HTC One (M8): Headphone audio quality?

[Zod1010]

I get some audio clipping at high volume with v-moda m100s.

That's what I'm using as well. Glad to hear the positive feedback.

Outside of that it's absolutely stunning.

That seems to be the consensus. I stumbled upon this thread over on HiFi.org:

New HTC One M8 audio review

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Used it via USB on my note (was 4.3) but going to try the headphone jack now. Used a micro to mini otg prior.

Edit: it works fine purely as an amp through the headphone jack. Forgot I was trying to use it as a DAC on my note.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

Good to hear. I plugged my DT990's directly in to the M8 and there wasn't any crackling. They just weren't near as loud as a pair designed for mobile use.

 

[lontano]

For what it's worth, I'm a classical musician and I just got back from comparing the M8 to the S5 in the store with a nice pair of in-ear earphones. The difference was night and day. The M8 holds an enormous advantage over the S5 in this regard, and this is coming from a current Galaxy S3 owner.

This got me thinking: For all of the comments I've read online about how their cameras compare, it seems odd to me now that there isn't more discussion about this subject. I don't know about you but I use my headphone jack far more than I use the camera on my phone. I'm plugged in all the time listening to music and podcasts. This is a hugely important factor for me, much more so than the camera, so this would be a decisive factor for me if I were buying, which I will be in July. But it seems headphones are practically regarded as fashion accessories by a lot of people these days. I for one think HTC deserves a lot of credit for respecting their customers enough to use quality components in their One rather than cutting costs with a weak amplifier.

 

[Zod1010]

Those are pretty high end and probably need a dedicated external headphone amplifier.

I use my V-Moda M100s with my M8 as well and find it's an excellent combination. The M100s were designed to be driven by portable players and don't require an amp. Which isn't to say they wouldn't benefit from one, but it's not as necessary as with other headphones.

 

[mfreeland]

As a world touring concert sound engineer, it's pretty hard to impress me when it comes to audio. I finally plugged my Shure SE 535 in ear monitors ($500+ triple driver earphones) and listened. I have the Harmon Kardon version, so I'm really not sure how it compares to the normal M8, but I was really blown away and how great it sounded. I had to go into the HK settings and choose other earphones before the eq sounded natural. The clarity is phenomenal and I had more volume than I needed. I didn't notice any distortion, even at high levels. I could hear low bass (40-60hz) all the way up to natural high frequencies. Very impressive........

 

[sitlet]

I'm an audio engineer for television, and like the above poster, I have never been impressed with sound quality from a phone. But this phone is night and day compared to my old HTC phone. The stock headphones actually aren't horrible, however a 30 dollar pair of a good brand (Sennheiser) headphones will be better. But I've played around with this phone with some of my studio monitors, and it sounds great. I haven't had time to capture audio and analyze what exactly the BoomSound actually does to a song yet, but honestly I've been leaving it on with my headphones. It does seem to generally enhance the bass and treble like Beats did, but it's not overpowering. I really wish the phone included a software equalizer so I could tweak it just a bit though.

 

[buckifvr]

I am an ex-audiophile, and I think the sound quality of music by the M8 using earbuds is excellent. I have used a variety of buds ranging from cheap to good and the M8 made them all sound very good to excellent. I have compared the Harman Kardon Sound modification on my Rooted M8 to BoomSound, and I think the HK mod sounds much better than BoomSound. BoomSound sounded muddy, whereas HK sounded very clean and crisp. I think in regards to the BoomSound speakers, the differences were much more subtle. There is only so much you can do with such small speakers.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

 

[B0WIE]

For me, even though the speakers are a big leap forward, they're still so handicapped that I don't care what type of enhancer is on it. When I listen to the M8 speakers it's only for the tune itself, not the sound quality.

When using headphones, I'd only consider an EQ if the headphones or the amp were sub-par. The M8 is good enough that I like it flat; no EQ and definitely no enhancement software. That's just my personal preference. I build and modify professional recording equipment so I prefer unmolested music because it helps me keep perspective so I can do my job better. But, everyone has to go with whatever makes their music the most enjoyable.

I was really surprised that they could drive my 600 ohm headphones to more than enough volume. That's pretty incredible for a phone. They don't found flat or anemic either. Dynamics and depth are very alive and there is a surprising amount of low frequency power. It's not comparable to the gear I use for work but it's still a fantastic music player for personal enjoyment.

 

[Andrew McGrath]

I have found an EQ to be redundant with the Boomsound while using my ATH-M50s. Exceptional quality.

Compared to my GS3 i had to use the EQ otherwise it would be flat and dull.

 

[bill.allrobots.org]

Highly relevant article at anandtech:

AnandTech | Smartphone Audio Testing - HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5

Summary seems to be, "m8 is the best at almost everything audio, but if you want to use headphones you should turn off boomsound and buy headphones that match your listening preferences."

Edit: just noticed the thread is a bit old but I guess the info is still relevant.

