[Q] Low Headphone Volume on One X - HTC One X

My bigger concern at the moment with regards to sound is the very low headphone output level, this simply does not have enough juice to power any decent pair of cans.
Is there any system level tweaks to increase the output level any more than it is?
I have a sneaky feeling HTC has limited the max output on the headphones.

tanseerj said:
My bigger concern at the moment with regards to sound is the very low headphone output level, this simply does not have enough juice to power any decent pair of cans.
Is there any system level tweaks to increase the output level any more than it is?
I have a sneaky feeling HTC has limited the max output on the headphones.
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Click to collapse
Are you serious or just deaf? The sound even on the bog standard earphones nearly blows my ears off
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

eddyedwards007 said:
Are you serious or just deaf? The sound even on the bog standard earphones nearly blows my ears off
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
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Have you compared it to other phones such as *Phone or even the SGS2? I have them both and can confirm the output volume is much lower than them.
This is noticable clearly when trying to use them with some proper over the head headphones such as the Sennheiser HD650 or Beyer Dt770.

tanseerj said:
My bigger concern at the moment with regards to sound is the very low headphone output level, this simply does not have enough juice to power any decent pair of cans.
Is there any system level tweaks to increase the output level any more than it is?
I have a sneaky feeling HTC has limited the max output on the headphones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand why you are saying this, but I have noticed that the headset volume was high even compared to my ipod. I use two headsets Bose Mie2i and Klipsch S4i both were awesome with my phone.
I hope you haven't enabled beats audio.
I will accept you if you are talking about speaker out volume.

Drives my Sennheiser HD 25-1 II perfectly.

Interesting that some of you find it loud, considering GSMarena's tests show one of the lowest volume outputs I've seen recorded on a phone in a long time... Worth noting too that their results are similar to the RMAA results reported by a different site that were posted here at XDA, so more than one set of RMAA results in accordance now.
It's output would not be sufficient to power a high quality set of cans like the Senn HD650 without a headphone amp, the OP is quite right about that. The HD25-1 II are much easier to drive in comparison, I should know as I have a set of those and a set of LCD-2's which are much higher quality and more difficult to drive like the OPs Senns. The IEMs mentioned above are designed to be easily driven by portable sources, and more sensitive than even the HD25-1 II, so no surprise that they should sound loud enough.

Blows my ears off with my HD650s.
No issues here!
EDIT: I do listen quitely though, in all occaisions. But if at max volume it is a tad painful for me!

Rzrr said:
Blows my ears off with my HD650s.
No issues here!
EDIT: I do listen quitely though, in all occaisions. But if at max volume it is a tad painful for me!
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Interesting! Sounds like you have quite sensitive hearing?

I've got a set of Sennheiser HD 25-SP II and instantly noticed the lack of volume compared to my Gen 5 iPod (arguably the benchmark of portable music player sound), Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus and HTC Mozart.
Even the Monster Beats weren't that loud with this phone. GSMarena were spot on regarding volume.
It's not that we always listen to our music that loud we want to be able to if we choose. A bit like having 6Ghz worth of processing power in a mobile. Overkill yes and we'll unlikely ever use it but its good to know its there.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I just did a comparison in volume between my
- iPod 6G 120GB, Sound Check and EQ off, max volume
- HTC One X, beats audio off, max volume
through my Sennheiser HD25-1 II.
The One X is louder!
Both actually hurt my ears at this volume...

Overkill? No its called headroom for when we feel like using high quality headphones that need more juice to power them
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Related

What's the One X volume while using over ear headphones?

