Database Users

Compare Xperia sound quality to something like an iPod?

Can anybody compare the music sound quality of the Xperia to an MP3-player like the iPod? How would you rate the sound quality?
I've listened to an Xperia in a store and the constant hissing was pretty noticable, worse than the iPod Touch I used to have. I couldn't really rate the sound quality itself, because the store wouldn't let me put in my SD card with my own music on it. The music that was on the Xperia (jazz music) sounded a little flat to me.

If you ditch the headphones that come with the xperia and get a decent say £30 pair of buds it sounds much better than the ipod

i have a x1 and an ipod touch
cant hear difference
only truely objective way to compare is
hook both up to a spectrum analyser and
play the same music and compare

i have xperia and ipod touch when i'm connect it to the speaker i think ipod has a little bit better sound quality
don't know for 100%
but i use now my xperia as mp3 and it works great sound is good but it hasn't have equlizer builtin thats the only thing i miss

commodoor said:
i have xperia and ipod touch when i'm connect it to the speaker i think ipod has a little bit better sound quality
don't know for 100%
but i use now my xperia as mp3 and it works great sound is good but it hasn't have equlizer builtin thats the only thing i miss[/QUOTE
I have noticed that my sony mp3 with digital equalizer built-in has the edge over my sony x1. Ipod generally doesnt not have this particular feature so you cant possibly tell much difference from the x1.
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I didn't test with any equipment, but I've worked in the music industry for over a decade listening to music for a living and also own both devices.
Compared to an ipod touch using the same pair of Shure se530s at equivalent volumes and testing at both halfway and at full, I'd personally give a slight edge to the ipod. You should listen to both side by side for yourself though. There really isn't a huge difference apart from the max volume (the ipod can go louder than an untweaked stock xperia. I haven't tried the registry sound fix on the xperia yet, to make it louder). I also haven't tried the stock headphones either to be honest.
The bass seems a bit richer (using headphones, not speakers) on the xperia, but the overall sound is crisper on the ipod with sharper mids and highs. Again this is just my opinion and the difference is slight, they both have great sound. Just see if you like the other features. The sound is above par and I'd be surprised if anyone passed up an xperia because of it's sound quality.
I didn't notice any extra "hissing" sound with the xperia compared to the ipod. Might have come from the track they were using or poor headphones? These were the exact same mp3s (tried a wide range) that I was listening to on both devices.

jhoffa said:
I didn't notice any extra "hissing" sound with the xperia compared to the ipod. Might have come from the track they were using or poor headphones? These were the exact same mp3s (tried a wide range) that I was listening to on both devices.
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I noticed the hissing as soon as I plugged in my headphone in the Xperia, before any music was playing. It's not the biggest problem for me as both my iPod Touch and iPod Classic (sold both) had hissing as well. Maybe my headphone is too sensitive (although it's a cheap Creative EP 630).
But judging from everybody's comments the Xperia should shound pretty good. It's one of the reasons I want to buy a new phone: music playback and quality. I'm trying to decide between an iPhone and an Xperia (used). I know the iPhone is a great music player, but the Xperia has extra features the iPhone can only dream of at this point, so I'm leaning towards the Xperia, even if sound quality may be worse.
Oh, by the way, you can get the Touch HD equalizer if you install Touch Flow 3D on your Xperia. Does that make a positive difference in sound quality?

I have an ipod nano and x1. Ipod has a slightly better sound quality. I use a Bose in ear headphone which is 10 times better than the stock in ear headphone that comes with the x1.

If you got the audio booster prog from htc+advanced config prog, the sound can be tweaked nicely.
I've put the 3D sound level to 'High', the equalizer to 'ROCK' and I use the UE superfi 5 pro earphones. Now I got to say that this sounds really good. Much better compared to an ipod touch

ipod never reach sony level in music ^^

I haven't done any serious listening yet on my x1 however did notice the hissing when plugging in my Ultimate Ears 5's. It annoyed me and convinced I had a problem I sent the handset back to 02 for a new one. On the new one - I get the same hissing so I feel it is a feature of the x1 sadly. I get the same on my Creative Labs X-Fi however less pronounced. Probably won't notice the hiss though when I am on the bus with background noise but do notice it at home.

