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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

Jmudrick

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Lol dope to see lots of people talkin bout the v60. And also the LG phone love . One thing tho, my v60 keeps turning itself on when I've turned it off to charge. ...I guess the battery has lasted pretty nicely (I laid out for the qualcomm 4+ charger, and also was far more obsessive than nearly anyone else would be as far trying to protect the life of the battery). This thing definitely doesn't drive anything other than sensitive earphones to satisfying volumes...I got mine used, lookin close to new, maybe a handful of months after it came out, have used it intensely, gettin a little annoyed by the battery being worn. Sucks lg's gone ...Gonna be looking into this not having "android resampling" the audio signal business, my ignorant ass is just hearing about this
Sure it depends a lot on what you're trying to drive and whether you have to trick the phone into high impedance mode. It recognizes my HE-4XX as a High Impedance device and a volume setting of 67 is plenty loud for me.

Still a 1.5 to 2 day phone for me.
 
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Real surprised by how healthy people's batteries seem to be, wonder how, it seems, I messed up. What you said about recognizing the impedance, I haven't come across this??
 
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Very much appreciate the info :). I don't even have a debit card right now, do you need this app to change the impedance mode?
 

Jmudrick

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Very much appreciate the info :). I don't even have a debit card right now, do you need this app to change the impedance mode?
No the app will only tell you which mode you are in. You'll have to use an adapter or other trickery discussed in forums elsewhere (probably YouTube) to change the mode if you want to increase maximum output.
 
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I wonder how people are equalizing on this phone. I have these audeze earphones with a sorta flat response and it kills me that the stock equalizer has a band centered at 2khz and band centered at 4khz, when it's a boost at 3 that you want for earphones, just so frustrating I feel like I know in between these bands is what will make this sound bearable
 

Jmudrick

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I wonder how people are equalizing on this phone. I have these audeze earphones with a sorta flat response and it kills me that the stock equalizer has a band centered at 2khz and band centered at 4khz, when it's a boost at 3 that you want for earphones, just so frustrating I feel like I know in between these bands is what will make this sound bearable
FWIW USB Audio Player Pro allows use of Morphit profiles for specific headphone models .
 

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dartinbout

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Rather then curse the darkness, why not use any of the myriad other applications to playback audio with customizable equalizer settings? I just glanced at Poweramp and Neutron settings with enough bands to play anything but DSD, at a level of granularity, to make ever the most OCD of us happy?
 

dartinbout

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Real surprised by how healthy people's batteries seem to be, wonder how, it seems, I messed up. What you said about recognizing the impedance, I haven't come across this??
One of the faults LG brought to the audio portion of the phones is they never explained adequately, to the audiophiles, is that this phone just doesn't come alive until you plug an actual, high impedance headphone into it and it kicks in quad ess dac. IMHO anything less (and even trying to trick it with a 75 ohm dongle) doesn't give this DAP with a phone a fighting chance to show it's excellence. The Venture Electronics buds are the cheapest point of entrance, but my V20, and now my V60 do a fair job of playing my HD650, ATH-MSR7, Fostex\Argon R50's and a few IEM's bought for their impedance.

There is so much unusual tech buried in the later LG phones that many people overlooked. LG did a horrible job selling their tech in a world where your IPhone orders TP for you, automatically, every time you make a "boom-boom". Digging into the camera and video controls can produce stellar results, It's capacity to record music serviceably in live environments at 24\192 can produce wonderful music on playback.

It's unlikely we will ever see the likes of it again. A replaceable battery, a full functional DAP and a headphone jack isn't a phone that will be made for the mass market. Walking around SF, 99.9999% of the cellphones I see are IPhones with the ubiquitous earpods. I have referred elsewhere to Apple's walled garden as an audiophobe's playground. Sure recently Apple has made a steps forward to play screeching autotune low res pop songs in 360 but ICGAS even if I was prepping for a coloscopy.
 
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xeizo

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FWIW USB Audio Player Pro allows use of Morphit profiles for specific headphone models .

There is also Wavelet.

Profiles can't be used in bitperfect Direct Mode though. It's the same as on Windows when using exclusive mode/ASIO you can't use EAPO+PEACE.

However, bitperfect do work just fine on the Xperia 5 IV using UAPP!
 

