Thank you, that is indeed the one decent comparison I've been able to find. It omits a few devices of interest however.

Can anyone recommend a good article comparing the sound quality of current smartphones?   Google isn't helping much, & neither is this 236-page thread, started in 2013, composed mainly of minutia concerning individual devices.

The latest iOS update has generally wrecked Apple's stock podcast app, which has one nice feature: it lets you search for podcast guests. I also use one other podcast app, called Casts. It was highly recommended by several websites, but it doesn't allow searching for guests' names. I'm less...

  But dude, I thought it was treble that was more likely to cause fatigue? That's what I read in the dialogues on the Head-Fi, anyway.

During my phase of buying every $200-$300 earphone that achieved much acclaim, I found myself keeping a $30 Sennheiser-branded earphone with me for use with streaming video. These had a much warmer and more bass-heavy sound than the triple-armature phones I preferred for music, and I found they...

As the Kindle has surpassed all competitors in the area of screen quality, I'm optimistic that the audio may be strong as well.   I suppose I'll just have to take some earphones to a Best Buy later this week and hear for myself.

I was about to start this thread myself. There are so many professional reviews that praise the hardware, and I know the screen is superior to the iPad Air's--but no one comments on the sound quality via earphones. I'm particularly curious if the volume is sufficient, or it low as with the Nexus 7.

Has anyone found Android 4.4.2 improves the volume issue?

Out of curiosity, what's behind the apparently persistent low volume of Nexus devices? I could barely watch Netflix on my Nexus 7 when in public--couldn't hear dialogue.   I swore off Google products after my experience with the 7, but the 5 is so attractive as hardware. This is real...

Has anyone compared the sound quality of the Air vs the iPhone 5s?

  Have any technology writers of any reputation expressed this opinion--or is it something that has only flourished on this groupthink-plagued web forum? 

The thread is now about the thread, rather than its subject. So the thread has become useless.   I am well aware of the following points that have unnecessarily been made:   1. One can block out noise by using music. The thread did not ask about this. Furthermore, everyone knows that music...

  What prevents it from being true?    Lower price? Consensus among message board users?

I listened to both the P3 and the P5 in an Apple Store today and the P3 was obviously better.

No.   Yes, they're cheap.   Thank you for the post.