[Duncan]

Huxley,
 
You mentioned Noozxoide on an earlier post, but - I cannot activate it on the One (or at least cannot find the setting in the sound options!) - Any clues??
 
Thanks,

 

[Huxley]

I don't think it did work, i was looking for something that wasn't there.
 
Might be similar to voodoo sound in that the device needs to be supported.

 

[zomvid]

So this one is the top choice if I wanted to go unamped? Or should I wait for the S4

 

[Huxley]

Quote:

So this one is the top choice if I wanted to go unamped? Or should I wait for the S4

Well i am slightly biased, but go with the htc.
 
The S4 is good, but it shares the same soc, with the one you get the custom amp section, those speakers and beats audio not to mention a whole raft of features.
 
Most of the reviews say the S4 is nice, but here's what you could have won when compared to the Htc One.

 

[zomvid]

I just got it, so stocked. Love the sound with beats audio turned off, though if it's on is still clear and all, really surprised me.

 

[joseph0042]

Does anyone find the need to amp it higher? Or does the on-board amp do fine?

 

[Huxley]

Does a plenty good enough job for me.

 

[Concept357]

I just got my HTC One yesterday and I've been playing with it and my new m-100s for the better part of 3 hours.

Here are my initial impressions compared to my two previous high end android smartphones, the HTC One X and the LG Optimus G as well as my Cowon J3.

One of the first things I did was install Power amp and set it up.

The output is a lot greater than any of my previous smartphones. I can comfortably listen to my music on the bus at half volume whereas with the One X I had to push the volume to 1 notch short of the max and 2-3 notches for the Optimus G.

-The output volume still falls short of my Cowon J3.

-The amount of detail is astonishing and absolutely trumps my other smartphones and also edges out in front of the J3.

-My One X sounds a lot warmer compared to the One and there's a clear lack of detail in the midrange and I feel like there's a slight rolloff in the high end which may be why I feel there's a lack of "crispness" with the sound of the 1X.

-Compared to the OG. There's slightly more pronounced bass and more sparkle in the highs. Overall a more neutral and crisper sound while increasing the amount that of bass but retaining it's speed.

-EQ'd J3 had great mid detail and has an overall more colorful sound than the 1. However I did notice a lot of artifacts in the low end of certain songs as well as the presence of sibilance. The J3 made my m100s sound a lot more fatiguing overall. And the complete lack of a decent interface is still a pain in the behind.

-Activating Beats audio seems to introduce more bass and treble as well as increase the overall volume of the device output. It makes the sound more engaging and fatiguing at the same time. Ultimately, I would turn beats audio off because it did introduce a lot of artifacting in all my songs. You can basically recreate the effect of Beats Audio using the EQ capabilities of Power Amp.

-Unlike my OG. Playing with the EQ settings doesn't introduce as much artifact which allowed my to taylor my listening a experience with my m100s.

*Extra remarks *

- I felt some weird distortions/artifacts with the kicks of a certain House song: Hardwell - Cobra. The distortion occurs at the beginning of the second breakdown. I don't know if this is a problem with the Phone or with my relatively new m100s.

-There are some variations of quality with the One and because of that volume rocker us slightly recessed and hard to feel without looking at the phone.

-The phone is amazing

-Sexiest phone ever.

-Feels incredible. Very easy to handle .

Thanks for reading. Leave some feedback if you want. I apologize for any typing mistakes I might of made. I wrote all of this on my HTC be through the Head fi mobile website. If anything, this is a testament of the new HTC keyboard.

Cheers, Concept.

 

[Bazirker]

Excellent summary.  Looks like I may be picking up "one" of these bad boys when my contract is up for renewal in June.

