[reluctant_engineer]

Frequency response of Z3 measured by gsmarena :
 

 
As you can see there's some bloat in 30-100Hz region  which can make bass sound boomy.Throughout the region there's minor dips and spikes with mild roll off after 10KHz,so it's not truly flat.
I don't really trust all of their measurements,however from my experience they do get their frequency response right.

 

[TraverS]

Frequency response of Z3 measured by gsmarena :




As you can see there's some bloat in 30-100Hz region  which can make bass sound boomy.Throughout the region there's minor dips and spikes with mild roll off after 10KHz,so it's not truly flat.
I don't really trust all of their measurements,however from my experience they do get their frequency response right.

In my opinion, that graph is non sense. That's not even a half dB.
Can you even hear any difference in the change below a dB? How about you try eqing and see for yourself if you notice something, from the graph it's about 0.2 dB, I don't think any human can hear that. I can hardly hear any difference in 2 dB of bass boost.

 

[reluctant_engineer]

I've tried several phones(Galaxy S,S2 & S3,Xperia L,M,SP etc) using default & neutron player and found that gsmarena's FR matching my sq impressions of respective phones. But yes in this case these variations other than the low freq. are relatively minor.

 

[TraverS]

I've compared my Sony Xperia Z Ultra and Z1. The Z1 is bassier which doesn't seem so in gsmarena's measurement. Also that minor difference in frequency response will be overshadowed by player app's sound. Also Neutron and Samsung stock app sounds muddy and high is a bit roll off compared to UAPP.

 

[reluctant_engineer]

I've compared my Sony Xperia Z Ultra and Z1. The Z1 is bassier which doesn't seem so in gsmarena's measurement. Also that minor difference in frequency response will be overshadowed by player app's sound. Also Neutron and Samsung stock app sounds muddy and high is a bit roll off compared to UAPP.

Haven't used both phones so can't comment on them. Stock players i've tried on most phones do alter the sound but i have to disagree with neutron bit. Atleast from what i've tried with no eq , neutron is better than several stock player,poweramp and player pro. No muddy sound or roll off. Don't have UAPP so no comments. 

 

[TraverS]

I agree that Neutron is better than most player but I have to say that it still alters the sound. Have you tried AIMP? I think it's good too, better than Poweramp and maybe better than Neutron.

 

[Currawong]

  Frequency response of Z3 measured by gsmarena :
 

 
As you can see there's some bloat in 30-100Hz region  which can make bass sound boomy.Throughout the region there's minor dips and spikes with mild roll off after 10KHz,so it's not truly flat.
I don't really trust all of their measurements,however from my experience they do get their frequency response right.

 
Sorry, but you're not going to notice a 1/8th of a dB in difference in FR in the bass, and there's little to speak of above 10kHz that doesn't at least require at least 10dB of roll-off by 20kHz to be noticeable, and even then only barely. 

 

[milford30]

I have a ZX2, so I know about the power....etc. I was making a simple example only, and no matter what a smartphone can not perform as well as a dedicated player, like I said, the smartphone needs to use different components to preserve battery life.....and this is only one example.

Music and sound quality is an art, and just like any art....any subtle improvements do count. Therefore, your note 4 can sound like $80 and J13 can sound like $90, while the ak120 can sound like $100 and AK240 can sound like $101..... You see what I mean ? Close, doesn't mean enough....the same as money in real life....when you have $100 and you need to buy an item valued at $101, you simple don't have enough. So whoever argue that subtles sound quality improvements are not worth it, they are either ignorant or are not audiophile. A true audiophile will admire the quality, and admit that they don't have enough money to enjoy on such product.

 
Components (except for tubes) get smaller and smaller all the time, it's not the complexity of the circuit that makes it sound good, it's the quality of the components. Using a less powerful amp to preserve battery life doesn't mean the player doesn't sound as good, it means it doesn't sound as good with high impedance, low sensitivity headphones.
 
The implication is for low impedance, high sensitivity iems, the note 4 is better than most players that are not as good as the j3 (the best player for years after it's release and is still top tier today). Unless you're telling me you've heard let's say more than 50% dedicated music player under $600 (similar cost) and found that EVERY one of those player to sound better than say the exnyos note 4, then you're statments are not true.
 
You clearly don't understand what worth means.... yes they do not have enough money to enjoy the product, i.e they can't justify paying $1800 more to enjoy (taking your example) AK240 that sounds $21 better. It may be worth it to you, but for someone working their ass off just to pay the bills, it's definitely not WORTH the $1800 price difference, while they can spend that money buying a set of hd800 + O2 dac/amp combo is worth the $1800 they spent relative to just buying the player.
 
If you take a poll the vast majority of the people here will not say they are a audiophile, I certainly am not.

