Z3 Headphones/Earphones Audio Output

LuvMusic

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I agree with comments reporting great sound quality on the Z3.....it's awesome.

In terms of loudness, I have found the loudness to be adequate but sometime I too wish for just a little more volume. The solution for me is the PowerAmp music player. PowerAmp has a preamp gain that allows you to boost the signal and get a little more volume. Use it carefully otherwise you will distort the amp on your phone. I find that two clicks of increasing the preamp gain does the trick. Also, PowerAmp is a fantastic player, well worth the $5.00 investment. I've been using it since my OG Droid. You can try the full functioning version free for 5 days be fore you spend your cash.
 

lyndene236

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I work outdoors a lot using noisy power tools so the first thing I did with my new Z3 was to set the media volume to maximum. However, when I connected my Nokia BH-505 bluetooth headset I was very disappointed with the level of sound delivered with the headset on full volume. When I investigated, I found that as soon as I connected my headset the Z3 immediately reduced the media volume by 40%. Keeping the headset connected, I reset the media volume to max and the resulting sound blew my head off!! A pain I know to have to go into settings each time a headset is connected, but I haven't seen this simple "fix" previously in this forum. anyone know how to anchor the media volume setting to max??
 

anon(9570400)

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I thought I'd chime in (first time member and new Z3 owner) because I had the same issues with low volume.

It turns out the headset volume appears to be a percentage of what the media volume is set to. There is an event that is triggered when you plug headset in that by default, sets the media volume to around 40%.

I edited that event to have a much higher volume and everything is great now. Amazing sound.

You could to test, go into settings->Sounds and notification and play with the media volume while your headset it plugged in to figure out a comfortable level, then edit the event to set that level when you plug in the headset.

I also added an action when the headset is unplugged to lower the media volume so that it's not blaring afterwards.
 

barry1964

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I use an external Fiio headphone amp. It's great if your listening through something like K550's or the ATH50x. Large closed back headphones sound great, but they can pull a lot of juice and most small devices don't have enough output power to drive them. External amps are a good choice if you want to get better sound quality cos your not having to over drive the amp, but then if you really want good sound buy a Fiio X5 dedicated music player ;-) it's what I'm planing to do when I have the cash :)

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
 
Sep 10, 2015
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Sorry could you be more specific about "editing the event" and the 40% change. When I have headphones plugged in, i can go to sounds and turn up media volume to max but that's the same max volume as always, meaning not very loud.

My xperia z3 used to be quite loud. Using a bluetooth headset, i would get a warning about raising the volume too high but if I bypassed the warning, the phone would get plenty loud. At the time, bluetooth volume and media volume could be increased separately for a cumulative effect. But now, it seems those two volumes were joined, and or the safe listening volume warning has become a hard cap, and so you no longer see the warning, you just have a disappointingly low volume phone.
 

eL banaag

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Actually, Z3 is ahead of the competition, loudness is not the deciding factor here, have you tried using FLAC audio format instead of MP3? no one can Play lossless audio as of now, only xperia does that, you need an audio file which has 44khz- 100khz to make full use of it's hi-res audio, otherwise it will be a normal mp3.. get a hi-res earphones and see how the hi-res option will be enabled.. for audiophiles, this is a deciding factor.. no one can use that as of now.. only Xperia Z2, Z3 and above.. specially Z3+ and Z5 is carrying LDAC which enables you to listen hi-res audio over bluetooth.. again, to use this feature, you need to buy Hi-res headphones/earphones.. and you'll see the difference.. using this headphones on other devices is useless as they can't make use of the Headphone's hardware.. only Xperia can use it on it's full potential.. but ofcourse it would cost you around $125 or even higher.. money isn't really an issue for audiophiles..

for camera department, xperia line is a no no on automode, you have to manually adjust the settings and you'll see the big difference.. i know it's absurd for users to go to manual mode.. however this is a fact..xperia needs to be on manual mode due to sony is aggressive on ISO levels giving you a lot more noise.. simply use enough iso, and adjust whitebalance for color accuracy and exposure for light compensation..

with this, i know it's absurd as smartphones should be used easily, however, if you are a photographer or and audiophile, using xperia will be a beast.. you just have to know what you are doing.. being an audiophile means you know all about how the sound works, even on adjusting equalizers and stuff, being a camera expert means you know how the camera works and you should know how to tweak manual settings..

not a fanboy but, knowing things how/right and being a fanboy is a two different things..
 

