iphone 4 vs iphone 5 audio quality
After a long time , I listened to songs with the EarPods on my old iphone 4 and I found that the sound was much louder . In fact I could keep it only at 75% compared to my iphone 5 where I listen at 100% all the time. The songs sounded much better on the 4 ! I was listening to the new led zeppelin remasters and Bonhams drums tended to over power the headphones whereas on the 5 they sound great but not as loud. Has anyone else noticed this difference?
Let me guess it, you have an European model of iPhone 5.
Had the same experience with my 5s. Sold it and purchased an american model (a1533) and now is as powerful as my iphone 4.
Check CENCENELEC white paper and you will understand that from 2013 on Apple handsets are capped in Europe.( not ipads though since the don't include bundled earphones).
In a nutshell:
If in Music/ Volume Limit you see a UE toggle then you idevice has two volume caps built in and this toggle let you override the first limit (85db measured with bundled earphones) but to override the 2nd (100db) you need to jailbreak and install a tweak.
Other clue is the color of volume squares if they are colored when you go past 60% then your idevice is capped. Non european units do not show colored squares nor turn on the screen when you go past any threshold.