Indeed, the Xperia Hisses, ALOT.
However, I am spoiled since I am used to a Creative Zen Vision (non-M, VGA version) which is Dead silent with even the most sensitive headphones.
My Creative Aurvana in-ear (my favorite sub-$100 in-ears) on the Xperia is a big no-no since their sensitivity is 115dB/mW. The hissing is very bad. On my portable headphone, a Phillips SBC HN110 the hissing is totally non-existant with its low 102dB/mW sensitivity, and the sound quality is truely a joy.
By the way, the stock Sony in-ears aren't half bad, but they too are too sensitive for the Xperia IMO.

Wow, according to GSMArena's tests the Xperia sound quality is quite good:
Only since recently are Windows Mobile devices considered seroius music handsets. Before that their business orientation has served them as a pretty good excuse for the poor audio quality.
However, the latest HTC devices were a clear sign that this is about to change. Therefore we were quite eager to understand if the XPERIA is the next step forward on this way.
As it turned out the handset has the best frequency response we have ever seen on a mobile handset. In addition it also achieved superb noise level, dynamic range and stereo crosstalk readings. In fact its results on those are even better than the dedicated Apple iPod music player - how is that for a change?
Unfortunately a price had to be paid and that is the rather high total harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion levels. Nonetheless it seems that there is not too much left before the WinMo devices start to directly compete music-oriented ones.

I have both Itouch and X1:
X1 sound much better cause of the software I installed. The ficking Wifi on itouch just die on me and it's 14 months old so out of warranty. Spend $400 for the ficking thing...Don't buy apple.. Piece of sh*%$#@...apple. The other 8GB itouch I bought for my nephew also broke after 16 months...

audioquality - really that bad? will 2.2 bring some improvements?

Hey Folks!!
I´ve read a lot about the very poor audio quality with the streak...what do you "initiated" guys can tell me about this (aside from the fact that they have positioned the audiojack on the SIDE of the device )? How would you rate the possibility to use this device as my no.1 mp3 player?
Will the update that everybody is waiting for compensate this issue?

Hi brooon
Well i don't know why you think the Streak has poor audio quality as that most certainly isn't my experience of using it to play my Music on and whilst i was on 1.6 i was more than happy using the Music player that was built into the Streak as i liked the Music Widget that came with it. Since moving to 2.1 and 2.2 Custom Roms i am using Lithium Player as like the Widget options it gives and i have no need for an EQ as have never used one on any device i use.
What is far more important IMO is how well you encode your Music as using low bit rates are never going to give you great results however good the hardware may be its restricted by to little information to work with when decoding it. All my Music is kept in iTunes although bought on Cd's and then transferred to it @256kbps AAC. The second most important factor is then your in ear phones as the supplied ones with any equipment are adequate at best IMO so dependant on your budget and the sound you like to hear upgrading your in ear or head phones is the other thing that will effect the quality of what you are listening to.
I listen to at least 2 hrs a day of Music either with my Shure EC2g's in ear phones plugged directly into my Streak or using my Nokia BH-500 and streaming the Stereo via Bluetooth to the same in ear phones and the sound is nothing short of stunning IMO. It produces a rich and full sound with good separation and sound stage with no need to use an EQ as IMO you shouldn't need to boost any frequencies as thats what a producer does when recording the Music for you to listen to in the recording studio.
So in answer to your question do nothing as I'm already running 2.2 and despite now using Lithium Player for the Widget options i have no issues with the sound quality my Streak delivers whilst listening to music or watching Videos.
Marc

brooon said:
I´ve read a lot about the very poor audio quality with the streak...[...]
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Where have you read it?
Streak has the best audio quality of all the devices I owned during last years. I was amazed when I first plugged the earphones and played some tunes.

