iPhone 5 Audio Quality with headphones? is it better than the iPhone 4S? - Page 5

No. The difference, I think, is about 5%... just like with most high-end gears.

Though it's worth noting that neither the iPhone 4 nor the iPhone 5 is "high-end" to me. I have heard far better, and I know how much better it can get. It's just that Apple did not improve the iPhone 5 significantly over the 4.

It's a point of diminishing return for them. A portable device can only push so much on such a puny battery.

I too was upset over the poor reviews posted about the sound quality of the iPhone 5.  To me, music is very important and I was really hoping I could get the sound of the iPod Video in the new iPhone 5.

However, I believe my ears, and not mere stats.  The same should apply if you buy audio equipment too, you just need to go and listen, it's not right to just read what everyone thinks because everyone has a different listening preference.

To me, I just prefer the iPhone 5 over the iPhone 4.  The iPhone 4 is too tiring, and as some others pointed out, blurry and muddy.  With the 5, I can actually tell what instrument is what, to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.

Another funny observation I found is my normal SE535 cables seem to sound better than my upgrade cables.  It's possible the upgrade cables were more suited for the iPhone 4 but not for the iPhone 5.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moodyrn 

While that may be true for some, I can't speak for everyone. But for me, I didn't care one way or the other which one sounded better. Neither is what I call highend or even midfi when it comes to sound production. If I wanted a high end dap, then I would have looked else where. I bought the iphone 5 mainly because of it's feature set. I've had too many other portable setups that sounded better than either one for the sound quality to be a big concern. So even if the 4 would have trounced it, I still would have kept the 5.
I don't have a problem with the article being posted. It fact, I kind of appreciate it as well. It's nice to see some measurements of the iphone 5. But what I had a problem with, was saying it sounded better without hearing it first. Measurements will never tell you how one product sounds in absolute terms. It does gives you a general idea of what to expect. So it's one thing to post measurements, but another to talk about product A "sounding" better than product B based only on what you read on paper. I also said I had no problem of the ones who preferred the iphone 4 to the 5 that actually listened to both. But to say one sounds better than another without ever listening to it is another thing entirely.
And again, too much is being made of this. They both sound very similar, and like Bill-P said, it's a 5% difference(at best). So it really doesn't matter. They both sound nearly identical.

While i concur that the difference must be quite small since it took some time to seasoned listeners i trust to catch the difference between 5 and 4S i utterly disagree on your mid fi and hi fi criteria.

In my book for driving in ear monitors iPhone 4/4S are hifi sources. The signal they fed the iems with can not be much improved in the 16 bit realm. The room for improvement in this scenario is no larger than 1% or 2% imo. There is a renowned mastering engineer at Steve Hoffman forums that went as far as saying that aside from the sound stage the sound quality of an iPhone 4s driving headphones was surprisingly close to the sound of his home 70.000$ rig.

Unless you get into a mastering studio level kind of rig and room the level of resolution of the headphone out of the aforemention iPhones is kind of unique.

The I-phones are nowhere near hi-end, you've misquoted Steve H.

It's not even the best sounding phone! and as a source pales next to a £150 CD player

Quote:

Originally Posted by KT66 

The I-phones are nowhere near hi-end, you've misquoted Steve H.

 

It's not even the best sounding phone! and as a source pales next to a £150 CD player

So what phone sounds better than an iPhone? (without having to resort to an external DAC and such)

Quote:

Originally Posted by KT66 

The I-phones are nowhere near hi-end, you've misquoted Steve H.

 

It's not even the best sounding phone! and as a source pales next to a £150 CD player

In my book it's a hifi source for in ear monitors.

And Steve Hoffmann quote was referred to "drivable" headphones.

The sound coming off an iPhone + JH16 is not hifi to you ?

We are on different pages of the hifi book ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by moodyrn 


And that's the reason why someone shouldn't say one product sounds better than the other if that person hasn't listened to it. People read these threads to gather info on what direction they want to take. And again, to post specs is one thing. To say that one device sounds inferior when you never listened to it is another thing. But thankfully you decided to trust you own ears and not just base your decision on specs alone. But still, I have no problem with someone saying one device sounds better than another if you listened to both

While i agree that listening is essential i do think as well that data and ears usually pair well together: what sounds good measures good and what measures good sound good (aside from vinyl nostalgics' taste which i find really weird)

Apple product, my experience

RMBP> MBA 13 > IPC > IPAD = IP4 >= IP4S

Somehow I feel my old IP4 sounds better and a bit fuller than my IP4S.