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So I've been looking all over the internets for good audio quality comparisons between all sorts of different phones and media players (just for the fun of it). I wanted to buy a nice pair of affordable headphones and to see which mp3 would let me get the best sound quality and user experience out of them. After a lot of research (approximately 5 days) I ended up getting the Koss PortaPros for a discounted price off amazon (and yes they are genuine). The sound quality is a real upgrade over most headphones I'v used for a period longer than a couple of days (Iv used Bose IE8, the pathetic Dr Dres, Senheisser HD280s, and the Grados S60s) .
But one thing kept bugging me. Everytime I have looked around for reviews on the Nokia 800's sound quality through headphones, all I'v heard is either complaints, even after the 12070 update, or people saying that the sound quality is mediocre at best. I do not consider myself an audiophile or an expert, but i tried my hand at this in any case.
I took out my Sansa Clip+, the Nokia E5 (that I had been using as my mp3 player even though I used the Desire S as my daily driver before the Lumia because of the ease of searching music and sound quality) and compared it with the Lumia with the Koss PortaPros, JVC Marshmellows and the Creative EP630s.
Now I listen to most of everything I can get my hands onto. There was a whole lot of Lana Del Rey, Drake and YMCMB, Guns N Roses, Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Gotye and of course Nujabes. All my music is 320kbps .mp3. I'm not an expert or anything so please feel free to correct me where ever you think I'v made a mistake or said something wrong. Everything I heard was on the default equalisers with no effects on.
The Nokia E5.
Now according to GSMarena, the E5 has the cleanest output they've heard in a long time and audio quality is generally great. Putting on the JVCs and the EP630s, the E5 actually sounds pretty good. Its clean, its got that clean unmuddled thump and the mids are as good as those cheap headphones can deliver. The problem occurs when you put on the Koss. The sound widens up but it feels like its lacking somewhere. You can hear the vocals clearly but its cold and dull. As though theres a part of the song missing.
Sansa Clip+
Technically I should be using this as my main mp3 player if I really care about sound quality. The sound through these in every category, be it Bass heavy or adult alternative was better than the E5. They were louder, wider and i could here each and every instrument separately, they were bassier and the clarity was top notch. But going through a list of 800 songs on that tiny screen gives you a right headache. For what its worth, this is a winner right here.
Nokia Lumia 800
Now technically this should have the worst sound quality out of the lot. Its been dissed publicly, and the first post you get when you google its sound quality is a post on the Nokia forums talking about its disastrous sound quality through low impedance headphones before the 12070 update, and some even after it. Now listening through the JVCs and the EP630s it is clear as day. The Nokia Lumia 800 was never targeted to be used as a dedicated mp3 by anyone who cares about sound quality. The sound was just bassless and muffled. Not as bad as my Nokia C2, but quite bad. I felt disappointed until I listened to the same songs using the Koss PortaPros. I couldnt believe how good things sounded. Ellie Goulding's Home, Drake's Miss Me, Nujabes' Song of Four Seasons and Foster The People's Helena Beat. All of them sounded The Best I'd ever heard them. Now I dont know how. Or why. They sounded rounded, warm and nothing over the top but still really good. Listening to the same songs again on the Sansa Clip+ should have removed the placebo effect, but it was clear. The Sansa had better stereo separation and a wider sound, but the Lumia sounded better (to me) with more detail in the lows, very very good unmuddled bass (the sansa was bassier but it felt almost overpowering with the Koss), and clear vocals with it. The sansa Clip was alot louder on the highest volume setting but if you dont want to blow your ears ff, the Lumia does a commendable job. Plus the interface on Zune is miles better than anything that tiny screen can offer.
Now if I had my iTouch which I recently sold I wouldve loved to compare it with the Lumia as well, but the Sansa Clip+ sounds better than the iTouch so thats not a big problem. I would love to hear people who have Sony walkmans or Cowon's media players to make comparisons though.
Have you guys ever compared the sound on different media players or different headsets? Noone ever discusses the Lumia series as a media player. This might help. Please feel free to correct me and add your own experiences.
Nice review.
Before I got my Lumia 800, I had a Samsung Nexus S, and I can clearly tell that the Lumia 800 is the inferior media player. The main reason is not even the sound quality, but the fact that there's no equalizer settings on the Lumia 800. That, and it doesn't support FLAC. There's no such thing as Voodoo Sound either.
The sound quality itself is not bad at all on Lumia 800, but it's WAAAAAY worse than the Nexus S. Obviously because the Nexus S had a God-tier Wolfson DAC.
