[moodyrn]

Well it seems more and more people are preferring the 5 dispite the "perfect measurments"(as some would call it) of the 4. Also people are pretty much saying the same thing in regards to the sound differences whether you prefer the 4's sound or the 5.. But I still say, they are close enough that it shouldn't matter that much. It's not like one sounds great and the other one only sounds only decent.

 

[Bill-P]

No. The difference, I think, is about 5%... just like with most high-end gears.
 
Though it's worth noting that neither the iPhone 4 nor the iPhone 5 is "high-end" to me. I have heard far better, and I know how much better it can get. It's just that Apple did not improve the iPhone 5 significantly over the 4.
 
It's a point of diminishing return for them. A portable device can only push so much on such a puny battery.

 

[rebs]

According review from gsmarena,and Engadget : iPhone 4 s and 4 the sound quality above Iphone 5
Please note : the stereo cross talk IPhone 5 = - 76,5 < from iPhone 4 S = - 93 < iPhone 4 = 89,6
Base on this review from gsmarena and engadget can not be iPhone 5 better than Iphone 4 S and iPhone 4.
http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_5-review-822.php
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/02/iphone-vs-rivals-audio-tests/
Copy from gsmarena :
Test Frequency response Noise level Dynamic range THD IMD + Noise Stereo crosstalk
Apple iPhone 5 +0.06, -0.51. -91.3 91.3 0.0015 0.0093 -76.5
Apple iPhone 5 (headphones attached) +0.00, -0.26 -90.6 90.6 0.0035 0.111 -56.2
Apple iPhone 4S +0.02, -0.11 -91.2 91.2 0.0020 0.012 -93.0
Apple iPhone 4S (headphones attached). +0.05, -0.10 -91.3 91.3 0.0068 0.071 -66.7
Apple iPhone 4 +0.01, -0.07 -90.1 90.0 0.0068 0.012 -89.6
Apple iPhone 4 (headphones attached) +0.01, -0.07 -90.4 90.4 0.0036 0.092 -68.4
I believe the review from gsmarena , all my Iphone 3 GS , i4 and 4 S I bought after I read the review
From gsmarena.
This is my personal opinion base in two review above , until now I hold to buy Iphone 5
I am as funboy from iPhone this time is disappointed with the new Iphone 5
Mostly I use my iPhone as DAP and until today my Iphone 4 S is the best DAP

 
I know you didn't get a great response to this article, but FWIW I appreciate you posting it. As much as I like to hear personal opinions, I know people that have purchased iPhone 5's tend to be emotionally invested in their purchase and may not always be unbiased in their review, so it's nice to get some actual semi-scientific results. Thanks again!

 

[moodyrn]

While that may be true for some, I can't speak for everyone. But for me, I didn't care one way or the other which one sounded better. Neither is what I call highend or even midfi when it comes to sound production. If I wanted a high end dap, then I would have looked else where. I bought the iphone 5 mainly because of it's feature set. I've had too many other portable setups that sounded better than either one for the sound quality to be a big concern. So even if the 4 would have trounced it, I still would have kept the 5.

I don't have a problem with the article being posted. It fact, I kind of appreciate it as well. It's nice to see some measurements of the iphone 5. But what I had a problem with, was saying it sounded better without hearing it first. Measurements will never tell you how one product sounds in absolute terms. It does gives you a general idea of what to expect. So it's one thing to post measurements, but another to talk about product A "sounding" better than product B based only on what you read on paper. I also said I had no problem of the ones who preferred the iphone 4 to the 5 that actually listened to both. But to say one sounds better than another without ever listening to it is another thing entirely.

And again, too much is being made of this. They both sound very similar, and like Bill-P said, it's a 5% difference(at best). So it really doesn't matter. They both sound nearly identical.

 

[SiDeeFung]

I too was upset over the poor reviews posted about the sound quality of the iPhone 5.  To me, music is very important and I was really hoping I could get the sound of the iPod Video in the new iPhone 5.
 
However, I believe my ears, and not mere stats.  The same should apply if you buy audio equipment too, you just need to go and listen, it's not right to just read what everyone thinks because everyone has a different listening preference.

To me, I just prefer the iPhone 5 over the iPhone 4.  The iPhone 4 is too tiring, and as some others pointed out, blurry and muddy.  With the 5, I can actually tell what instrument is what, to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.

Another funny observation I found is my normal SE535 cables seem to sound better than my upgrade cables.  It's possible the upgrade cables were more suited for the iPhone 4 but not for the iPhone 5.

 

[elfary]

Quote:

While that may be true for some, I can't speak for everyone. But for me, I didn't care one way or the other which one sounded better. Neither is what I call highend or even midfi when it comes to sound production. If I wanted a high end dap, then I would have looked else where. I bought the iphone 5 mainly because of it's feature set. I've had too many other portable setups that sounded better than either one for the sound quality to be a big concern. So even if the 4 would have trounced it, I still would have kept the 5.
I don't have a problem with the article being posted. It fact, I kind of appreciate it as well. It's nice to see some measurements of the iphone 5. But what I had a problem with, was saying it sounded better without hearing it first. Measurements will never tell you how one product sounds in absolute terms. It does gives you a general idea of what to expect. So it's one thing to post measurements, but another to talk about product A "sounding" better than product B based only on what you read on paper. I also said I had no problem of the ones who preferred the iphone 4 to the 5 that actually listened to both. But to say one sounds better than another without ever listening to it is another thing entirely.
And again, too much is being made of this. They both sound very similar, and like Bill-P said, it's a 5% difference(at best). So it really doesn't matter. They both sound nearly identical.

