[DrelzGear]

Yeah, the at&t 32gb version, I had the 16gb version twice & took them both back thinking only those had the sound problem, of course I was wrong

Sent from......

 

[DrelzGear]

The adapt sound feature just makes everything louder, doesn't cure the distortion using higher end earned other than the stock ones they come with

Sent from......

 

[nanoevil]

Just to share
 
Tried it awhile ago using the Galaxy S4 i9505 (Quad core with Snapdragon DAC) and it works.
 
Samsung S4 > USB OTG cable > E17 > Sennheiser HD205
 
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3481/98376110201164526697556.jpg
 
works great...unlike the S3 not able to use the Fiio E17 via USB.

 

[deaffob]

Well that settles then. I have to go with i9500 since my gym IEM is ie80.

 

[jasonb]

I've had an S4 for a week now, and I like it a lot. It's a great phone so far. In terms of sound quality through the headphone jack, I am actually pleasantly surprised. It sounds great with my Vsonic GR01, and it's loud enough at half volume and under. I never need anymore than 8 or 9 out of the full 16 steps on the volume control. A volume control with more steps overall wouldn't be a bad thing, but that is nit picking. Everybody complains that the U.S. variants of the S4 don't have a Wolfson DAC, but what I am hearing sounds great. The iPhone 4 didn't have a Wolfson either and it also sounded good. I'm hearing an accurate, full bodied sound with all the details that should be there in the music. 
 
It also sounds great with the aux-in in my car. I will have an apt-x bluetooth receiver in my car tomorrow though, for both music and calls. 

 

[deaffob]

I've had an S4 for a week now, and I like it a lot. It's a great phone so far. In terms of sound quality through the headphone jack, I am actually pleasantly surprised. It sounds great with my Vsonic GR01, and it's loud enough at half volume and under. I never need anymore than 8 or 9 out of the full 16 steps on the volume control. A volume control with more steps overall wouldn't be a bad thing, but that is nit picking. Everybody complains that the U.S. variants of the S4 don't have a Wolfson DAC, but what I am hearing sounds great. The iPhone 4 didn't have a Wolfson either and it also sounded good. I'm hearing an accurate, full bodied sound with all the details that should be there in the music. 
 
It also sounds great with the aux-in in my car. I will have an apt-x bluetooth receiver in my car tomorrow though, for both music and calls. 

Your IEMs have 32ohm which is unusual for portable cans. i9505 causes unbearable sounds with low impedance cans.

 

[jasonb]

I don't see 32ohm being that unusual. I know a lot of new cans and IEM's are a lower impedance these days, but 32ohm isn't that rare I don't think.
 
I have heard about there being issues with low impedance headphones used with the S4, but the GR01 really does sound fantastic from the S4. I don't have my old iPhone 4 anymore to do a side by side test, but I don't notice it sounding any worse. If I noticed it sounding worse than my old iPhone than I definitely wouldn't be as happy with it. I use the GR01 with my S4 every day for about 45 minutes while on my lunch break at work and I am quite picky about my audio. I ordered a USB OTG cable that I thought I would have to use along with my E17 with the S4 to get decent sound out of it, but I was wrong. I'll probably just continue to use the GR01 with just the S4 for portable use. I'm still waiting on my OTG cable to arrive, which I will of course use with my T50rp if I ever decide to take them outside of the house.  
 
Quote:

Your IEMs have 32ohm which is unusual for portable cans. i9505 causes unbearable sounds with low impedance cans.

 

[blazer78]

Quote:

Everybody complains that the U.S. variants of the S4 don't have a Wolfson DAC, but what I am hearing sounds great. The iPhone 4 didn't have a Wolfson either and it also sounded good. I'm hearing an accurate, full bodied sound with all the details that should be there in the music. 
 

 
IIRC, the iPhone 3GS and subsequent models featured a higher end, portable Cirrus Logic DAC chip (in terms of power consumption and quality) with the major forte being a very low noise floor. The hiss is barely audible compared to some of my other portable DAPs.
 
How is the noise / ambient hiss on the Qualcomm DAC featured in the S4 (US Model) compared to the iphone?

