[Duncan]

I pre-ordered the Z5 from amazon would be curious to hear the sound quality ....i have a iphone 6 plus and it sounds very good ..Duncan is the M9 better sounding than the iphone?

Subjective... The M9 is way more V shaped compared to the 6+ but then again the iPhone sounds a little, erm... Safe I guess when compared to the M9 and dedicated DAPs. A term that is as ambiguous as it is inciteful is to say that the 6+ is a non fatiguing listen.

To me it needs more drive / excitement, the M9 fills that gap quite nicely, so long as your musical preference is up tempo enough...

So many potential caveats there.

 

[goody]

Subjective... The M9 is way more V shaped compared to the 6+ but then again the iPhone sounds a little, erm... Safe I guess when compared to the M9 and dedicated DAPs. A term that is as ambiguous as it is inciteful is to say that the 6+ is a non fatiguing listen.

To me it needs more drive / excitement, the M9 fills that gap quite nicely, so long as your musical preference is up tempo enough...

So many potential caveats there.

Yes it can be slightly dull thats why i tend to use 3rd party apps to listen to music....The Questyle QP1R you have is more my flavour lol 

...I had a listen to that at Canjam i liked it a lot...

 

[elektron]

Re the Z3+ yes, it did pique my interest, won't deny, especially with the Tidal tie in that was promoted in the UK, but the imminent launch of the Z5 would've devalued my purchase almost overnight, so held back.

 
I wasn't talking about the Z3+, which was a bit of a 'stop-gap' model with no worldwide release and no Compact variant.  As per my post, I was specifically referring to the actual Z3, which is still less than a year old, with its audio quality rivalling mid-range DAPs.  This has been well-documented in the 33-page thread dedicated to Z3's audio quality started by @Whitigir.

 

[elektron]

  I pre-ordered the Z5 from amazon would be curious to hear the sound quality ....

 
You are obviously in Europe, as Amazon US doesn't have it listed yet  I fact, Sony hasn't even officially announced the pricing.
 
Please do share your impressions here when you receive it.

 

[Shubham Bassist]

May be sony is using custom version of sd 810 like they did use of 801 having two dacs
other 801 devices didnt have those two dacs (NXP TFA9890) which z3 had  
Z4 had integrated Qualcomm DAC but One plus One had one NXP TFA9890 chip and both were having sd810 SOC
 
As for DNC IEMs from sony, this time they have gone for hi res 
previously Sony DNC headphones were not of Hi Res category
This was the previous model
http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/accessories/digital-noise-cancelling-headset-mdr-nc31em/
This one is launched with z5 
http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/accessories/high-resolution-audio-headset-mdr-nc750/

 

[elektron]

  May be sony is using custom version of sd 810 like they did use of 801 having two dacs

 
I really hope you're right about this.

 

[Shubham Bassist]

Even I hope I should be right about this! LOL

 

[synnnn]

Hoping for the Z5C to be a winner. I've been holding out since the Z3C...
with the compact size its perfect for music playing and operation with one hand
knowing its sony the battery should last through the whole day with music pumping most of it too ..
if SQ is good then it largely eliminates the need for a DAP for me

 

[elektron]

Hoping for the Z5C to be a winner. I've been holding out since the Z3C...
with the compact size its perfect for music playing and operation with one hand
knowing its sony the battery should last through the whole day with music pumping most of it too ..
if SQ is good then it largely eliminates the need for a DAP for me

 
I'm in the same situation - also interested in the Compact after coming very close to getting the Z3C.
 
I think the screen size of around 4.6" - 4.7", especially in such a compact body (much shorter than iPhone 6 despite a similar screen size), is just about perfect.  May still get the Z3C if the Z5/Z5C sounds more like the Z3+ than the Z3, although I do like the latest improvements.
 
By the way, there's talk of a Z5 Compact Premium with a 1080p screen being released in Japan.

 

[Whitigir]

Honestly, I am afraid Sony is going to fail this Z5 handset. Why ? Many people criticize it for using the same 810 but with an unnecessary 4k display....sigh....why can't we have them polishing audio playback instead ?

Neither Z5 more Note 5 or edge 6s + is interesting to me. what is the point of beefier internals and display ? Who cares ? Once the retina display is reached, who would cares to stare into the screen to tell the differences ? Enjoying Picasso ? Monalisa ? What ? There are tablets, laptops, TV for all those. But no readily available high quality audio system ....common...