 

[milford30]

  Haven't used both phones so can't comment on them. Stock players i've tried on most phones do alter the sound but i have to disagree with neutron bit. Atleast from what i've tried with no eq , neutron is better than several stock player,poweramp and player pro. No muddy sound or roll off. Don't have UAPP so no comments. 

I find that it's a problem with software, If you have the full version player pro and enable dsp it's much better. Even when you turn the system eq to flat, it still goes through the eq and degrades the sound. Using the player pro dsp bypasses the system eq, and if you turn the eq on player pro on and off, you will atleast notice a decrease in volume. neutron/poweramp just enables 'other dsp' by default.

 

[thepooh]

I disagree with that last paragraph. The difference between all those flagship phones in terms of SQ is quite huge. Even One Plus One isn't really up to the task when compared with the best out there. And what about all those huawei, Nokia, Motorola etc. flagships who hardly got anything worth mentioning to audiophile at all in the recent years.

As I mentioned : " not part of the most demanding audiophiles" , most of my friends are happy enough using their smartphone with a $5-10 earbud, most people are not audiophile and we must show some respect, what's bad for us maybe heaven for them !

Some years ago I was listening to music with a $10 earbud on a cheap nokia music xpress mobile with just 512mb of storage, that sounded awesome and I really enjoyed my favorite tracks on my way to the office.

 

[reluctant_engineer]

I agree that Neutron is better than most player but I have to say that it still alters the sound. Have you tried AIMP? I think it's good too, better than Poweramp and maybe better than Neutron.

Well if there is any alteration,I seem to like it

. Maybe that's what making me biased towards neutron. Never head of AIMP,looks nice from the screenshots i've seen.I'll give it a try then. 

 
 

   
Sorry, but you're not going to notice a 1/8th of a dB in difference in FR in the bass, and there's little to speak of above 10kHz that doesn't at least require at least 10dB of roll-off by 20kHz to be noticeable, and even then only barely. 

It's not ruler flat like One (m8) or Galaxy S & note series (only exynos variants) but I do agree the variations on Z3's FR will be quite difficult to detect for our ears.I just wanted to point out that it's not exactly a flat response that's all. 

 
 

  I find that it's a problem with software, If you have the full version player pro and enable dsp it's much better. Even when you turn the system eq to flat, it still goes through the eq and degrades the sound. Using the player pro dsp bypasses the system eq, and if you turn the eq on player pro on and off, you will atleast notice a decrease in volume. neutron/poweramp just enables 'other dsp' by default.

I've made these player comparisons almost 4-5 months ago.May be I need to compare them again with their latest versions. Neutron still sounds excellent though. 

 

 

[SmOgER]

I see there are quite a few posts about players.
I've been using poweramp for some time and haven't extensively looked at alternatives, but is poweramp still the only player which is capable of directly controlling the gain/volume (dvc) bypassing the system? I have no intentions of using other players, but it would still be interesting to know if there was some catching up progress from other camps in the meantime.

 

[thepooh]

I see there are quite a few posts about players.
I've been using poweramp for some time and haven't extensively looked at alternatives, but is poweramp still the only player which is capable of directly controlling the gain/volume (dvc) bypassing the system? I have no intentions of using other players, but it would still be interesting to know if there was some catching up progress from other camps in the meantime.

Poweramp is the best music player.....for some devices only !

It behaves differently on each device, experience shows that all snapdragon based smartphones pairs very well with poweramp, but if you have Exynos with wolfson or any other chipset you'd better off with Neutron or Playerpro. Therefore, it's on a trial error basis to hear which music player suits best your needs, don't get fool with features and ui as some are just gimmicks to stand out of the crowd

 

[nwake]

Seems some rumours that Sony are going to release a music orientated smartphone that will get audiophiles heads turning. I used to to be a Sony only guy because of thief their walk man brand, but after proper investigation realised HTC actually offered best in class sound. I hated the default Xperia home launcher compared to sense so if I was to go back to Sony the audio would have to be impressive. Anyway good to see companies like Sony and HTC taking audio seriously...Anyone else be tempted to ditch HTC for rumoured phone?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/sony-xperia-z4-music-high-res-walkman-smartphone-pack-4in-screen-snapdragon-801-8mp-camera-1482835

 

[shineonyou]

Seems some rumours that Sony are going to release a music orientated smartphone that will get audiophiles heads turning. I used to to be a Sony only guy because of thief their walk man brand, but after proper investigation realised HTC actually offered best in class sound. I hated the default Xperia home launcher compared to sense so if I was to go back to Sony the audio would have to be impressive. Anyway good to see companies like Sony and HTC taking audio seriously...Anyone else be tempted to ditch HTC for rumoured phone?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/sony-xperia-z4-music-high-res-walkman-smartphone-pack-4in-screen-snapdragon-801-8mp-camera-1482835

And the price will be 600 euro for 32gb version.