Theres a lot of fud around.....
I'd agree with smoku it's the best (although the speaker isn't great maybe that's what he read)
I'm now using power amp for all my music needs, the eq in there really brings out the best of the sound quality on the streak... It even plays m4a and wma and can boost the sound level out of the rear speaker

This is a valid thread, thanks for starting it.
For my part I am interested in portable audiophile gear, Sennheiser IE8 with custom moulds, iBasso D10, iRiver H140, that sort of thing.
My music is encoded in FLAC and I haven’t yet tried the Streak as a music player. Possibly in part so as not to be disappointed and also I am waiting on final 2.2 or maybe even 2.3 so as to bring the platform to maturity and with it good quality media apps. The original 1.6 just seemed to be rough around the edges and with poor app support.
So the responses from Dogmann, smoku and fards are very encouraging and I shall give it go sooner rather than later.

i use the hf2,s from emotec and you need a diff player to play flac but the sound quality is ok just the standared head set that come with its pants

I think 2.2 has increased the sound quality for the speaker but still not good as HTC tilt2. The sound from earphone jack is good on both 1.6 and 2.2 for me.

im using a pair of klipsch images and the sound on my streak sounds horrible. I hear alot of popping and noise. You can even hear when the internal amp comes on when its about to start playing sound, and you can hear it turn off when sounds go off its rather noticable. I recently installed poweramp and the inbuilt eq does make the sound alot better. Maybe all our streaks aren't created equal id love to hear one that sounds good.

hi @all!!
Thanks for the comments and experiences, your impressions are really helping a lot here guys
shigga said:
I hear alot of popping and noise. You can even hear when the internal amp comes on when its about to start playing sound, and you can hear it turn off when sounds go off its rather noticable.
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That´s what i´ve read several times in reports that i´ve found during my googletrip ...it seems like you´re not the only one suffering under these (audio)circumstances. I must say, Im very surprised about the positive impressions here (although I´m happy to read such things )?!?
Don´t you guys hear those "poppings" and noises, too? What could be the reason for such a variety of impressions? Any idea?

This thread comes straight from the android knockers over at ilounge! i've owned both, there's no difference! i read the same stuff before i got android.
The only thing about the stereo system on the streak is the incredibly stupid placement of the headphone jack on the side of the device, meaning it sticks out sideways when in your pocket, the 'designers' even thought that you would carry the streak around in your pocket in landscape mode

tbh I'm not an audiophile, I've been a musician for way too long
never heard popping or buzz... except intentional as part of whatever I'm listening to..

My Streak does sound real good, even when listening to classical music. And I am using it straight out of the box.

Crap statement. It's not spectacular, but for a mobile phone device it's very satisfactory. I use it as a player both in my car and when I'm on the train and it sounds phenomenal.

Obviously it is not spectacular, lol. How could the sound on such a small device ever be spectacular? I was comparing it to other mobile devices (my wife's iPhone 3G, my old HTCs) and I am pleasantly surprised.

I switched to bluetooth headphones and they deliver much better sound quality, than the original streak's earplugs.

HansTWN said:
Obviously it is not spectacular, lol. How could the sound on such a small device ever be spectacular? I was comparing it to other mobile devices (my wife's iPhone 3G, my old HTCs) and I am pleasantly surprised.
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Didn't mean to directly attack your statement . I'm actually agreeing with you, I think the sound quality is good on the Streak, and I'm calling the "reviewers" who said that the sound is bad on the Streak crap.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Its weird there is such differing opinions on it.
I've owned two and returned both for bad audio. I even had an email from the executive support team saying they're aware of an audio issue!
I just wondered whether maybe, as mine were both from the very first Carphone Warehouse batch in Brighton that I got a bum lot!?

Just tried the demo display at my local best buy and brought my earbuds and it sounded equally as bad as mine. My captivate, aria and nexus sound so much better.

shigga said:
im using a pair of klipsch images and the sound on my streak sounds horrible. I hear alot of popping and noise. You can even hear when the internal amp comes on when its about to start playing sound, and you can hear it turn off when sounds go off its rather noticable. I recently installed poweramp and the inbuilt eq does make the sound alot better. Maybe all our streaks aren't created equal id love to hear one that sounds good.
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This is my only gripe with the audio quality. If you listen at low volumes, you can hear fuzz/hiss sounds. I also can hear the amp/DAC/whatever it is turning on and off when I start/stop my music. Course, you can crank up the music to drown out the noise, but I like to be able to hear what's going on around me when i listen to music (so the yard gnomes et al can't sneak up on me.)
If you're in a reasonably quiet room, try playing some music with headphones and the volume turned all the way down to 0 (yes, zero). I can hear audio noise over the sound of my apartment heater blowing air around.
side note: I've confirmed this with the earbuds that came with the streak, as well as a set that came with my old iphone. i'm guessing if you have less sensitive headphones, this will be less of a problem cause you'll be pushing the audio out at higher volume levels.

