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Nexus 5 Sound Quality?
Nov 12, 2013 at 8:03 PM Post #31 of 228
I'd like to chime in here. I've recently owned an iPhone 5S (returned as screen too small after having something larger for a while) a galaxy s4, before that an iPhone 5, and currently have an HTC one and a nexus 5 (trying to decide which if these to keep, and sell the other). Here are my thoughts on each :

Nexus 5: decent but too quiet on my sennheiser hd360's. Clean and detailed but needs about 20% more headroom

HTC one: nice and loud with beats audio turned on. Very subtle EQ and pleasant with most types if music. With beats audio setting turned off still good but I'm pretty sure there's still some other EQ being applied. This phone isn't for the purist.

Samsung Galaxy s4: I've actually sampled two of these and they sounded different. The first was awesome, like "my music never sounded so good" awesome. The second unit was still good but something was missing. Not sure what but not as engaging. The second one may have been on newer firmware .

IPhone 5: Very accurate almost sterile sound. Not enough volume though. Couldn't drive my ety er4's efficiently.

IPhone 5s: OMG nearly perfect! Clearly the loudest of them all and pristinely clean unadulterated hi-fi. This is your benchmark.
 
Nov 12, 2013 at 9:50 PM Post #32 of 228
dmn228 said:
IPhone 5s: OMG nearly perfect! Clearly the loudest of them all and pristinely clean unadulterated hi-fi. This is your benchmark.
Click to expand...

 
 
I hate the fact that you said this because I actually prefer a smaller screen and you're not the first person to mention how stellar the iPhone 5/5S sounds.
 
I'm seriously contemplating selling my Nexus 5 now, because the extra $300-400 might be worth it for the audio, the great camera, marginally battery life, touch ID... and I prefer ios apps and smoothness over android. I'm an abashed mac user here so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
 
I feel like I'm the only one seriously underwhelmed with the Nexus 5 audio. I wish this all in my head.. Has anyone seen RMAA results from a LG G2 or Nexus 5?
 
Nov 12, 2013 at 10:26 PM Post #33 of 228
As I type this I'm listening to some Jeff Buckley on the Nexus 5 and I'll say its pretty damn good. Still not as good as the iPhone 5s but if it had a little more juice going to the amp it'd be close.
 
Nov 13, 2013 at 8:08 AM Post #34 of 228
The output impedance on the 5 and 5s is too high for me, which does not make it perfect imo. If I'm going to be spending all that money on an iphone then i expect it at the very least to have a low output impedance.
 
Nov 13, 2013 at 8:39 AM Post #35 of 228
great info,It works for ringtones well enough  but that's about it. I wouldn't want to listen to music over speaker.thank you
hDIQWz

 
Nov 13, 2013 at 6:35 PM Post #36 of 228
dmn228 said:
I'd like to chime in here. I've recently owned an iPhone 5S (returned as screen too small after having something larger for a while) a galaxy s4, before that an iPhone 5, and currently have an HTC one and a nexus 5 (trying to decide which if these to keep, and sell the other). Here are my thoughts on each :

Nexus 5: decent but too quiet on my sennheiser hd360's. Clean and detailed but needs about 20% more headroom

HTC one: nice and loud with beats audio turned on. Very subtle EQ and pleasant with most types if music. With beats audio setting turned off still good but I'm pretty sure there's still some other EQ being applied. This phone isn't for the purist.

Samsung Galaxy s4: I've actually sampled two of these and they sounded different. The first was awesome, like "my music never sounded so good" awesome. The second unit was still good but something was missing. Not sure what but not as engaging. The second one may have been on newer firmware .

IPhone 5: Very accurate almost sterile sound. Not enough volume though. Couldn't drive my ety er4's efficiently.

IPhone 5s: OMG nearly perfect! Clearly the loudest of them all and pristinely clean unadulterated hi-fi. This is your benchmark.
Click to expand...



For bass heads and hip hop, do you think the HTC One would be a better choice? I find the sound of Nexus 5 kinda boring, at least for hip hop beats. Also the bass doesn't sound low enough. How does the Nexus 5 compare to the HTC One in terms of bass and how low it goes?
 
Nov 14, 2013 at 4:30 PM Post #39 of 228
The Nexus 5 audio output is average and has below average crosstalk.
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_nexus_5-review-1011p7.php
 
I still use my iPhone 4s, as there hasn't been an droid that my (multiple) IEMs don't pick up a hiss on. :frowning2:
Tried S3, HTC One, and nexus 4.
 
About your bass problems it may be related to output impedance of these devices, i dont know what the output impedance of the nexus 5 is. However the HTC One has "beats" enabled, which is just bass EQ.
 
Nov 14, 2013 at 5:55 PM Post #40 of 228
erukian said:
   
 
I hate the fact that you said this because I actually prefer a smaller screen and you're not the first person to mention how stellar the iPhone 5/5S sounds.
 
I'm seriously contemplating selling my Nexus 5 now, because the extra $300-400 might be worth it for the audio, the great camera, marginally battery life, touch ID... and I prefer ios apps and smoothness over android. I'm an abashed mac user here so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
 
I feel like I'm the only one seriously underwhelmed with the Nexus 5 audio. I wish this all in my head.. Has anyone seen RMAA results from a LG G2 or Nexus 5?
Click to expand...

 
Finally someone who speaks my sentiments. I have been waiting for almost 4 months for the N5, mainly for a need for larger screen and slightly cheaper phone (than the iPh). I used (and still use) my iP4 extensively for music, and I was severely disappointed with the volume levels (and to some extent sound quality) when connected to my car speakers using the aux cable. I even wrote this on Android forums and no one replied, so I thought no one cared about the music.
To me this was a deal breaker. I have already requested RMA, but trying to give the phone the best shot. Now that I hear the 5S is pristine, duh. It is very tempting.
Seriously, if the hardware is not the issue, could this be addressed with a software fix from Android in the near future? I would be carrying two phones for a while :frowning2:
 
Nov 14, 2013 at 6:44 PM Post #41 of 228
docks said:
The Nexus 5 audio output is average and has below average crosstalk.
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_nexus_5-review-1011p7.php

I still use my iPhone 4s, as there hasn't been an droid that my (multiple) IEMs don't pick up a hiss on. :frowning2:
Tried S3, HTC One, and nexus 4.

About your bass problems it may be related to output impedance of these devices, i dont know what the output impedance of the nexus 5 is. However the HTC One has "beats" enabled, which is just bass EQ.
Click to expand...


Are we talking about the same site that said the HTC One has above average sound quality? I trust phone blogs with sound quality about as much as I trust Head-Fi with phone quality.
 
Nov 15, 2013 at 1:59 AM Post #44 of 228
Not sure how that works. (Not saying it doesn't, but ...) My G2 stock distorted like crazy at the high end of volume range. I can't imagine it would get better with more power. As opposed to wolfson, where you can get a ton more power over and above stock. 
 
Is anyone using this?
 
Nov 15, 2013 at 4:11 AM Post #45 of 228
I installed Neutron on my Nexus 5 and noticed that it wouldn't go past the half way mark with the volume. I went into the stock music app, and it would let me go higher on that but a warning came up about damaging my ears. I then went onto neutron player and was able to move the volume up more.

But I think the sound quality is quite good, well to my ears anyway. No hiss or distrotion with my sennheiser hd25 iis
 
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