I still roll with a Nexus S because the music audio is so good with the Wolfson sound chip and the Voodoo mod. Does anyone use a S4 that used to use a Nexus S? I doubt the sound is as good as the Nexus S wolfson with Voodoo sound, but I was wondering how much worse it would be.
Does anybody have any info on the built-in DAC of the Tab S? It sounds better compared to my S3.
Is it a Wolfson or a Yamaha? I suggested the latter as the Exynos Note 3 has a Yamaha DAC and the Tab S uses the same chip as the Exynos Note 3. Though I may be wrong on that, I got it from the head-fi forum.
I've no info at all on the DAC. Mind you, I'm not the type to hang around the headfi forums and listen to pseudo science and nonsense.
What I do find is the headphone output sounds excellent. Some people will want it to go louder if they have hard to drive phones though.
Compared to my htc one s it's probably just a fraction better sounding. I think gsmarena tested the output and it got very healthy results. Apart from the stereo crosstalk, which to me is the least important factor anyway, and on my listening the stereo was perfect, absolutely perfect, not a hint of crosstalk.
Tested using Phonak Audeo PFe's in ear and Creative Aurvava Live 2 headphones.
So I found a Behringer UCA202 DAC online for really cheap and thought why not try it just for fun. Everything I've read says having one can help a bit and I figured at the least it would sound the same, but I plugged it into my Nexus 5 via OTG then plugged the AUX cord to my Jeep into the DAC and all bass and pretty much any other level of detail is gone from my music whether it's from Pandora, YouTube HD, or FLAC audio files. Audio sound quality is equal to listening to music over old mono bluetooth, you hear it fine but any highs and lows are removed. Has anyone else used this DAC that could give some suggestions?
Otherwise it's just as I assumed, DACs are pointless on good quality phones and that's why I can't find any DAC threads with the Nexus 5 involved.
herqulees said:
So I found a Behringer UCA202 DAC online for really cheap and thought why not try it just for fun. Everything I've read says having one can help a bit and I figured at the least it would sound the same, but I plugged it into my Nexus 5 via OTG then plugged the AUX cord to my Jeep into the DAC and all bass and pretty much any other level of detail is gone from my music whether it's from Pandora, YouTube HD, or FLAC audio files. Audio sound quality is equal to listening to music over old mono bluetooth, you hear it fine but any highs and lows are removed. Has anyone else used this DAC that could give some suggestions?
Otherwise it's just as I assumed, DACs are pointless on good quality phones and that's why I can't find any DAC threads with the Nexus 5 involved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ummm, it's not a DAC. It's an interface.
theesotericone said:
Ummm, it's not a DAC. It's an interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, with a DAC in it. You need a DAC to get audio output through USB, there is no analog audio output through USB/USB OTG...
herqulees said:
Yes, with a DAC in it. You need a DAC to get audio output through USB, there is no analog audio output through USB/USB OTG...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it has a DAC but it's not meant as a stand alone DAC. It's an interface or soundcard. Does your phone have enough juice to even operate the thing? Also for a device that sells for less than 30 bucks what exactly where you expecting? Get a real DAC. You will notice a huge difference. Until then do some more research on what you have and see if your meeting it's power requirements.
This is actually a pretty good review of the unit with lots of technical info.
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html
theesotericone said:
Yes it has a DAC but it's not meant as a stand alone DAC. It's an interface or soundcard. Does your phone have enough juice to even operate the thing? Also for a device that sells for less than 30 bucks what exactly where you expecting? Get a real DAC. You will notice a huge difference. Until then do some more research on what you have and see if your meeting it's power requirements.
This is actually a pretty good review of the unit with lots of technical info.
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I can't see power being an issue I suppose I'll test with my Nexus 7 and laptop. I know it's a cheap DAC but I've read many reviews using this DAC with tablets and phones for car audio, along with the nwavguy in-depth review and testing showing how it's not a multi-hundred dollar unit but still does amazingly well. My issue is it doesn't even sound decent. It sounds like I'm playing rap/hip-hop through an old Nokia on speaker phone, you can hear it clearly but there's no depth.
