Iphone SE as an iPod Touch

[Sonne88]

Hi Guys,

My iPod Gen 6 battery is a real pain and I was thinking of replacing with the SE. Particularly now since the 64GB is £379 which is the same cost as the new 32GB just announced. My question is about the audio quality - basically is it a good audio player through headphones? I would only use as an iPod so cellular off etc to improve on the battery life the SE is known for. One day i will get a portable DAC (the oppo HA-2) but i can't afford that and a new iPod at the same time right so thats way off whenever. Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Audio quality is good.

 

[Applejuiced]

Im doing the same thing.
My son is using an SE as his iPod touch. Good audio.
Great device.

 

[C DM]

Has there been an iPhone or even an Apple product in general with some sort of noticeably different headphone audio quality?

 

[tuan_tr1910]

Same price + call function. Choose SE ))

 

[44267547]

Hi Guys,

My iPod Gen 6 battery is a real pain and I was thinking of replacing with the SE. Particularly now since the 64GB is £379 which is the same cost as the new 32GB just announced. My question is about the audio quality - basically is it a good audio player through headphones? I would only use as an iPod so cellular off etc to improve on the battery life the SE is known for. One day i will get a portable DAC (the oppo HA-2) but i can't afford that and a new iPod at the same time right so thats way off whenever. Thanks in advance guys.

With the price point of the SE, it would make a great iPod Touch. And I see the iPod Touch ultimately being defeated by the SE for that purpose and the SE has a much stronger battery than the 6th generation iPod Touch. I owned the SE when it launched and the speaker quality was decent for a smaller iPhone.

 

[Sonne88]

Thanks guys. I just ordered a 64GB SE in silver. The new 32GB is the same price so i figured once the 64GB is sold out i won't a chance at this sale price again. I have extra sim to put in to get it going. If i use it just as an iPod with no phone stuff I'm hoping it will trump my lousy iPod touch 6th gen battery which is quite awful. Oh and sound good too of course.

 

[Bart Kela]

Has there been an iPhone or even an Apple product in general with some sort of noticeably different headphone audio quality?

Short answer: no.

Apple's iDevices all use consumer grade DACs designed for mass-produced mobile devices. I've owned iPods from about the 2nd generation as well as shuffles, iPod touches, iPhones, iPads and there isn't any noticeable difference. It's not like they are going to slip in a high-end chip that one might find in a $100 external smartphone DAC.

A handful of super obsessive audiophiles may claim that the DAC in one model iPod was superior to another, but the average consumer isn't going to hear any difference blasting whatever ordinary pop/rock/hip-hop track from a 128K MP3 or 256K AAC.

If you were a professional classical music recording engineer wearing $3000 headphones and listening to 48kHz/24-bit ALACs in a controlled environment, maybe you'd pick up slight nuances between various iDevices, but then again you might just chalk it up to manufacturing/component variances normal in a mass-produced product line.

If you want better audio, the iDevice doesn't really matter. Spend your money on better headphones

 

[Shirasaki]

With the newly updated 128GB model, maybe I could consider iPhone SE as my iPod in the future.