Sound quality apple vs Samsung

[Shanghaichica]

I have 2 apple devices (iPad mini and iPod touch 5th gen) and and 2 Samsung devices (s4 and galaxy tab 2). The speakers on the tab 2 are front facing and sound quite nice however I've noticed that when listening with my headphones my apple devices give better audio quality. I remember when I first switched from the iPhone to the galaxy note I noticed a significant change in sound quality too. It's a shame because Samsung make great devices otherwise.

 

[Technarchy]

This is one of my larger peeves with the GS4. The audio quality with headphones is inferior to my iPhone 4S and 5 to a very noticeable extent and got much worse after the last AT&T update.

I'm hoping 4.3 sorts it out. As it stands now, my GS4 EQ it's completely unusable.

 

[swy05]

This is one of my larger peeves with the GS4. The audio quality with headphones is inferior to my iPhone 4S and 5 to a very noticeable extent and got much worse after the last AT&T update.

I'm hoping 4.3 sorts it out. As it stands now, my GS4 EQ it's completely unusable.

Anyone who's using Android..... I have no idea why you're using the stock music player. It's garbage. You can tweak it however much you like and it's still crap.

Download poweramp or neutron. Night and day difference.

Sounds even better than my Ipad and iPhone.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Anyone who's using Android..... I have no idea why you're using the stock music player. It's garbage. You can tweak it however much you like and it's still crap.

Download poweramp or neutron. Night and day difference.
Sounds even better than my Ipad and iPhone.

Thanks I'll try that one. At the moment I'm using player pro.

 

[nickchallis92]

I thought the Wolfson DACs meant the galaxy devices typically had superior sound quality?

 

[Carlanga]

That is samsung for you I guess.

 

[JeffiJers]

From a long time android user and huge fan of AOSP....

Not a single android phone has produced the clarity or power that every apple portables do. FACT.


I am not considered a "HIFI" guy only because I will never have an external amp on my portable device. So I improvised. Found the best internal amp in the devise.

Iphone 4,4s,5,5s > Thunderbolt, Razr, rezound, GNX, N4, S3, S4.

Want to argue? save your time and pick up a GOOD pair of cans and go test the phones out. no beats crap.

 

[T5BRICK]

From a long time android user and huge fan of AOSP....

Not a single android phone has produced the clarity or power that every apple portables do. FACT.

Just throwing this one out there...have you tried the HTC One? I prefer the audio quality to my iPhone once I got used to the slightly warmer sound. I'll even say that it does have more power and clarity.

But then again, audio quality is a pretty subjective topic. I don't think you can boil this one down to "FACT."

 

[lazard]

From a long time android user and huge fan of AOSP....

Not a single android phone has produced the clarity or power that every apple portables do. FACT.


I am not considered a "HIFI" guy only because I will never have an external amp on my portable device. So I improvised. Found the best internal amp in the devise.

Iphone 4,4s,5,5s > Thunderbolt, Razr, rezound, GNX, N4, S3, S4.

Want to argue? save your time and pick up a GOOD pair of cans and go test the phones out. no beats crap.

If your criteria for being a hi-fi guy is using an external dac/amp, then I'm speechless.

 

[vormhat]

The snapdragon based samsungs use a Yamaha based DAC. That includes the S3 and S4. The Exynos based phones like the original S and Note 2 have the superior Wolfson DAC, arguably one of the best sounding of any phone.

 

[JeffiJers]

If your criteria for being a hi-fi guy is using an external dac/amp, then I'm speechless.

And your input to this thread is to evaluate my knowledge on audio?

no you are being judgmental, and just sound dumb.

 

[Fanaticalism]

Anyone who's using Android..... I have no idea why you're using the stock music player. It's garbage. You can tweak it however much you like and it's still crap.

Download poweramp or neutron. Night and day difference.

Sounds even better than my Ipad and iPhone.

You got to it before I did. Poweramp is fantastic and completely customizable!

I thought the Wolfson DACs meant the galaxy devices typically had superior sound quality?

A quality DAC alone is not enough, it's implementation is equally as important.

 

[Fanaticalism]

If your criteria for being a hi-fi guy is using an external dac/amp, then I'm speechless.

I think you misread his post, he stated he does not use externals, so some may not consider him an audiophile.

 

[Technarchy]

Anyone who's using Android..... I have no idea why you're using the stock music player. It's garbage. You can tweak it however much you like and it's still crap.

Download poweramp or neutron. Night and day difference.

Sounds even better than my Ipad and iPhone.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the music player, and everything to do with S4's DAC. I'm speaking specifically about the Snapdragon model.

Spotify is how I consume 50% of my music (The rest is google play music), and the iPhone 4S and 5 just flat out sound better.

I'm hoping the sound issues get cleaned up a bit with 4.3, which should be dropping soon...I hope.

 

[swy05]

This has absolutely nothing to do with the music player, and everything to do with S4's DAC. I'm speaking specifically about the Snapdragon model.

Spotify is how I consume 50% of my music (The rest is google play music), and the iPhone 4S and 5 just flat out sound better.

I'm hoping the sound issues get cleaned up a bit with 4.3, which should be dropping soon...I hope.