After the encouraging observations here I decided to finally check out the sound quality for myself. My reference portable rig is a pair of Sennheiser IE8’s with custom ear moulds, iBasso D10 Headphone amplifier with an optical digital interconnect to an iRiver H140.
The music I like tends to be recorded as low-fi, e.g. The National, Bon Iver, Cymbals Eat Guitars. Last night I loaded up a selection of Calexico on both the Streak and iRiver. While these are clean recordings they are certainly not Hi-Fi reference standard, you know, the sort of stuff that is used to demonstrate high end audiophile equipment.
Basically my subjective comparison is just me listening to the sort of music that appeals. The cognoscenti over at Head-Fi may well have finer tuned ears and a more analytical framework and disagree of course.
I approached this with some trepidation bracing myself for a degree of disappointment in the Streak as a music player. No way did I expect what I found.
To summarise, given the choice of listening to the iRiver/iBasso rig or the Streak I would probably select the former. However I would be hard pressed to actually explain why. Perhaps because it has the ability to go louder - though the Streak is quite loud enough.
TBH after a couple of hours listening to the same tracks back and forth on both devices, I couldn’t discern any difference. Dell has really come through on this device in so many ways.
Kudos also to PowerAmp which is a joy to use and a bargain at $5.
For reference, the last time I performed this exercise was to compare with my old iPhone 3GS and there was no doubt then that the iRiver/iBasso was superior. I can’t say the same with the Streak, the best I can manage is ‘neck and neck’.
I am sorry for those who are having audio problems but this shouldn’t be so and your device could be faulty.

Audio (Music) quality on Headset

Hi everyone;
I am almost decided on doing away with my SE x10i for Desire HD. But I also have HD7 and iPhone4 on my mind.
My basic requirement is a cell phone with a good video quality (to watch movies/videos) and good audio quality (to enjoy music on). From what I have heard DHD has good video quality, worth watching videos/movies on, but I want to know how good is DHD's music quality on Head Sets? (I know it isn't much impressive with the speakers).
I really used to love the audio quality on my iPhone3G. Later I bought x10i which basically is not a good device for music. The reason I don't want to go for iPhone4 is small screen. To simply put how good is DHD compared to iphone series when it comes to music? & also is it any better then x10i?

For me, the DHD has great audio quality, I use a pair of Sennheiser CX500,very cheap and excellent quality, comparable to Shure plugs (so I've read). As a music player I use PowerAmp and together the sound quality is very good, even with the stock player. Music quality is important to, but I'm not an audiophile. Before I had a Samsung Omnia HD and SE W960i walkman phone and the DHD definitely has the best audio quality.

Audio is better than iPhone 3gs
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Thanks guys;
I think DHD it is then.
I just pray and hope I don't regret buying it like I did with x10i.

The sound should definitely be better than x10, but I don't think it will be better than iphone. Check the review on "gsmarena.com"
They talk about stereo crosstalk problems with headset on. The frequency range is good, but according to them the stereo crosstalk with headset is quite bad. I myself haven't listen to music that much and anyway I use the original HTC headset that comes with the phone. It's probably not the best option so can't really judge the audio quality, but for me and my needs it's enough.

I tried using my Sony XB700 headphones, and i must say that i'm very pleased with the sound quality! I'm almost about to ditch my Zune HD

While people are moaning no end about the speaker (which is not really that bad at all), the headphones quality (tested with the standard HTC headphones) is really impressive.
I would imagine its second to none with some decent headphones. Impressed.

XmUrF said:
The sound should definitely be better than x10, but I don't think it will be better than iphone. Check the review on "gsmarena.com"
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That would definitely be a disappointment, but if it is any better then the x10i I think it would do. X10i simply $uck$.

After I saw review on gsmarena, I'm worried about sound quality too. I guess digits don't lie, but I still can't believe in such poor result. Too bad that I can't test it anywhere, it's really impossible for me to find a place where I can put my hands and ears on DHD.
So any opinions will be helpful.

Actually while being unsatisfied with the external speakers, I'm really amazed by the sound quality through headphones/earplugs.
I use Sennheiser CX300II in-ear plugs, and can't say otherwise that I'm really pleased with the soundquality, especially compared to my old N95.

