svk7
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2016
- Posts
- 248
- Likes
- 53
I’ve gone from iPhone 4s –> 5s –> 6s. I’ve had the 6s since it first came out and have gotten used to its sound. It is what it is. Not nearly as good as my iPhone 6s –> Oppo HA-2 or MacBook Pro (Mid 2010) –> HA-2. Hell, not even as good as my MacBook Pro’s headphone jack. But no big deal. We can’t expect a phone’s headphone jack to match a high-end laptop’s headphone jack, right? WRONG.
The home button of my mom’s old iPhone 5 recently stopped working, so she upgraded to an SE. I took the 5 under my wing as an extra 30 GB for music, so I could listen to music off the 5 while doing whatever else on my 6s. And after about half of my 60+ GB music library finished syncing over, I plugged in my headphones to see what the 5 was capable of.
HOLY. ****. I was blown away by the quality of the the 5’s (note, not 5s’s) headphone jack (or maybe at just how bad the 6s’s was). In A/B-ing (and having by brother help me with blind-testing of) the 6s vs 5, the difference between the two was night and day. I never failed to pick the wrong one when asked which was playing. Yes, volume was set to near-exact levels. The exact same 320 kbps song was played off each one. Etc. Etc. The 6s’s sound felt veiled, congested, and lacking a lot of punch compared to the iP5. The iP5 effortlessly drove headphones like my V-Moda M-100 Crossfades, which even my MacBook Pro struggles to drive at it’s highest volume settings. The iP5 played songs more articulately and had better instrument separation compared to the 6s.
Now, when A/B-ing the iPhone 5 and MBP, the iPhone 5 at about its 90% volume mark matched the volume of the MBP at 100% volume. I could not tell much of a difference between the two at similar volume levels. The 5 seemed to be slightly less punchy but warmer than my MBP, but it was a lot closer than the 5 vs 6s. At 100% volume on the 5, the volume level was damn uncomfortable.
So what does all of this mean? Regardless of what DAC’s each device houses, the iPhone 5 has a much, much superior amp as compared to the iPhone 6s. I don’t know why Apple decided to reduce the quality of the components that went into their headphone jacks as time went on (oh, wait, $$$, nvmd)… but I wish they never had. Not only that but the iPhone 6s have hiss/buzzing issues with more sensitive earphones when performing actions like engaging multitasking, etc.
After doing some research, it seems like I’m not the only one who’s noticed the degradation of the quality of iPhone’s headphone jacks over time (i.e., over the last few generations). So, for me, between (1) Apple making a crappier and crappier headphone jack with each iPhones update vs (2) just doing away with it completely (I’m at the point where if I can I will use the iPhone 6s lighting port –> HA-2 every time over the standard headphone jack), I don’t even mind them taking away the headphone jack if it just meant that Apple would constantly make the headphone jack worse and worse. Comparing new vs old, it’s not like the more recent models were reproducing music even remotely well.
Ideally, of course, Apple would bring an iPhone 5-like quality headphone jack to future iPhones, but Apple is stubborn, and with all these Note 7 recalls and people turning to iPhone 7’s, Apple’s going to be all like “See? People don’t mind not having a headphone jack!” and make themselves feel all good about being visionary (i.e., idiots).
When your 4-year old product plays music better (and I’m not talking about minuscule Head-Fi better in this one regard – I mean MUCH, MUCH better by a clear mile) than your current flagship (not more than a few weeks ago, that’d be the 6s, the last iPhone with a headphone jack), it is pathetic. I’ll have to get my hands on a lighting –> 3.5mm headphone jack to see how the 6s with the dongle compares to the 5’s headphone jack alone.
TL;DNR: Apple's been making the headphones jacks on the last few generations of iPhones crappier and crappier as time has gone on. On their current trajectory, I might as well shift my focus to purely using a dedicated DAC/Amp or at least the lightning –> 3.5mm headphone jack dongle because the difference between the iPhone 6s's and iPhone 5's headphone jacks is night and day.
The home button of my mom’s old iPhone 5 recently stopped working, so she upgraded to an SE. I took the 5 under my wing as an extra 30 GB for music, so I could listen to music off the 5 while doing whatever else on my 6s. And after about half of my 60+ GB music library finished syncing over, I plugged in my headphones to see what the 5 was capable of.
HOLY. ****. I was blown away by the quality of the the 5’s (note, not 5s’s) headphone jack (or maybe at just how bad the 6s’s was). In A/B-ing (and having by brother help me with blind-testing of) the 6s vs 5, the difference between the two was night and day. I never failed to pick the wrong one when asked which was playing. Yes, volume was set to near-exact levels. The exact same 320 kbps song was played off each one. Etc. Etc. The 6s’s sound felt veiled, congested, and lacking a lot of punch compared to the iP5. The iP5 effortlessly drove headphones like my V-Moda M-100 Crossfades, which even my MacBook Pro struggles to drive at it’s highest volume settings. The iP5 played songs more articulately and had better instrument separation compared to the 6s.
Now, when A/B-ing the iPhone 5 and MBP, the iPhone 5 at about its 90% volume mark matched the volume of the MBP at 100% volume. I could not tell much of a difference between the two at similar volume levels. The 5 seemed to be slightly less punchy but warmer than my MBP, but it was a lot closer than the 5 vs 6s. At 100% volume on the 5, the volume level was damn uncomfortable.
So what does all of this mean? Regardless of what DAC’s each device houses, the iPhone 5 has a much, much superior amp as compared to the iPhone 6s. I don’t know why Apple decided to reduce the quality of the components that went into their headphone jacks as time went on (oh, wait, $$$, nvmd)… but I wish they never had. Not only that but the iPhone 6s have hiss/buzzing issues with more sensitive earphones when performing actions like engaging multitasking, etc.
After doing some research, it seems like I’m not the only one who’s noticed the degradation of the quality of iPhone’s headphone jacks over time (i.e., over the last few generations). So, for me, between (1) Apple making a crappier and crappier headphone jack with each iPhones update vs (2) just doing away with it completely (I’m at the point where if I can I will use the iPhone 6s lighting port –> HA-2 every time over the standard headphone jack), I don’t even mind them taking away the headphone jack if it just meant that Apple would constantly make the headphone jack worse and worse. Comparing new vs old, it’s not like the more recent models were reproducing music even remotely well.
Ideally, of course, Apple would bring an iPhone 5-like quality headphone jack to future iPhones, but Apple is stubborn, and with all these Note 7 recalls and people turning to iPhone 7’s, Apple’s going to be all like “See? People don’t mind not having a headphone jack!” and make themselves feel all good about being visionary (i.e., idiots).
When your 4-year old product plays music better (and I’m not talking about minuscule Head-Fi better in this one regard – I mean MUCH, MUCH better by a clear mile) than your current flagship (not more than a few weeks ago, that’d be the 6s, the last iPhone with a headphone jack), it is pathetic. I’ll have to get my hands on a lighting –> 3.5mm headphone jack to see how the 6s with the dongle compares to the 5’s headphone jack alone.
TL;DNR: Apple's been making the headphones jacks on the last few generations of iPhones crappier and crappier as time has gone on. On their current trajectory, I might as well shift my focus to purely using a dedicated DAC/Amp or at least the lightning –> 3.5mm headphone jack dongle because the difference between the iPhone 6s's and iPhone 5's headphone jacks is night and day.
