Sony Xperia 5 IV Audio Review

[NiagaraPete]

My home’s original owner sadly didn’t have Ethernet run in the walls when it was built in 2001 (I do have phone jacks all over ). I tried to make it work with 2 Ubiquiti AP’s on the top floor, but I still has some dead spaces and some Smart lights outside had spotty coverage. Recently switched it out for a ~$100 3-pack of TP-Link Deco mesh units and it works amazingly (2 on top floor and 1 on bottom).

Well you got lucky. For the most part TP-Link equipment is crap.

Normally in a home like mine a AmpliFi mesh works great, just add mesh points as needed.

 

[MZKM]

The whole thing led to me leading the company a couple of years later.

 

[MZKM]

Well you got lucky. For the most part TP-Link equipment is crap.

Normally in a home like mine a AmpliFi mesh works great, just add mesh points as needed.

The Deco line is well received. Does good for the money in comparisons and while there are a dozen or so models/bundles, mine has a 4.5/5 with >25000 reviews.

Amplifi is too much for me, looks like $165 for 1, whereas I paid $100 for 3. I know they get even more expensive than that depending on the bandwidth/tech, I see Netgear has a 3pack mesh for $1100.

 

[TonyJZX]

oof that typo is legendary

or are we seeing Satya when he's not leading a trillion dollar company.

 

[Roland301]

Were LG phones last ones to feature 2Vrms with 3,5mm jack? I noticed there were some Vivo phones with CS43131 but without jack, you had to use passive USB-C to 3,5mm jack adapter at least (also I didn't find them measured anywhere). At times GSMarena measured audio output, I remember they often praised Motorolas for having "louder" output.

funny&sad trivia: I let my LG V30 jack get repaired, still waiting for a reply from service guy if he manages to obtain spare part

I found myself frustrated by the LG jack, because despite being fully capable of driving a 32 ohm load up to about 1.8Vrms when tricked into doing so, the headphone jack will limit its output to just 350mv when anything lower than 50 ohms is plugged in. This is barely enough for many iems, when replaygain is used. Some other phones with "quad dac" i think also have this impedance detection (anti)"feature", although their 32 ohm mode is a much more reasonable 1Vrms.

And to add insult to injury, it will periodically lower my volume and tell me I'm listening too loudly, when I'm just trying to power my less sensitive headphones.. It is confusing why nobody ever thought to make this a manual gain setting in the software, if it's a feature targeted directly at audiophiles.

Oh, forgot to mention there is also a "line out" mode that triggers when plugging in >600 ohm device... which is 1Vrms instead of 2Vrms. I guess it would help with crappy consumer devices that don't handle 2Vrms and ignorant consumers who don't think to simply lower the volume.. but again it's directly screwing over an audiophile feature that is a big selling point of the phone. It also makes tricking it into 2Vrms mode harder, because instead of just plugging in a short extension before the headphone, I also have to plug a 60 or 300 ohm load into that extension (I use an old broken ksc75), then unplug that and plug in my 32 ohm headphones. It's way more cumbersome than just using a USB-C dongle at that point.

 

[TonyJZX]

i had an V30 too... amazing phone, excellent quad dac

bad unfixable boot loop problem

 

[Jmudrick]

i had an V30 too... amazing phone, excellent quad dac

bad unfixable boot loop problem

I still have my V30 doing guestroom streamer duty. The V60 is a much much more polished device, it's been virtually annoyance free.

 

[AndreaT]

So, in the end: low output voltage (Why the EU mandates such low number? Ah! they must have been too busy counting the money from bribes, pork and graft to worry about consumers, see Qatargate news), poor multitone, inadequate Wi-Fi functionality, poor camera and wrong aspect ratio. This from a leader in consumers' electronics. A major misstep. I am left to wonder how a dedicated, inexpensive, reasonably functional music player like the Hidisz AP80, currently on sale, compares to iPhones and Sony Xperia. Are they asleep at the wheel in Minato City?

 

[Morpheus]

Hi Amir, and thanks for the review, its really pertinent.
I totally get your gripes..I sorely miss the days of memory expandable, capable headphone out flagship phones, when a 6"1 on a 16:9 ratio would display more usefull content than todays slimmed proportioned 6,7". They are a pain to pocket, too tall to operate confortably with one hand, and only a 6,8 or 6,9" gives me the screen width I find confortable and natural to read on as I do a lot of it.
I thought this was going to be a quick fad, but its taking its time to wane.
Had an Experia ZX3 before my current Sammy S21 ultra...Loved it, was a probably the best manufactured piece of machinery I have ever seen, almost alien in sleekness ( that extra hard curvy black glass back was something, so polished it would creep away with the slightest surface tilt), but this S21 runs circles around it, espc.in the camera. That Sony had the latest, best sensor at the time, but Samsungs and Apples of the day left it in the dirt for pictures.
Audio output is good sounding and manageable with Samsungs USB C to 3,5 mm jack converter driving my Drop 650 ( wavelet app can get me a couple of much needed dbs in preamp gain), but LDAC on the Sony was great, as I mostly use my Sony Wireless XM4 buds anyway.
All in all, it is not strange that cellphone wise Sony is where it is...so many bad calls, its chilling. Would hate to see them go the way of the LG..

