• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Mobile phones and sound quality

Soniclife

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 13, 2017
Messages
4,500
Likes
5,417
Location
UK
GSM Arena usually have some measured data on the headphone out in their reviews. Nobody seems to want to measure output impedance, sadly.
 

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,370
Likes
234,402
Location
Seattle Area
Nobody seems to want to measure output impedance, sadly.
Not here :). I measured mine:

upload_2018-2-20_14-37-7.png
 

S63tu

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2018
Messages
3
Likes
6
Only phones I've heard that were good sounding were the LGV10 and 20. My girl has the V30, but I've yet to listen...finding this information out has been difficult for me.

I used my Note 8 the other day for the first time to listen to music. Such a horrid experience. I haven't used an unrooted android phone for audio in quite some time, and I was immediately reminded why. I did enjoy the LG phones audio capabilities very much I must admit. The Samsung phones, in my experience, are very underpowered, and I don't enjoy the sound at all. I need viper4android to enjoy music on this device. Just not worth rooting anymore though since I have dedicated daps.
 

Snafu

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2018
Messages
223
Likes
140
I got Oppo Reno and it sounds pretty good (Tidal app) even with Oppo PM3 headphones. Does anyone know what kind of dac it has ?

all info i found was:
3.5mm jack Yes / Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
24-bit/192kHz audio

If anyone knows measurements, that would be great. Thanks
 

BDWoody

Chief Cat Herder
Moderator
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
6,948
Likes
22,625
Location
Mid-Atlantic, USA. (Maryland)
Only phones I've heard that were good sounding were the LGV10 and 20. My girl has the V30, but I've yet to listen...finding this information out has been difficult for me.

I used my Note 8 the other day for the first time to listen to music. Such a horrid experience. I haven't used an unrooted android phone for audio in quite some time, and I was immediately reminded why. I did enjoy the LG phones audio capabilities very much I must admit. The Samsung phones, in my experience, are very underpowered, and I don't enjoy the sound at all. I need viper4android to enjoy music on this device. Just not worth rooting anymore though since I have dedicated daps.

The main reason I got my LGg8 was for the emphasis on audio.

Headphone jack, very good DAC... I don't care about the camera... I've been more than happy with the sound quality of my phone.

It's worth the extra money to me for the flexibility it gives to effectively walk around with a desktop quality DAC (by measurements).
 

vert

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
284
Likes
256
Location
Switzerland
I will be replacing my smartphone soon. Currently have a three-year old Xperia. Are the tests on gsmarena trustworthy? As per them Samsungs top all categories including audio quality. As much as I hated my wife's Samsung a few years ago they seem to have gone a long way,again if that site's reviews are to be trusted.
 

Snafu

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2018
Messages
223
Likes
140
Samsung... Schiit of phones and everything... :D

samsung hard drive, fails, printer, fails, tv fails, display fails. Thanks but no f'n way i'm gonna even think samsung labeled product.
didn't they have their own commercial push system in their tv's ?
 

vert

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
284
Likes
256
Location
Switzerland
This site typically conducts a limited performance analysis of the audio subsystems of the devices they review:

https://www.gsmarena.com
Yep... and according to them Samsungs have the best audio performance... some are as good but not better, or marginally. I'm oversimplifying, but that was what came out, by and large, after reading a few reviews of different phones.
 

ernestcarl

Major Contributor
Joined
Sep 4, 2019
Messages
3,106
Likes
2,313
Location
Canada
I used to use portable DAC/amps with my smartphone religiously. I've all but given up on that now as the inconvenience experienced is just not worth it. But yeah, I will always try to find reviews first before committing to different smartphone...
 

Berwhale

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
3,934
Likes
4,924
Location
UK
Most of the time reviews of mobiles focus on screen, camera, power, weight, whatever but rarely on sound quality.
Most of the time one can’t even find out what DAC has been used.
Found and exception to this rule.
https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/how-to/top-4-phones-for-music-lovers-audiophiles-0175956/

Why not just take the phone out of the equation with some decent software and a Bluetooth DAC/Amp with LDAC?

I use: https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/products/usb-audio-player-pro

And: https://drop.com/buy/radsone-earstudio-es100

Note that UAPP will also work directly with DAC in supported phone (bypassing Android Audio components), there's a list of supported phones here: https://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/hires-audio-driver
 

Julf

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
3,004
Likes
3,998
Location
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Why not just take the phone out of the equation with some decent software and a Bluetooth DAC/Amp with LDAC?

Why would you, if the phone is more than good enough?
 

SIY

Grand Contributor
Technical Expert
Joined
Apr 6, 2018
Messages
10,386
Likes
24,749
Location
Alfred, NY
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus might boast superior audio when compared to Apple's previous offerings, but that only applies to the built-in speaker quality. And besides, iPhone 7 models were immediately ruled out because they don't have a headphone jack, which means that music can only be listened to over Bluetooth or via the Lightning port. Both of these conduits are severely lacking when compared to audio from a 3.5 mm jack.

So they didn't bother looking at the iPhone plus Lightning-to-3.5mm dongle, which is a great pity given the superb performance.
 

bravomail

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
817
Likes
461
old post and old article. GSMarena stopped testing audio too. I found one for Note 9. Not for Note 10 or S10.
 

Berwhale

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
3,934
Likes
4,924
Location
UK
Why would you, if the phone is more than good enough?

I have several personal reasons...

I use a phone for many purposes and I don't want my choice of phone constrained by the audio components within in it (e.g. many new flagship phones do not have a 3.5mm jack and none have the 2.5mm balanced jack for my IEMs)

I find that cables wear out very quickly when plugged straight into a phone - I commute for 2 hours per day on foot and via train, so sometimes the phone is in my hand, other times it's in my pocket, having the phone joined to my ears via a cable is a PITA.

I can pair my ES100 with both my Note 9 and my Huawei tablet (which doesn't have 3.5mm audio).
 
Top Bottom