So, I got my One yesterday and I've been playing around with it quite a bit since then. I have to say that the speakers didn't really blow me away, but they are a lot better than most phones I have heard. I think it is quite silly of HTC to be bombarding the TV with commercials about the speakers when the camera is a better feature in my opinion. Anyways, I tried the included headphones and was pretty disappointed with them. They felt cheap as hell and I thought that the sound coming out of them was pretty crap. Thankfully, I recently purchased a pair of Klipsch Image x10s so I threw them on and I was very impressed with the sound coming out of the phone. It is super powerful. I am listening at 75-80% right now and it is almost painful. The Beats audio "enhancement" is pleasureable to me, but in reality is just adding some low end emphasis to the EQ settings. Still, it results in a fuller sound and I am porbably going to leave it on permamnently given how night and day the difference is through the BoomSound speakers without it. I know a lot of people have been saying that the audio quality wouldn't be as good as the S4 because that has the holy Wolfson DAC, but I have to say that I think the audio coming out of the One is clean, crisp, and has no appreciable noise as far as I can tell. What do you guys think?
Ya my wife usually makes fun of all my android phones when it comes to audio output volume / clarity compared to her iPhone. For the first time ever she was very impressed. That's as unbiased as it gets.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
NikAmi said:
So, I got my One yesterday and I've been playing around with it quite a bit since then. I have to say that the speakers didn't really blow me away, but they are a lot better than most phones I have heard. I think it is quite silly of HTC to be bombarding the TV with commercials about the speakers when the camera is a better feature in my opinion. Anyways, I tried the included headphones and was pretty disappointed with them. They felt cheap as hell and I thought that the sound coming out of them was pretty crap. Thankfully, I recently purchased a pair of Klipsch Image x10s so I threw them on and I was very impressed with the sound coming out of the phone. It is super powerful. I am listening at 75-80% right now and it is almost painful. The Beats audio "enhancement" is pleasureable to me, but in reality is just adding some low end emphasis to the EQ settings. Still, it results in a fuller sound and I am porbably going to leave it on permamnently given how night and day the difference is through the BoomSound speakers without it. I know a lot of people have been saying that the audio quality wouldn't be as good as the S4 because that has the holy Wolfson DAC, but I have to say that I think the audio coming out of the One is clean, crisp, and has no appreciable noise as far as I can tell. What do you guys think?
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I agree. though I would argue the speakerphone is better than the camera, relative to my last phone at least, the note 2. speaker was pretty loud on that, but quality was bad. The one is louder and more clear for me, while I'm kinda meh about the picture quality.
attached files related.
first is with a 15w florescent bulb lighting my room at night and -2 sharpness, and the second is with my monitor being the only ambient light in night mode. Good? Yes. Better than my note 2 was? probably. Great? Eh.
though on a note: I was surprised in the second one: the photo is actually a little brighter than the scene was to my actual eyes. somewhatimpressed/10
Hello!
I've been checking all the reviews possible and forum threads from all over the place, but I still can't quite get a grip about the quality of the NC31EM earbuds.
I currently use Beyerdynamic MMX 102 iE with the Z3, and while the quality is good, I felt the power was lacking. I added a Fiio E6 to the mix, and I am quite happy with the sound. However, the extra box and cable is annoying me.
Many professional reviews gush about the quality and value of the NC31EM, but I don't get if that is compared to $100 earbuds like the Beyerdynamic, or just compared to standard smartphone accessories. The Sonys are cheap, so I think I will buy them just to test the NC feature out.
But are there anyone who could say if they prefer the NC31EM to more expensive earbuds and how they sound in comparison?
PePPiZCH said:
Hello!
I've been checking all the reviews possible and forum threads from all over the place, but I still can't quite get a grip about the quality of the NC31EM earbuds.
I currently use Beyerdynamic MMX 102 iE with the Z3, and while the quality is good, I felt the power was lacking. I added a Fiio E6 to the mix, and I am quite happy with the sound. However, the extra box and cable is annoying me.
Many professional reviews gush about the quality and value of the NC31EM, but I don't get if that is compared to $100 earbuds like the Beyerdynamic, or just compared to standard smartphone accessories. The Sonys are cheap, so I think I will buy them just to test the NC feature out.
But are there anyone who could say if they prefer the NC31EM to more expensive earbuds and how they sound in comparison?
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Try the MEElectronics M-Duo, not noise cancelling at all but, read reviews despite its $50-60 cost it competes easily against many $100+ buds. They are also pretty resilient despite being abused.
http://www.androidauthority.com/best-android-2016-audio-738746/
I suggest giving the kernel that @freeza developed a try. Then report DAC Noise.
Usually AA does good articles. Article is good but can't trust the number. Axon 7 having the worst dac??? Galaxy s7 beating it quality wise? Impossible. I came from an s7 and that thing sounded horrendous. My hugest dislike was its poor quality sound from speaker and headphones.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
Haha I'm in wireless sales have used every high end phone... This is bs sorry.. I own the Moto Z Force as well as the A7... I can tell you from being on my 2nd Moto Z that this is absolute nonsense... The Moto ZF worst sound quality ever S7,S7e haha
https://youtu.be/dTsg7EyYKFM somebody make a mistake. Pocketnow or Android Authority? Pocket now clearly present at https://youtu.be/dTsg7EyYKFM?t=406 that Axon7 have -105.1Db, better than LG V10, so.... and the graphics are clear presented not only numbers.
