Smartphones vs portable music players (DAC +AMP) comparable yet?

[Tao1]

Hello everyone,

Generally when I listen to music (.flac files), I am using headphones on a portable device (my phone currently). Not knowing much better, for several years I have not seen the usefulness of mp3 players (or now portable music players) since a phone can do the same thing and more. However, after doing some reading, it seems the DAC (or amp) in a smartphone is often an after thought by the manufacturer.

However it still seems ridiculous that one would need a separate device to carry around to get a great audio experience. My question are:

Are there decent phones out there with good amps and dacs?

Are portable players (still) that much farther ahead than even the flagship class of smartphones?

Note I am looking more for standalone players over amps, since it seems to me that headphone amp/dacs that need an input source are still limited by the dac in a phone and that it is outputting an analogue signal (headphone jack) to the amp.

My Galaxy S3 appears to only have a 16bit DAC (good luck finding the specs for the DAC of the North American version of the S3!!!). I have been following the hype for the Galaxy S7 which was rumoured to have a killer 32bit dac, but sadly they have gone with something home brew that no one has the specs for (again).

Any insights or suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Might want to qualify for us what you're listening to. The only reason to get a better-quality player or DAC would be for files that are CD quality or better. Getting high-end equipment for mp3’s makes as much sense as going to a high-end steak house for hot dogs.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[j_garcia]

You are talking about a format that, while relevant because a large percentage of people use it due to convenience, is not exactly a "quality" source. Thus the reason nobody cares about the specs. Look no further than Pono. People aren't interested in "quality" digital audio because it is like saying which is the best toilet paper.

Listening to my S7 right now and it sounds good enough, but similar to my S6 Edge.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Samsung's Galaxy S7 like many of predecessors of premium model range do indeed include high quality DAC and headphone amp.
I proved this point with my old S4 to a colleague who was hell bent on using dedicated players. we played same music (flac from his sdcard) and his headphones on my S4 and he couldn't find much difference

There are few dedicated sites which do test smartphones for audio quality, but not too many of these around.

Typically most reviewers consider dac/amp performance as an afterthought

With good smartphone and tons of storage on sd-card - I see no reason what so ever for dedicated music players anymore, not really since early days of smartphones. Even iPhone 1 was pretty good choice, but lack of large storage ment sticking to compressed music.
Since my S2 - I could store tons of flac on 32gb and later on 64gb microsd on S4

 

[Tao1]

Might want to qualify for us what you're listening to. The only reason to get a better-quality player or DAC would be for files that are CD quality or better. Getting high-end equipment for mp3’s makes as much sense as going to a high-end steak house for hot dogs.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

I only have .flac. Mainly why I want a better player is because I have some 24bit files, but they are only decoded in 16bit. Could sort of use a phone upgrade to to justify getting a whole new device.

I also had a rant in the steam vent about .mp3 files being obsolete and otherwise being detrimental these days, but that is another story

 

[Tao1]

You are talking about a format that, while relevant because a large percentage of people use it due to convenience, is not exactly a "quality" source. Thus the reason nobody cares about the specs. Look no further than Pono. People aren't interested in "quality" digital audio because it is like saying which is the best toilet paper.

Listening to my S7 right now and it sounds good enough, but similar to my S6 Edge.

Sorry I should have clarified in my opening post: I use .flac. I only mentioned 'mp3 players' since that is what they were called for a while, and even then phones could do the same job for the most part. The point being that even back then they were redundant devices.

 

[Tao1]

Samsung's Galaxy S7 like many of predecessors of premium model range do indeed include high quality DAC and headphone amp.
I proved this point with my old S4 to a colleague who was hell bent on using dedicated players. we played same music (flac from his sdcard) and his headphones on my S4 and he couldn't find much difference

There are few dedicated sites which do test smartphones for audio quality, but not too many of these around.

Typically most reviewers consider dac/amp performance as an afterthought

With good smartphone and tons of storage on sd-card - I see no reason what so ever for dedicated music players anymore, not really since early days of smartphones. Even iPhone 1 was pretty good choice, but lack of large storage ment sticking to compressed music.
Since my S2 - I could store tons of flac on 32gb and later on 64gb microsd on S4

Thanks for the info!

Any chance you have the specs on the DAC and amp for the S7?

Part of why I made this post, is I am suspicious of the Galaxy line of phones. The Galaxy S3 was supposed to have a Wolfson 24 bit dac, but due to some sort of conflict with North American standards, they put something else in the NA version that from what I see is only 16 bit. Since Samsung doesn't mention the DAC in the S7 specs ever, and no one that I have seen has posted the specs, I was again suspicious that it was an inferior component.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Sorry, I couldn't find anything of much value, but since S7 uses a different SOC for US vs International version there are also seems to be difference in audio codecs
Looks like some few folks prefered LG V10 sound vs S7e
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS7/comments/48hx8e/my_s7_edge_utilizes_the_dspgdbmdx_sound_chip_dac/

 

[Tao1]

Sorry, I couldn't find anything of much value, but since S7 uses a different SOC for US vs International version there are also seems to be difference in audio codecs
Looks like some few folks prefered LG V10 sound vs S7e
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS7/comments/48hx8e/my_s7_edge_utilizes_the_dspgdbmdx_sound_chip_dac/

Thanks.

All I could find were opinions as well (which sounds better, etc). I guess for Samsung it is a clear cut case of: no specs, no money.

 

[Cos]

The LG G5 will offer an improved headphone DAC expansion, that would be the model to get if that was an important reason. There will be no comparison

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/lg-g5-hi-fi-plus-modular-hi-res-dac/

 

[Hi Ho]

The iPhone has a great DAC and headphone amp. While most of what I listen to on my iPhone is compressed, I do also have CD and high res files and they sound superb. Something I noticed on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and also my Moto X was that there was a definite noise floor. I cannot hear a hiss on my iPhone at all using the same headphones.

 

[KenM10759]

I have a Motorola Droid Maxx and have NO signs of a noise floor at all. I do not play much music on it but when I do it's Tidal Hi-Fi using the BubbleUpnP app and the KEF M500 headphones sound just as good as listening to them on my main system.