Luki3d said:
After I saw review on gsmarena, I'm worried about sound quality too. I guess digits don't lie, but I still can't believe in such poor result. Too bad that I can't test it anywhere, it's really impossible for me to find a place where I can put my hands and ears on DHD.
So any opinions will be helpful.
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Looks like we both are on the same boat now. Only way is to actually buy DHD and check it out. In my case I may have little to lose as I am sure it has better audio quality then x10i. Even if not it is over all better then x10i. I'll update in few days when (or if) I get DHD.

I too was impressed by the stock headphones that came with the phone, although they were lacking in bass they were very clear. I've got a pair of Sennheiser HD 485 home theater cans which i've tested the phone out with and i'm very pleasantly surprised, i've tried both stock music player and power amp and both sound great no complaints at all.

one of my friends got a vodafone one here in aus ....meanwhile im still waiting for my sim free one from handtec :\
anyway they used to have an iphone and both the DHD and the iphone sound average to me the DHD is probably above the iphone when it comes to clarity and EQ modes let you change it more than you can on the iphone where your limited to premade presets which just are ...meh the dolby really adds bass tho but still seems a bit artificial and sometimes the mids seemed a bit to harsh,
but on the whole both iphone and DHD have nothing on my cowon S9 so im not ready to stop carrying a dedicated player just yet, once my DHD arrives
headphones i used were Jays Q-jays dual armature IEM's
so yeah its ok but its not as good as dedicated devices

just listening to some test tracks now with my RE0's, ultrasone 780's and sennheiser mx760's.
its not bad, but my god it has A LOT of bass. the mids sound thin and artificial, but the treble is not too bad. its certainly better than the 2nd gen ipod touch, and i'd put it close to the iphone 4. if the mids didnt sound so....cheap it would be as good as the iphone 3GS/4.
it could sound better but its not bad. dropping the mids helps slightly, which can be done in power amp but not in the basic android player. the rock EQ preset helps a bit though. with this it sounds very close to the iphone 4.
dolby mobile sound is TERRIBLE. sounds like you've swallowed a sub woofer and put your head in a cardboard box. SRS is just trying to deafen you with harsh horrible artificial sound. avoid them two.

I think what you're saying marries up nicely to the GSMarena review.
To the OP: If sound quality is very important to you, and your ears can actually tell good sound quality, then I don't think this is the handset for you (unless its considerable other benefits outweigh that for you, but from your original post I'm not sure they do).

Potential Buyer said:
Thanks guys;
I think DHD it is then.
I just pray and hope I don't regret buying it like I did with x10i.
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I did regret buying an x10i, and I don't regret buying this. Great phone. Speaker is a little lame but very nice with headphones.
| Sent from my LeeDroid Desire HD |

NZtechfreak said:
To the OP: If sound quality is very important to you, and your ears can actually tell good sound quality, then I don't think this is the handset for you (unless its considerable other benefits outweigh that for you, but from your original post I'm not sure they do).
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Well ... all I want is sound quality that is at least equivalent to my old iPhone 3G, if not any better. That's all. I am not looking for a dedicated music player on a cell phone. I would go for iPod if I were. Would cost me much less.
I am also looking for good video quality to watch videos/movies on while traveling. This puts DHD on top of my list. Other alternative for me is iPad - but the hectic it carries when it comes to converting videos files to mp4 just kills it for me. Plus I want something that fits into my pockets.

Well, honestly, .mp4 files play and look quite good on dhd. However beware, not everything plays OK with the internal player and rock player is good only for .avis. Anything heavier and it struggles.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

XmUrF said:
Well, honestly, .mp4 files play and look quite good on dhd. However beware, not everything plays OK with the internal player and rock player is good only for .avis. Everything heavier and it struggles.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
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Well as long as it plays .mp4 and .avi in good resolution I have no issues. The x10i plays DVD quality files in .mp4 format pretty well, so I guess DHD can do so also(?). HTC has been promoting the device as good for movies.

