Sony Xperia 5 IV Audio Review

[dananski]

Phew, I was very close to buying this as the only phone hitting all my criteria. I just couldn't justify the cost.

There were some Motorola and Oppo phones in my 'compromise' category, but I think I'll eventually just bite the jackless phone bullet and try a dongle or a Topping G5.

Cortex X3 looked very promising for this year's new flagships.

 

[Marc v E]

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..

My Samsung has LDac. I'm almost 100% certain yours has it too. Press the bluetooth icon in the top menu and after that the 'wheel' icon next to your device.

Like this:

 

[Marc v E]

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

I had a Samsung S7. The best phone I ever had, though I didn't realise it at the time.

Btw cracked screens can be repaired for a reasonable price by Samsung. Their phone repair service is the best I experienced from any company. They collected my phone from home, repaired it delivered it back in a short time. Communication was great too.
Mind you, this was in The Netherlands, Europe, but I suppose it's the same in the US.

 

[julian_hughes]

ROG Phone 5 has powerful audio output but no wireless charging. Samsung A52s is no top tier and has also no wireless charging but otherwise a great and inexpensive phone. (SD, Audio Jack, 120hz OLED, good cpu) Xperia is perfect for Fiio FD5.

I recently replaced my Sony Xperia 10 II with a Samsung A52s. It's really nice and I'd say superior in every way to the Sony except it has an under screen optical fingerprint reader which isn't as convenient as the way Sony embed a truly excellent and instantaneous reader in the power button. Audio output is substantially louder than with Sony Phones and certainly sounds at least as good. With the Sony I nearly always used a dongle as output was so low, but with the Samsung I just plug right into the headphone jack. The Samsung camera is also much, much better.

I had two Sony Xperias, an XZ1 followed by the 10 II. Sony "promise" only 2 Android version upgrades but sometimes change their mind and you only get 1 and then that's it. Not even security patches. That's the main reason I switched back to Samsung after 4 years of Sony. I *know* I'll get 3 full upgrades (had one already) and then two or three years of fixes. My old Galaxy Note II (2012 model) got 5 years of patches. I have other Android devices which got only one upgrade and then were abandoned (avoid Lenovo!) and after a couple of years they lost their Netflix support and can't even sideload Netflix app, so lack of support can mean losing features and apps, not just missing out on something inconsequential.

Anyway if you want a 3.5mm jack, don't need wireless charging or HDMI output then the A52S is a really nice choice for music lovers. It takes a microSD so you can put all your music on it (I have a 1TB card in mine).

 

[amirm]

My Samsung has LDac. I'm almost 100% certain yours has it too.

Indeed. All my LDAC testing was done with my Samsung S8+.

 

[Jmudrick]

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.

They did but are still providing software updates. Don't forget support for micro SD to 2TB and better battery life (playback time) than any dedicated DAP on the market.

 

[Rottmannash]

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.

that's how I use my S21+ in the car.

 

[Rottmannash]

I am not looking for fidelity -- just convenience of not having to charge a wireless earbud, or needing a dongle for normal headphones.

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.

Let's remember that my current phone has this. And its performance is quite good despite its age. For just a bit more performance, I don't want to give up this jack.

Almost tempted to get a Samsung S10 which was the last generation with headphone jack. Alas, it has no 5G support. And security fixes will no longer be coming post this quarter.

I just happen to have a retired S10+ sitting in a drawer somewhere...

 

[Rottmannash]

5G

Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G handson review

This year's first edition of one of the most exciting annual smartphone events has finally arrived - the tenth-generation Samsung Galaxy S flagship series...

www.gsmarena.com

I have a S10+ and it does not support 5G. That why I gave it to my partner and bought a S21+ 5G. They may have sold a S10+ 5G version but I've never encountered one in the wild.

 

[Rottmannash]

This post made me to take out my old Samsung Galaxy Note 4 again. There is a feature “adapt sound” which is I think quite interesting. It tests the hearing of your ears and adjust the frequencies for each of your ears. I plugged in HD599 and turn on the “adapt sound” function. Subjectively not bad at all.

View attachment 258498

I remember that on one of my older Samsung phones but it was presented in a different display-seems like you had to choose how old you were and it adjusted the curves accordingly or one could let it create one for you? Been too long to remember correctly but the result wasn't bad.

 

[Labjr]

I had a Samsung S7. The best phone I ever had, though I didn't realise it at the time.

Btw cracked screens can be repaired for a reasonable price by Samsung. Their phone repair service is the best I experienced from any company. They collected my phone from home, repaired it delivered it back in a short time. Communication was great too.
Mind you, this was in The Netherlands, Europe, but I suppose it's the same in the US.

