Audio quality tested on 2012 Xperias - Sony Xperia P, U, Sola, Go

Hi Xperia users!
I've been doing some basic research into which of the 2012 Xperias have the best audio quality, as tested on sites such as
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_sola-review-766p5.php
The tests that this site does focuses on: Frequency response, Noise level , Dynamic range, THD and IMD Noise and stereo crosstalk.
I've tried pasting results here but it becomes a mess. If you have one of these phones already, you can click on your phone from here: http://www.gsmarena.com/sony-phones-7.php
and click on skip to review of music player to find out how your phone performs. From what I can see, Sony's 2012 phones on the whole, don't compare well. The audio output through the speaker is generally excellent, but through the earphones there is a significant drop in quality across the board. If you look through the results, you can compare a phone with almost anything you like, but I focussed on the Xperia S, Arc and all the Apple iPhones and the latest iPod classic. A key element in performance seems to be not performing well in just one area, but across all of them, which the reviewers from the site claim is what makes Apple products the best in the business.
Any comments? Any notes?
I'm in the market for a newer Xperia, but unfortunately, I'm not sure there is a good iPod replacement in this list. The more mid-range Go beats the S and Sola high end phones. I would love to hear Sony's reasoning for this. Also, one of my 2011 phones, while not expensive, beats all of the 2012 phones according to these tests which I don't understand. Any guidance or perspective? I really appreciate the results of tests like these which overcome human bias and subjectivity with terribly overused words such as 'crisp' and 'clear sound' etc. but on the other hand, I realise that numbers in a test don't indicate audio pleasure...so personal and practical use is relevant. :victory:
Are these results reliable do you think? Anything else to consider?

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XS: the DAC (think 'soundcard') is great, the headphones themselves are ****ty. Get something better and you'll have really nice sound.

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i am also interested in this. i am planning to but Xperia S in saturday but have my worries about the sound quality. its using the same sound chip with sensation xe and the sensation. i can tell that from the frequency graph of them all. they all have same vibrating between 1K 10K.. but when i look at the dynamic range (the ability of pruducing the most differet notes at the same time) and the noise level (basicly the loudness without losing the clearity) are worse than sensation brothers. we can adjust them easily with software (because the difference is something like %1).
but the most important part is the distortions. i mean you can listen your music with %1-2 less volume but no one would want to listen any distorted sound. sony seems like doing better on the IMD+ values but the most important is Total Harmonic distortion and it is very high on the xperia S. however, by looking at the positive values of the sensation XE i believe this problem can be sorted out with software too..
in real life? with a lossless music or comparison sound file we can feel the difference by listening to both an ipod and sony xperia s with the same earphones. and luckily we can change our sound chip software by flashing new mods. and we also can use cyanogenmod which enchances the sound capabilities of many devices.
so there is no way of measuring what we can do with a fully sound tweaked sony device (maybe we can ask gsmarena to run their regular test on a tweaked sony device) but there is room for development in sound department too for sure

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That's a really interesting point about tweaking devices. I'm not totally sure I can rely on it though - my last Xperia phone had great audio tweaks but on my latest Xperia phone, all of the audio mods that I've tried detracted from quality, not added so I uses stock audio options.
Good to see someone else in the market for a new phone on the same line of thought as me. I was almost definitely going to get the Xperia Sola but the audio tests on that site indicate it is WEAK with audio! Other phones like the GO which are not marketed as multimedia devices have much, much better results. I cannot buy the Sola if the audio is that bad.
I was going to ask can there be any compromise on the performance indicated; there were around 5 criteria tested, would you buy a phone that ranked poorly on one of them, two of them?

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K900 said:
XS: the DAC (think 'soundcard') is great, the headphones themselves are ****ty. Get something better and you'll have really nice sound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the Xperia S?

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This is the first thing that i felt when i moved from Lg Optimus Black to Sony Xperia S: a drop in sound quality. I use a Koss Porta Pro in everyday listening.

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I think the Xperia S has excellent sound quality. To give you some context, I used to own a Creative Zen Vision:M MP3 player, which sounded better than all the iPods and iPhones I compared it with (up to iPhone 4). I wasn't expecting my Xperia S to replace the Zen, but to my surprise it actually sounded better to my ears. The general frequency response is a bit flatter and it's a lot clearer.
I also compared it with a Cowon Z2 (which many people believe to be the best-sounding MP3 player out there) and there was very little difference. Believe me, the Xperia S is a very good music player indeed. The review on the site you posted said it: "A solid overall performance, which should please anyone but the most demanding audiophiles."
As the review states, the only limitation is a bit of distortion at higher volumes, but we're talking deafening volumes here. There's also a way around it, if you're really serious: a portable headphone amp (I use a cheap but very good Fiio E6), enables you to take the clean lower-volume signal from your phone and amplify it cleanly through your headphones. However, I can assure you it sounds fine without an amplifier.

