iPhone 6 & 6 Plus Audio Quality
Oct 23, 2014 at 4:44 AM Post #361 of 1,973
   
Thank you for the suggestion regarding EQ 10.  I am aware it only costs $.99, but based on the amount and content of less-than-favorable reviews (an overall 2 stars [mostly 1 stars] out of thirty-two reviews), I do not want to spend more money on another app that winds up possibly being less than favorable than Neutron regarding overall sound quality.  Even if every single review came from a plant or plants (false posters), I would like to hear from someone who likes Neutron and tries out the music player from EQ 10 - as I do not want to be the one to report on both first. 
 
As for my Neutron settings, I usually do not use Neutron's EQ, and I leave EQ off from every device/app when comparing music apps, IEMs/headphones, etcetera.
 
Regarding SCS, please check out my Sensaphonics Custom Sleeves review below.  It explains what filter(s) as well as the custom cable I use for my Shure SE846.  The custom tips you were inquiring about are the Sensaphonics Custom Sleeves.

Maybe if I give you a bit more background info my input might be more helpful to you.
 
My previous setup was a Galaxy Note 3 with the Poweramp app, using either 
 
1. Sennheiser IE80 with a Galaxy Audio Silver cable and Comply foam tips with no wax guard
2. Beyerdynamic Custom One Pros with a Dynamique silver audio cable hooked up to Fiio E18 KUNLUN via micro USB.
 
These two worked fine for me with the Note 3, but then when I moved to the iPhone 6 Plus, the Poweramp was greatly missed, and I felt the stock music player of the iPhone 6 Plus wasn't the best.  
 
Judging from my hardware, you can assume that I am somewhat of a basshead, but I also do enjoy clarity.  
 
What I liked about the setup, and mostly the audio app was the immersive sound signature that was possible with the app EQ settings, that just wasn't possible with the stock iPhone music player.  
 
For a lack of a better explanation, the stock iPhone player feels like the music was playing in mono right at my ears with no energy, rather that filling my entire head and all around and truly immersing me into the music.
 
With Poweramp, I felt the music changed to a wider soundstage, and I felt truly immersed in the music, and the bass kick was the best I've ever heard on any device. Two of the settings that made this possible was the "StereoX" knob and the "Bass" knob. This wasn't the case with the iPhone. To me, all the EQ settings does on the stock iPhone was make things sound anemic and just mudded out certain frequencies with the illusion of amping other frequencies. So no matter which setting I chose, it just sounded muddy, veiled, and frustrating.  
 
With the app EQ10, there is a function called stereo width, that helps with this soundstage, or widened music sound approach. This is the main reason why I use this app, as well as the EQ being able to adjust frequencies separately. With the EQ setting in this app, it's as good as the bass knob in Poweramp.  
 
I've made all the in app purchases in CanOpener and Neutron, but still couldn't emulate this kind of sound.  Maybe I'm just not using it right, but from what I can tell after trying every button in both apps, it still wasn't there. Also the scrolling in Neutron is a huge pain in the ass!
 
That's not to say that EQ10 is perfect in any way. Besides those two functions, the app just looks like a mock up of the stock iPhone music player, and there are barely any other functions useful to me. I can't rate a certain song, I can't search based on ratings etc etc...
 
Anyway, I hope this helps, and maybe is enough for you to spend on buck on an app. If that's not the sound you're going for and prefer a flatter response, then probably none of this was for you. 
 
Thanks for reading. 
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 5:48 AM Post #362 of 1,973
Thanks for your in-depth impressions with your Note 3 and iPhone 6 Plus applications, I appreciate it.
 
Regarding the scrolling of Neutron, you can customize the scrolling speed/behavior through Settings > User Interface.
 
I bet the EQ 10 sound is great, however I still didn't read if you perceive the EQ 10 music player having an overall improvement regarding sound quality compared to Neutron, especially without using EQ.  It would be great to read impressions regarding sound quality comparing the two music playback applications from you (and hopefully others).
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 6:25 AM Post #363 of 1,973
Hello,
 
As you may have heard a jailbreak has been released for iOS 8/8.1 which is a good news for everyone owning an european version of iPhone 6/6 plus.
 
Has anyone checked the value of volumelimits/headphone on /var/mobile/library/preferences/com.apple.celestial.plist% for non-european iPhone 6/6+ ?
 
Thanks for your help
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 6:52 AM Post #364 of 1,973
With the app EQ10, there is a function called stereo width, that helps with this soundstage, or widened music sound approach. This is the main reason why I use this app, as well as the EQ being able to adjust frequencies separately. With the EQ setting in this app, it's as good as the bass knob in Poweramp.  


In Neutron you could simulate the bass button by setting the Parametric EQ as following:

Low-band, Gain (dB) = 3.00 (increase or decrease as if you would turn the bass knob in Poweramp)
Low-band, Cutoff Frequency (Hz) = 80
Low-band, Slope (Q) = 2.0

As for the stereo x widening you could try experiment with the cross feed settings, there are 3 presets but all can be tweaked...

