S7 Edge with High Quality Headphones

[Rheller82]

It will most certainly not be fine. you guys can give stats all day long, but the truth is the audio sounds horrible. Also issues like clicking and popping sounds. It's just too low and flat not at all like the previous note 5. So for "high quality sound" you will need a dac.

Btw this does not apply to the exynos versions as they have a different better dac built-in. This is why you will see post conflicting on the issue.

 

[GadgetGator]

It will most certainly not be fine. you guys can give stats all day long, but the truth is the audio sounds horrible. Also issues like clicking and popping sounds. It's just too low and flat not at all like the previous note 5. So for "high quality sound" you will need a dac.

Btw this does not apply to the exynos versions as they have a different better dac built-in. This is why you will see post conflicting on the issue.

I don't have clicking or popping on the U.S. version. Very clean. I do however have dropout issues playing on Bluetooth on my car. But with the headphone jack no problem.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Pandora is sending low bandwidth, very compressed audio. If you're using that to judge sound quality you'll always be disappointed. I suspect the same is true for YouTube.

 

[gnuser]

Pandora is sending low bandwidth, very compressed audio. If you're using that to judge sound quality you'll always be disappointed. I suspect the same is true for YouTube.

I agree to your point however the fact of the matter is the S7 fails to reproduce even bad quality correctly. It makes it appear worse than it actually is.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I agree to your point however the fact of the matter is the S7 fails to reproduce even bad quality correctly. It makes it appear worse than it actually is.

You have not produced any evidence to back up anything you've said about the S7 audio quality, while I've provided evidence to the contrary.

Can you provide some links to support your assertion that S7 has bad audio quality?

 

[VladDracule]

either you are woefully uninformed or have no where near the knowledge that you are claiming to. the Snapdragon is riddled with issues from throttling to using a ****ty in house DAC that is absolutely horrible when compared to what the equinox variant is using. My iphone 6s completely obliterates the s7e in both output power, DAC quality (instrument seperation, frequency response, noise floor etc).

DO NOT buy the s7 and expect it to drive high quality headphones with any form of quality, the DAC is mediocre at best, and the amp is below average

 

[GadgetGator]

either you are woefully uninformed or have no where near the knowledge that you are claiming to. the Snapdragon is riddled with issues from throttling to using a ****ty in house DAC that is absolutely horrible when compared to what the equinox variant is using. My iphone 6s completely obliterates the s7e in both output power, DAC quality (instrument seperation, frequency response, noise floor etc).

DO NOT buy the s7 and expect it to drive high quality headphones with any form of quality, the DAC is mediocre at best, and the amp is below average

Meanwhile I was tooling down the highway to be with family at Easter and it dawned on me that I was hearing things in my music that I have never heard in the car before. Punchier bass too. So for me, the S7 sounds fantastic. It's all relative.

 

[gnuser]

You have not produced any evidence to back up anything you've said about the S7 audio quality, while I've provided evidence to the contrary.

Can you provide some links to support your assertion that S7 has bad audio quality?

Besides the phone being in its 4th week of operation and truly you will never find a sound review done on any phone bar iPhone or Galaxy. Please show me where people blog on and Google returns a search mentioning" buy "A"phone, coz the sound quality is exceptional" ; never been a criteria for phones therefore never been a point of attention for mfctrs. The fact other droiders on this discussion are stating the fair sound quality, I called a spade a spade. I love my phone but truthful about it at the same time.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Besides the phone being in its 4th week of operation and truly you will never find a sound review done on any phone bar iPhone or Galaxy. Please show me where people blog on and Google returns a search mentioning" buy "A"phone, coz the sound quality is exceptional" ; never been a criteria for phones therefore never been a point of attention for mfctrs. The fact other droiders on this discussion are stating the fair sound quality, I called a spade a spade. I love my phone but truthful about it at the same time.

So you went based on anecdotal evidence and completely ignored the two reviews that I posted that DO talk about audio quality. That just seems silly to me. I'm also pretty sure that Jerry recommended the V10 for those that DO care about audio quality when he reviewed the phone.

I suspect that audio quality will continue to become a differentiating feature for manufacturers (it's already starting to be).

There is a difference between audio quality and audio output capability. My issue with the S7e is not one of quality, but rather output. I have literally zero issues with the actual quality of the sound, but I do wish it got a bit louder.