What is considered reasonable? Most of those repairs are fairly expensive in the U.S. unless you go to one of those 3rd party guys in the shopping mall. And they use aftermarket parts. Of course you could attempt to repair it yourself but it's not for the faint hearted. Need a lot of patience.

 

[PeteL]

I’m a high school teacher. Kids know I’m into audio and sometimes ask about headphones to get; they won’t touch anything unless it is wireless and has ANC. >80% have AirPods anyway (I think Apple claimed they are now the #1 selling headphone in the world?).

They sure are by a huge margin.

 

[Rosenbloom]

I remember that on one of my older Samsung phones but it was presented in a different display-seems like you had to choose how old you were and it adjusted the curves accordingly or one could let it create one for you? Been too long to remember correctly but the result wasn't bad.

You firstly need to wear an earphone/headphone, listen to various “beep“ noises of different frequencies, and then tell the phone whether you hear the beep or not one by one.
It is found that my left ear is a bit weaker than my right one, although both are regarded as healthy.

 

[Rottmannash]

You firstly need to wear an earphone/headphone, listen to various “beep“ noises of different frequencies, and then tell the phone whether you hear the beep or not one by one.
It is found that my left ear is a bit weaker than my right one, although both are regarded as healthy.

Ah, that's not what I was thinking of. That sounds pretty forward-thinking but did one have to go through this process for each IEM/HP one used? And would it remember each profile for each IEM/HP?

 

[Lunafag]

I just got one of these for my IEMs. Can't trust phone manufacturers with sound quality.

Spoiler

Hope Amir measures some.

 

[Marc v E]

What is considered reasonable? Most of those repairs are fairly expensive in the U.S. unless you go to one of those 3rd party guys in the shopping mall. And they use aftermarket parts. Of course you could attempt to repair it yourself but it's not for the faint hearted. Need a lot of patience.

I checked the samsung website.
My phone can have a battery and screen replaced for around 120 euros. But when I changed to S8 it became double the price. Not sure why because I have an amoled screen too.

 

[Brianc]

Wish the Sony Walkman streamers were available in US, but given this poor review maybe they aren't any good either...

 

[julian_hughes]

Wish the Sony Walkman streamers were available in US, but given this poor review maybe they aren't any good either...

I tried a Walkman NW-A55L a couple of years ago and returned it. The output impedance was obviously too high as it made my balanced armature headphones sound pretty awful. And it's a database based player but it had no search. Doh! You can only add tracks to a playlist, not whole albums or directories. Good points were physical buttons, huge battery life, plenty of power for driving headphones, nice FM radio and a way to switch off Nanny EU's volume limiter. But I've got too used to the conveniences of Rockbox (random folder advance, parametric EQ, adjustable crossfeed, replaygain, customisable home screen and shortcuts etc) on a DAP and BubbleUPnP and Neutron on Android phones so I sent it back and eventually bought a Fiio M3K which has similarly huge battery life and better output than a phone, including the LG V20 I used to own (good audio, atrocious phone). I still use the Fiio a lot.

 

[Futility]

...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.

My situation is quite the opposite - we have AC on for 10 months a year.

I have just replaced a Yamaha A-S3000 with Buckeye Amps. I will sure miss the VU meters but not the heat it generated.
Perhaps, you could use that extra warmth for about $3K. Or maybe you're interested in testing it. If so, please let me know.

A-S3000 - Features - Yamaha - United States

Profoundly accurate sound with the full expressive power of the music. Exceptional sonic purity, elimination of signal loss—in an exquisite, elegant design.The supreme culmination of the Yamaha line—the A-S3000.

usa.yamaha.com

 

[xeizo]

My situation is quite the opposite - we have AC on for 10 months a year.

I have just replaced a Yamaha A-S3000 with Buckeye Amps. I will sure miss the VU meters but not the heat it generated.
Perhaps, you could use that extra warmth for about $3K. Or maybe you're interested in testing it. If so, please let me know.

A-S3000 - Features - Yamaha - United States

Profoundly accurate sound with the full expressive power of the music. Exceptional sonic purity, elimination of signal loss—in an exquisite, elegant design.The supreme culmination of the Yamaha line—the A-S3000.

usa.yamaha.com

I wish I could do the same with my RX-A2050 but I use it's multitude of inputs and would need a preamp with similar functionality. A preamp with that functionality is sadly astronomical in pricing, it is cheaper to live with the current draw.