[Saberlarry]

Hey, thanks for replying, well im just a casual listener with just my phone and a cheap IEM, i just strive for better listening experience on my phone i remember the stock player on S3 was poor compared to the iphone, it was better when i had poweramp and it was like a revolution when i applied V4A anw is there really any difference between snapdragon and exynos version of note 4 when it comes to listening to music (modded audio)? Btw, does v4a work well on Lollipop and i see some people complaining that it doesnt affect video player, Youtube,... Is that just malfunction or V4A is just meant to work while you listen to music?

 

[Gurashieruro]

Hey, thanks for replying, well im just a casual listener with just my phone and a cheap IEM, i just strive for better listening experience on my phone i remember the stock player on S3 was poor compared to the iphone, it was better when i had poweramp and it was like a revolution when i applied V4A anw is there really any difference between snapdragon and exynos version of note 4 when it comes to listening to music (modded audio)? Btw, does v4a work well on Lollipop and i see some people complaining that it doesnt affect video player, Youtube,... Is that just malfunction or V4A is just meant to work while you listen to music?

The difference between the Snapdragon and Exynos is that the Exynos contains a separate DAC+Amp off the SOC. The one on the Snapdragon is not. The Exynos is similar to the options provided by the iPhone and HTC One M8. That being said, I have not heard the sound from the Exynos and because of its development of the chip is made by Samsung, mods are quite scarce. The problem being is the source code for said chip is not open source which definitely kills much of the development.

 

[rickydenim]

  HA-2 was just released. I fetched one  

Awesome! Would love to hear your thoughts

 

[White Lotus]

Has anyone measured the output impedance of the Snapdragon Note 4?
 
It seems to drive my (very) low impedance IEMs incredibly accurately, which makes me assume (hope) that it's very low. 

 

[Gurashieruro]

Has anyone measured the output impedance of the Snapdragon Note 4?

It seems to drive my (very) low impedance IEMs incredibly accurately, which makes me assume (hope) that it's very low. 

You are quite correct. If you search around there is a forum, if it's not this one, where a guy states the impedance of the the Note 4. I can't remember the exact number is but I know it was < .1 ohms. I think it was somewhere around .01 or something. All I know it was the best I have seen on a phone, at least most devices.

 

[knights]

Did Samsung stripped the USB-Audio feature in Lollipop?

 

[Gurashieruro]

Did Samsung stripped the USB-Audio feature in Lollipop?

Since very little about the of people have Lollipop right now on their Note 4. It'll be a while till we get an answer to that. However, looking at the build notes, Lollipop was supposed to support USB OTG natively.

 

[White Lotus]

You are quite correct. If you search around there is a forum, if it's not this one, where a guy states the impedance of the the Note 4. I can't remember the exact number is but I know it was < .1 ohms. I think it was somewhere around .01 or something. All I know it was the best I have seen on a phone, at least most devices.

 
I did see that, earlier on in the thread.
 
I believe that was for the Exynos version, however..?

 

[Gurashieruro]

I did see that, earlier on in the thread.

I believe that was for the Exynos version, however..?

I don't think so. I swore that if you travel back to see what the guy's version was, it was the snapdragon. That being said, I would be willing to check up on information for the Snapdragon if I knew how to do so.

 

[jamor]

I have Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Snapdragon) with v4a and it sounds fantastic.  You can literally choose so many cool options it's like customizing your own homemade DAC.   If you can get Viper 4 Android, definitely do it.

 

[Gurashieruro]

  I have Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Snapdragon) with v4a and it sounds fantastic.  You can literally choose so many cool options it's like customizing your own homemade DAC.   If you can get Viper 4 Android, definitely do it.

The guys who make V4A are amazing. Seriously, they do amazing work. Their ability to make a bad DAC sound awesome is genius at the very least.

The problem that I have with Exynos is that developing for that SOC is small, if any, because the lack of source code to any part of the phone. The things you find on it are from small amounts of code that have very little function. Really, I would go with an iPhone at that point if I was locked down to the ROM and base code that Samsung's Exynos versions have done. Previously, Samsung supported developers and freely provided their source code to their SOC but began to deny that once their S3/S4 was released. Sad really, to limit such a good phone. It could easy destroy so many phones on the market if it was given in the hands of those who are skilled at it, similar to those using Snapdragon's open source code.

 

[White Lotus]

This is all I could find from page 7..
 
Bold emphasis is by me.
 
 
 
Quote:

First impressions... this (standard us version) has bloated bass, dull mids, and soft highs. There's a noted lack of center image, with also a small stage. On the plus side, there's enough power for my Q701's to be driven to good volumes compared to my old S3.

 

 
Quote:

  I just did some testing and calculated the headphone jack output impedance to be 0.6557 ohms. I'll redo the test soon for power specs and a more accurate measurement.

 
I couldn't see if he did any further testing on it, apart from this post:
 

  My method yeilded an output impedance of ~0.67ohms out, though it wasn't perfect.
 

 
 
Either way, 
 
I have no issues driving low-impedance IEMs with the Snapdragon version of this device. I wouldn't be surprised if it had a very low output impedance.
 
That being said, it's my subjective opinion and nothing more.
 
Has this been a similar experience to others? 

 

[gikigill]

Yup, tested a plethora of IEMs and multiple BA CIEMs and the Note 4 is fantastic with all of them. Even powers the B&O H2 well with power to spare.

 

[milford30]

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 
I couldn't see if he did any further testing on it, apart from this post:
 
 
 
Either way, 
 
I have no issues driving low-impedance IEMs with the Snapdragon version of this device. I wouldn't be surprised if it had a very low output impedance.
 
That being said, it's my subjective opinion and nothing more.
 
Has this been a similar experience to others? 

 

 
US version means it's snapdragon, and 0.6557 does not round to 0.67, so he/she could have done more testing and rounded the average.

 

[Gurashieruro]

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

 
US version means it's snapdragon, and 0.6557 does not round to 0.67, so he/she could have done more testing and rounded the average.

From what I understand that the user did do quite a bit of tests regarding the Snapdragon version. I remember one user describing it as bloated and a bunch of other negative things. However, I do not agree with such take as I enjoy the Note 4 more so than I did with the iPhone 5s. That being said, I am debating on spending another chunk of my money on a dedicated DAP and being done with the mess that is smartphone audio quality. Seeing as I hate to have more wires than I need to, I definitely don't want to connect an external DAC or AMP to my phone.