, and headphone jack. The S21 I have now has felt like a downgrade in nearly every way.

That said, during the 18 months or so that I had the S10e, the only time I ever used the headphone jack was on a vacation to Japan where it was very convenient to connect to displays of audio gear in shops.

These days I just use a Qudelix 5K with LDAC and Plexamp streaming from my home server and mobile audio feels like a solved problem.
 
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