In other HTC phones they are known to.have low volume while listening to music specifically with over ear headphones. I have a HTC sensation which has this issue did HTC fix it? Is the volume louder while listening to music? How does it compare to other phones such as the iPhone or other HTC phones? My HTC sensation was extremely low compared to the iPhone or any other mp3 device it almost made me not want to use it as a mp3 player while using over ear headphones. I plan on getting the one X when it comes to the US.
Sent from my Sensation 4G using XDA
My HOX definitely pumps more volume than my DHD, headphones AND speaker.
That was a major relief because I couldn't hear sh*t on my DHD
Power and quality of the sound is just a blast...
Beating almost all phone out there at the moment...
vallandil said:
Power and quality of the sound is just a blast...
Beating almost all phone out there at the moment...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, two sets of RMAA results now are in agreement that it's rather poor. Check GSMarena's review.
To answer the OP: Looking at the objective results you will not be able to drive higher quality headphones adequately (things with 300ohm impedance for example, like many higher-end Sennheiser headphones), more sensitive headphones with impedances 70ohms or less should be doable (although they will sound quieter than with many other phones).

music audio processor

what chip is in this phone? i've heard it sounds better than the Yamaha in the GS II. is it Wolfson or anything people say is good like that? i get mine in 10 hours, but i don't want to take it apart. i will be turning off Beats Audio and listening to lossless files with normal sound through expensive headphones, so i'm wondering if i will be happy. if i'm not, i will add another name to my bad list with the Yamaha chip. thanks!
brent8577 said:
what chip is in this phone? i've heard it sounds better than the Yamaha in the GS II. is it Wolfson or anything people say is good like that? i get mine in 10 hours, but i don't want to take it apart. i will be turning off Beats Audio and listening to lossless files with normal sound through expensive headphones, so i'm wondering if i will be happy. if i'm not, i will add another name to my bad list with the Yamaha chip. thanks!
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One google it to find out what chipset your phone has. Second using beats audio is the whole point of listening to music. And without that it still gives you good sound. Do your research first before getting a phone
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
It uses the on board audio on the tegra as I've seen on the files for example is alsa files been given a tegra name but could be something else but just assume it's a nvidia chipset.
Sound is ok not bad maybe slightly better than the Yamaha but not as good as the Wolfson.
Also this phone had aptX for high quality streaming via Bluetooth. I've got my Bluetooth receiver yesterday which also has aptX and will be testing it over the next few days with my iems which are pricey themselves.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
NoobTerminator said:
One google it to find out what chipset your phone has. Second using beats audio is the whole point of listening to music. And without that it still gives you good sound. Do your research first before getting a phone
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Beats Audio is not a panacea for sound quality. All it does is essentially bass the boost and volume a bit. As a result, mids and highs suffer from the 'enhancement.' Just because its from the 'Beats' brand doesn't mean it has to boost sound quality. Beats headphones in general aren't exactly spectacular, and are insanely overpriced for what they offer as it is.
Its more of a marketing gimmick which equates to little more than a preset equalizer.
Many audiophiles prefer to disable the 'sound enhancements' these vendors provide, so that they can listen to their music as it should sound originally, or with their own equalizer tweaks.
So no, 'listening to beats audio' isn't the whole point of listening to music.
poofish said:
Beats Audio is not a panacea for sound quality. All it does is essentially bass the boost and volume a bit. As a result, mids and highs suffer from the 'enhancement.' Just because its from the 'Beats' brand doesn't mean it has to boost sound quality. Beats headphones in general aren't exactly spectacular, and are insanely overpriced for what they offer as it is.
Its more of a marketing gimmick which equates to little more than a preset equalizer.
Many audiophiles prefer to disable the 'sound enhancements' these vendors provide, so that they can listen to their music as it should sound originally, or with their own equalizer tweaks.
So no, 'listening to beats audio' isn't the whole point of listening to music.
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Yes you are right in what you say. It is just another equalizer. But still a good one to have and another reason in why this is a good phone to have. So for me at least Beats does make the phone sound better. Hence why i advised to use it. But my apologies sometimes i fall for the marketing gimmick instead of using common sense