Can't agree to that test. I'm running Firmware B08 and now B09. I would say it sounds like my LG V10 witch brings a little more Volt on Headphone output.
Way better than the Samsung S7 Edge. A least with Audio DAC enabled. Even Dolby Atmos sounds better than Samsung. When you listen to the Snapdragon DAC sucks like Samsung.
I read this as measured outputs and not actual quality. I wonder if they actually listened to any music, at all.
Sent from my ZTE A2017G using Tapatalk
The problem is like on the Beoplay H6 1st edition. They sound pretty good but a lot Smartphones can't drive them properly. Still sounds really good but sometimes you like to hear a song louder and for that you need the build in amp with more than 1 Volt. And 0,5 Volt isn't enough for that.
Pixel louder then axon? Ummm no
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
Guys,
What are the new supplied headphones like in quality for sound and overall design?
Also Just found this site selling the "official headphones" £29.99 is anyone looking for spare.
http://www.digitalsave.co.uk/offici...-kardon.html?gclid=CPm31oHFtdMCFWwo0wod6jsBIw
Personally, i found them to fit brilliantly, very comfortable, and to me ( i am not a audiophile sorry to say) sound really good, thank you for the link.
Likewise i thought they were a good fit, plus the sound from them sounded (to me) really good with lots of bass that you tend not to get with other stock headphones in ear that i have tried, but im no audiophile either.
As an audiophile I found them to be quite decent for stock headphones. The sound quality is definitely good. I haven't yet had the time to change the ear tips to fit my ears and test if they fall off easy or anything. That being said, I might stick to Bose earphones.
After reading that they are expensive, I was hoping for a way better experience. I like the EarPods/Airpods from Apple way more.
They have way more bass than my B&O headphones I got with the V20. I like'em
AKG Earbuds
YellowGTO said:
They have way more bass than my B&O headphones I got with the V20. I like'em
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That makes me very happy to hear. The main reason I didn't purchase the V2O when it came out was I'd missed out on the pre-order and wouldn't be getting the B&O earbuds. I'm very happy with the AKG set that came with the phone, and really looking forward the the BT AKG headphones I just ordered this morning. That and the memory card I'm looking forward to, along with VR headset / controller.
YellowGTO said:
They have way more bass than my B&O headphones I got with the V20. I like'em
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I felt the sound quality was crystal clear. Treble and vocals are crisp but bass was on disappointing side. It isn't as punchier as the one's we get with HTC One series. Maybe I need to tweak equalizer more to get that heavier bass but default settings didn't sound deep enough. Again, I maybe wrong.
I'm pretty sure this is one more of those cases where you get a practically different product for different markets, but the ones I got in Serbia are pretty crappy :/ I'm no audiophile, but compared to my cheap Xiaomi Piston 3, these are so tinny, low-volume and just plain bad I was actually thrilled when I saw them, tried them right away, but just put them back in the box after 2 minutes...
They're not bad. Pretty clear high end and decent mids but somewhat underwhelming low-end. Still better than the buds that came with my S6E and Galaxy Tab 4 7.0.
jackfrost3821 said:
I felt the sound quality was crystal clear. Treble and vocals are crisp but bass was on disappointing side. It isn't as punchier as the one's we get with HTC One series. Maybe I need to tweak equalizer more to get that heavier bass but default settings didn't sound deep enough. Again, I maybe wrong.
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I agree. The clarity is great. They def lack bass though. Not bad for free tho. And I appreciate the fabric overlay on the cord
choccy31 said:
Guys,
What are the new supplied headphones like in quality for sound and overall design?
Also Just found this site selling the "official headphones" £29.99 is anyone looking for spare.
http://www.digitalsave.co.uk/offici...-kardon.html?gclid=CPm31oHFtdMCFWwo0wod6jsBIw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I learned a while ago not to trust loose Samsung headsets.
I've bought replacements for 2 different Samsung "included" headsets, and in both cases the originally included headset sounded great while the replacements sounded cheap.
Their sound profile is slightly U shaped with emphasize on the bass & highs. Not really neutral or truly high end but by far the best stock earphones that I've ever heard.
I'm a musician and I own Sennheiser HD650, HD600, Shure SE425, Etymotic ER4P & AKG K702 with several dedicated headphone amps, so I know what I'm talking about...
I persoanlly think these headphones are the best of any inbox headphones I've ever used and I've used a lot.
Dont forget to use the equaliser aswell it can enhance the sounds for more clarity base and so on.
To be honest, they sound good but are poor in quality. They're cheap plastic and the right one on my pair has driver flex like crazy.
These AKG headphones are ip68/waterproof or not ?
I thought the stunk when I first tried them. I use PowerAmp and found that I had to go in and adjust the equalizer for both headphones and BT.
Very Happy Now!
I deleted Google Play Music before realizing that it was the default music player for the S8 series. I would assume it needs the same tweaks as Power Amp.
Do all the US variants S8's come with the AKG's in box?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
They sound pretty good. But far behind my Bose QC30
eep2378 said:
Do all the US variants S8's come with the AKG's in box?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
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Yep all do