Potential Buyer said:
Well as long as it plays .mp4 and .avi in good resolution I have no issues. The x10i plays DVD quality files in .mp4 format pretty well, so I guess DHD can do so also(?). HTC has been promoting the device as good for movies.
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It is good for movies. With Rock Player you can play any .avi file (well at least I haven't found one that can't be played). mp4 files however you can play only with the default player (with rock player's software decoding it's unwatchable) and the default player doesn't play every .mp4 file out there.

[Q] audio quality through headphones?

hows the audio quality of the phne as i will be using it as my main my3 player so i wont have to carry around a bunch of devices but hows it sound when listining to mp3 files.also give it a rating on a 1-10 scale! thanks

kanametosen007 said:
hows the audio quality of the phne as i will be using it as my main my3 player so i wont have to carry around a bunch of devices but hows it sound when listining to mp3 files.also give it a rating on a 1-10 scale! thanks
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I recently got rid of my iPod touch and now I'm using this full time and it's on par with my iPod touch, which I thought was great. To my ear i'd give it a 9.

I am a fan of all in one devices and I don't really have anything to compare against besides an old Sansa MP3 player. But I use mine with the UE TripleFi 10. And they sound great. The only negative I have of this device is their is no built in support for FLAC files. I am using andless for FLAC which is ok for now.
Oops! Forgot to rate it. But I would give this thing a 9. Only because it doesn't have built in support for flac and no equalizer. But that is just my opinion.

Its bad...as in anything else is waaaay better. I had an iPhone before this, and the mt4g don't even come close. First I thought it was the headphones, but plugged in a receiver it sounds like there's a blanket in front of the speakers.
I had a g2 afterwards, that was an improvement. Now I'm trying a Vibrant, which is better that the other 2, but still can't touch the iPhone when it comes to sound quality. That's weird, cause last time I checked the audio hardware on iPhones was made by Samsung.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

It sounds better than my iPod. Really pleasantly surprised as I didn't expect to use this as an iPod replacement, but with how great it sounds and the convenience of only carrying one device has me switch. I also like how you don't have to unlock the device to change the volume (the volume up/down buttons work even with the screen off) and I like how the lock screen shows the current song as well as pause, skip forward, and skip back when a song is playing. All in all I think its great.

I think sound quality is awful unless you're on CM and able to use DSP.
On stock rom: Sound quality - 3, features - 8
CM Rom: Sound quality - 7, features - 9.
Does that help?

I would also say this phone is at a 9 for sound quality, but I use PowerAMP (without any EQ settings) with my Etymotics or Sony earphones, along with my Sony MDR-V6 headphones. I've had the 3rd gen and 5th gen iPods, and this sounds at least as good as them (better, actually). I've had a variety of portable players (Sony and JVC portable CD players, and MP3 players back to my Diamond RIO PMP300) and I've found the G2 and myTouch 4G to be wonderful. I will say that there is a slight difference in sound quality between the stock Media Room app and PowerAMP, but I'm not sure why since I was under the impression PA used the stock CODECs for MP3s. I think PA will play FLAC though, if that helps.

I really don't get all these people saying g the sound quality is awesome. Not trying to be a douche, but I am a musician and sound engineer, I found the quality of the audio playback on the mt4g to be awful.
If you pay attention to it, you'll hear a lot of white noise on the upper frequencies whenever there's audio playback. It actually comes up bout a second before the audio starts.
For the people saying it's better than an iPod, do a blind test through a receiver.
I'm glad to hear the sound improves with custom roms.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The OP asked for opinions, and you've already stated yours. Negating the opinions of others does, in fact, start pushing you into "douche" territory. Maybe it's better to just let the other people in the audience (who may also just happen to be engineers and know pro audio people) state their opinions.
If you like, maybe he should state the expected noise floor of the surroundings, along with a specific range of support and any bias(es) he's looking for or against. Or maybe, just maybe, we should accept that this person is HERE looking for opinions (in this demographic) and not in the head-fi forums looking to hook this up to a tube amp with his favorite Grados. You know, just sayin'...