So I tossed this DAC in a closet after I got bored of trying to make it work right and forgot about it for a year or so till earlier today when I found it while cleaning. My Nexus 5 has been retired and serves no purpose other than a security camera now. I now have a Samsung Galaxy S5 and an RCA Maven Pro tablet. The RCA Maven Pro is an 11.1inch 2-in-1 Android tablet with detachable keyboard for around $120. You'd assume it's horrible thanks to the brand and price but they managed to cut corners in all the right places it seems. Downsides are no GPS, 1GB of RAM, terrible cameras, and a horrible speaker. Other than that it has faithfully replaced my $1200 laptop with zero issues other than adjusting to ditching Windows.
Now back on track when I listen to music I'm either using an aux cord plugged into my work truck or bluetooth when using headphones or in my new car. When doing a side by side comparison bluetooth, to no surprise, shows no difference between my Maven and S5. However when using an aux cord the RCA doesn't put out as much bass and highs are... I guess not as clear? I think audiophiles are insane most of the time so it's hard for me to describe when I do notice a difference. Anyways I plugged the UCA202 into the RCA's USB port (no OTG here, it has a full size USB port) and plugged my Sony MDR-XB950BT headphones in to it with an aux cord (these headphones are 100% passive when wired, no bass boost or other enhancements) and sound quality is just as great as my S5, all bass and highs are restored. Just to further the test I plugged it into my S5 and did the same test with the same results. These are the same FLAC song files from the same network location that my Nexus 5 was playing a year ago.
The whole time the issue was something in my Nexus 5. What it was I don't know and sorry you guys I don't plan on investigating, I just wanted to inform everyone that the Behringer UCA202 is in fact a quality budget DAC since this thread is a top Google result for "Behringer UCA202 Android". If you have a cheap device that you want the audio to be on par with the high end phones this will do it, and for my original purpose of at the same time giving a bit of amplification for a weak head unit without distortion it does that decently too. To finish this off I am NOT an audiophile. Just a human with human hearing that likes songs with bass on car head units that weren't always designed for it (I glued a 80mm CPU fan to the back of the HU in my Jeep ) So take my finer details however you'd like.
the DAC works great for my Nexus 7 2013 model.
maybe otg cable is sh1tty
Sent from my D820 CAF using Tapatalk
Hello Everyone!
Just for clarification, I am not discussing about the integrated speaker. I am talking about the sound quality that comes from the headphone jack. With that out of the way, I was trying to find a thread that discussed about the audio quality of the Snapdragon variant. I hear the WM5110 in the Exynos version sounds amazing from many forums. However, I haven't really seen people talking much about the sound quality in the Snapdragon version. What do you guys think of it? Are there any audiophiles/ audio experts that can share some thoughts of the audio quality of this phone? I am not an audiophile and I personally don't have any grudge against the audio CODEC. I have tried connecting it with my Klipsch S4i, AudioTechnica M40x, and Bose QuietComfort 25 and played lossy (256kbps and 320kbps AAC) and lossless files (FLAC, iTunes Lossless) and they seemed to sound pretty good. I have not listened with the Exynos variant as it is not commonly seen in the US.
Sound is ok, obviously not talking about Bluetooth headphones, if possible I would run the sound through a headphone amplifier like the O2 from JDSlabs.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk
Any minimal price earphone suggestion?that i can hear the power of a quad dac audio.
I have apple earpod which is 45ohm.I read somewhere 50ohm is required to active the 4 dac.
Device-Lg g6
sagor1 said:
Any minimal price earphone suggestion?that i can hear the power of a quad dac audio.
I have apple earpod which is 45ohm.I read somewhere 50ohm is required to active the 4 dac.
Device-Lg g6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update:
I find a earphone which is 51 ohm.price-99$
Model-Soundmagic e50 has 51
Or just buy the high impedance (75ohm) adapter & use it with my apple earpod?
The headphone amplifier changes the gain according to the headphone impedance, this is separate from whether the HiFi DAC is in use.