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That is very interesting ^^
I was hoping there might be people who take the holistic view too; looking at the stats but also just listening to what your ears tell you. I'm truly open to these ideas. I was particularly looking at the Sola, but of all the 2012 phones it's stats are the worst. Is that really something to worry about? That info. on the S really changes things...:fingers-crossed:
p.s. I found another site that does these tests. Some of the results differ a little, I guess different testing equipment and earphones. There are 3 very different results for the iPod 6th gen. With that kind of variance, maybe the results for the 2012 Xperias is one snapshot - and not definitive?? For anyone interested,
here's the list of devices tested: (no Xperias unfortunately) http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/rmaa complete - html.html
Here is the 6th gen iPod Classic: http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/iPodClassicFiiOE1/data.htm
The iPhone 4S: http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/iphone4s/data.htm
Also, on this site: http://macintoshhowto.com/itunes/which-ipod-has-the-best-audio-quality.html they keep talking about the audio chip used in devices. They mention that certain iPhones and Galaxies use the Wolfson audio chip, which seems to very highly regarded.
Here is a great article on smartphone audio, audio chips and stats comparison: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/0...ne-x-isnt-amazing-at-all-even-by-the-numbers/

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SharpnShiny said:
That is very interesting ^^
I was hoping there might be people who take the holistic view too; looking at the stats but also just listening to what your ears tell you. I'm truly open to these ideas. I was particularly looking at the Sola, but of all the 2012 phones it's stats are the worst. Is that really something to worry about? That info. on the S really changes things...:fingers-crossed:
p.s. I found another site that does these tests. Some of the results differ a little, I guess different testing equipment and earphones. There are 3 very different results for the iPod 6th gen. With that kind of variance, maybe the results for the 2012 Xperias is one snapshot - and not definitive?? For anyone interested,
here's the list of devices tested: (no Xperias unfortunately) http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/rmaa complete - html.html
Here is the 6th gen iPod Classic: http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/iPodClassicFiiOE1/data.htm
The iPhone 4S: http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/iphone4s/data.htm
Also, on this site: http://macintoshhowto.com/itunes/which-ipod-has-the-best-audio-quality.html they keep talking about the audio chip used in devices. They mention that certain iPhones and Galaxies use the Wolfson audio chip, which seems to very highly regarded.
Here is a great article on smartphone audio, audio chips and stats comparison: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/0...ne-x-isnt-amazing-at-all-even-by-the-numbers/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just get the Sola, then get the Wireless Bluetooth Pro Sony headphones which have the new Wofson decoder which is about the best mobile decoder around. I have done that and it is great. Best of both worlds.

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mrsatan said:
Just get the Sola, then get the Wireless Bluetooth Pro Sony headphones which have the new Wofson decoder which is about the best mobile decoder around. I have done that and it is great. Best of both worlds.
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I only seen the promo yesterday, she is a sexy beast! :highfive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVS36ggZz1o

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hey,
just trust your ears, don't see bad or good depend on testing etc...
i have xperia s, arc, w995, aino, iPod nano 4
the best sound quality for me is
1.W995 (but lack of FLAC)
2. XS (can play FLAC)
3.Aino
4. Arc
5.iPod. ipod sounds great, but after i used itu 2 years, becomes crap sound (don't know why) maybe bad capacitor?
i used FLAC or WAV in my phone (85%)

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Which phone do you have now? FLAC eeh? That must burn up the battery! Do you still have an iPod now too? Which one? The iPod I'm using now is the 6th generation Classic. I'll almost definitely have a new phone next week.

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SharpnShiny said:
Which phone do you have now? FLAC eeh? That must burn up the battery! Do you still have an iPod now too? Which one? The iPod I'm using now is the 6th generation Classic. I'll almost definitely have a new phone next week.
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Click to collapse
how can one get better once one've had the best? lol.. imo, FLAC is the best audio compression right now the battery drain isnt that much.. but the quality of the audio, is that much .. remember when talking bout audio, it's "garbage in, garbage out.."
and yeah, just trust your ears, and dont forget that synergy made better sound than all that graphs and frequency.. and what i meant in synergy is the hardware (dac, dsp, etc), the software (in sxs: walkman and its sound enhancement ), and of course the output (earphone, headphone, speaker, etc)
i did a quick test in flac-listening in SXS (unknown dac , walkman) and SGS3 (the so called wolfson dac, stock audio player), with Yuin PK3 (imho, a decent earphone), and i found out that SXS did sound better. well, i've seen there are mods for sgs3's audio, but didnt try them, both phone are at default (in terms of audio )

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m1st3r1 said:
how can one get better once one've had the best? lol.. imo, FLAC is the best audio compression right now the battery drain isnt that much.. but the quality of the audio, is that much .. remember when talking bout audio, it's "garbage in, garbage out.."
and yeah, just trust your ears, and dont forget that synergy made better sound than all that graphs and frequency.. and what i meant in synergy is the hardware (dac, dsp, etc), the software (in sxs: walkman and its sound enhancement ), and of course the output (earphone, headphone, speaker, etc)
i did a quick test in flac-listening in SXS (unknown dac , walkman) and SGS3 (the so called wolfson dac, stock audio player), with Yuin PK3 (imho, a decent earphone), and i found out that SXS did sound better. well, i've seen there are mods for sgs3's audio, but didnt try them, both phone are at default (in terms of audio )
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Click to collapse
Its many Sony's software and optimizations that make it sound good. Wolfson is the best DAC when tested, while Sony uses a run of the mill snapdragon DAC. Just goes to show Sony knows sound.

