IPOD, COWON, ANDROID Mobiles etc., Which one better? Options

[4sure]

Has someone technically (audio only) compared Ipod or similar to todays Android mobiles of similar price tags? Do all have similar DSPs? If one only wants a sort of hi-fi audio player, should s/he search within Android mobs or just digital players?

[skamp]

I measured my iPod Classic and my Galaxy Nexus, the former measured better than the latter.

[saratoga]

Do all have similar DSPs? If one only wants a sort of hi-fi audio player, should s/he search within Android mobs or just digital players?

For your purposes all things are identical. Just buy whatever you want.

[DonP]

Has someone technically (audio only) compared Ipod or similar to todays Android mobiles of similar price tags? Do all have similar DSPs? If one only wants a sort of hi-fi audio player, should s/he search within Android mobs or just digital players?

If you want to store all your music on the player, there's some worth to having a memory card slot. Then you can upgrade your capacity as technology marches on. I just ordered a 32GB card for about the same as an 8 GB card cost a couple of years ago. Under $20.

[andy o]

Android gives you more flexibility with DSP's, even the built-in one offers things like manual EQ and headphone virtualization, as well as separate settings for headset, speaker and bluetooth (I run Cyanogenmod 9, but I believe this is an ICS feature). On the other hand, Android doesn't have something like Sound Check (whose values you can tweak to match Replaygain values). On the other other hand, Android can offer you direct Replaygain support, and more formats, with third-party players. On the other other other hand, third party players probably won't work with lockscreen controls.

What I've found though, is that my android phone (Samsung Exhibit II 4G) has a very noticeable hiss. I don't know if this is due to cheap components; there's a lot of variation with Android devices, but this isn't an inherent Android problem, just the hardware.

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

I measured my iPod Classic and my Galaxy Nexus, the former measured better than the latter.

Interesting set of measurements. I suspect that all 4 devices would be hard to distinguish in a blind test, but the Galaxy Nexis has enough nonlinear distortion that it might come close to exposing itself and actually sound different.

If you had thrown a Sansa Clip and Fuze into the comparison, they would have performed much like the other 3.

Sansa Clip Rughtmark

Sansa Fuze Rightmark

Given their low price and high availability, you just get one and move on!

[4sure]

So my conclusion is that only dedicated players are suitable for audiophiles, the mobiles phones are usually not.

[greynol]

Your conclusion is based on what, exactly?

[4sure]

Your conclusion is based on what, exactly?

It's based on test results presented here.

[saratoga]

Your conclusion is based on what, exactly?

It's based on test results presented here.

So basically, from the test results for a single phone.

Thats not a good idea. There are actually quite a lot of phones in existence.

[andy o]

I have to correct myself. I just got a Nexus 7 and the EQ features I mentioned above are indeed from Cyanogenmod. The stock Android (Jelly Bean) EQ is simpler (didn't have it installed long enough to take a more detailed look at it though).

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

So my conclusion is that only dedicated players are suitable for audiophiles, the mobiles phones are usually not.

My involvement with high quality audio on mobile phones pretty much ends with review of published tear downs of various products.

Looking at what is "inside the box". the components to build a good sounding phone are out there, reasonably priced and showing up in new products.

I think we are looking at the infancy of the development of this kind of product.

[skamp]

The Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 4S, to name just two, measure better than the Galaxy Nexus (and they seem to match the iPod's performance).

This post has been edited by skamp: Aug 11 2012, 11:27

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

The Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 4S, to name just two, measure better than the Galaxy Nexus (and they seem to match the iPod's performance).

I wouldn't say match so much as approach in terms of specifications and probably sound equally good. The HTC device we've been talking about appears to be poor, even for them.

HTC audio tests


Additional tests

Audio chip = wolfson WM1811

This post has been edited by Arnold B. Krueger: Aug 11 2012, 12:27

[4sure]

Your conclusion is based on what, exactly?

It's based on test results presented here.

So basically, from the test results for a single phone.

Thats not a good idea. There are actually quite a lot of phones in existence.

What moved me a lot were the results for Sansa players. Because they're cheaper too, it seems harder (not to say impossible) beating them any soon.

[greynol]

There is a point where differences in measured performance no longer result in differences in audibility.