 

[Willyman]

either you are woefully uninformed or have no where near the knowledge that you are claiming to. the Snapdragon is riddled with issues from throttling to using a ****ty in house DAC that is absolutely horrible when compared to what the equinox variant is using. My iphone 6s completely obliterates the s7e in both output power, DAC quality (instrument seperation, frequency response, noise floor etc).

DO NOT buy the s7 and expect it to drive high quality headphones with any form of quality, the DAC is mediocre at best, and the amp is below average

How's this for being informed: I did lab quality level measurements of the SD based S7 Edge.

S7 Edge - Headphone output measurements (SD … | Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Even at max level, the frequency response is FLAT as a ruler. Only issues I see are

• Relatively low output level
• Somewhat high THD at high output levels. Still way below what an iPhone does.

 

[SirJes]

I can say that the bluetooth volume sucks, but the overall sound quality otherwise is great. Just got my vmoda wireless and they sound great connected to my ip6s wired/wireless, same volume. But on my s7eV it's low on Bluetooth, I'll try it wired tomorrow.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ELOdroid]

I have some Bose Soundlink bluetooth heaphones and they work great with the s7 and sound awesome to me no matter what I'm playing thru the phone

 

[KPMcClave]

I have no complaints about quality, only output levels.

In addition to the general weak output, I noticed the volume seems to "jump" more from level to level when increasing or decreasing volume. I didn't notice this with the same headphones and my prior LG G4. Increasing or decreasing volume had more smooth transitions from one level to the next.

I replaced Poweramp (paid version), which I'd been using for a couple of years, iwth USB Audio Player Pro, thanks to recommendations here. The new player seems to help with (compensate for) the lower output of the S7E.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

How's this for being informed: I did lab quality level measurements of the SD based S7 Edge.

S7 Edge - Headphone output measurements (SD … | Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Even at max level, the frequency response is FLAT as a ruler. Only issues I see are

• Relatively low output level
• Somewhat high THD at high output levels. Still way below what an iPhone does.

That's fantastic. Thanks for posting that here. That confirms my subjective opinion that it's lacking in overall output but is otherwise a good DAC as far as phones go.

 

[lucjan]

This was a painful read. Stats aside, I owned the American S7 Edge for months. I came from an HTC One M8 and made the assumption that phones just had good sound quality since my experience with the M8 was so good. My proof here is that I owned the damn thing!

The S7 has horrible sound. It is noticeably worse than the HTC One M8's. The amp is beyond pitiful, being unable to drive my fxt90's, an iem with an impedance of 12 ohms. 12 freaking ohms! Sound is muddy and flat. There is tons of distortion at high volumes. To make matters worse, touchwiz on the S7 does not natively support usb audio, so a traditional portable dac will not work. You need a specialty dac like the e18. I sold the S7 Edge and needed to do a ton of research on the audio quality of smartphones, which was difficult since very few reviewers give a flying **** about audio quality. I went with the V10 and paired it with a pair of JVC Victor Studios to take advantage of the V10's high gain mode (the studios are 56 ohms) and am much happier now.

And for those saying the S7 sounds great with wireless/bluetooth headphones... Like what!? Bluetooth headphones use their own built in dacs. Why the **** would the S7's dac affect bluetooth headphones in any way? Jesus.

 

[JOC2016]

Don't forget that the phone will blue tooth to things like other sound systems. I've got a Sony HT-XT1 Sound bar and blue toothed to that I think the sound is great - mind you I'm no expert when it comes to sound quality, but it's good enough for me.

 

[lucjan]

How is that relevant to the S7's dac/amp? Bluetooth devices use their own dac and amp.

 

[AzagThoth]

give it up, you Cant argue with a crapple addict, they live in a dream world.

 

[jbjtkbw007]

Sound is one of those things that is SOOOOO subjective and varies depending on type of music, your age, and hearing. That being said, I use a set of Parrot Zik 2.0's. To me, they sound fantastic and using the app, I have been able to tune them to where I get great sounding bass and my vocals are really crisp. Recently, I broke my headphones and went back to 3 other pairs trying to get the same sound I was getting with the Zik's. Not even close. Sure, I can get loud, but I can't get the fine tuning that Parrot enables you to do. Even though they are Bluetooth, they sound excellent.

Again, this is just my opinion and it isn't going to be the same for everyone, but you did ask for other opinions and I just wanted to share my experience with over the ear headphones (my personal preference) and the S7 Edge.