[Wojtek]

It might be fine with another earphone, but I'm quite attached to the etys, sigh.

 

[vwinter]

Just to add my tuppence -

With etymotic 4 micropro:

I recently 'replaced' my iPhone 4S with a new one from apple (broken button)

And bought a 64gb iPhone 5s on contract.

Both phones have iOS 7.

I wasn't looking to 'review' the difference and have not posted here for a few years. But using the 5s I found it noticeably thinner, more fatiguing and less 'liquid' in the midrange than with the 4s. Bass lighter. Very detailed but more digital. I went back to check and confirmed the difference.

This may be an issue with matching and I'm sure it can sound great with other earphones but I am really disappointed. If anyone has any advice on whether I can use software to adjust for the difference I would be very grateful!

Meanwhile I am planning to get a 5c for my wide and will compare that.

Here's my quick take on the 5S vs the 4S for Elfary:

5S is...
Less liquid and smaller images but more precise and focused. Better layering and blacker soundstage. So, images are cleaner and more separated. More digital sounds about right and it's pretty aggressive IMO. Bad match with certain IEMs can be frustrating as it brings out the harshness of peaks very quickly. For example, the LG QB2 sounds brittle and uninvolved on the 5S and flat on the 4S in comparison. It sounded best and most fluid and involved on the 4S through the Meier Quickstep, but since I can't hook up the Quickstep to the 5S, I don't have that to compare.

Bass is tighter by a country mile though and that's where I differ in opinion.

The 4S is definitely flatter sounding but maybe "grander."

I would definitely not say it's worse in sound quality, but that might depend on what you define as good sound quality. Let me know what good sound quality means to you Elfary and maybe I can fill in some blanks and so can wojtek.

 

[elfary]

@vwinter thanks a lot for your impressions.

I just use balanced armature iems (Westone um3x, Shure SE530) so low output impedance is mandatory in order to retain linearity in the signal.

Aside from that a good sounding source to me has to be very clean and very open with a pitch black background.

On a side note I've always thought that the iPhone 4s has a slight subbass emphasis which i missed on the iPhone 5. But my main gripe about the 5 was not this but the lower output power.




Optimism is the depth of technical ignorance

 

[vwinter]

@vwinter thanks a lot for your impressions.

I just use balanced armature iems (Westone um3x, Shure SE530) so low output impedance is mandatory in order to retain linearity in the signal.

Aside from that a good sounding source to me has to be very clean and very open with a pitch black background.

On a side note I've always thought that the iPhone 4s has a slight subbass emphasis which i missed on the iPhone 5. But my main gripe about the 5 was not this but the lower output power.




Optimism is the depth of technical ignorance

I haven't heard those two unfortunately but maybe someone else can chime in. Black background, detailed, and spacious is a reasonable description. My only point of concern to potential owners is the aggressive and concentrated presentation of images. Think the 4S sound space but with smaller and tighter images, but with that, if there is any underlying harshness in the track or the IEM, it's brought to your attention very quickly.

So the 10k peak shown on most measurements on the UM3X for example, could be worrisome but it all depends on how the IEM presents that peak.

 

[elfary]

Anyway i'll post my impressions here since i'm not pulling out. I'm committed to buy it and hence i will try thoroughly the 5s since i'm getting it at a really good price.

Hope it's a keeper!


Optimism is the depth of technical ignorance

 

[elfary]

Well...the 4s is gone and the 5s is in.

After a few spins i miss the 4s subbass emphasis but i love the uber resolution of the 5s. That's with the Shure SE530.

Still not sure about the output power.
I think the 5s is louder than the 5 but it does not get as loud as the 4s.




Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

 

[Geekface]

I agree with Wojtek - The 4's have better sound. Have just tested iPhone 4 vs iPhone 5c on quite a few tracks and to me it seems the iPhone 4 is a little more powerful & has better soundstage and separation than the 5c.
 
In my opinion the 4 does sound grander and less digital than the 5c.
 