 

[Fidji]

Another critique was the cost of the 1 Mark IV. Thinking the 5 Mark IV is just lower res version, I purchased it, not realizing it actually has slightly smaller display. This, turns out to be a showstopper. You can't quite tell from above picture but these phones from Sony are quite narrow with an aspect ratio of 21:9. Normal HDTV is 16:9. What this means is that if you watch 99% of online content (other than movies), you wind up with significant black bars on each side. This is not much of an issue with OLED displays given their strong blacks. However, your video frame is now quite small. You can zoom in to use the full screen but now you lose top and bottom of the display. Forget about reading subtitles for example as they get half chopped off. Online video consumption is a huge part of my mobile phone use so this is really bad hit as far as usability for me.

As some might remember, phones are are for making calls, sending messages and such stuff. Meanwhile they became quite powerful computers, but they will always physical limitations - e.g. lens, or screen size.

I never understood people willing to torture themselves by watching videos on the tiny screens (like my wife), so to me complaining about this is In the category - you got what you deserved. Video will not be really enjoyable even on IPhone Pro Max, it will be compromise on iPad Pro. Is like complaining, that you do not get proper sound quality from your small Bluetooth speaker.

Does anybody know, what happened to those small rectangular things made of paper? Blooks? Pooks? (If you need to waste some time)

 

[pianolover]

Reviewers brag a lot about LG V60 ThinQ 5G phone. It has audio jack and 32-bit/192kHz audio processor. I think LG quit smartphone market, though.

 

[kongwee]

I will rather buy BBK phone like Oppo, Vivo or Xiaomi, not for audio jack. Used to like Huawei. Just no point to buy other brand. Of course, these brand I listed maybe compatible issue in US network.

 

[DWPress]

I've got an iPhone 6s I'll send you for free...

 

[AndreaT]

As some might remember, phones are are for making calls, sending messages and such stuff. Meanwhile they became quite powerful computers, but they will always physical limitations - e.g. lens, or screen size.

I never understood people willing to torture themselves by watching videos on the tiny screens (like my wife), so to me complaining about this is In the category - you got what you deserved. Video will not be really enjoyable even on IPhone Pro Max, it will be compromise on iPad Pro. Is like complaining, that you do not get proper sound quality from your small Bluetooth speaker.

Does anybody know, what happened to those small rectangular things made of paper? Blooks? Pooks? (If you need to waste some time)

I agree, mostly. Books are invaluable for understanding complexity. SOA music system invaluable for focused music listening. Small iPhone screen useful for videos about car, dishwasher repair, programming of smart thermostats, etc…Intelligible sound on iPhone useful for video calls, hands-free calls. Did you notice how we haven’t yet reached the audio quality of old corded 1970’s phones yet on our smartphones? I asked once in an ASR forum what is the sampling rate and the bit modulation of most cell phones calls: I still miss the higher fidelity of corded phones when discussing sensitive and controversial topics. I still wonder if any of the carriers could offer, for a price, premium fidelity for human voice transmission & reproduction to return to the 1970’s quality.

 

[spigot]

Tempted to buy this, but I've got a 2016 Oukitel U20 Plus, fully loaded with android 7, that eventually boots up.

 

[Roland301]

I agree, mostly. Books are invaluable for understanding complexity. SOA music system invaluable for focused music listening. Small iPhone screen useful for videos about car, dishwasher repair, programming of smart thermostats, etc…Intelligible sound on iPhone useful for video calls, hands-free calls. Did you notice how we haven’t yet reached the audio quality of old corded 1970’s phones yet on our smartphones? I asked once in an ASR forum what is the sampling rate and the bit modulation of most cell phones calls: I still miss the higher fidelity of corded phones when discussing sensitive and controversial topics. I still wonder if any of the carriers could offer, for a price, premium fidelity for human voice transmission & reproduction to return to the 1970’s quality.

It's not just cell phones, all phone systems these days use a lot of compression to fit more lines into the same bandwidth. Current mobile phone carriers have a higher quality service called VoLTE, but it's only between smartphones, not smartphone to landline calls.

 

[oversky]

I am not millions of people. It is just one of me. We live in an area where we have heat on about 8 to 9 months out of the year. So no heat generated goes to waste. It heats up the house. The other millions are situated differently although where Greta lives, is similar to our case.

Now, the alternative charging solution is one of the reasons I need to upgrade my phone. The USB-C port on my Samsung phone has become flakey and either accepts no charge, or tiny amount. Dumping the phone for this reason will cost the planet a lot more than power loss of the wireless charger. Having an open port in a device that you keep putting in your pocket full of lint and such, and friction of plugging/unplugging the charger cord is a bad idea to base your solutions.

Just in case you forget this, S8+ has wireless charging.
I would buy a wireless charger and keep using S8+.

 

[amirm]

Just in case you forget this, S8+ has wireless charging.
I would buy a wireless charger and keep using S8+.

I have a wireless charger for home. On the road I like to have wired charging. The phone also has a cracked screen....

 

[usersky]

You’re right, it should be lower honestly.

0.5 volts is enough for 110dB on most IEMs, 100 dB on most headphones. No Kid should be exposed to that.

Then again a lot us here or people in general are not kids.

 

[xeizo]

Nevertheless, dongle or not, the Sony Xperia 5 IV headphone output do sound very good and loud enough with most headphones. Only those hard to drive cans will encounter any problems. I still think it's nice to not have to use a dongle.

Regarding size, it's a matter of taste, personally I rather take the smaller size and better portability than a large easier to read pad. YMMV.