Nexus 5 Sound Quality?
Nov 5, 2013 at 12:40 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 228

DrTone

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Any have one yet and if so what's your opinion on the Sound Quality?
 
Nov 5, 2013 at 6:02 PM Post #2 of 228
In my opinion, its the best I have had on a mobile, through head phone jack.

A short list sorted by audio quality with best on top. (subjective of course)(I have owned them all, but not long :) )

Nexus 5
Nexus 4
LG G2
Sony Xperia Z

Its a fuller sound, better soundstage i'm quite pleased with it.
 
Nov 6, 2013 at 8:26 AM Post #3 of 228
In my opinion, its the best I have had on a mobile, through head phone jack.

A short list sorted by audio quality with best on top. (subjective of course)(I have owned them all, but not long
smily_headphones1.gif
)

Nexus 5
Nexus 4
LG G2
Sony Xperia Z

Its a fuller sound, better soundstage i'm quite pleased with it.

Is this with NO EQ?
 
And how is it compared to say iphones and Galaxy s4?
 
Nov 6, 2013 at 10:02 AM Post #5 of 228
Is the external speaker as bad as everyone says it is?  I'm in loud environments and need to a bit of volume to hear the ringer and notifications.
 
Not as concerned about the ear piece speaker, hardly spend any time actually talking on a phone.  LOL
 
Nov 6, 2013 at 10:22 AM Post #6 of 228
Very differnt for everyone, but i would suggest to change the ringtone for a louder one.
Its as good LG G2 ( and for me thats very loud )
 
Standard ringtone and notification tone have no chance in loud environments.
 
Nov 6, 2013 at 1:52 PM Post #7 of 228
Hey everyone,
 
my lady (N5) arrived yesterday. I instantly filled it with music (mp3 320 up to 24/192 flac) and gave it a go on my commute today to see what this thing is capable of.
 
First impressions:
I instantly gave it a listen yesterday evening. HP's where my Beyer DT770 Pro 80Ohm. No amp was used. The first impression was jaw dropping. I mean literally, it left me speachless. This has by far been the best sound i heard from any Android phone to date. I used a IPod Video with fiio E11 since my last phone (HTC One X) was so crappy that you wouldn't want to listen to it longer then 5 minutes.
I feel that the N5 has a very good bass response. Quiet tight and well rounded.
The Headphone out is near dead quiet up to full volume. The highs seem to hold well against the IPod Video and blow the HOX oput of the water.
The Amp seems to be quiet capable for a phone. I am able to turn the volume up to max, but wouldn't want to listen to it over any period of time on my 80Ohm HP's. So volume is sufficient for me. None the less i will take my fiio with me tomorow, to see if it further improves the great base this thing delivers.
 
For the first time in Years, i have the feeling, that my phone may become my portable DAP of choice. Plus i noticed, that Play music would play flac's without a problem. This must haven been added lately, as i don't remember it working.
 
This weekend i might be able to compare to all iphones since the 3GS. They are around in my family (living with me^^). But since i'll need some time testing these, i will have to wait for the weekend to give them a proper rehearse.
 
Also something important: The power consumption while playing music seems to be extremly low. I mean near deep sleep low. My phone droped like 4-5 % on 2 hrs of listening to music (without screen on obviously..).
 
Regarding speaker: Forget it. This thing is one of the quietest i had to date. It works for ringtones well enough (for me at least) but that's about it. I wouldn't want to listen to music over speaker.
 
I hope this helped a bit. I used both play music and poweramp. If you feel that i should test something specific, feel free to ask. I'm happy to help someone decide for this beast of a phone...
 
regards, Dominik
 
Nov 6, 2013 at 3:32 PM Post #11 of 228
Nov 6, 2013 at 9:31 PM Post #12 of 228
I got the Nexus 5 but no SIM card yet so I left it at home. I think I'll try it with my JH16 since you guys said it's jaw dropping. I currently use a DX50 with the JH16 for my daily commute on the train.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Nov 7, 2013 at 5:29 PM Post #13 of 228
I have some quick impressions.
 
I tried out the Nexus 5 on some lossless tracks with Poweramp on a few tracks with my XBA-40 (which is a kind of 'worst case' scenario because of its crazy low impedance and impedance swings) and the RE-400. Not a blind test but the output seems okay. The output impedance seems similar to the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 has an output impedance of ~ 3 ohms. If the Nexus 5 had something higher the XBA-40 would sound shriller on the N5 - which it doesn't. In fact the XBA-40 sounds less forward on the Nexus 5, which may mean the N5 has a lower output impedance. (This is actually a bad thing because I've always felt the XBA-40 starts sounding flat on super low impedance outputs, but this is more of a problem with the XBA-40 than the N5).
 
On the RE-400 both sound good and I would find it hard to distinguish them. This leads me to believe that the N5 may indeed have a lower output impedance, but I would hold out for some solid measurements. Suffice to say, it doesn't sound terrible!
 
Nov 8, 2013 at 9:14 PM Post #14 of 228
Love the sound on the Nexus 5, my heir audio 8.A's love it, I will try my 6.A soon. It has a black black backround. My old Note 2 had a hiss and my NEW Rendition 1 amp has a hiss :frowning2:
 
Nexus 5 sounds GREAT, I loaded a bunch of flac files and only 1 album of the 10 or so I loaded will play!
I have not yet figured out why that is, love any suggestions. The one that plays was an HD tracks download the others were CD rips and all the files played fine on my S-Flo2.
 
My wife also loves the sound of her 1964 ears V6-S from her Nexus 5!!!
 

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