Headphone jack on TW sucks

Ok so I'm like a huge audio head and I can't get over the fact on how weal the headphone jack is on android phones
Compared to (dare I say it?) Apple products, our headphones are super weak
Of course we have apps tweaks yadayada, but is there a Definite Solution to making the Music sound Stronger on this phone
I tried power amp and the beats on the market and it doesn't do that much tbh
Any suggestions on how to make music sound better
maybe one of these http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E3-BK-E3...e=UTF8&qid=1356923324&sr=1-1&keywords=fiio+e3
I have good pairs of headphones lol
I have beats Pros and Audio Technica ATH M50s,
Edit: saw there were a link to an AMP not headphones lol
I dont wanna carry that around tho
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
I actually like the volume of the s3. I use power amp and that's the best music player. I have the acid sound mod. My headphones are the Sol republic track HD and the audio from the phone is loud. Even connecting then to amps, the phone ***with power amp *** is really loud.
I also use high bitrate mp3s and apple lossless converted to from .flac
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
osmosizzz said:
I actually like the volume of the s3. I use power amp and that's the best music player. I have the acid sound mod. My headphones are the Sol republic track HD and the audio from the phone is loud. Even connecting then to amps, the phone ***with power amp *** is really loud.
I also use high bitrate mp3s and apple lossless converted to from .flac
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might have to give that app another try
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
EclipzeRemix said:
I have good pairs of headphones lol
I have beats Pros and Audio Technica ATH M50s,
Edit: saw there were a link to an AMP not headphones lol
I dont wanna carry that around tho
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Beats.....
The "Jack" on this phone is fine. I've tried several audiophile ear buds and headphones and find this phone with power amp to be pretty good. Music volume EQ is a decent app too if you want more bass and loudness.
Ditch the beats and get some vsonic or some klipsch and you'll see.
20degrees said:
Beats.....
The "Jack" on this phone is fine. I've tried several audiophile ear buds and headphones and find this phone with power amp to be pretty good. Music volume EQ is a decent app too if you want more bass and loudness.
Ditch the beats and get some vsonic or some klipsch and you'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AudioTechnica ATH M50s way better than my beats lol, but the music is still not as strong as other media devices :/
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
EclipzeRemix said:
AudioTechnica ATH M50s way better than my beats lol, but the music is still not as strong as other media devices :/
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
I'll have to test my cans on an Apple product and tell the difference. I know i had the same setting on power amp on a virgin mobile crappy phone and the difference was there.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Get a phone with vodoo sound
Sent from my LG-LG855 using xda app-developers app
Uhhhh my M50's get amped from my computer, iPod touch, and phone. On my Onkyo receiver I have the headphone at like +5db. You're obviously not that into audio.
I have the E6.
Give the Sony XB-500 a try. I've got these and they sound great. The sound is really punchy and clear and as always use poweramp with it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
psykhotic said:
Uhhhh my M50's get amped from my computer, iPod touch, and phone. On my Onkyo receiver I have the headphone at like +5db. You're obviously not that into audio.
I have the E6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My headphone jack seemed to have something stuck inside? I cleaned it out and it sounds better
But I don't have a receiver, an amplifier or anything of that nature so I cant play around with that type of hardware.
Poweramp does do a diffrence when you play with the settings enough lol
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
zoppp said:
Give the Sony XB-500 a try. I've got these and they sound great. The sound is really punchy and clear and as always use poweramp with it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Those have a little too much bass for me personally, they are good headphones for the price tho
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Guys, truth is the hardware isn't up to par on the audio side on this phone. That's been proven. I know that even without looking at the internals of this phone coming from another Android device.
However, the OP called himself an audiophile, but had a pair of Beats... Whatever, but he is correct. I wouldn't say "sucks", but not as good as it should have been.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Download Neutron Music Player. It's worth paying for!! Its sounds much better than power amp(my old player); its louder, offers better headroom/snr ratio, direct hardware control, and doesn't lose any clarity, when using EQ. Also, Check to see what setting your music is encoded at. 320kbps for MP3 is the highest setting, but I go with Flac. If you know the basics of setting up an EQ and want great sounding audio, then download neutron! It actually gives an accurate representation of the music, as opposed to most mods which are meant to "Enhance" your listening experience, but don't depict the true sound of the recorded audio. Whenever I mix down a new recording, I trust Neutron with my MDR's, SE215's, and grado's headphones for the true sound! For fun, I add about 3-5db around 40-50hz for some extra punch; especially when bumping some electronic or hip hop. Furthermore, I wouldnt recommend beats headphones. They're tuned strictly for hip hop and electronic music. They add all sorts of obnoxious EQing at 50-80HZ, 3khz, 5khz, 7khz, and 10khz, so they'll sound like garbage on any other genre of music. I attached a link of how sloppy the frequency response is on these so called, "Studio" headphones. If you're looking for a great headphone, check out head-fi.org. They offer reviews of over 266 headphone, arranged by price range. Let us know how you make out!
