[techfreakazoid]

Quote:

Just received my iPhone 4s and couldn't be happier.  This thing is AMAZING.  
 
My wife upgraded from the 3gs, I upgraded from the 4.  There's a good bit of difference between the 4 and the 4s. I'm not going to waste time going over all the features, since you can pretty much get that from anywhere, but what I will say is that I was really surprised by how good the SPEAKER sounds!  I actually sorta turned it on by accident, just screwing around with SIRI, asking it to play a certain song.  It did, and it started coming out the speakers, and I was like, oh, that's neat.  But then I started to listen, and I was like, damn, that's a seriously high level of detail retrieval and nuance for a - what, 3mm speaker?!  I sat it on the shelf and turned it up to 80% and was really, really surprised that it was listenable. I mean, no one's going to mistake it for the JH-13, but for the electronica tune I had on, it was actually perfectly acceptable.  
 
Haven't tested the dac yet, so will post impressions vs the iPhone 4 here when I have.  I imagine they'll be identical, or nearly so.  But Siri is awesome.  

Thanks for the initial impressions.  Glad to hear there are SQ improvements in the 4S.  I had a brief session with the 4 and was not particularly impressed coming from the S9.  Of course, I didn't have my test FLACs and several days to digest the sound signature nuances for a proper assessment.  Look forward to your impressions on the headphone and line outs post-honeymoon phase.

 
 

 

[Inks]

From Sonove's blog (Japanese blogger who does various RMMAs). The 4GS seems to have an output impedance of 1.8ohms, which is a downgrade from the 4's 0.9ohms. 

 

[elfary]

What i gather from the blog is the 4S is quite similar sounding to the stunning 4. But it seems to fare a bit worse in the output impedance (as you already pointed out) and crosstalk areas.
 
It seems to me that the 4S is the less significant upgrade the iPhone has gone through.
 
BTW in one of his tweets Sonove rates 4S output impedance as 1.8 Ohms. Almost on par with the iPhone 3 GS (2 Ohms).
 
Anyway the iPhone still trumps any other smartphone from an objective point of view.

 

[Varley]

I've decided to get the 64gb iPhone 4S - Sell my J3 and Blackberry - and just live/get used to iTunes - I'm just fed up of carrying two things with me all the time

 

[elfary]

I think you'll be delighted with that decision. The iPhone is an spectacular portable Hifi with a computer and a Phone embedded. Terrific device.

 

[Varley]

I actually had the iPhone 4 16gb about 6 months ago, but with me getting my iPad I never used it for anything more than the phone functionality. So I gave it to the Missus...
Now with ios5 and iCloud etc, it makes me want one to use as a portable DAP even more, 64gb did it for me 

 

[elfary]

This fall i was to make a decision about my iPhone 3GS 32 gigs. At first i was convinced on upgrading to the 64Gb iPhone. But it would tie me for 24 months to a provider and i'm liking so much my current freedom and cheap data plan that i'm leaning to hold on to my good old 3GS for another year till Apple increases the screen size.
 
Let's see if i'm mature enough not rush in for 4S when they go on sale here

 

[StargateRecords]

 

I was reading a thread on another forum where the administrator was talking about the problems and differences between the EQ on iOS 4 and iOS 5 during beta testing:
 
 
"It only distorts bass when you select an EQ that adds bass. Remember when everyone complained that the EQs in iOS 4 sucked, well the reason was that Apple did the EQ, then made the peak of the EQ 0, while moving the rest down the same amount. So if (using 3 band to quickness) bass was set to +5, mids -1, highs +4 in iOS 4, it was actually, bass +0, mids -6, highs -1. You'd have to manually pump up the volume to hear your bass boost. This I believe is better since it didn't distort your music at all, it couldn't, you were lowing dB levels. In iOS 5, because of the complaints most likely, they set it back to normal, so a bass +5, mids -1, and highs +4 was just that. Notice how the bass +5 can distort badly. At least that's what I'm hearing. If anyone notices anything else, let me know. If you don't like it, then either live with it for now, disable the EQ, or use EQu or Equalizer (from the App Store.)"
 

It would be interesting to see if Apple stuck with this method of setting the EQ's, but it wont make a difference to my decision to purchase the iPhone, if it sounds good.
 
