[trenzterra]

It's a strange occurrence, and it seems reproducible: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40911047&postcount=2
 
Basically, when I drive my UE600 at high volumes using the GS4, there is noticeable audio crackling. This mostly happens on the sub-bass volumes as when I use the equaliser to turn the volume of 1, 150 and 400dBs down there's no longer any audio crackling.
 
Any idea why this could happen? It doesn't happen with my other headphones, nor with the UE600 driven to the max on other sources.

 

[trenzterra]

Any idea....?

 

[live1]

Im selling my sgs4 because of this

 

[tkteo]

Which model of the S4 is this occuring on? 9500 or 9505?

 

[trenzterra]

 I believe it affects the 9505 as the 9500 uses a Wolfson DAC.
 
Though the 9500 may be affected if the S4 uses the same amplifier across the board. I doubt the problem lies with the DAC but the amplifier as other Qualcomm handsets seem to handle earphones just fine.
 
This is what I suspect to be the problem: http://www.head-fi.org/t/662495/will-a-portable-amp-work-in-this-case

 

[live1]

my htc1 has no crackle with any of my iems and that uses same dac.i bet i9500 wil crackle too

 

[elfary]

In the end i always have to stick to my iPhone 4S. It blows every other smartphone hpo out of the water. No flaws, plenty power, ultralow distortion and low output impedance.

 

[Huxley]

Same with my one no faults with the audio at all.

Crackling could be a sign of being underpowered.

Try turning off nfc

 

[Baroninkjet]

I have I9300, not S4 but the same easy volume hack for S3 might help. Edit default_gain.conf file to turn up the hardware volume. There is a thread about it on XDA/S3. 

 

[bcollier]

I just bumped into this on the S4 (US qualcomm version) with my JH16s, if I really try to crank the volume on a song with a ton of bass energy. Basically, it seems like the internal amp can't keep up with the current requirements of really low impedance headphones at loud volumes.
 
I'm going to try dual-amping with my pico slim tonight to get some points of comparison. I need to go beyond my listening comfort to get it to clip, but it could definitely be an issue for some folks with even lower impedance cans, or a preference for louder volumes.

 

[bcollier]

As suspected, using the pico slim gets rid of this problem, and also generally drives the jh16 with a ton more authority.Double amping isn't ideal, but the pico slim is such a a clean IEM amp that I'm not detecting any negatives --- only positives from adding it into the loop.

 

[elfary]

Quote:

As suspected, using the pico slim gets rid of this problem, and also generally drives the jh16 with a ton more authority.Double amping isn't ideal, but the pico slim is such a a clean IEM amp that I'm not detecting any negatives --- only positives from adding it into the loop.

 
Hence it seems that as it was already pointed the S4 built in amp is not capable to deal with low impedance loads. Which is an unforgivable fault for a mobile device. It seems that Samsung is never able to ship rounded handhelds when it's not the gps is the screen or the amp.

 

[Audiowood]

I got the s4 att version and it sound crappy compared to my itouch. There is a some sort of distortion and a little hiss when playing music, strangely there is no hiss when pause. S4 does not have a black background as compared to itouch.

The s3 international version sound better.

This is initial testing without burn in but I doubt there is any changes even after burning in.

 

[Level5]

Phew I'm so glad I went with the HTC One.

 

[trenzterra]

Quote:

I got the s4 att version and it sound crappy compared to my itouch. There is a some sort of distortion and a little hiss when playing music, strangely there is no hiss when pause. S4 does not have a black background as compared to itouch.

The s3 international version sound better.

This is initial testing without burn in but I doubt there is any changes even after burning in.

 


What earphones are you using? I think it's related to the low impedance and insufficient current thing.
 
I can't believe in this day and age it's possible for a phone, much less a high-end one, to experience this problem. Or maybe I've just been spoilt by my iPhone (which is quite the irony since iOS devices/iPods have never been known for the SQ)
 
Strange thing is that certain demo units do not have this issue, and certain sets experience this problem only to a very tiny extent. Batch fault?