EclipzeRemix said:
Ok so I'm like a huge audio head and I can't get over the fact on how weal the headphone jack is on android phones
Compared to (dare I say it?) Apple products, our headphones are super weak
Of course we have apps tweaks yadayada, but is there a Definite Solution to making the Music sound Stronger on this phone
I tried power amp and the beats on the market and it doesn't do that much tbh
Any suggestions on how to make music sound better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the biggest reasons I choose Android over Apple is for the audio. Although the volume of music on Apple products reach unbelievable heights, the sound quality itself is not any better than what most Androids have to offer, even on their stock music players. Furthermore, why would you even want to listen to your music at top volume on an iPhone? You'll be deaf within a minute.
Our Galaxy S3 has absolute trash for presets. Listen to every single preset. You'll find that most of them will raise the volume of vocals when there's no background bass, and the vocals volume will lower when the bass kicks in again. It's annoying, it sounds as of you're putting your head next to a speaker, and shaking it around so that the music gets a wavy effect. Thankfully, Samsung gave us a beautiful option at the bottom of the list of those poor excuses for presets, called "Custom." In it is a 7 band equalizer that's actually very damn decent.
The Beats by Dre, although frowned upon, is perfect for the equalizer on the S3. I myself, am a basshead. I love my music to have some rumble and thump to it. Just play around with the bands until you find the perfect eargasm type sound. What I love on the S3, is that the volume is quite loud. With most phones, equalizing audio sacrifices a lot of volume. With this phone, my equalizing will barely phase the volume of my music.
When I equalize, it'll go something like this: The lowest (first) band will be set the highest, giving the music that precious deep rumble, but adding punch as well. The second band is set significantly lower than the first in order to retain that punchy bass. This makes the vocals sound more shallow though, but I dont care too much because I hate flat bass. The third band effects both bass and vocals about equal, so I set it to about midway between what the first and second bands are set at. This gives the vocal a deeper touch, but doesn't take too much away from bass punch. The middle band is what mainly effects vocals. I set it one below the third, because setting it too high gives the vocals a bit of an airy or dry sound to it. For the fifth band, I put it one higher than the third. The last two band are set higher than every band except for the first one. It livens up the treble so that the instrumentals don't sound boring.
My equalizer preset is extremely coloured, but that's just how I like it to sound. It's almost a V shaped equalizer I guess. Big bass, recessed mids, and high treble. I have the V-Moda Crossfade LP's for my headphones.
I dunno, this post might not have been of much help, but I just felt as if I should offer my 2 cents.
For some reason having beats makes you a complete moron now a days ?The reason I have beats is beacuase one of my fav genres is hip hop, and when it comes down to it, beats sound decent when it comes to rap/hip hop you cant deny it. For every thing else yes they are trash so I use my M50s.
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
EclipzeRemix said:
For some reason having beats makes you a complete moron now a days ?The reason I have beats is beacuase one of my fav genres is hip hop, and when it comes down to it, beats sound decent when it comes to rap/hip hop you cant deny it. For every thing else yes they are trash so I use my M50s.
Sent From My SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beats are the "trend". Most audiophiles don't take them or anybody that uses them seriously.
I've owned a pair and can honestly say my daily use creative aurvana buds sound better than any beats I've tried. Hip hop is my music of choice.
The Yamaha eph-100's are great for hip hop too..
$150 can get you some iems that are twice as good for half the price of beats.
20degrees said:
The Yamaha eph-100's are great for hip hop too..
$150 can get you some iems that are twice as good for half the price of beats.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But he has the ATH-M50, which are seriously good headphones
I wasn't happy either with the S3 sound, having heard what a quality is, I bought the cheapest decent DAC - Fiio E7 and it sounds great with my M50's
Chipsybg said:
But he has the ATH-M50, which are seriously good headphones
I wasn't happy either with the S3 sound, having heard what a quality is, I bought the cheapest decent DAC - Fiio E7 and it sounds great with my M50's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i might have to invest in a cheap amp then :/

