[alphabetagaga]

so far i have tried
 
nexus 4
xperia z
lumia 920
ip5
 
the ip5 has close to 30gb of usable storage, audio quality (via headphones) seems one of if not the best of any phone released in the past 12months, gapless, album art and playlists all  work without issue. straight out of the box, is there any other handset readily available that will beat it?

 

[goodvibes]

I've heard good things about the Note 2 but suspect the Iphone is still king.

 

[alphabetagaga]

the z would have been my first choice but it doesn't handle gapless. i could pay for an android app that did. but then you loose the walkman functions and things tend to get messy

 

[KT66]

I have the IP5, I can't stand the sound, thin, weedy, no balls, and woefully underpowered.
 
My Nokia N8 sounds much much better,
 
I would guess most new phones will sound as good if not better than the 5
 
I checked it out again, playing FLAC via Caprriccio app, into DT1350, still terrible.

 

[Retrias]

There is the meizu 4x, note 2, and couple others in the android side of the world
they are expandable using micro SD, can use(most) standard USB external dac , without having to go through hoops to make it work , album art and playlist work just fine on it and gapless is a feature on certain apps  , you can even install apps that let you sync with itunes

 

[knux11]

Quote:

I have the IP5, I can't stand the sound, thin, weedy, no balls, and woefully underpowered.
 
My Nokia N8 sounds much much better,
 
I would guess most new phones will sound as good if not better than the 5
 
I checked it out again, playing FLAC via Caprriccio app, into DT1350, still terrible.

from my understanding, if you're using an N8, any other phone is going to sound terrible anyway.
What i'm saying is, the 5 could very well be better than most other phones, esp. android phones, but they'd all sound terrible to you. 

 

[KT66]

I haven't heard every phone, but I had Sony W995, about 5 years old, and that still slaughters the IP5
 
Maybe its my headphones, but I am no head banger and hate big bass.
 
All measurements I have seen this thing ruler-flat, but its not what I hear, I think a more
powerful amp would help it a lot, but as you can't easily get a line out from it, its a non starter
 
I was really hoping to use it as my DAP, and save me a lot of money, but in all honestly even the 
(overrated IMHO) Clip sounds better.

 

[julioforo]

YOU CAN TRY JIAYU MOBILES OR OPPO FIND 5.
THEY HAVE A VERY GOOD SOUND TOO
AND CHEAPER...