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iPhone 6 as a high-quality music player?

Nikomanz

Nikomanz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2012
129
6
Washington, D.C.
Anyone else use their iPhone with high quality headphones and music? I'm wondering how good are the iPhone 6 - 6+ components to listen to good quality music on the road.

So far I've paired my phone with a couple Sennheiser headphones and it sounds pretty great but definitely not Hi Fi... Would other non-apple phones have better sound?
 
I always use my iPhone 6 Plus to listen to music on the go, and my iPad when I'm at home, with my Beats Solo HD and they sound fantastic, really great quality.
 
The iPhone 6 has far above average sound quality from the headphone out. I have IEM's that cost more than the (full) price of the iPhone and they sound 98% as good out of the headphone jack as they do through expensive amps. The biggest question is going to be what's your music source quality, and what specific headphones are you using. The phone itself is unlikely to let you down.
 
so....one decent brand (sennheiser) and 2 garbage brands, i hardly consider those audiophile level comments. you're talking about 1 consumer grade headphone made for 16 year old kids to blast bass through, 1 consumer grade headphone made for middle aged people to feel like they're audiophiles based pretty much only on the fact that they advertise to middle aged white people, and then sennheiser, which makes some decent higher end stuff.

bottom line, OP, yes, you'll be able to play your compressed MP3s through your best-buy purchased headphones and you won't know the difference between that or anything else.

hovscorpion12 said:
The iPhone 6/6 Plus are good for music. I alternate from Beats, Bose and Sennheiser.
Click to expand...
 
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Nikomanz said:
Anyone else use their iPhone with high quality headphones and music? I'm wondering how good are the iPhone 6 - 6+ components to listen to good quality music on the road.

So far I've paired my phone with a couple Sennheiser headphones and it sounds pretty great but definitely not Hi Fi... Would other non-apple phones have better sound?
Click to expand...

Undeniably the standard earPods from Apple and high quality music (itunes, spotify etc) give you a great experience out of the box. The earPods easily beat the crap out of most headphones in the 80-100 dollar range. I have showed people that had high quality headphones the EarPods and they couldn't believe how good they were. I than listened to their expensive headphones and had to stop after 5 secs since they literally felt like 5$ headphones from china. Give the EarPods a try they are incredible, especially with good quality music. They are also the most comfortable in-ear headphones I ever had.
Obviously if you are super audiophile than you would need headphones in the 300-600€ range where BOSE is hard to beat.
 
Last edited:
yaknow, the first time i tried EarPods, i thought the same thing. the only problem i have with them is build quality and fit. i don't like open-ear headphones that allow sound leaks.. but they do overall sound pretty balanced and rich.

crashoverride77 said:
Undeniably the standard earPods from Apple and high quality music (itunes, spotify etc) give you a great experience out of the box. The earPods easily beat the crap out of most headphones in the 80-100 dollar range. I have showed people that had high quality headphones the EarPods and they couldn't believe how good they were. I than listened to their expensive headphones and had to stop after 5 secs since they literally felt like 5$ headphones from china. Give the EarPods a try, they are incredible especially with good quality music and they are so comfortable.
Obviously if you are super audiophile than you would need headphones in the 300-600€ range anyway.
Click to expand...
 
h4ck said:
so....one decent brand (sennheiser) and 2 garbage brands, i hardly consider those audiophile level comments. you're talking about 1 consumer grade headphone made for 16 year old kids to blast bass through, 1 consumer grade headphone made for middle aged people to feel like they're audiophiles based pretty much only on the fact that they advertise to middle aged white people, and then sennheiser, which makes some decent higher end stuff.

bottom line, OP, yes, you'll be able to play your compressed MP3s through your best-buy purchased headphones and you won't know the difference between that or anything else.
Click to expand...

Sennheiser headphones was just purchased by my friend and they sounded like crap compared to his Bose. Headphones and how they sound is in the ear of the listener and people have different likes and dislikes when it comes to sound.
 
I really cannot agree with the statement that the EarPods are sooooo good.
They are pleasing and sound decent, but they lack bass and dynamic range is limited, and that is normal for the price.

Bose is tweaked towards the bass, and Beats is for bass heavy fans even if the last ones are more balanced. Both brands are not really trying to get the sound as close to the source as you can be.

The Iphone 6 has a good output quality, DAC and amplifier are good enough to drive IEM's of a good quality. Weston, Shure, UE are brands that build quality stuff. I use a pair of SE535 for years, some find the highs too soft on those but i like them very much. It is an investment but they will last years if you treat them well.

I would try Sennheiser, Beyerdynamics, Grado for larger cans or even the BW P8 that are surprisingly good.

You just have to try them and choose the one that has the best SQ for you.
I'm not trying to convince anyone here, each on his own!
But statements like Bose = the best you can buy....that is just not true...

Cheers,

L
 
I'll cut to the quick here - iPhones can play back 44.1 kHz sample rate up to a bit depth of 16 bits (44.1/16). Typical music CDs you buy are at this level. If you like the sound of commercial music CDs via headphone, then the iPhone can provide a similar experience.