Which headphones are recommended for the HTC 10?

I was lucky and got an HTC 10 with high res earbuds but now my other headphones suck except the beyerdynamic DT 770 pro but they are not for everyday use
What do you guys use?
Btw. Are the Apple Earpods working for you? Mine are not recognized by the phone...
there really isn't a specific recommendation.... it's totally dependant on your tastes...
I will buy your hi res headphones from you
Hehe I don't sell them
I have beats Tour and beats power and they sound aweful.
My beloved earpods are not recognized by my phone, sadly.
Maybe they are too old.
I also tested some Philips and they were aweful too.
I need some recommendations
I bought 1more dual driver and im really satisfy
Enviado do meu HTC 10 através de Tapatalk
I'm using ultimate ears triple fi 10 with headphone amplifier. Works great, but i have to put off boom sound software feature to get full range music. The bass boost with boom sound is just rubbish and kills the mids completly. So i dont really use 10's special music features unless the enhanced powered headphone jack. Besides that every 820 device should sound the same as they are using the same DAC.
xperia x root said:
... every 820 device should sound the same as they are using the same DAC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC claimed they worked with Qualcomm to optimise the output circuitry to work with the DAC so it would be better than other implementations. I don't know how much difference it made...
What type of earphones are you looking for? In ear, on ear, over ear?
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers mobile app
No in ears
Something like https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B0080..._SR100,100_&psc=1&refRID=WSNP2ASJPR562DCAQCKY
Or.
https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B014W...bo+play+h7&dpPl=1&dpID=419IfVJf+sL&ref=plSrch
I've been very satisfied with the RHA Ma750s. If you like cheaper earpods I've tried Samsung's ear pods that are included w/ the gs6 which sound pretty good.
I've also found on bass heavy sets (in my case Bose IE2s, in your case beats tour) it helps to create an audio profile and set the first 2 frequencies to minimum, set mid to 3-4, and set the two high freqs to 9-10. This helps with the lack of treble response on bass heavy earbuds.
I recommend checking out head-fi forums for some advice, but for ear buds, I love my AKG K318s. They are open back ear buds and the have pretty fantastic clarity and openness to them for being ear buds. They are great in the mids to highs, but bass response isn't that great - depends on your music tastes. They are perfect for rock/classical/vocals stuff like that. For bassier stuff, I use a pair of V-Moda BassFreq but I dont believe either of these are made anymore. I use mostly Sennheiser Momentum over-ear and on-ears at work, and Philips SHP9500/Grado SR80 at home.
I use klipsch x12i in ears.
They're pricey but well worth it.
Came from klipsch x10i and x11i.
Once you've had a pair, you're hooked.
They sound amazing...
The HTC 10 is a great audio device but it certainly doesn't sound the same as any other mobile device using the Qualcomm 820 SoC....
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2016/06/02/qualcomm-aqstic-sets-new-standard-audiophiles
Audiotechnica ATH-M50 headphones for the win!
I use the headphones at work and there is a SIGNIFICANT sound quality difference from when I plug it into my PC vs my HTC 10. The 10 adds another dimension to the music and makes it sounds more... vibrant?
chetly968 said:
The HTC 10 is a great audio device but it certainly doesn't sound the same as any other mobile device using the Qualcomm 820 SoC....
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2016/06/02/qualcomm-aqstic-sets-new-standard-audiophiles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite my friend...
Taken from:
http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-10-audio-testing-boomsound-evolved
"Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 does a lot of things right, but clear audio isn't one of those things. Something in the digital to analog converter circuit introduces an extreme amount of noise and crosstalk into the analog output, and phones like the U.S. Galaxy S7 and LG G5 sound pretty poor because of this. After doing some testing, I was presented with results that just didn't make sense from the HTC 10 — it was better than it should be, even with extra work and attention to the analog circuit that brings signal from the DAC output to the headphone jack. You can only do so much magic to a bad signal. I asked HTC how they did it, and found out that some assumptions about the HTC 10 audio hardware that the internet (and myself) has are incorrect. The HTC 10 uses a stand-alone DAC as well as headphone amp and isn't using the Snapdragon 820 DAC. This is pretty important, and why the HTC 10 sounds as good as it does.
We use a discrete DAC (not one on the SoC) in addition to the amp and have done a ton of PCB engineering to insure the best possible signal-to-noise ratio. Credit to HTC engineering, not off-the-shelf components.
So much for relying on the internet. That's a mistake I won't make again.
Needless to say, the results of my benchmark testing with the HTC 10 are pretty damn outstanding."
The discrete DAC is the Qualcomm Aqstic and it sounds awesome, the best I've ever heard in a phone.
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2016/06/02/qualcomm-aqstic-sets-new-standard-audiophiles
Xiaomi Piston 3's sound AMAZING for the price, which is around $12, but for best SQ you need to be careful to avoid fakes, replace the tips (included tips are rubbish), and burn them in for ~50 hrs.
I currently use the Audio-Technica ATH-CKR10 and it sounds amazing for my type of music (edm, trance, vocal trance) although they are quite expensive at around 200 your best bet is to get them from amazon and make sure its fulfilled by amazon, for some reason the other listings are always 300-600 bucks....
Ordered some Sony bluetooth over the ear headphones on Amazon prime day, work great. They were 50% off
Sent from my 2PS64 using XDA-Developers mobile app
whatthefunk said:
The discrete DAC is the Qualcomm Aqstic and it sounds awesome, the best I've ever heard in a phone.
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2016/06/02/qualcomm-aqstic-sets-new-standard-audiophiles
Xiaomi Piston 3's sound AMAZING for the price, which is around $12, but for best SQ you need to be careful to avoid fakes, replace the tips (included tips are rubbish), and burn them in for ~50 hrs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind sharing a link of a legit seller for the Xiaomi earbuds? I tried purchasing a set last summer but got burned by eBay seller and received a knock off. One of the earbuds volume was significantly lower (almost nonexistent) than the other earbud. Would like to try out some quality hi-res earbuds, my 2013 Beats Tours are pretty disappointing in both the sound department, as well as them constantly falling out of my ears.
But as far as Headphones go, My Beats Studio 2.0's sound amazing when I Calibrate the sound profile to them. The Dolby effects "Studio" setting really helps separate the sound stage nicely. So nice, it's allowed me to fight off the itch to mess around with V4A and all the other sound mods I have run in the past, and a much nicer richer listening experience as well.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
For bang for the bucks, try VSONIC GR07, despite the lame plastic chassis, it really does sound like a ~200-dollar-headphone. I like it more than my UE triple.fi, even UE900, sound-wise.
So i'm using the "Bose Soundsport" while in gym, on the bike or just walking outside. Although i'm not a big fan of Bose products i can highly recommend these because they are so damn comfortable as they are between real In-Ears and EarPods and sound excellent for their size. (way better than the High Res HTC In-Ears)
At home or while working i take my "Bowers & Wilkins P7", which were brought on a new level when i switched from HTC M7 to HTC 10!
But in the end it depends on what sound you like and the quality you use...for me it was always hard to find good headphones as i hear very different genres like Hiphop, Rock, Punk-Rock, House, Jazz etc.