Kaiku Singh

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Use Viper4android audio mod if you are a audiophile like me or atleast try it, its better than sony's dsee hx, and it has noob and expert interface, try it you won't regret, everything inside os can be altered, the sound output ranges, samples etc inside the build.prop and audio.conf files located on system foldr

Posted via the Android Central App
 

Lbesze

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Actually, Z3 is ahead of the competition, loudness is not the deciding factor here, have you tried using FLAC audio format instead of MP3? no one can Play lossless audio as of now, only xperia does that, you need an audio file which has 44khz- 100khz to make full use of it's hi-res audio, otherwise it will be a normal mp3.. get a hi-res earphones and see how the hi-res option will be enabled.. for audiophiles, this is a deciding factor.. no one can use that as of now.. only Xperia Z2, Z3 and above.. specially Z3+ and Z5 is carrying LDAC which enables you to listen hi-res audio over bluetooth.. again, to use this feature, you need to buy Hi-res headphones/earphones.. and you'll see the difference.. using this headphones on other devices is useless as they can't make use of the Headphone's hardware.. only Xperia can use it on it's full potential.. but ofcourse it would cost you around $125 or even higher.. money isn't really an issue for audiophiles..
Lets sort this out by the facts.
Lossless files can be 16/44.1, 16/48, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192. The Z3's built in DAC won't support 24/192 but it could output to an outboard DAC to play, internally it will sample it to 24/96. In fact after Android 5.0 it outputs everything at that sample rate and bit depth.
There are plenty of other phones that can play lossless files at 16/48, which is really the limitation of the Android framework, no by the hardware manufacturers use. The LG V10 has a much more high end DAC vs the Z3 for instance.
Regarding LDAC it is a proprietary bluetooth profile by Sony it's not available by other mfr's and it' is limited even among their products, especially among their headphones because it's new. The Z3 don't have it but the Z3+ and above do. While it is a great leap forward from SBC and a step above APTX it is not completely lossless. Having said that the Z series phones are great music players, but historically handicapped by a marginal headphone amp. Even their high end DAP the ZX2 is saddled by one.
 

mdelaney1986

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Xperia audio output through the headphone jack is garbage compared to the iPhone 5s and especially the HTC M8. Bitrate has nothing to do with volume levels and Sony's ClearAudio is nothing but an eq curve that colours the sound into making you believe it is clearer when all it does is boost the high frequencies albeit not even tailored to the specific headphones connected! Yes Hi Res audio IS a thing, but there is so many more important factors affecting smartphone audio quality and Hi Res audio in the smartphone market is mostly just a sales pitch that people believe.

What determines output level is RMS voltage.... do some online research! I agree, loudness isn't everything, but some of the best high end headphones need more output voltage and Sony Xperia is useless with these. Most of the HTC phones and iPhones sound better than the Xperia's, with lower crosstalk, more dynamic range and, yes, the volume you need to drive real headphones.

Also check out some phones on gsmarena.com they do all kinds of audio tests on phones
 

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mdelaney1986

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Hi Res audio over Bluetooth?? That is a marketing scam. Bluetooth Audio is not even lossless! Lossless audio should come way before Hi Res. Sorry dude but that is as bad as saying you will take a cassette tape, dub it to a CD and expect it so sound like CD quality. Sony if full of crap and people buy it, I'll give them that at best.

I spend hours a day repairing phones for a living and the Xperia's use the same Qualcomm dac's every other Android phones use and I am going to throw up now.
 

violator101

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I'm having similar issues with my Xperia Z3 (D6603).
I'm using Beats in the ear wired headphones and the sound quality is very poor compared to an ipod touch even. I couldn't get over how much better sound quality and loudness I can get from the ipod.
Very disappointed to be honest.
 

NightOrchid

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Xperia audio output through the headphone jack is garbage compared to the iPhone 5s and especially the HTC M8.

For me, I use a set of LG QuadBeat 3s and a set of Sennheiser 450s and both sound sweet and loud enough, but sometimes I think it depends alot on the codec used.. Ive always used WMA 320, but since the Z series doesnt support it.. FLAC 6 or above is quite nice as well
 
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violator101

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I find the ipod touch has better sound than my Z3 thru my headphones, no matter if I use Dre Beats or whatever the sound is poor thru my audio jack. Also I can't ever hear my phone ringing no matter what I try, I've had loud ringtones, MP3 files that are loud when listened to in the settings page but when my phone rings it's barely noticeable compared to the settings page, shame as other than the audio and ringing volume being so poor it's a damn good phone.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

mdelaney1986

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I had the 5s and switched to the z3 and ended up returning it and going to an iphone 6. The z3 is way too quiet unless your headphones are loud to begin with and the 5s audio output blows it away.