I have not used EQ 10 yet and probably won't as I don't see it supports flac files. But I've extensively used both Poweramp and Neutron on my android LG G Pro and I do prefer the superior sound quality of Neutron. I've tested Neutron with the same settings on my wife's iPhone 5S and found the LG Pro sounding a bit warmer but with the same bass extension and high details... That was with the unlocked international (non European) iphone 5s with iOS 8.0.2. Will post my findings after upgrading the 5s to 8.1.
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 7:12 AM Post #365 of 1,973
I've been using neutron for a few days now on my iphone 6 64gb, using the settings as mentioned before in this thread. But I have a question. Does the 64 bit processing really occur? When I look at the info of the track playing, I see 32bit when I playback itunes AAC tracks, and 24 or 16 bit when I use higher quality music. I like the sound btw.
 
On the neutron website they mention that for mobile devices they use 32 bit processing:
 

32/64-bit HD Rendering

Uses 32/64-bit software audio rendering that provides exceptional audio quality on most platforms where SIMD CPU extensions are available. On low-end and mobile platforms it utilizes 32-bit processing.

 
Can someone please clarify if 64bit processing is actually done on iphone 6 when you select it from the settings menu?
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 7:21 AM Post #366 of 1,973
Looks like you are confusing 2 different things here... What you see when playing your tracks is the bit rate that your files have been encoded with... 16/24/32 bits depending on the file type...

The 32/64 bit processing depends on your hardware. It's like using 32 bit or 64 bit of windows OS.
The iPhone 6 series support 64 bit rendering so if you have selected it it will have "superior" decoding processing....
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 8:23 AM Post #368 of 1,973
And a different answer... ITunes is encoding in 32bit in preparation for hi resolution downloads....
In fact the Mastered for iTunes albums are already 32 bit.
Have a look here for more details : https://www.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/docs/mastered_for_itunes.pdf
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 10:57 AM Post #370 of 1,973
Upgraded from my iPhone 5 to the plus three weeks ago and I have to say a great improvement with my HD25s it is a lot louder and the sound stage is significantlly improved. From my own experience of using it with my HD25 the bass kicks a lot more and the separation between instruments is superb. For reference I have been listening to deadmau5's new album as a whole and the clash of different sounds are represented very well.

Also there is an option for EU volume limit if people are wondering. (I have a UK iphone plus)

Apparently the iphone 6 sounds better than the plus? But I think the components should be exactly the same imho so so should the sound. Opinions?
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 3:33 PM Post #371 of 1,973
Upgraded from my iPhone 5 to the plus three weeks ago and I have to say a great improvement with my HD25s it is a lot louder and the sound stage is significantlly improved. From my own experience of using it with my HD25 the bass kicks a lot more and the separation between instruments is superb. For reference I have been listening to deadmau5's new album as a whole and the clash of different sounds are represented very well.

Also there is an option for EU volume limit if people are wondering. (I have a UK iphone plus)

Apparently the iphone 6 sounds better than the plus? But I think the components should be exactly the same imho so so should the sound. Opinions?


You won't get rid of the 2nd volume limit from any iOS menu. Just of the silliest one of 85db with bundled earpods.
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 10:19 PM Post #374 of 1,973
Hello,

As you may have heard a jailbreak has been released for iOS 8/8.1 which is a good news for everyone owning an european version of iPhone 6/6 plus.

Has anyone checked the value of volumelimits/headphone on /var/mobile/library/preferences/com.apple.celestial.plist% for non-european iPhone 6/6+ ?

Thanks for your help


Yup only thing is we have to wait for many of the developers to update their tweaks I advise everyone to patiently wait for some updates since mobile subrate is very buggy and a selective few tweaks work.
 
Oct 23, 2014 at 11:18 PM Post #375 of 1,973
Hello to all those still on a pre iOS 8 device and still jailbroken. There's an app in cydia available for purchase called "equalizereverywhere" that can give you a more customized sound and can be used across and within all music apps available in the iOSphere.
I use it while playing various music apps, Beats, Pandora, iTunes Match, etc.
Obviously it's only available for jb'd devices so iOS 8 users need not apply :disappointed:.

Here's just a look at some screenies from my device:

[IMG][attach]1220226[/attach][attach]1220228[/attach][attach]1220229[/attach]

It seems most of you have already updated to iOS 8 on your older idevices or are rocking new iPhone 6's. [b]I refuse to update my iPhone 5 or update to iPhone 6 til there's a JB available for it just so I can keep the extra customization a jailbroken device provides.[/b]
It's unfortunate we have to play this cat and mouse game in the walled garden of the Apple ecosphere, but we do what we gotta do to get maximum enjoyment from our devices that we've payed top $ for.[/quote]


Looks like I'll be updating to an iPhone 6(+) sooner than I had expected. [img]http://files.head-fi.org/images/smilies/biggrin.gif 
 

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