Sony win ! Xperia Z3 Audio quality

So I have received my Z3 D6633 today. Luckily, XDA members had thread about which model work with tmobile in the US. Here are my impressions, and why I took a risk to purchase my Z3 despite my Z1 is only 1 year old.
I hear Sony rave about their high-res Z3 capability. I thought it was a marketing tool. I had been following Iphones, Galaxy, and lately Sony for portable music. They all had been very disappointing, until the Z3.
Now, my question was, how could Sony claim it ? Was it just a Software to color the music ? the Equalizer of some short ? I did a lot of research, and I was lucky that I found my answers.
From Sony "Z2 had the capability to play HD audio, but you will need a converter, where as the Z3 has it built in, as long as you have an HD head sets, then you can listen to your HD Music"
1/ Z3 use WCD9320 Audio Codec which is Qualcomm
2/ Z3 also use TFA9890 (2x) chips. Now, this is an DAC amp with each single one can sample the music rating at 8-48kHz. Two of these brings the Z3 to be able to sample up to 96kHz.
So how is this different from the other Android phones and or Iphone 6 ?
I am not a nerd with full knowledge of Music Technologies, but what I do get is
"It is a Phone together with a Portable Amp.....?" It may not be the S-Master chipset, but this is just already too good
Yeah, and that was the deciding factor for me to went ahead and made my purchase. Any other phones may claim to be able to play HD audio, but non of them have these good built-in AMP!! Z3 also has the software to restore loss bits from MP3 songs >.< Don't know how it work....tongue.gif
Xperia Z3 tear down picture can be found here
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony...ar-component-layout-is-easy-to-repair_id61323
TFA9890 DAC chip can be found here
http://www.nxp.com/documents/short_data_sheet/TFA9890_SDS.pdf
I will update as soon as my Z3 arrived. biggrin.gif
I didn't know where to post this, and I research about headphones a lot in this section. I thought I would post it here for whoever is curious about the Xperia Z3 Audio Quality.
Please feel free to fix my mistakes as if I misunderstood any of the new technologies. Thank you

Review
I am super impressed by the performance of Z3 with music playback "FLAC" or lossless files. I only have time to test this, and FLAC is the only source I have for now.
Details, details, details are everywhere. Low, Mid, High, all are more clear, more separated, sound fuller, and smoother. Now this is the comparison to the other cell phones.
Do you remember the time Sony had Walkman CD player ? Yes, this is it, but it is more technological advanced, as you can purchase, download songs, keep it over the cloud and ....etc. Even though this phone doesn't have the S-master chip set, but I assure you that you will not be disappointed.
For the last few years, I had been following, purchasing headphones, earbuds, headset, and ended up giving them away. I could never find a good pair of headset to make me love my music again as the CD walkman before. I kept on seeing oh how wonderful the music will be, and what you are losing out. Now, it doesn't matter what pair of headphone I have, Z3 will blast away, bring full details and music to my ears, I just need to play around with the EQ bands to my taste.
Thank you Sony, my heart is full of joys and tears. You had answered my prayers and thoughts
1/ Cell phone
2/ Portable music player
3/ Quality music without external amp
I am in love with the Xperia Z3. When the original Iphone came out, I was impressed with their ability to youtube, touch screen....etc. Now, I am impressed with Z3 high-res audio.
Conclusion, music are very detailed, full spectrum, full over take, full syncing and instrumental details are awesome. I am not an expert audiophiles, sound engineering, high-end rich person. But I do enjoy music, and sound system. If you love music, and always wonder what detailed music mean, you will love this new Xperia Z3.
**I had never combined external portable amp with any cellphone for music due to the inconvenience and on top of that I have a very good stereo system.**

Thanks for this awesome review. I'm getting more and more excited about the Z3 coming to T-mobile.

I got my Z3 yesterday and put 24/96 flac track and the same song as a direct CD rip and the difference was incredible! Only thing I would like was a bit more volume, but seeing as I rarely listen to music vis earbuds/headphones, I can't complain. Although I may start listening in this manner a lot more due to the hi-res capabilities, if I keep the phone? But that is for another thread...

The volume via headphones from the Z3 is about the same as the Z1/2. I agree that it could use a bit more volume, but with 2x chips TFA9890 I think the Z3 is capable of much more. Now we just need some one to hack it, and remove the limit. I think this limit is to make the battery last longer.
I wonder if the Voodoo sound hack work on it.

I too have been really impressed with the sound quality from the phone. Its night and day compared my S3, I dont usually appreciate sound modes etc but enabling "studio mode" made a massive difference especially when I was streaming music via BT in the car.