 

 

[elfary]

Quote:

 
I was reading a thread on another forum where the administrator was talking about the problems and differences between the EQ on iOS 4 and iOS 5 during beta testing:
 
 
"It only distorts bass when you select an EQ that adds bass. Remember when everyone complained that the EQs in iOS 4 sucked, well the reason was that Apple did the EQ, then made the peak of the EQ 0, while moving the rest down the same amount. So if (using 3 band to quickness) bass was set to +5, mids -1, highs +4 in iOS 4, it was actually, bass +0, mids -6, highs -1. You'd have to manually pump up the volume to hear your bass boost. This I believe is better since it didn't distort your music at all, it couldn't, you were lowing dB levels. In iOS 5, because of the complaints most likely, they set it back to normal, so a bass +5, mids -1, and highs +4 was just that. Notice how the bass +5 can distort badly. At least that's what I'm hearing. If anyone notices anything else, let me know. If you don't like it, then either live with it for now, disable the EQ, or use EQu or Equalizer (from the App Store.)"
 
It would be interesting to see if Apple stuck with this method of setting the EQ's, but it wont make a difference to my decision to purchase the iPhone, if it sounds good.
 
 

So people complained about the non distorted eq ? No wonder why the loudness war stuck. Kind of sad.
 

 

[StargateRecords]

I just wish Apple would implement a manual EQ, the argument about using more battery power makes no sense as they have preset EQ's anyway.
 
 

 

[elfary]

Yeah. But i'll forgive Apple as long as the hardware is as good as it (Low output impedance, low distortion and great stereo separation).
 
Whenever i come across sound tests no smartphone comes even close to the iPhone (Specially on intermodulation distortion and crosstalk). Plus it's the only smartphone around with a built in line out.

 

[StargateRecords]

Quote:

Yeah. But i'll forgive Apple as long as the hardware is as good as it (Low output impedance, low distortion and great stereo separation).
 
Whenever i come across sound tests no smartphone comes even close to the iPhone (Specially on intermodulation distortion and crosstalk). Plus it's the only smartphone around with a built in line out.

 
I have no idea what intermodulation and crosstalk are, but you are making me feel much better about the soon-to-be emptiness of my wallet.
 
 
 

 

[Varley]

Quote:

This fall i was to make a decision about my iPhone 3GS 32 gigs. At first i was convinced on upgrading to the 64Gb iPhone. But it would tie me for 24 months to a provider and i'm liking so much my current freedom and cheap data plan that i'm leaning to hold on to my good old 3GS for another year till Apple increases the screen size.
 
Let's see if i'm mature enough not rush in for 4S when they go on sale here

 
 
You know you'll fall for it!
I did anyway, last night I was like, I like my Bold and my J3 individually and pretty much anything I can do on the iPhone I can do on my iPad 2... But still, Siri, 64GB, iCloud, etc. it's just too good for what I want, everything in one...I guess I'm an Apple fanboy now, and it's mainly because of how the products have impressed me over the years, the attention to detail in the design and finish and fluency behind iOS and the software; it never ceases to impress. I'm hoping I'll fall in love with the 4S and yes, when the iPhone 5 is out I'll be on in like a rash 

 
Saying all that, I don't plan on moving from PC/Windows to Mac any time soon 

 

[Inks]

What i gather from the blog is the 4S is quite similar sounding to the stunning 4. But it seems to fare a bit worse in the output impedance (as you already pointed out) and crosstalk areas.
 
It seems to me that the 4S is the less significant upgrade the iPhone has gone through.
 
BTW in one of his tweets Sonove rates 4S output impedance as 1.8 Ohms. Almost on par with the iPhone 3 GS (2 Ohms).
 
Anyway the iPhone still trumps any other smartphone from an objective point of view.

Here is a comparison graph of the two. In short the 4GS is a slight downgrade in sound from the 4, but a tiny bit better than the 3GS. Iphones sound way better than any other smartphone, specially since the 3GS onward, which actually sound better than Wolfson DAC Ipods. The only exception is probably the Voodoo Galaxy S. 

 

[SoundFreaq]

Quote:

Here is a comparison graph of the two. In short the 4GS is a slight downgrade in sound from the 4, but a tiny bit better than the 3GS.

Nice post. But what are ears saying? I'm mostly interested in the 4 vs. 4S DAC SQ via LOD, not through the headphone out.
 
Edit: Anyone with both, or all three models have a comparison?