[DISCUSSION] Headphone Jack performance

I wanted to start a thread discussing the performance of the headphone jack. I'm a bit disappointed considering Sony's audiophile history with their walkmans and LDAC codec.
Yes, I'm nit picking about a $13XX dollar phone but for this price, I was expecting a bit more that just average performance.
For comparison I do have a LG V40 with it's quad dac and it powers my audio technicas perfectly fine with High-Impedance mode.
On the MK ii, I don't get the full sound with out an external dac coming into play.
I'd like to ask other MK ii owners if having just a headphone jack is enough to power your earbuds/iems/headphones.
Going to do a bit more in detail research within a couple of days but I think Sony just wanted to slap a headphone jack just to say it has one.
Ps- I'm no audiophile but having a full sound for the headphones I have is a must.
Thank you! This thread is very interesting.
I have reduced hearing and I badly need a smartphone with high-output. My LG V30 with it's QUAD-DAC has no problem giving me enough volume even on my favourite pair Hifiman HE-4xx.
I was hoping that Sony 1 mk2 was an alternative, but maybe not................ ?
R800x_user said:
I wanted to start a thread discussing the performance of the headphone jack. I'm a bit disappointed considering Sony's audiophile history with their walkmans and LDAC codec.
Yes, I'm nit picking about a $13XX dollar phone but for this price, I was expecting a bit more that just average performance.
For comparison I do have a LG V40 with it's quad dac and it powers my audio technicas perfectly fine with High-Impedance mode.
On the MK ii, I don't get the full sound with out an external dac coming into play.
I'd like to ask other MK ii owners if having just a headphone jack is enough to power your earbuds/iems/headphones.
Going to do a bit more in detail research within a couple of days but I think Sony just wanted to slap a headphone jack just to say it has one.
Ps- I'm no audiophile but having a full sound for the headphones I have is a must.
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You may want to make the distinction between headphone jacks that can and cannot drive high impedance headphones as a headphone jack that can't can still be good as in clear, little to no distortion with good response and sound reproduction.
In this case its more like LG's has gone out of their way to include a dac that can power high impedance headphones (which is rare in the first place, in addition to the jack being rare) so if high impedance headphones usage is a top priority, then sticking to LG would be recommended.
I have a Meizu Pro usb dac which has a good reputation. The volume of the Meizu is a bit higher, but the audio quality of the Sony is equal. You just have to increase the volume 2 or 3 notches. The Sony uses the Qualcom dac and excellent Cirrus amplifier chips. I use my Beoplay H6 over the ear headphones for listening. The volume being a bit lower is no problem for me, I still can get serious hearing damage if I want to.
The audio is detailed, excellent channel separation, noise is undetectable.
jwalesh96 said:
You may want to make the distinction between headphone jacks that can and cannot drive high impedance headphones as a headphone jack that can't can still be good as in clear, little to no distortion with good response and sound reproduction.
In this case its more like LG's has gone out of their way to include a dac that can power high impedance headphones (which is rare in the first place, in addition to the jack being rare) so if high impedance headphones usage is a top priority, then sticking to LG would be recommended.
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Sho-Bud said:
I have a Meizu Pro usb dac which has a good reputation. The volume of the Meizu is a bit higher, but the audio quality of the Sony is equal. You just have to increase the volume 2 or 3 notches. The Sony uses the Qualcom dac and excellent Cirrus amplifier chips. I use my Beoplay H4 over the ear headphones for listening. The volume being a bit lower is no problem for me, I still can get serious hearing damage if I want to.
The audio is detailed, excellent channel separation, noise is undetectable.
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Yeah LG has done the headphone jack justice, but I was expecting a bit more out of the mark 2 for it's price point.
Like hi-res audio. I get it's mainly a photography oriented product. I mean I guess I got used to only using half of the volume steps provided by the LG phones.
I just had high expectations out of Sony in the audio department. Great camera. As for the dac mentioned above, i have a couple so I'm not too worried about getting any more of them. I have a couple of headphone I can try out besides my audio technicas.