While i concur that the difference must be quite small since it took some time to seasoned listeners i trust to catch the difference between 5 and 4S i utterly disagree on your mid fi and hi fi criteria.
 
In my book for driving in ear monitors iPhone 4/4S are hifi sources. The signal they fed the iems with can not be much improved in the 16 bit realm. The room for improvement in this scenario is no larger than 1% or 2% imo. There is a renowned mastering engineer at Steve Hoffman forums that went as far as saying that aside from the sound stage the sound quality of an iPhone 4s driving headphones was surprisingly close to the sound of his home 70.000$ rig.
 
Unless you get into a mastering studio level kind of rig and room the level of resolution of the headphone out of the aforemention iPhones is kind of unique.

 

[KT66]

The I-phones are nowhere near hi-end, you've misquoted Steve H.
 
It's not even the best sounding phone! and as a source pales next to a £150 CD player

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

The I-phones are nowhere near hi-end, you've misquoted Steve H.
 
It's not even the best sounding phone! and as a source pales next to a £150 CD player

So what phone sounds better than an iPhone? (without having to resort to an external DAC and such)

 

[elfary]

Quote:

The I-phones are nowhere near hi-end, you've misquoted Steve H.
 
It's not even the best sounding phone! and as a source pales next to a £150 CD player

In my book it's a hifi source for in ear monitors.
 
And Steve Hoffmann quote was referred to "drivable" headphones.
 
The sound coming off an iPhone + JH16 is not hifi to you ?
 
We are on different pages of the hifi book

 

[moodyrn]

I would say no, not even close. It does sound good for a phone, but that's as far as I would take it. I have a pair of jh13. And they sound pretty darn good straight out of either the iphone 4 or 5. But at the same time, they are capable of so much more. When I used my godap 4.0 with the iphone 4, the sound improved a great deal. Gone was the muffled mids, boomy bass. The sound was much more clearer. There was finally air around the instruments, and the soundstage opened up a great deal. And it wasn't even close. In fact, in my testing, mp3's(256 bit rate) using the godap sounded much better than lossless of the same tracks using just the iphone 4. And as good as that sounded, it still wasn't as good as using my jh13 off either of my home rigs. So although the godap/iphone 4 combo was in a completely different league from the iphone 4 alone, even that didn't approach high end. Maybe midfi.

 

[moodyrn]

I too was upset over the poor reviews posted about the sound quality of the iPhone 5.  To me, music is very important and I was really hoping I could get the sound of the iPod Video in the new iPhone 5.

However, I believe my ears, and not mere stats.  The same should apply if you buy audio equipment too, you just need to go and listen, it's not right to just read what everyone thinks because everyone has a different listening preference.


To me, I just prefer the iPhone 5 over the iPhone 4.  The iPhone 4 is too tiring, and as some others pointed out, blurry and muddy.  With the 5, I can actually tell what instrument is what, to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.


Another funny observation I found is my normal SE535 cables seem to sound better than my upgrade cables.  It's possible the upgrade cables were more suited for the iPhone 4 but not for the iPhone 5.

And that's the reason why someone shouldn't say one product sounds better than the other if that person hasn't listened to it. People read these threads to gather info on what direction they want to take. And again, to post specs is one thing. To say that one device sounds inferior when you never listened to it is another thing. But thankfully you decided to trust you own ears and not just base your decision on specs alone. But still, I have no problem with someone saying one device sounds better than another if you listened to both.

 

[elfary]

Quote:

And that's the reason why someone shouldn't say one product sounds better than the other if that person hasn't listened to it. People read these threads to gather info on what direction they want to take. And again, to post specs is one thing. To say that one device sounds inferior when you never listened to it is another thing. But thankfully you decided to trust you own ears and not just base your decision on specs alone. But still, I have no problem with someone saying one device sounds better than another if you listened to both

 
While i agree that listening is essential i do think as well that data and ears usually pair well together: what sounds good measures good and what measures good sound good (aside from vinyl nostalgics' taste which i find really weird)

 

[Vibemerchant]

[...]Anyway, I'm a musician/mastering engineer so I spend a great deal of my life listening to music and getting paid to make sure it sounds good.  I didn't want to order the 5 if it sounded worse, but it clearly sounds better to me so I'll be ordering it.  Just thought I'd post since so many folks seem to be down on the sound of the 5.  

Thanks for the impressions!
Could you compare the sound quality to other sources, perhaps non-mobile as well? Just curious how it ranks as a music player in general.

 

[elfary]

Good ol' linearity has vanished on the 5:

http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/iphone5.htm

This curve did not look that way while Jobs was alive.


You have not really understood something unless you can explain it to your grandma.

 

[czqdtc]

Apple product, my experience
 
RMBP> MBA 13 > IPC > IPAD = IP4 >= IP4S
 
Somehow I feel my old IP4 sounds better and a bit fuller than my IP4S.