Listen, do you want help or not?

No one is debating whether the Snapdragon DAC is good or not. Honestly, it's not that great. It's pretty bad.

If you use Spotify or google play, sorry I can't help you there as well.

But if you just want a regular music playing experience, you have other music players that will improve the sound quality alot.

It's not just Samsung, it's pretty any other company that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. They're all unfortunately stuck, using a crappy DAC.

 

[Technarchy]

Listen, do you want help or not?

No one is debating whether the Snapdragon DAC is good or not. Honestly, it's not that great. It's pretty bad.

If you use Spotify or google play, sorry I can't help you there as well.

But if you just want a regular music playing experience, you have other music players that will improve the sound quality alot.

It's not just Samsung, it's pretty any other company that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. They're all unfortunately stuck, using a crappy DAC.

That's pretty much all I use. I've got maybe 10 songs stored on my SD card.

I'm going to see if 4.3 cleans things up at all. If not, I'll continue to hold out for a 32GB gold iPhone 5S, and the release of Google Play Music on iOS.

 

[The13thDoctor]

From a long time android user and huge fan of AOSP....

Not a single android phone has produced the clarity or power that every apple portables do. FACT.


I am not considered a "HIFI" guy only because I will never have an external amp on my portable device. So I improvised. Found the best internal amp in the devise.

Iphone 4,4s,5,5s > Thunderbolt, Razr, rezound, GNX, N4, S3, S4.

Want to argue? save your time and pick up a GOOD pair of cans and go test the phones out. no beats crap.

My HTC One and LG G2 blows my iPhone 5S outta the water. With a solid player these two phones thrash all my other apple mobile devices in this field.

 

[Oohara]

I was out testing headphones with my girlfriend the other day and found to my surprise that the max volume of my Note 2 was way lower than that of her 4S. This was really surprising as I had gone from a 4S myself but not noticed the difference. (Maybe because I used the Samsung in-ears for a few weeks at first and then bought a new set of plugs with a different sound from those I had been using with the 4S.)

Anyway, is that just how it is or could I have an issue with my Note 2? I've gone through the settings but not found any volume limit to disable, and googling it only gave me a bunch of tricks for root.

BTW does anyone know any good music player for iOS that has a manual EQ that can be accessed from within the app itself?

 

[Tsuchiya]

Yeah I've noticed my S4 sounds a bit crap when using Spotify, moreso when I have it plugged into my car.

My 4S seemed to have a richer sound. I'm considering buying an iPod touch for car use.

 

[vormhat]

I was out testing headphones with my girlfriend the other day and found to my surprise that the max volume of my Note 2 was way lower than that of her 4S. This was really surprising as I had gone from a 4S myself but not noticed the difference.

That is pretty surprising. I never had a 4s myself but find the note 2 to be pretty loud and can drive my 80ohm and not very sensitive Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros pretty loud and clean. They aren't that easy to drive.

 

[kenknotts]

I was out testing headphones with my girlfriend the other day and found to my surprise that the max volume of my Note 2 was way lower than that of her 4S. This was really surprising as I had gone from a 4S myself but not noticed the difference. (Maybe because I used the Samsung in-ears for a few weeks at first and then bought a new set of plugs with a different sound from those I had been using with the 4S.)

Anyway, is that just how it is or could I have an issue with my Note 2? I've gone through the settings but not found any volume limit to disable, and googling it only gave me a bunch of tricks for root.

BTW does anyone know any good music player for iOS that has a manual EQ that can be accessed from within the app itself?

That's just how it is. When I had the Note 3 recently along with my 5s and I was testing them both with the Beats Box, the 5s was much louder at max volume. With the Note 3 running, I had to turn the volume up 4 clicks on the box, same song.

 

[swy05]

That's just how it is. When I had the Note 3 recently along with my 5s and I was testing them both with the Beats Box, the 5s was much louder at max volume. With the Note 3 running, I had to turn the volume up 4 clicks on the box, same song.

Yeah that's how it is. It's dumb but Samsung on purpose, limited the max volume. Not just the US Galaxy phones but the intl ones as well.

You can always flash a rom with no volume limit though.

 

[macred]

This is one of my larger peeves with the GS4. The audio quality with headphones is inferior to my iPhone 4S and 5 to a very noticeable extent and got much worse after the last AT&T update.

I'm hoping 4.3 sorts it out. As it stands now, my GS4 EQ it's completely unusable.

There's obviously something wrong. For your own benefit I'd get it sorted out.

My GS 4 is the equal of my iP5, my Note 3's even better. It's not unusual either, several friends at work who bought their Note 3's when I did are also enjoying very good performance.

 

[Technarchy]

There's obviously something wrong. For your own benefit I'd get it sorted out.

My GS 4 is the equal of my iP5, my Note 3's even better. It's not unusual either, several friends at work who bought their Note 3's when I did are also enjoying very good performance.

It's my 2nd GS4. I got the first one replaced because I thought it was faulty. Not faulty, just the way the GS4 sounds.

 

[adder7712]

Qualcomm-based Galaxy S4s use some Qualcomm DAC built into the chipset. The Galaxy S4 Octa uses a Woflson DAC.