[gikigill]

Yes, provided its not locked down by proprietary software.

 

[Ewok]

I have the exynos S8+ and I am hugely disappointed with the sound. I am coming from my UK S5 which sounded great using my shure SE530 buds, but this S8 just sounds as flat as a pankcake. I can't describe it any other way, the bass is flat, vocals kinda seem like they are off in the distance somewhere. I have all 320k mp3's and high end buds but this thing sounds terrible compared to my 3 year old S5! On my S5 I had no adjusted the sound settings at all, everything was set to "normal" and I used Blackplayer to play everything, the same as I do now with the S8.

I tried adapt sound, which is basically useless, all it does is play a few tones, you say yes if you can hear it, and thats about it. Because I heard every sound it played, all it did was put every level at maximum and it is no different to when adapt sound is turned off except being slightly louder.

I assume this is all due the crap cirrus DAC in it, so I am wondering whether getting some good bluetooth headphones would solve it, maybe MDR-1000x. I am no audiophone or sound expert but as I understand it, BT headphones will have their own DAC so I won't be using the crappy cirrus one, so in theory a decent pair of BT headphones would potentially sound much better? (although I really want to wait for BT5.0 versions to come out).

 

[peter123]

My impression of the S8 Exynos sq so far is that I wouldn't call it bad but it's certainly nothing specialial either.

Been comparing it to the Shanling M1 today and the M1 is better in pretty much everything, soundstage, air, dynamics, clarity etc. I wouldn't say that the difference is huge though. I've been listening with the HD700 and surprisingly enough the S8 has more than enough power for them and is about as powerful as the M1, maybe even slightly more.

The included "AKG" IEM's are ok but honestly I prefer my recently acquired UiiSii C200 ($6 shipped) over them, although not by much and the C200 are really great value.

So yeah, the S8 is decent but nothing breathtaking when it comes to sq but I still love the S8 as a phone and the sound it outputs is perfectly fine to me when on the move or at work but not much more.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I find the sound to be noticeable better (and also have higher volume) with UAPP than when listening to Spotify....

 

[EirikM]

S8/S8+ Exynos have a nice DAC better than SD 835.
Exynos Cirrus Logic CS43130 MasterHIFI Audio DAC:
https://investor.cirrus.com/news-an...-to-Mobile-and-Pro-Audio-Devices/default.aspx

https://www.cirrus.com/products/cs43130/

Strange that so many think s8+ sound bad, use s8+ with sennheiser HD600 and AKG712 pro , and sounds wonderful

 

[vegetaleb]

I have the exynos S8+ and I am hugely disappointed with the sound. I am coming from my UK S5 which sounded great using my shure SE530 buds, but this S8 just sounds as flat as a pankcake. I can't describe it any other way, the bass is flat, vocals kinda seem like they are off in the distance somewhere. I have all 320k mp3's and high end buds but this thing sounds terrible compared to my 3 year old S5! On my S5 I had no adjusted the sound settings at all, everything was set to "normal" and I used Blackplayer to play everything, the same as I do now with the S8.

I tried adapt sound, which is basically useless, all it does is play a few tones, you say yes if you can hear it, and thats about it. Because I heard every sound it played, all it did was put every level at maximum and it is no different to when adapt sound is turned off except being slightly louder.

I assume this is all due the crap cirrus DAC in it, so I am wondering whether getting some good bluetooth headphones would solve it, maybe MDR-1000x. I am no audiophone or sound expert but as I understand it, BT headphones will have their own DAC so I won't be using the crappy cirrus one, so in theory a decent pair of BT headphones would potentially sound much better? (although I really want to wait for BT5.0 versions to come out).

If you want to go BT then pick an APTX HD pair of earphones, it will give you near Hi-Res quality but stay away of the cheap ones like mpow, they fall off very easily whatever the hook you apply and the sound quality is bad. Better choosing a Sony, great value/price/SQ for BT

 

[joshnor713]

If you want to go BT then pick an APTX HD pair of earphones, it will give you near Hi-Res quality but stay away of the cheap ones like mpow, they fall off very easily whatever the hook you apply and the sound quality is bad. Better choosing a Sony, great value/price/SQ for BT

The S8 unfortunately doesn't support Aptx HD, only Aptx. You'll have to go LG if you want Aptx HD.

 

[vegetaleb]

The S8 unfortunately doesn't support Aptx HD, only Aptx. You'll have to go LG if you want Aptx HD.