Next review
Connected to a 3.5mm jack to a 2000W amplifier. Uhm, what can I say ? It can totally be used as a High-res Audio player. That is all I can say. Totally worth it. The first and only smart phone to output this much details in music over the 3.5mm jack. I have tested many phones my family member went through, including all Iphone models, Galaxy....HTC. Now, I am not talking about how "LOUD" the music can get...remember this is a 2000W system. It can blow your roof off. I am talking about how "Detailed" the music can get to. Z3 is the worthy member to download and purchase FLAC songs and utilize my Stereo system
If you Z3 owners haven't tried this
Power Amp, get to Music FX and hold it for couple seconds it will allow you to utilize Walkman Equalizer and clean bass as well. Try it...muahahaha :good::good:

I agree the sound quality on the Z3 is absolutely excellent - Sony Win
For the headphone issue though, i'm afraid for the majority of us who won't be unlocking due to the camera issues (I say that as in the majority of people won't even be here let alone rooting), hacks to increase headphone volume are an utter waste of time.
I for one will just have to learn to live with quiet headphone volume - Sony lose

I will not be hacking my Z3 for headphones volume neither. I use it with JVC HA-FX40H purchased from Adorama online store. They are under 20$ and worth every pennies and 3x more :good:
I could always crank up the whole thing to almost deafen myself, but I wouldn't do that. Try Power Amp with Music FX within the app, the Power amp app open up almost 2x louder than the Walkman app
I am totally satisfied with Z3 as a premium smart phone, premium portable music player, and water proof....well, I won't be testing it :victory::victory::victory::victory:

How much louder are the speakers compared to the Z1? The Z1 has a big speaker grille on the bottom but the speaker is only on one small side of it(If you cover half the grille the sound is the same), which when I realized, made me very disappointed.
I like using my phone in the shower for music so just wondering.

Z3 vs Z1 loud speaker will be about almost 1.75x difference. You have better bass in the Z3 loud speaker. I don't use it too much, so I will not have much details about this. But in the Loud speaker department, which will throw away most of the music details and leave only bass and treble to play, you better buy M8. All the reviews and tests point to the HTC M8 being superior to Loud Speaker music playing.
Z3 is High resolution music play back, which I recommend a good pair of Headphones, doesn't have to be expensive, and you can enjoy what music really meant to be heard.
Enjoy

Sound quality is great but the volume is too low. Once we have root these types of things will be fixed.

Making the speakers louder with root won't damage the phone?

I am waiting for people unwittingly playing 128kb files and raving about HD quality
Z3 seems to be a nice device

Has anyone actually connected a USB DAC and tried USB audio with the Z3?
I am getting all kinds of crackling noises which is very annoying. Makes the phone next to useless since it has relatively little power to drive high end headphones.

This post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55735812&postcount=4
seems to indicate that the hi-res audio can only be output via the DAC. if its true, then it would be kind of a turn off.
But i think maybe he is incorrect. Because according to this
http://drippler.com/updates/share/xperia-details-hi-res-audio-explained
"Xperia Z2 was compatible with Hi-Res Audio but you needed a converter to listen to it. So in Xperia Z3, we’ve built that converter into the phone. If you have Hi-Res compatible headphones you can just plug them in to the headphone jack like any other pair and listen away."
So it seem that it doesn't require a DAC afterall.

No it doesn't require a dac. The required hardware and software are built into the phone.
Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

Okay so I transferred one or two stock pre installed FLAC files from the LG G2 that I had. Vienna Boy's Choir I think. Now using the DSEE HX i noticed a major improvement in the audio quality, tones were richer and more defined. That is just using my cheap sony earphones. I can't imagine what it would sound like wearing powerful quality headphones. Bear in mind that I am a noob when it comes to enjoying HQ music.
However, even a noob like me could notice that my Z3 was noticeably richer, bassier and had better fidelity than my iPhone 6+, using the same low cost earphones. Granted, I was just playing a random Maroon 5 track from youtube on both devices to control the variables as much as I could.

I'm really pleased with the audio quality also. However, I do share the same sentiments as others in this thread, it needs a bit more volume.

Bluetooth for me is a great experience. Headphones... I get about 1/5th of the power that I was getting from my note 3. Using a set of klipsch ear buds, does sony hate other brands of headphones or am I missing something? Anyone else having this issue?