 

[tryatt]

The freebie headphones that come with the phone sound pretty bassy with boomsound and actually don't sound too bad. However, on my Velodyne vPulse's the Boomsound equalisation definitely muddy's the bass and seems to augment frequencies around 50hz which perversely hurt the real low sub bass stuff. It also takes the body out of vocals giving a big emphasis on S's. Its kinda like when you are a kid and you play with your Dad's graphic eq, you turn up the bass and you turn up the treble and forget than the majority of musical information is actually smack bang in the middle

The M8 manages to drive them to pretty high volume levels too, more than I need thats for sure

 

[blink1me82]

The M8 sound quality is astounding. I use the Shure SE535's and the sound quality is phenomenal. The volume level goes really high without distortion. Depending on the music genre, I feel that BoomSound usually overdoes the bass so I tend to have it off. I use the HTC earphones when I go to the gym and although they are very good, I cannot stand how bassy they are with boomsound. The bass drowns out the mids and highs. Coming from the s4, note 3, lumia 1520; I will not be upgrading to anything other than an HTC phone as long as they keep making sound quality a priority.

 

[lontano]

The M8 sound quality is astounding. I use the Shure SE535's and the sound quality is phenomenal.

I'm very jealous!

The above linked Anandtech article is worth checking out to see the data. The S5 isn't close.

 

[Robgo]

I think SQ on the HTC M8 is nice but I'm still using my HRT Microstreamer DAC with it. It just can't compete with that. I thought maybe I could have less bulk with the M8 but the sound quality didn't wow me enough not to use my DAC.

Think of the way boomsound sounds with your IEM. Now imagine turning Boomsound off and how less muddy it sounds. That's a good comparison of what the onboard M8 sounds like compared to using a USB DAC like the HRT Microstreamer. Would have been nice to get rid of the added bulk but I just couldn't make the switch.

 

[Khaleeq Aftab]

what if we compare headphone output of ipod touch with htc m8 which one have best quality or which one is more powerfull ??

 

[NickPorter]

what if we compare headphone output of ipod touch with htc m8 which one have best quality or which one is more powerfull ??

M8 is more powerful without question in my personal experience. My M8 has the best audio output of any device I have ever owned. This is coming from a definite audiophile as I notice even the slightest differences in audio output between my devices. This is all based on my own opinion and preference of course

 

[DIGS111]

It's really poor! That is with any third party headphones other than the stock HTC and also Beats headsets. I have $AUD60 Sony over ear headphones and the dynamic range is pitiful! Mainly the bass range. Now I've started using the stock HTC earphones and everything is absolutely golden!

Never had this issue with my M7. I think if enough people complain HTC will tweak the audio processing software.

Have yet to do full comparisons and find out how the phone can detect why it's the HTC earbud inserted or other. Have not found the dynamic range specs for the same. My Sony earphones have one of the widest ranges (particularly the bottom end) so it can't be that. I reckon it's a special impedance sense or something in the HTC earbud that allows the phone know and hence work with the audio processing software (which btw is simply an unofficial back engineered version of Beats in the M7 after HTC ditched Beats sound processing in M8. Note also that Beats Sound in the M7 was purely software based and no hardware at all. HTC built the kit and they got Dr Beats to tweak it.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[whitelunchbag]

It's really poor! That is with any third party headphones other than the stock HTC and also Beats headsets. I have $AUD60 Sony over ear headphones and the dynamic range is pitiful! Mainly the bass range. Now I've started using the stock HTC earphones and everything is absolutely golden!

Never had this issue with my M7. I think if enough people complain HTC will tweak the audio processing software.

Have yet to do full comparisons and find out how the phone can detect why it's the HTC earbud inserted or other. Have not found the dynamic range specs for the same. My Sony earphones have one of the widest ranges (particularly the bottom end) so it can't be that. I reckon it's a special impedance sense or something in the HTC earbud that allows the phone know and hence work with the audio processing software (which btw is simply an unofficial back engineered version of Beats in the M7 after HTC ditched Beats sound processing in M8. Note also that Beats Sound in the M7 was purely software based and no hardware at all. HTC built the kit and they got Dr Beats to tweak it.

Posted via Android Central App

Turn boomsound off, it's designed for cheap headphones that 90% of people use, not that $60 headphones are particularly high end

My M8 posted this

 

[Gary Friderichsohn]

I had the EVO 4G for almost three years. I thought it had very good audio quality. I was waiting for Sprint to bring LTE to my area (I am still waiting) so I was waiting to upgrade. I went ahead and bought Note 3. It dropped calls and sounded so bad as to make me think it was broken. Turned it in before 14 days and got LG G2. Nice phone, but if memory serves, it sounds a little worse than my old EVO. The LG G2 has now had two issues with its headphone jack. I plug my phone into my Alpine car deck every time I ingress vehicle. I don't think the LG is up to this "hard" usage, although the EVO 4G had no problems over 34 months. I will go back to HTC brand at first opportunity.
I was somehow led to believe that these phones should all sound alike if they use the same SOC. I guess that is not the case due to implementation. I am 10 months into this contract. At some point I will exercise ETF and exit Sprint for Verizon and HTC M8.
I subscribed to this thread, because audio is much more important to me than camera. Happy to see others interested in sound. When I take this G2 back for replacement I doubt Sprint will allow me to trade it for M8. Kinda stuck right now.

 

[That70sGAdawg]

I love the M8 sound, and prefer it over my iPhone 5S with headphones. Using just the speakers- there is no comparison- the M8 rules!
I'm still trying to decide if I want to root my AT&T M8 to a Harmon Kardon version. Is that just for headphone improvement, and not much difference using the speakers as someone mentioned earlier? I'd like more feedback since rooting is a major PIA and Harmon Kardon would be the only reason for me to do it. I value great sound over a phone camera also..