The current state of decent sounding phones is rather sad. Wolfson chips used in s3 and note 2 are not implemented very well to a point that Qualcomm chips in Nexus 5 measures better than those. And the direction which Samsung is going with starting from s4 is really quite a shame, what a waste perfectly good hardware. I recall the recent Sony flagships measured quite recently, the first of the Z series not so much but the later offerings seemed ok. Wolfson audio solutions still has some advantage over Qiualcomm chips driving lower impedance loads though, so when driving those 16 ohm or multiway crossover iem might be something to think about.
Well...for those that are not quite satisfied with Samsung's WOLFSON implementation ( I know I am and I don't care about some flaud measurements from some sites ) , they can always root their phones and get Supercurio's Voodoo sound with DAC direct and more...
Since there is no market worth pursuing for such a device, anything that did come out would likely be a huge compromise on everything else in the device. With the advent of easy digital out from most modern phones, and all in one dac/amps that are small enough to be hung from the headphone cable I think the solutions we have today are fantastic. It's FAR better to have this stuff separated because you can buy the BEST phone available as a phone, and you can buy the dac/amp that suits you and upgrade them independently. The iPhones with which I'm familiar already do a far better than average job of powering most portable headphones so the current situation is about as good as you could possibly hope for.
I've had the Sony z3 for around 2 months now, I use the Fiio E18 however one thing to remember with the z series is the USB ports have flaps and are near the top of the phone which makes it awkward to use a DAC.
Without the DAC the sound is kind of low but clear, music felt a little bit underwhelming with the DAC to be honest
Having had IPhones, Samsung, HTC and now Lumia 930, the best phone for audio I ever had was a Nokia N8, great sound, loads of storage, flac player, USB OTG DAC, FM transmitter,(perfect for in the car), and could easily drive all my portable headphones.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
