iPhone 5 sound quality

[bigshot]

I'm curious... why are you two so dead set on proving the iPhone 5 doesn't sound good? Is it because you don't own one yourself? There must be a reason to go to those illogical extremes to try to prove your point.

 

[SilverEars]

  I'm curious... why are you two so dead set on proving the iPhone 5 doesn't sound good? Is it because you don't own one yourself? There must be a reason to go to those illogical extremes to try to prove your point.

It didn't sound good to my ears.  That's all.  

 But, using information that does not prove that what I hear is not true is not logical.

 

[bigshot]

Maybe if you owned one you'd have more time to develop a more accurate impression of it. Or perhaps your headphones are so out of whack with it that they don't present it properly.

 

[SilverEars]

  Maybe if you owned one you'd have more time to develop a more accurate impression of it. Or perhaps your headphones are so out of whack with it that they don't present it properly.

That's an assumption. 

 

[Tympan]

   
I believe on recent iPhones and iPods, if you turn the volume all the way up, it is the same as line level. There isn't amplifying circuitry in the headphone out of the iPhone. The volume control is an attenuator instead. That's why headphones with lower sensitivity and higher impedance require amping to sound right.

I wasn't aware of that, I just learned something, good to know, thanks.
 

My bet is that you didn't do level matching or set up direct A/B switching on your test either. I think you're going on a completely uncontrolled subjective impression.

Re-read my posts.

 

[Tympan]

  I'm curious... why are you two so dead set on proving the iPhone 5 doesn't sound good? Is it because you don't own one yourself? There must be a reason to go to those illogical extremes to try to prove your point.

I never said IP5 doesn't sound good. I said it sounds impressive to me, more resolving, better bass, more transparent, more sparkly in the highs... but it is a bit too bright/cold for me and I prefer the IP4's boldness and soundstage overall as the whole sound presentation.
I think the IP5 is a very good sounding phone with much potential to join the big leagues once it is fine tuned.

 

[jjcha]

I'm stunned people hear a meaningful difference between the iPhone 4 and 5.  I guess I've owned both and have hundreds of hours on both and never really heard a difference.  Never did a side by side, never felt the need to.  Just when the 5 came out, I bought it, loaded my music onto it, plugged in the IEM and never looked back.  Never heard anything different enough to pique my curiosity.
 
Best,
 
-Jason

 

[SilverEars]

I believe a true line-out skips the components after the DAC circuitry and outputs the signal without going through those components therefore it is much desired.  For example, diy imod's purpose is to skip the caps between the DAC and the ipod's line-out.  The volume control is another component at the output and will affect the impedance along with the other components at the headphone out.

 

[bigshot]

  I never said IP5 doesn't sound good. I said it sounds impressive to me, more resolving, better bass, more transparent, more sparkly in the highs... but it is a bit too bright/cold for me and I prefer the IP4's boldness and soundstage overall as the whole sound presentation.
I think the IP5 is a very good sounding phone with much potential to join the big leagues once it is fine tuned.

 
Sorry, they are audibly identical. The differences are all in the subjective method you use to compare them. Your evaluation there is more of a review of your subjective thinking process than it is the player.

 

[Tympan]

  I'm stunned people hear a meaningful difference between the iPhone 4 and 5.  I guess I've owned both and have hundreds of hours on both and never really heard a difference.  Never did a side by side, never felt the need to.  Just when the 5 came out, I bought it, loaded my music onto it, plugged in the IEM and never looked back.  Never heard anything different enough to pique my curiosity.
 
Best,
 
-Jason

Well, I am stunned as well. Are you using Apple earbuds with them? Playing 320 bits m4p or mp3? 

 

[jjcha]

  Well, I am stunned as well. Are you using Apple earbuds with them? Playing 320 bits m4p or mp3? 

 
JH13 Pros, all Apple Lossless I ripped from my own CD collection.
 
Now, to preempt things a little bit, I've been around and owned a lot of stuff all across the value spectrum and I do hear differences in different sources.  iPhone 4 and 5 isn't one of those situations.
 
What was really interesting is using the Sensaphonics 2X-S in the line-out versus headphone jack on an iRiver 120.  Now that was an implementation that clearly had differences between the headphone out and line-out.  But that's another story altogether.
 
Best,
 
-Jason

 

[SilverEars]

   
JH13 Pros, all Apple Lossless I ripped from my own CD collection.
 
Now, to preempt things a little bit, I've been around and owned a lot of stuff all across the value spectrum and I do hear differences in different sources.  iPhone 4 and 5 isn't one of those situations.
 
What was really interesting is using the Sensaphonics 2X-S in the line-out versus headphone jack on an iRiver 120.  Now that was an implementation that clearly had differences between the headphone out and line-out.  But that's another story altogether.
 
Best,
 
-Jason

I have the 120, the line-out is optical.  It's different from the ipod line-out.  So yeah it would make a difference, it's basically using the 120 as storage and the controller.  Headphone out hissed, and didn't really think it was great with sensitive headphones.  
 
You do know that it's 16bit optical right?

 

[jjcha]

  I have the 120, the line-out is optical.  It's different from the ipod line-out.  So yeah it would make a difference, it's basically using the 120 as storage and the controller.  Headphone out hissed, and didn't really think it was great with sensitive headphones.  

Well, to be clear, the line-out is both optical and an analog line-out.  You can plug headphones or hook it up to any amp.  You didn't need a pre-amp as the line-out had variable output controlled by the iRiver.
 
The impedance or something was clearly different.  With the Shure e4cs there was distortion out of the line-out jack but not the headphone jack, and it clearly wasn't meant to drive headphones.  But with the Sensaphonics, I never looked into it technically, but the line-out jack sounded thinner, clearer and crisper than the headphone jack.  Lol, I actually preferred it over plugging those IEM and the iHP120 to my Headroom Overture+SR-71 combo.
 
Best,
 
-Jason

 

[SilverEars]

 
Well, to be clear, the line-out is both optical and an analog line-out.  You can plug headphones or hook it up to any amp.  You didn't need a pre-amp as the line-out had variable output controlled by the iRiver.
 
The impedance or something was clearly different.  With the Shure e4cs there was distortion out of the line-out jack but not the headphone jack, and it clearly wasn't meant to drive headphones.  But with the Sensaphonics, I never looked into it technically, but the line-out jack sounded thinner, clearer and crisper than the headphone jack.  Lol, I actually preferred it over plugging those IEM and the iHP120 to my Headroom Overture+SR-71 combo.
 
Best,
 
-Jason

 I'm looking at it now, it has optical in/out, remote in, and headphone out.  So you are using headphone out as line-out. The optical ports are digital I thought.  So they can be analog line-out?

 

[jjcha]

 

 I'm looking at it now, it has optical in/out, remote in, and headphone out.

 
Plug some headphones into the optical in/out.