Re: S4 audio quality sucks
It's interesting seeing how many people think the audio quality sucks. I guess it's very subjective. In my case I am using a Vsonic GR01, a $200 pair of in ear monitors that use a two way dual balanced armature, and I think the S4 headphone jack sounds really good.
I didn't read through every post in this thread, but what are peoples complaints about the S4's sound? Too little bass? Not loud enough? Not exciting enough? To me my S4 along with my GR01's sound neutral, transparent and very detailed, just like they should. There is no bass missing or any treble missing. The whole audible range sounds flat like it should. The S4 drives my GR01's plenty loud at about 1/3 volume as well. There is no hissing or other noises that shouldn't be there, no distortion. It sounds as good or better than my old iPhone 4 with these same in ear headphones.
I don't consider myself an audiophile since I don't own tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear or listen to vinyl records, but I have been into audio all my life and I know good sound when I hear it. I do own a few mid-tier ($100-$300) headphones and I use a dedicated DAC and headphone amp that plugs into my laptop via USB when I'm home. One of my full sized headphones is a Fostex T50rp which only sells for about $100, but it has been heavily modified. It uses an orthodynamic driver (Google it if you want to learn) in a modified housing that I had tuned for countless hours over a period of about 3 months. I even went as far as to swap out the pads for a custom set of angled lamb leather pads which cost $75 themselves. These headphones don't sound all that great out of the box but after tuning them they are the absolute best sounding headphone I have ever heard. There is a whole community of people who buy these just to spend hours modifying them. Some people have even made a business out of selling modified versions of this headphone. It is a very versatile headphone, and can be tuned to sound anywhere from bass heavy to nearly reference flat. Mine are tuned to be nearly reference flat along with a very slight bass boost.
I'm just posting this to say that I know what I am talking about and when I say that the S4 actually does have good audio quality. If you think otherwise, then you can resort to EQ or you can buy a different headphone. If you are just switching to this phone and immediately think it sounds bad, you may want to really think about why. Maybe the last piece of audio equipment you had sounded better to you, but it doesn't mean the audio quality of this phone sucks. It may not be to your liking, but it does not have poor audio quality by any means. Maybe your last music player was boosting bass or made another area of the audio spectrum sound inaccurate. Maybe your last player had a more powerful amp section and got your headphones louder. In this case, you can get a more sensitive pair of headphones, or you can purchase a cheap headphone amplifier to boost volume, or simply listen quieter. Most people listen way louder than they really should anyway.
A little research goes a long way when choosing audio gear.
It's interesting seeing how many people think the audio quality sucks. I guess it's very subjective. In my case I am using a Vsonic GR01, a $200 pair of in ear monitors that use a two way dual balanced armature, and I think the S4 headphone jack sounds really good.
I didn't read through every post in this thread, but what are peoples complaints about the S4's sound? Too little bass? Not loud enough? Not exciting enough? To me my S4 along with my GR01's sound neutral, transparent and very detailed, just like they should. There is no bass missing or any treble missing. The whole audible range sounds flat like it should. The S4 drives my GR01's plenty loud at about 1/3 volume as well. There is no hissing or other noises that shouldn't be there, no distortion. It sounds as good or better than my old iPhone 4 with these same in ear headphones.
I don't consider myself an audiophile since I don't own tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear or listen to vinyl records, but I have been into audio all my life and I know good sound when I hear it. I do own a few mid-tier ($100-$300) headphones and I use a dedicated DAC and headphone amp that plugs into my laptop via USB when I'm home. One of my full sized headphones is a Fostex T50rp which only sells for about $100, but it has been heavily modified. It uses an orthodynamic driver (Google it if you want to learn) in a modified housing that I had tuned for countless hours over a period of about 3 months. I even went as far as to swap out the pads for a custom set of angled lamb leather pads which cost $75 themselves. These headphones don't sound all that great out of the box but after tuning them they are the absolute best sounding headphone I have ever heard. There is a whole community of people who buy these just to spend hours modifying them. Some people have even made a business out of selling modified versions of this headphone. It is a very versatile headphone, and can be tuned to sound anywhere from bass heavy to nearly reference flat. Mine are tuned to be nearly reference flat along with a very slight bass boost.
I'm just posting this to say that I know what I am talking about and when I say that the S4 actually does have good audio quality. If you think otherwise, then you can resort to EQ or you can buy a different headphone. If you are just switching to this phone and immediately think it sounds bad, you may want to really think about why. Maybe the last piece of audio equipment you had sounded better to you, but it doesn't mean the audio quality of this phone sucks. It may not be to your liking, but it does not have poor audio quality by any means. Maybe your last music player was boosting bass or made another area of the audio spectrum sound inaccurate. Maybe your last player had a more powerful amp section and got your headphones louder. In this case, you can get a more sensitive pair of headphones, or you can purchase a cheap headphone amplifier to boost volume, or simply listen quieter. Most people listen way louder than they really should anyway.
A little research goes a long way when choosing audio gear.
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