The audio capability of the phone is lacking
Bluetooth volume is pretty poor even though it's decent quality
The 3.5mm Jack absolutely doesn't have that much power to drive much more than basic iem 8 to 16 ohm level. Can't push my 150ohm cans at all
Definitely louder than the previous phones. I'm just happy that the jack is back. I did notice a difference with bluetooth vs wired on WH1000XM4. Volume was definitely louder on bluetooth, but can really notice the difference in quality despite LDAC. But that's just me.
R800x_user said:
Yeah LG has done the headphone jack justice, but I was expecting a bit more out of the mark 2 for it's price point.
Like hi-res audio. I get it's mainly a photography oriented product. I mean I guess I got used to only using half of the volume steps provided by the LG phones.
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But it does have Hi-Res audio. Volume is a bit lower, but is also the curve of the volume control. With the LG the volume control is linear, with the Sony starts to increase real slow, until over half of the volume.
Sho-Bud said:
But it does have Hi-Res audio. Volume is a bit lower, but is also the curve of the volume control. With the LG the volume control is linear, with the Sony starts to increase real slow, until over half of the volume.
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Yeah volume has to be over half way to start making decent sound. Regular buds are fine though. I have some kz iems and it's fine with those. Just higher impedance isn't for this phone.
My Beoplay H6 headphones have an impedance of 30 Ohms. They work great with the Sony. I can't compare, these are the only wired headphones I have.
The audio quality is perfect with my XBA-N3AP or WH1000XM3
niaboc79 said:
The audio quality is perfect with my XBA-N3AP or WH1000XM3
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Oh snap, how are the XBAs?
Currently, I'm using AKG N700nc2( using them wired )
R800x_user said:
Oh snap, how are the XBAs?
Currently, I'm using AKG N700nc2( using them wired )
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XBA are amazing, well balanced and no extra bass like many earphones.
With an upgraded cable it's even better [emoji106]
Envoyé de mon XQ-AT51 en utilisant Tapatalk
niaboc79 said:
The audio quality is perfect with my XBA-N3AP or WH1000XM3
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I think using its headphone jack to push N3AP do not working perfect, the human voice is low, the sound ‘s analysis goes bad, compare to use usb-3.5 dac line. I use IE60.
highlightshadow said:
The audio capability of the phone is lacking
Bluetooth volume is pretty poor even though it's decent quality
The 3.5mm Jack absolutely doesn't have that much power to drive much more than basic iem 8 to 16 ohm level. Can't push my 150ohm cans at all
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Poor volume, I can still get hearing damage by the levels of volume here.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Monster_Dawn said:
I think using its headphone jack to push N3AP do not working perfect, the human voice is low, the sound ‘s analysis goes bad, compare to use usb-3.5 dac line. I use IE60.
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I haven't tried with a dac, I will try to compare with my XA50ES
Envoyé de mon XQ-AT51 en utilisant Tapatalk
For everyone who isn't satisfied with the performance of the headphone jack:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/xnext-walkman-v1-0-xperia-1ii-5-ii-t4192117
Require a rooted device
[email protected] said:
For everyone who isn't satisfied with the performance of the headphone jack:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/xnext-walkman-v1-0-xperia-1ii-5-ii-t4192117
Require a rooted device
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Click to collapse
Apologies for replying to an old threat, but what became of this? The link is now dead unfortunately. Was it an actual improvement or deleted because it was non-functional? Thanks.
Coleh said:
Apologies for replying to an old threat, but what became of this? The link is now dead unfortunately. Was it an actual improvement or deleted because it was non-functional? Thanks.
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Try to dm peter. I didn't have a chance to save this.
Sony Xperia 1 II most probably uses a Qualcomm audio codec. Can be their flagship Aqstic WCD9341, a dedicated audio chip. Only a proper tear-down will reveal the details. As I found out this audio chip contains a very good DAC section and can produce nearly 1 Vrms at headphone out when implemented in high performance mode.

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