As for headphone selection, that is a thread unto itself. I just know that you can find two headphones with similar specs that will sound very different. Find the one that sounds good to you and use the specs only as starting points. (Also realize that some types of music might sound better on one model of headphones while another sounds better on some other model.)

For me - I use different headphones depending on what I am doing and where I am ranging from earpods to Senns and B+W.
 
I love my Bose on this phone--You Know "I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble" ;)

My high end is half shot anyway from my military days--


It is all personal. But, I am more impressed with the built in speaker. Not only the music, but the speaker phone audio during phone calls. MUCH better than my Galaxy S4--:)
 
EarPods open design lend a sense of soundstage, but allows in ambient sound, which is both good and bad. EarPods are attuned to the midrange.

There are audiophile versions of the inexpensive wine some discover that tastes amazing compared to expensive wines. Philips had one that audio experts went nuts over, as did Koss and there was one from Monoprice that was respected.

I caught wind of the Koss KSC75 ear clip headphones that some HeadFi members loved and I'd gotten them for $5.00 on sale (Normally around $20.00). They kill some phones costing in the tens to hundreds of dollars.

http://www.koss.com/en/products/headphones/ear-clip-headphones/KSC75__KSC75_Ear_Clip_Headphones
 
When I had my Samsung, It could play lossless flac files (but the useless phone would just stutter and was pretty rubbish really).

Anyway, does anyone know of an App that would allow me to load flac files onto the iphone and play them? I use plugplayer on my iphone and ipad at home to play lossless flac files that are streamed from a Nas drive, but I would like to play flac files on my iphone.

I use some shure headphones with my iphone. Obviously not the last word in hifi, but ok for on the move.
 
iPhone 6 has a pretty good DAC and good power output. Additionally though I use a FiiO E7K portable amp and it's just crazy good at that point.
 
h4ck said:
yaknow, the first time i tried EarPods, i thought the same thing. the only problem i have with them is build quality and fit. i don't like open-ear headphones that allow sound leaks.. but they do overall sound pretty balanced and rich.
Click to expand...

Fair enough if you don't like in ear headphones. I would than recommend BOSE noise cancelling headphones. Had some older model a few years ago and they were spectacular. Obviously they are pricey tho. I'm also not sure how good wireless headphones are compared to cabled headphones, I'm sure the sound quality on wireless is worse.
 
I often listen to music on my iPhone 6 from my Audio Technica m50x's and it sounds great.
 
h4ck said:
bottom line, OP, yes, you'll be able to play your compressed MP3s through your best-buy purchased headphones and you won't know the difference between that or anything else.
Click to expand...


Lol I listen to lossless music only. ALAC and FLAC files Mainly from Tidal and HD Tracks. I use my Sennheiser Momentum on the road and Sennheiser HD 598 while at home. I'm saving up for the HD 650's and a decent 02 amp.

----------
crashoverride77 said:
Obviously if you are super audiophile than you would need headphones in the 300-600€ range where BOSE is hard to beat.
Click to expand...

Mmm I think that for those prices you could get Beyerdynamics, Sennheiser HD 700, Master and Dynamics, and other brands that in my opinion sound better than Bose.

----------
lo100469 said:
You just have to try them and choose the one that has the best SQ for you.
I'm not trying to convince anyone here, each on his own!
But statements like Bose = the best you can buy....that is just not true...

Cheers,

L
Click to expand...

Agreed. So far using Tidal streaming on my iPhone 6 plus with my cans has been a terrific experience so I can say that the iPhones components must be pretty good.
 
crashoverride77 said:
Undeniably the standard earPods from Apple and high quality music (itunes, spotify etc) give you a great experience out of the box. The earPods easily beat the crap out of most headphones in the 80-100 dollar range. I have showed people that had high quality headphones the EarPods and they couldn't believe how good they were. I than listened to their expensive headphones and had to stop after 5 secs since they literally felt like 5$ headphones from china. Give the EarPods a try they are incredible, especially with good quality music. They are also the most comfortable in-ear headphones I ever had.
Obviously if you are super audiophile than you would need headphones in the 300-600€ range where BOSE is hard to beat.
Click to expand...

The ear pods are undeniably better than the buds they replace but I wouldn't go any further than that. To value them at $100 is a bit over the top.
 
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First thing, any comment you read from someone that mentions Beats, is to ignore it.
 
eclipse01 said:
You can rip audio in lossless which helps. People knock Bose, but I really like my soundtrue headphones + Lossless.
Click to expand...

Lossless will help tremendously. While high bitrate AAC is pretty good, Apple Lossless is definitely the way to go if top audio quality is important to you.

Paired with a set of Sennheiser cans, music sounds great.
 
Mr. Buzzcut said:
The ear pods are undeniably better than the buds they replace but I wouldn't go any further than that. To value them at $100 is a bit over the top.
Click to expand...

I know a lot of people, audiophiles etc, that disagree. I'm not saying they are the best but they are really good and easily give 100$ headphones a run for their money. Obviously if music quality is crap it won't make a difference but they do not feel like 25$ headphones in my optinion.
 
Got these after extensive research:

DSC_2950.jpg


RHA ma750i

Well worth the price and sold by Apple too.
 
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