[Adonai]

Hi everyone,
 
I was listening to Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis on deezer and noticed something odd. I was using my Note 4 and QC15 when at around 00:38 into the song, the sound sounded weird for me. I rewinded and repeated that part repeatedly and the sound was still weird. I tried listening to the same song on spotify just to check maybe there's just something wrong in the file on deezer, but at 00:36, it still sounded the same. I was thinking this was a problem with either the phone or the qc15. I switched to my sennheiser mm30i and it sounded more bearable.
 
When I arrived home, I played the same song on my android box. connected to a tv through HDMI. Then audio out of tv is connected to an LG LH-a6730 and then connected to Pioneer S-DV161. It sounded nice for me. I connected my phone to the a6730 and listened again to the sound and the weird sound is still there. By now, I was suspecting that the problem is on my phone. 
 
I went to the pc, listened to the song on youtube, at around 00:42 the sound still was weird for me using my qc15 and mm30i.
 
I tried on iphone 6, and it sounded better using either qc15 and mm30i.
 
My question is, is this particular song sending output that my phone and earphones are not able to process? I was expecting a more solid sound to come out so for me it was a bit weird. I'm using the word weird because I can't find a word to properly describe this.
 
Any enlightenment will be much appreciated.
 
Thank you.

 

[bgentry]

I don't know the song, but I just found it on youtube and played it.  When she sings the line "But something happened for the very first time...", a new bass line kicks in.  That "bass" sound is (presumably intentionally) distorted.  It almost sounds like speakers bottoming out, or an amp (or preamp) clipping, or something else "bad" happening.  It's got a high frequency component to it that I think is telling your brain, "hey this isn't right".
 
I'm just about dead certain it's on the recording, and you're hearing it as it was recorded.  You probably don't hear it on your speakers because they don't deliver the same resolution that your headphones do.  Headphones almost *always* show you details that are very hard to hear on speakers; even very good speakers.  It's one reason headphone audio is so great!  We get to hear things that require extremely expensive speakers with very quiet rooms, for a tiny fraction of the price it would cost with a speaker system.
 
Brian.

 

[Adonai]

Thank you for the answer Brian. 
 
I actually wasn't planning on listening to the song but the first time I installed the deezer app it asked me if I like this artist. I thought that when I slide to the right, it will be ignored. It turned out that when you slide to the right, it will register as a 'liked' artist. 
 
Another observation I have is that when I listened to this song on ipad air and iphone 6, it seems that the overall sound is better than the note 4. Is it just me or is apple audio better than samsung? 

 

[Takeanidea]

You've got too many posh phones! I have a Note II but I use it only as a source for my DacMagic Plus using a 10 pound OTG Hub. The sound is therefore of a similar quality to anything else going through my DM Plus.
I reckon you'd benefit from spending another tonne of money on an external DAC bigger headphones etc!
Seriously if you're happy with what you have then please don't let me persuade you to change it- this buying stuf is a bad habit to get into
Trev

 

[Adonai]

You've got too many posh phones! I have a Note II but I use it only as a source for my DacMagic Plus using a 10 pound OTG Hub. The sound is therefore of a similar quality to anything else going through my DM Plus.
I reckon you'd benefit from spending another tonne of money on an external DAC bigger headphones etc!
Seriously if you're happy with what you have then please don't let me persuade you to change it- this buying stuf is a bad habit to get into
Trev

Hi Trev. The note 4 price went down when s6 became available so it came in free on my recontract and the iphone I just borrowed.  

 

[Takeanidea]

That doesn't sound so bad. When you fancy you can try the otg route which will make your phone a decent media player

 

[Solrighal]

My Note 3 sounds terrible on it's own. OTG is the way to go. Or buy a Sansa Clip+ and save your battery.

 

[Adonai]

I've been learning a lot through this website. Just found out about different audio chips/processors/codecs used on phones.. Will read more on what phones can give out more than decent sounds over others..

 

[BobMonkhouse]

Maybe I'm wrong, but to me this is just an example of the results from the loudness war. I used to like this pop song among many other popular ones played on the radio. They didn't bother me when I listened to them on average lo-fi pc speakers or on the radio until I bought a few high quality headphones. Now, I can't listen to any of those songs anymore. All seem so distorted, harsh, unnatural, very unpleasant in general. BTW, I noticed the problems with such songs long before I found out the loudness war existed.

 

[Solrighal]

  Maybe I'm wrong, but to me this is just an example of the results from the loudness war. I used to like this pop song among many other popular ones played on the radio. They didn't bother me when I listened to them on average lo-fi pc speakers or on the radio until I bought a few high quality headphones. Now, I can't listen to any of those songs anymore. All seem so distorted, harsh, unnatural, very unpleasant in general. BTW, I noticed the problems with such songs long before I found out the loudness war existed.

 
I totally agree. Moving up the hi-fi ladder can be counter-productive with modern recordings. It's such a shame because there are many good tunes coming out but I find them - as you do - unlistenable.

 

[Adonai]

When you guys mention OTG does it mean using different storage that connects to your phone externally?

 

[Solrighal]

No. OTG is a method of outputting the digital signal via USB to an external DAC. You'd still use the phone's storage.

 

[Takeanidea]

I had a good listen to Bleeding Love and I reckon it's superb. 

 It brought a tear to my eye - I absolutely love this song. The track is intentionally distorted on the bass and has a very lo fi beat behind that synth bass line. Why they decided to do that is beyond me but that's the sound that's intended no doubt. The chord changes and the voice are perfection. Stick with it and you'll learn to like it all over again hopefully

 

[Solrighal]

Ok, I bit. I listened. It's awful. It's intentional, but still awful.

 

[Adonai]

No. OTG is a method of outputting the digital signal via USB to an external DAC. You'd still use the phone's storage.

Zorrofox, can you direct me to forum topics that can enlighten me more about the OTG method? Or sample of actual combination of equipments doing this? Thanks..