My bad, yes only the snapdragon version will support it, not exynos, if you have the snapdragon version you can flash the aptx HD library from xda

 

[psikey]

S8/S8+ Exynos have a nice DAC better than SD 835.
Exynos Cirrus Logic CS43130 MasterHIFI Audio DAC:
https://investor.cirrus.com/news-an...-to-Mobile-and-Pro-Audio-Devices/default.aspx

https://www.cirrus.com/products/cs43130/

Strange that so many think s8+ sound bad, use s8+ with sennheiser HD600 and AKG712 pro , and sounds wonderful

You really can't go totally on what other opinions are on here. I immediately notice the improvement over my S7 with the S8 getting much closer to quality I get from my Fiio X5III with my 9Ohm SE846's. Higher impedance ear/headphones might to be so good. Even my 50 Ohm Klipsch X10i sound noticeably better on the X5III over the S8 so its really going to depend on what you use the S8 with.

 

[Ewok]

S8/S8+ Exynos have a nice DAC better than SD 835.
Exynos Cirrus Logic CS43130 MasterHIFI Audio DAC:
https://investor.cirrus.com/news-an...-to-Mobile-and-Pro-Audio-Devices/default.aspx

https://www.cirrus.com/products/cs43130/

Strange that so many think s8+ sound bad, use s8+ with sennheiser HD600 and AKG712 pro , and sounds wonderful

I heard the S7 was bad so perhaps it is better than that, but I have to compare it to my S5 and I don't think it is as good, although I might just be going mad. Has anyone else compared an exynos S8 to the european S5 G900f?

URGH, now the cable on my SE530's has split near the ear piece (well known problem it seems). So I spent the day considering what to do and ended up spending half the day reading about the JH13v2's

 

[Woglinde]

Has anyone else compared an exynos S8 to the european S5 G900f?

I have exynos s8 and my father still using european s5 so i can do such a thing later today or tommorow.

 

[Sam L]

Put some foam tips on then, and see how they go...

Personally, I think they're phenomenal for an in the box pair of IEMs - this from someone who has a pair of JH Layla's, and - a loan pair of HiHiMan RE2000s - these plucky little AKGs hold their head up - damned high.

Agreed. Most of the easily accessible reviews (youtube, google, etc) on the in box AKG earphones are pretty lackluster, at best many will acknowledge they are ok or pretty good. When I first gave them a listen, albeit through the oppo ha2, not the phone's dac, they sounded great.

I've heard/read that the bass is "muddy", "non existent", etc. Not to my ears... bass is very present, with decent detail, though not particularly fast.

Would I pay $99 for them? No. $75? Probably not. I'd pay $40 for them and gift them to someone, since I'm amassing too many earphones at the moment. But at that price point they would be one of the best deals on the planet.

 

[Mahu]

Hi, signed up to just to ask you special folks a question. I am using Bluetooth, but thought you may weigh in with your opinions here. The S8 (and +) have, in my opinion, been very very poor on Bluetooth. I am connected up into both my cars, and compared to every other phone I have tried (almost every single high end model) the audio quality is horrific over bluetooth. Honestly, it sounds as if I am listening to 56kbps songs. Almost all are 320kbps or FLAC files, and I have tried many different output sources, but for comparison's sake, I use Plex usually. Also to streamline comparisons, it's the Pixel XL, LG G6, S7 Edge, and Motorola Z Force. The Pixel and the Motorola were indistinguishable, with the LG G6 probably the best (though the least test time honestly) and the S7 Edge a hair behind the Pixel. When I play the exact same song in Plex on the S8 devices, it sounds muffled and squished, with almost no dynamic range at all. All adjustments make no difference. The bass is super punchy, but most of the difference is in the high-lows, all mids, and then some clipping on the treble side.

For instance, a tambourine or shaker as an example would be almost missing on the S8, and vocals sound like it's a mono track, instead of a stereo track (though it is playing in stereo).

Has anyone else experienced this? While some suggestions may range around "try this app, or Plex isn't good, etc" the fact remains that in a straight comparison, the Pixel XL, S7 Edge, G6, and iPhone 7 all sound very very close, with minor variances. However, the S8 devices are noticeable awful. For instance, even my wife can tell they don't sound good, and she is not an audiophile.

This is a Bluetooth question, as headphones do not have this problem.

Thoughts?!

 

[398698]

Suggestions on a compatible portable amp dac for the s8 plus for Verizon? Unfortunately my ears suck so I need an amp for my iems since full blast isn't adequate. Thanks.

 

[Makiah S]

I work in cellular sales, and honestly, with the time I've spend with the S8, I'm not super impressed either, it's pretty sub par compared with my LG V20

 

[peter123]

Suggestions on a compatible portable amp dac for the s8 plus for Verizon? Unfortunately my ears suck so I need an amp for my iems since full blast isn't adequate. Thanks.

What's your budget?