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FLAC actually doesn't drain more battery because it uses less calculations to decode.

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K900 said:
FLAC actually doesn't drain more battery because it uses less calculations to decode.
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Click to collapse
i think we should not consider "compressed" music files like zip or rar files. because they are compressed in an unusable way and needed to be unzipped to become usable again and once they are uncompressed there is no loss in the actual data. so in order to be able to use (listen/watch/execute) a compressed data you need to make lots of procceses through CPU.
however that is not the case in the compressed audio. when compressing a lossless (just recorded the way it was played in real life) audio the codec (or whatever it is that has the alghoritm to compress) listens and analysis the audio and decides which sound to combine. for example; imagine 3 different waves are present at the same time and the alghoritm creates a 4th wave which has the very similar sound of those 3 played at the same time and it records that 4th one only instead of the first 3. and there are some certain signals that give the impression of surrounding when applied to human ear. finally the alghoritm writes these signals on to the "simulated" waves.
so, basically when we listen an mp3 or any other compressed audio we have the impression of hearing everything but actually we hear a replicated sound which is very very much similar to the total amount of the original sounds for the human ear.
since both FLAC and the mp3 formats are both read only and there is no real time compressing and uncompressing every time the, load on the CPU (or the DAC) should be measured by the "waves" or "codes" that needed to be read. according to this we can say there is much more signal to read and convert to analog in FLAC files..

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_delice_doluca_ said:
i think we should not consider "compressed" music files like zip or rar files. because they are compressed in an unusable way and needed to be unzipped to become usable again and once they are uncompressed there is no loss in the actual data. so in order to be able to use (listen/watch/execute) a compressed data you need to make lots of procceses through CPU.
however that is not the case in the compressed audio. when compressing a lossless (just recorded the way it was played in real life) audio the codec (or whatever it is that has the alghoritm to compress) listens and analysis the audio and decides which sound to combine. for example; imagine 3 different waves are present at the same time and the alghoritm creates a 4th wave which has the very similar sound of those 3 played at the same time and it records that 4th one only instead of the first 3. and there are some certain signals that give the impression of surrounding when applied to human ear. finally the alghoritm writes these signals on to the "simulated" waves.
so, basically when we listen an mp3 or any other compressed audio we have the impression of hearing everything but actually we hear a replicated sound which is very very much similar to the total amount of the original sounds for the human ear.
since both FLAC and the mp3 formats are both read only and there is no real time compressing and uncompressing every time the, load on the CPU (or the DAC) should be measured by the "waves" or "codes" that needed to be read. according to this we can say there is much more signal to read and convert to analog in FLAC files..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know how it works. Yet, due to specifics of the implementation, FLAC is faster to decode in the specific case of Android.

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Ok.. after reading this thread, I decided to compare the audio quality of my SXS with my good old Samsung wave (having wolfson DAC), and my cousin's ipod nano. I am no audiophile here, but to my ear the SXS sounds the best with wave & ipod definitely sounding louder (but bit harsher). I used the default music players and philips shp 2700 to compare them. Tbh my eyes (wrt camera output) n ears (wrt sound quality) really don't go along with the gsmarena test results! Thats just my opinion.

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BTW, has anyone tested the auido quality through bluetooth? since i ll be using it with my cars bluetooth i wonder if i ll get any problems with the audio quality or the bluetooth itself..

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Dpk1 said:
Ok.. after reading this thread, I decided to compare the audio quality of my SXS with my good old Samsung wave (having wolfson DAC), and my cousin's ipod nano. I am no audiophile here, but to my ear the SXS sounds the best with wave & ipod definitely sounding louder (but bit harsher). I used the default music players and philips shp 2700 to compare them. Tbh my eyes (wrt camera output) n ears (wrt sound quality) really don't go along with the gsmarena test results! Thats just my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing your results! I was beginning to wonder which devices everyone has here, we could mention which you think works best for you and run with it.
I've been using and testing music on various Xperias and iPods over the last few years. My nanos beat my classic and yet my 2011 Xperia has clearer sound with less hissing, especially at higher volume.
As I've been exploring on another thread, to get the best out of your Xperia on Android, it seems we need better class SD cards (I'm now looking at only class 10) to overcome the longer 'distance' that the data has to travel (computer, cable, phone, SD vs iPod 'distance' of computer, cable, iPod) and such an SD would boost transfer speed of course. I want to get each piece right; quality of audio on phone, better SD and perhaps cable and better earphones.