[elfary]

  
This chart...well this chart shows that an iPhone (from 3Gs on) literally trumps the Galaxy constellation when driving low impedance earphones. And it trumps it badly unless loads are from 32 ohms on.
 
For 16 ohms stuff it's not even close.
 
Check iPhone RMAAs from goldenears driving a 16 ohm load.

Yeah, but for one goldenears and this guy has different equipment, so it's better if both devices are measure on the same equipment.  Second, iphone 5 has much higher output impedance than the S4 and that makes a difference for multi BA headphones.  Third, these values are not even close to audible range, and both are flat.  I'd be more concerned with output impedance if you have low impedance multi BA iems.  Hopefully, you don't think iphones are audibly better based on SS device measurements.  

 

Actually i looked for numbers to explain the stunning clarity of iPhones i tried against the hint of fuzziness and congestion the S4 left my with.

And used ba iems (UM3x, SE530, Westone 3).

idevices handling low impedances are good beyond belief. To my ears at least.


Immature: A word that boring people use to describe fun people

 

[White Lotus]

The iPhone 3gs was actually a ridiculously good source. Lol.

 

[chailee80]

The new HTC One M8 is supposed to have excellent audio output. Gsmarena claims it's the best they've ever seen from a smartphone.

 

[live1]

gsm arena are biased because all they like is loud volume output.the louder the hp out the more they rate it lol

 

[PinkFloydQ]

Is there a kernel or rom flash tht improves audio on the US variant of the S4?

 

[DR650SE]

What sound quality does the S4 play? As in bit/kHz?

Also can I use higher resolution audio files if I got with a DAC like the Fiio E17? I own the E17 but just recently upgraded to a Galaxy S4 AT&T variant. Thanks guys!

 

[umvue]

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_m8-review-1062p7.php
 
S4 better sound quality than HTC M8? It seems so just by looking at the numbers
 
But the written review said M8 is better. Why's that?

 

[knreddy]

Corrected Post:
S4 I9500 re-samples every other frequency to 48KHz, leaves some artifacts in playing 44.1. However I have checked S5 (G901Y ) , Alpha (G850Y), A3 (A300H) with USB Audio Player Pro Trial routing audio through android it says DAC as 44.1 KHz, But When A3 (A300H) , Moto G1, Lenovo 369i are checked with Neutron , the Result for DAC are 48 , 44.1, 44.1 respectively. So Neutron Music Player is only capable to identify Audio Hardware. So Samsung products later than Galaxy S3 appers to be supporting 48KHz natively & resamples all other frequencies to 48 KHz