By the way, since the leaks and released of Note 5... Samsung stock lost billions of dollars....talk about failures to impress the market, and it is not like people is not asking them what to do....it is just that they don't care enough.

 

[Shubham Bassist]

Because only some people like us are bothered about sound quality. 
Most of the people care about no. of cores on cpu and no. of pixels on display.
We actually should wait for official teardown as i have posted earlier that it might be using custom version of SD810 having some cool DACs like one plus one had TFA9890 chip.
Z3+/Z4 were rushed out by them and hence it using vanila SD810
And as for implementation of DACs, we can believe in them as they gave us Z3 Family!
BTW does DACs heats up when being used in HiRes audio?
Maybe that can explain why sony didn't include any DAC in z3+ as sd810 is really a dragon with fire
As for z5, Sony has tamed the dragon BTW!

 

[Duncan]

Because, quite simply, 99.999% of people are perfectly happy (or maybe I should say, accommodating of) the SQ provided out of the headphone out.

If they were not, then the cellphone makers would have to do something about it.

I personally look at it as us, in our minority being at a ball game, cheering on the team whose fans are at the other end of the stadium, our voices drowned out by the masses.

Even all the talk of hi-res this and hi-res that, it is only showing a capability to keep up with the remainder of the companies who are doing exactly the same, trying to get one over on apple, and - as bad as this is to say, apple are consistently preferred sonically, so they have nothing to prove, and no need to develop such playback (1st party, obviously we all know third party options are available)

Why fix what isn't broken for the vast majority of people, and increase the cost of the handset for all, to benefit what is the vast minority (us).

 

[Whitigir]

Because, quite simply, 99.999% of people are perfectly happy (or maybe I should say, accommodating of) the SQ provided out of the headphone out.

If they were not, then the cellphone makers would have to do something about it.

I personally look at it as us, in our minority being at a ball game, cheering on the team whose fans are at the other end of the stadium, our voices drowned out by the masses.

Even all the talk of hi-res this and hi-res that, it is only showing a capability to keep up with the remainder of the companies who are doing exactly the same, trying to get one over on apple, and - as bad as this is to say, apple are consistently preferred sonically, so they have nothing to prove, and no need to develop such playback (1st party, obviously we all know third party options are available)

Why fix what isn't broken for the vast majority of people, and increase the cost of the handset for all, to benefit what is the vast minority (us).

While I agree about everything you said. But all said is simply just a submissive way of doing business, where as winners on the markets are agressive type. Steve Job for example, the technology on IPhone such as everything it did were not out of this world, instead it had been in used for 7-10 years. The cellphone market were not broken either, people didn't ask for it to be wifi compatible, touchscreen, YouTube...etc. Steve was just aggressively pushed it out, and guess what ?

The same as Sony CD, DVD, Bluray....it is not like we can use all the Bluray capability right now, but they pushed it, and where is the market headed ? Where is HD-DVD?

Sony should have kept on pushing better quality music as faster LTE connections are available, high quality streaming music services are available....etc...etc. There is just no reason to keep following Apple.

 

[synnnn]

Problem is Sony seems to be a very traditional japanese company. That style is to produce one thing its good at and keep working on refining that one thing. Sony camera department makes great cameras. Sony TV department makes great TVs. Sony Audio makes great audio. Sony PlayStation makes great consoles. Perhaps that's a remnant from the industrial age, but it isn't able to fight with say Apple who is able to integrate many existing already-engineered things. With reference to audio, I'm not so certain Sony Phone management will enjoy losing face having to ask for help from the Sony Audio division. But given the Z3 had some thought towards improving audio and the Z5C rumoured high price point of GBP549(USD834), heres to hoping!
 
added rant: if Sony produced an ecosystem like apple it would have dominated the market 10 years ago. Imagine fully integrated networking and sharing the same modular parts between your TV, hifi, playstation, laptop, tablet, camera, phone etc! 

 

[Shubham Bassist]

Guys of whathifi tested Xperia Z5 Pre Production Model Audio Quality.
http://www.whathifi.com/sony/xperia-z5/review
http://www.whathifi.com/sony/xperia-z5-premium/review ( jump to audio section!)