 

[jasonb]

I am not hearing any noise or hiss. A week and a half later and I still think it sounds great and has plenty of volume. 
Quote:

 
IIRC, the iPhone 3GS and subsequent models featured a higher end, portable Cirrus Logic DAC chip (in terms of power consumption and quality) with the major forte being a very low noise floor. The hiss is barely audible compared to some of my other portable DAPs.
 
How is the noise / ambient hiss on the Qualcomm DAC featured in the S4 (US Model) compared to the iphone?

 

[chailee80]

Just got my new i9505 S4 today and i wish i'd known about this issue beforehand as i probably would have got the htc one instead. I was really excited to plug in my new XBA-3's as i'd read on gsmarena that the S4 tests showed good audio output. My new phone excitement was crushed by the horrible crackling i got from the XBA-3's. An expensive set of headphones which are useless to me now. I also have the XBA-2VP model and at first i was getting the same problem but i've found that if you reduce the volume via the little volume wheel on the inline remote and turn up the phones volume the crackling goes away and i can listen to my music just fine.
In regards to the phones sound quality i find it to be ok but nothing amazing. My biggest concern is the lack of overall volume in some of the headphones i've tested. My Sennheiser MM-30i's sound ok and are very loud i only have to have the volume around halfway where as my Bose AE2i's sounded a bit dull and even at max volume it isn't very loud. My Sennheiser HD558's and HD598's sound ok but are also not very loud at max volume. Thankfully my B&W P5's and Sennheiser Momentums sound very good and have decent volume. The loudest set of cans i've tested are the AKG Q460's which get very loud, its just a shame they don't sound that good lol. I tested a couple of budget pairs Audio Technica ATH-T-400 and Panasonic RP-HTF600 and both did ok, i had to set them about 13-14 to have a good amount of volume. Also tested out my Sennheiser PC323d computer headphones and they had an even lower volume than the HD558's and HD598's.

 

[jasonb]

Get a portable amp like the E17 and a usb otg cable.
Quote:

Just got my new i9505 S4 today and i wish i'd known about this issue beforehand as i probably would have got the htc one instead. I was really excited to plug in my new XBA-3's as i'd read on gsmarena that the S4 tests showed good audio output. My new phone excitement was crushed by the horrible crackling i got from the XBA-3's. An expensive set of headphones which are useless to me now. I also have the XBA-2VP model and at first i was getting the same problem but i've found that if you reduce the volume via the little volume wheel on the inline remote and turn up the phones volume the crackling goes away and i can listen to my music just fine.
In regards to the phones sound quality i find it to be ok but nothing amazing. My biggest concern is the lack of overall volume in some of the headphones i've tested. My Sennheiser MM-30i's sound ok and are very loud i only have to have the volume around halfway where as my Bose AE2i's sounded a bit dull and even at max volume it isn't very loud. My Sennheiser HD558's and HD598's sound ok but are also not very loud at max volume. Thankfully my B&W P5's and Sennheiser Momentums sound very good and have decent volume. The loudest set of cans i've tested are the AKG Q460's which get very loud, its just a shame they don't sound that good lol. I tested a couple of budget pairs Audio Technica ATH-T-400 and Panasonic RP-HTF600 and both did ok, i had to set them about 13-14 to have a good amount of volume. Also tested out my Sennheiser PC323d computer headphones and they had an even lower volume than the HD558's and HD598's.

 

[jasonb]

Got my little otg cable, so I can confirm that otg to an E17 works flawlessly. Its plug and play with no work around or extra apps needed. Just plug It in and use your music player of choice.

 

[jasonb]

 

 
And the money shots! USB audio out to an E17 to a modded T50rp.

 

 

 

 

[techfreakazoid]

What are S4 owners' experiences with battery life hours--standby, LTE surfing, audio playback? How much of a battery hit is there with playing flac files loaded on internal memory vs. microSD card via hp jack, USB OTG/DAC/Amp setup?

 

[jasonb]

Battery seems good considering that the screen is huge and 1080p and the phone has 4g lte and a quad core 1.9ghz processor. I don't have any flac files on mine, just mp3 and aac on a 32GB sd card. Battery life is good when using IEM's at about half volume. Haven't really used it much with OTG, just enough to test it and know that it works. The headphone out is just fine with my IEM's.