I was worries about the the output of the 5c being low as others have mentioned with the 5, however I didn't find it too bad.
 
Test information:
 
Tested using Sennheiser Momentum headphones (these aren't proper monitors or anything but I figure have decent enough soud quality to pick up enough for the purpose of this test).
 
iPhone 4 using: iOS 6.1.3
iPhone 5c using iOS 7.0.4
 
Tested using Spotify iOS app with audio files at 160 kbit/s
 
Has anyone had a different experience with a 4 compared to a 5c?

 

[vwinter]

I think wojtek was talking about the 5S if I'm not mistaken, which is a different beast.

Good to get some substantial 5C impressions on here though.

 

[elfary]

Quality wise i think the 5s is as good than the 4s.

Unfortunately the output power lags behind the 4s quite clearly.

It's just me or iOS 7 music app is far worse than the earlier incarnation?




Optimism is the depth of technical ignorance

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quality wise i think the 5s is as good than the 4s.

Unfortunately the output power lags behind the 4s quite clearly.

It's just me or iOS 7 music app is far worse than the earlier incarnation?




Optimism is the depth of technical ignorance

 
Maybe it is outputting less power by design, to preserve battery life with the larger screen compared to the 4S?

 

[vwinter]

Maybe it is outputting less power by design, to preserve battery life with the larger screen compared to the 4S?

I find the 5S a bit more powerful than the 4S with my IEMs. The measurements done a few pages back by that awesome dude who's name escapes me seem to indicate the same

It could selectively limit it depending on the situation. That would be interesting.

 

[elfary]

Maybe it is outputting less power by design, to preserve battery life with the larger screen compared to the 4S?

It could selectively limit it depending on the situation. That would be interesting.

You might be onto something...what iems do you use?

For now I've compared it side by side with my 7G Classic and my old iPhone 3GS. With a Shure SE215 and Shure SE110.

On thursday i'll compare with my UM3x.



On the quality side of things it is pure joy. Clean and open to an amazing extent. It's going to rock really hard with the UM3x as it does with the SE530.


Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

 

[UglyCheater]

Hey guys and Merry Chistmas!
 
Finally having the money for a new phone (sound is the most imortant facto for me(rap,hip hop, techno). I´ve read almost all threads of smartphones here. My final candidats Nexus 5, S4 Iphone 5s.
Now to my actual problem. Ive read that Ip5s has that problem with impedance. Im planning to buy some In Ears leater on(for 100€+-50). Now Im new and not familiar with this stuff, but I care about good sound(I buy my music on CDs). Like you found out some high impedance headphones are solving this problem. My question is now whether Im going to have that issues using In-Ears (Becuase I think they are all like 16Ohm, aren´t they?). If so is there any solution for it?

 

[KraftD1]

The 5S was measured at ~2 ohms output impedance, which shouldn't be an issue with most IEMs.

 

[vwinter]

Hey guys and Merry Chistmas!

Finally having the money for a new phone (sound is the most imortant facto for me(rap,hip hop, techno). I´ve read almost all threads of smartphones here. My final candidats Nexus 5, S4 Iphone 5s.
Now to my actual problem. Ive read that Ip5s has that problem with impedance. Im planning to buy some In Ears leater on(for 100€+-50). Now Im new and not familiar with this stuff, but I care about good sound(I buy my music on CDs). Like you found out some high impedance headphones are solving this problem. My question is now whether Im going to have that issues using In-Ears (Becuase I think they are all like 16Ohm, aren´t they?). If so is there any solution for it?

No idea about the S4 and the Nexus, but the 5S has an output impedance of ~2.3 ohm which will be likely fine for 16ohm IEMs. But it also depends on the impedance curve of the IEM itself as to what if any changes to the sound result. Most IEMs are between 16 and 32ohm. Very few are less. 0.3 extra ohm of impedance over the theoretical safe line of 8x or less is likely negligible for a 16ohm IEM, but that's just my assumption.