[Volxstu]

My contract is up so i need a new phone. I hate the sound of my ipod touch with a passion and dont like its incompatability with an external DAC, so i was wondering if there is a great phone that will replace the pod. Im afraid im a noob to the whole personal audio world so any help and musings would be gratefully received. 
 
Stu

 

[Uncle Erik]

You might want to wait until the iPhone5 is announced. It is on the way. You never know, it might have some substantial upgrades.

 

[Volxstu]

I have been looking at the speculated roumers for the i5 but they dont seem to be to interested in the Audio side of things. Its a shame because i have a Macbook pro which sounds amazing out of the box. So why they cant carry some of this technology across to their Music dedicated products i dont know.
I really have been looking at every option. The i5 is likely to be very expensive. So much so that i could probably buy a phone with a reasonable contract and get a suitable HD audio player with the spare money.

 

[mark2410]

you want to use an external DAC on your phone? why not just get a separate DAP and use that for music?

 

[Farnsworth]

Quote:

I have been looking at the speculated roumers for the i5 but they dont seem to be to interested in the Audio side of things. Its a shame because i have a Macbook pro which sounds amazing out of the box. So why they cant carry some of this technology across to their Music dedicated products i dont know.
I really have been looking at every option. The i5 is likely to be very expensive. So much so that i could probably buy a phone with a reasonable contract and get a suitable HD audio player with the spare money.

 
I cant speak for the iPhone 5, but i can say the the iPhone 4, 3gs and (kinda) the original iPhone have fantastic portable sound quality and i think many other head-fiers feel the same way. I can't imagine the iPhone 5 having any less sound quality than the iPhone 4.
 
I think if you want a phone to play music, the iphone is your best bet. But, like you said, they can be expensive. So i think your next best option would be to just go with a standard DAP.

 

[sonci]

I'm having great sound quality out of my Samsung Galaxy S,
its much better than my dedicated dap(Creative VM), unfortunately you should do some modding by installing voodoo kernell on the phone, so maybe not as user friendly as the iphone..
 
also, there's no gapless playback player for android yet.

 

 

[zenche]

love my Nokia N900. Also liked my Sony Ericsson W90 a lot too.

 

[triodesteve]

Are there phones that hook up to a dac besides iPhones? I think my 3Gs sounds pretty good as is,  but there are plenty of ways to get a digital signal out of it now.....Pure, iStreamer,Onkyo, Wadia, etc, etc.

 

[Volxstu]

Thanks for the Great answers. I would certainly be interested in looking at a Digital solution to the Iphone. Im basing my original statement on the little bit of research i did last year.
 
I have the N900 right now Zenche. I find the sq (out of the box) a little less than my Ipod touch but the N900 is warmer and seems to have a little more depth to the sound. Have you made any modifications that would make any improvements and is it compatible with any kind of external DAC? I dont mind keeping the N900 and using it solely as a DAP if it is a reasonable solution. Also that means i can use it as An ODB Key in the car.
So this brings me on to the Statements of the Iphone not being so bad. I dont find my dads i4 any better or worse than my itouch 2. I hate them both. Perhaps i am of Audiophile status?
 
BTW if i do plan a DAC/ AMP solution then it would be an added bonus if it would work with my Macbook pro. Also an iphone would be good for me as i can take a digital signal using my Cars Head Unit and i find a direct digital signal from the Ipod actually better than CD's so i know that Iphone/ Ipod has great potential to sound nice. Just not out of the box.
 
Thanks
 
Stu

 

[ilikepooters]

I've compared my HTC Desire HD and HTC HD2 both running Android and PowerAMP and i can't tell the difference between those and my Cowon J3, battery doesn't last for long on the phones but they do a good job.
 
I'm even considering selling my J3 so i can get better IEM's and just use my phone.

 

[JRG1990]

Nokia n8, It can work with any usb dac that doesn't require special drivers, like the fiio E7, I use mine with the dab radio headset which functions like a extenal dac/amp sound is a bit bitter than my fiioE7/E9 , sounds basically the same but the mids are a bit clearer on the n8 with the dab radio thingy its driving power is anything <100ohms.

 

[Peyotero]

Quote:

I'm having great sound quality out of my Samsung Galaxy S,
its much better than my dedicated dap(Creative VM), unfortunately you should do some modding by installing voodoo kernell on the phone, so maybe not as user friendly as the iphone..
 
also, there's no gapless playback player for android yet.

 

What about PowerAMP, Neutron and rockbox?
 

 

[J.Pocalypse]

Quote:

 its incompatability with an external DAC,
 
Stu

There's the Cypher Labs Algorhythm Solo, the Fostex HP-P1 and the HRT iStreamer. The first two can run on batteries, the last needs AC power, but is the cheapest of the three.
 
I'm really happy with my Motorola Atrix with Poweramp. Supports lossless, gapless, etc. Pretty decent EQ too. Considering upgrading to the GSII when money's available though.

 

[Peyotero]

If you care about sound quality don't go for the SG2. Not saying it's bad, just that the SG1 with voodoo fix would be much better then anything out there.

 

[Volxstu]

Nice old thread revival.
I went with the i4 in the end, simply because it has the functionality that i want. I have just got an Fiiio E7 which does make it sound much better whilst out and about.