A Surfer

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I am a fan of ONKYO HF Player which has a pretty solid equalizer built into it. I ended up preferring it over Neutron as Neutron frankly was just so complex in terms of available settings that for what I needed just wasn't worth it anymore.
 

Jmudrick

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There is also Wavelet.

Profiles can't be used in bitperfect Direct Mode though. It's the same as on Windows when using exclusive mode/ASIO you can't use EAPO+PEACE.

However, bitperfect do work just fine on the Xperia 5 IV using UAPP!

I don't mess with EQ on the V60.
 

375HP2482

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Had to shake my head when Apple introduced their disposable earphones.

Never had a smartphone, but saw the Pixel 3a's Night Sight and was hooked. OLED display, 3.5mm Audio Out too. When they "upgraded" to the Pixel 6's using their own chip, killed the 3.5mm. Support for the 3a ended last summer, don't care.

Some of the Pixel 5a are 5G and still supported.
 

natna

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What a pitty for the Experia...

My beloved LG V40 is still kickin' hard soundwise. Not only for the "quad" dac. It's sound recording capabilitiy with the native App, was great!
The camera was a big disappointment, though...

Don't get me wrong, but I'm not very happy with the new mobile offerings. Even flagship phones aren't really such all round performers...
 

Jmudrick

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What a pitty for the Experia...

My beloved LG V40 is still kickin' hard soundwise. Not only for the "quad" dac. It's sound recording capabilitiy with the native App, was great!
The camera was a big disappointment, though...

Don't get me wrong, but I'm not very happy with the new mobile offerings. Even flagship phones aren't really such all round performers...
The camera is the primary reason I have both V60 and Pixel phones. The front camera on the V60 is actually better than the Pixel but although the latest GCam apps work well on the V60 the back camera doesn't match the Pixel in difficult light.
 

Jimster480

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What a pitty for the Experia...

My beloved LG V40 is still kickin' hard soundwise. Not only for the "quad" dac. It's sound recording capabilitiy with the native App, was great!
The camera was a big disappointment, though...

Don't get me wrong, but I'm not very happy with the new mobile offerings. Even flagship phones aren't really such all round performers...
It is true, the new phones are all not that impressive. If it wasn't for the lack of band support for my LG G8 with todays carriers; I wouldn't have upgraded. However the Screen and Speakers and performance are definitely worlds better than my LG G8. But I did give up my amazing headphone jack for one that can't really power any half decent earbuds. However I can still use it for Aux in my 4 cars with Aux and it still sounds much better than Bluetooth!
 

A Surfer

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Looking at the field, I just ordered a case for my LG G8X. There just are no really compelling phones that I can get with any of the major carriers. The LG has a solid camera (my life in pictures doesn't demand the best anyway) I don't use the speakers, and I try to limit my phone time anyway, so I don't have to see the screen that much.

Now I want a new phone and there are some incremental reasons to consider getting a new phone, just none that are really worth taking on 2 years of phone payments. Whenever I do the math, it is always worth financing the phone through the carriers two year payment plans. My G8X is now paid in full so I'm going to see how long I can go without pulling the plug on a new phone, which I want, but certainly do not need.
 

Jimster480

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Looking at the field, I just ordered a case for my LG G8X. There just are no really compelling phones that I can get with any of the major carriers. The LG has a solid camera (my life in pictures doesn't demand the best anyway) I don't use the speakers, and I try to limit my phone time anyway, so I don't have to see the screen that much.

Now I want a new phone and there are some incremental reasons to consider getting a new phone, just none that are really worth taking on 2 years of phone payments. Whenever I do the math, it is always worth financing the phone through the carriers two year payment plans. My G8X is now paid in full so I'm going to see how long I can go without pulling the plug on a new phone, which I want, but certainly do not need.
Sounds like a good plan, especially if you don't face connection issues
 

don'ttrustauthority

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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.
Wireless earbuds are very cheap these days and come with a container that gives them over 24 hour life, and is easy to charge.

I bought the TruthEar Zero because of your review and I love how it sounds, especially the euphonic subwoofer!, after awhile I find it too large for my ear canal. I also have the 7Hz Salnotes Zero which is a better fit but not as good sounding, still suits my portable needs.

With wired IEMs I use a DAP, to save battery life on my phone. I also carry a dongle but I lose 'em and never use 'em. Not necessarily in the order!
 
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