 

[yokken]

Just to add my two cents -- I got my One on Tuesday and I've been playing with it nonstop. I figured I'd search the forums to see if anyone said anything about the dedicated headphone amp. I have to say, this phone does sound quite good. It drove my DT880/600s with no problem (volume-wise) at about 60% volume. Obviously a lot of the dynamics were not there, but I just had to see how well it fared. I use my KSC75s at work, usually with my Nexus 4. But since I've upgraded my phone, I've noticed an improvement in the sound! I haven't done much listening without the Beats EQ, mostly because I do like the sound it produces with the Koss. However, it does sound better to me. I use Play Music with high quality streaming (mostly 320kbps). I don't have any high-end IEMs to test it with, unfortunately. I had a set of 3.Ais pending, but that fell through -- allowing me to better fund my One purchase.
 
Initial impressions about SQ are quite high, though. I definitely notice an improvement over the Nexus 4, which was decent, but nothing special.
 
Other general impressions: obviously gorgeous design, speedy interface, and damn good camera. The camera isn't the best in all situations, but it has a terrific macro and the low light shots are unparalleled by any other phone on the market. It's been a challenge getting used to the way Sense does thing versus stock Android, but I do love the flat, high quality design -- not to mention the 1080p screen. But I can't help feeling like I was more impressed with the Nexus screen for some reason. Sure, the One has the highest pixel density of any phone on the market, but for some reason it just doesn't wow me. The Nexus screen really blew me away (after my SGS3) after realizing how great the viewing angles were, as well as color accuracy. The image seems to sit on top of the glass, almost. The One doesn't quite have that quality. Blacks could be a little deeper, but it is an LCD and I realize that it's never going to be perfect like AMOLED.
 
Seriously though... when I used to see my Nexus sitting on a table I'd say damn, that's a sexy phone. Now when I see my One sitting on a table, I say to myself, damn this phone is gorgeous. I really wanted the black but after getting the Developer edition (only in white/silver) I can really appreciate the color scheme. It is just beautiful.

 

[Huxley]

Thing with displays is htc are well known for being one of the best calibrated, the one being the best of all.
And coincidentally the deep blacks of any slcd screen by a fair margin.
Perhaps lg cranked up the colours so that's what you're seeing.

I had a play with an s4 yesterday and it was nice, you could see how saturated the display was, and oddly incredibly blue.

 

[Buckster]

did I read the RMAA results wrong in the reviews or did the Samsung S4 measure better ?
 
would both S4 and HTC One use a USB DAC right out of the box ?
 
I'm torn between the HTC One in-built decent amp etc - vs the big plus of the removeable storage on the S4
 
just want something more modern (hopefully Android) which sounds at least as good as my Iphone 4.
 
thanks

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

I had a play with an s4 yesterday and it was nice, you could see how saturated the display was, and oddly incredibly blue.

 
That's likely to be because of the colour mode they have it set to by default, which is really contrasty (presumably to get buyers attentions on the shop floor). It is much more natural in the Photo Professional (Adobe RGB) or Movie modes, in those settings it's colour temperature measures better than the One (although OLED displays are problematic beasts to measure, so somewhat difficult to really know how much to stand on the measurements).
 
Got my S4 yesterday, my One arrives tomorrow, very interested to compare them from all points of view (although somewhat loathe to listen to them straight out of the headphones jack, since I use DAC/amps with my Androids since last year).

 

[Duncan]

NZ...
 
The One display is incredibly good - As you'll remember I've had numerous AMOLED Samsung devices, but - the One just looks more 'natural' when viewing videos...
 
The LCD3 screen is something to behold

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

NZ...
 
The One display is incredibly good - As you'll remember I've had numerous AMOLED Samsung devices, but - the One just looks more 'natural' when viewing videos...
 
The LCD3 screen is something to behold

 
I have a Butterfly and have seen the One screen, so quite aware of how good the panel is
 
Really interested to see it side-by-side Vs the best AMOLED panel produced so far in the S4, I definitely rated the HTC One X panel the best display of 2012 and will be interested to see if AMOLED has closed the gap a bit this year.