Music quality through earphones

Hi,

I've gone through a number of posts in the forum (and also tried googling on other sites), but I have not found any clear response to this:

How is the sound quality through earphones on Lumia 920? Is it loud and crisp?
I would be especially interested in comparison with iPhone (since I've got it now).

This is an important feature for me and I don't want to carry a separate mp3 player with me. Lumia 920 looks awesome, but I've found mixed opinions about music quality on the previous model (900).

Can anyone who already owns a Lumia share some thoughts on this topic? :)

Can anyone answer this please? Now that perhaps there are more people that have tried the phone? :)

My Lumia 710 has great audio quality. Response is not flat though (scooped in the mids). I'm thinking the 920 is at least as good as the 710 (a midrange last gen device), plus you have an EQ to play with.

Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 were bad via 3.5mm. Way below Nokia average.

There has been quite good comments about the sound quality on some reviews and i'm 99% sure it will improve with the new hardware platform on new Lumia's, though most of the reviews don't truly test or care about the sound quality via 3.5mm.
If you want "solid" answer to that question you should wait for GSMarena review that spends a lot of it's time truly evaluating sound quality.

I myself am a a bit of a HiFi nut that uses quite expensive in-ears to listen these headphones so it of course always depends were you are coming from and what are you looking for.

Well it's about preference when it comes to this. I find it pretty good. Better than my 800 but only with dolby enabled. The equalizers are also interesting. At highest volume it is louder than the 800 and still very clear. I'm no audiophile and only have the purity in ears which aren't that special but not bad. So I can just say that I like it very much compared to the performance of the 800 which in my opinion wasn't bad in anyway.
Can't compare to an iphone since i don't have one.

I just upgraded from Lumia 900 to 920 and was very surprised at the improvement in audio quality. I used a Nokia Purity headset with both phones and was impressed by the clarity and separation on the 920. Also the output is obviously improved because on the 900 my normal volume setting was 20 and with the 920 it is 16. I can't make a comparison with the iPhone.

I've recently posted a topic about this. Try searching dhoby lumia vs beats 8x vs iPhones 4s


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Agreed. GSM arena has a standard protocol to measure audio quality. They have most objective audio reviews.
Check out their process here: GSMArena feature lab: Enter new goodies - GSMArena.com

Personally, I think its a huge step up from the 900. I attribute most of it to the eq. I'm sure audiophiles would shake their heads, but after setting it to my usual curve (high bass and treble, low midrange) I couldn't be happier.

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Originally Posted by jmerrey

Personally, I think its a huge step up from the 900. I attribute most of it to the eq. I'm sure audiophiles would shake their heads, but after setting it to my usual curve (high bass and treble, low midrange) I couldn't be happier.

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That's my experience too. I loved my 900, but one thing I missed from my HTC One X was how listening to headphones sounded. The 920 is as good as the HOX if not a bit better (it sounds a little warmer, IMO)

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Originally Posted by karmamule

That's my experience too. I loved my 900, but one thing I missed from my HTC One X was how listening to headphones sounded. The 920 is as good as the HOX if not a bit better (it sounds a little warmer, IMO)

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I'm also a bit of a HiFi nut and I can tell you the audio quality on the One X is absolutely terrible.. Just because it has "beats", doesn't mean it sounds good..

So far the best audio quality I have found on a phone has been the iPhone 4/4S and the Nokia N9 ..

I own a One X and I can't even listen to music on it..

I'm a musician and a headphone buff (not exactly an audiophile) but here are my thoughts:

I primarily use Rdio's streaming service set to their highest quality. Not the best audio test in the world, but this is what I use everyday.

The Lumia 920's headphone output sounds clean enough but it's about 3/4 the loudness gain of an iPhone 5 or 4 ( phones I compared it with). At 30/30 level on the 920, it doesn't have the same impact as the iPhones because the 920 is quieter.

Also, with EQ off, the iPhones have a slightly fuller low range ( easily remedied by the 920's EQ) but the 920 has a more sparkly high end (most probably because of the slightly subdued mid to low frequencies) so the 920 sounds more detailed and crisper (if you set the volumes at the same level)

It's a bit of a gripe for me because I really like the 920's universal EQ which works across all apps compared to the iPhone's which works only on the iOS native player. Dolby, although I don't use it that much since it introduces a bit of artificial reverberation, is a nice fun extra.

I like my music loud so I have to resort to an external Fiio headphone amp to have the 920 match the loudness of an iPhone. The 920's levels is pretty much like an iPhone with Sound Check on and the Volume Limit set to about 75% (on the iOS native player).

With an external amp, the Lumia 920 suits my streaming needs because of the universal EQ.

Hope that helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frantics

I'm a musician and a headphone buff (not exactly an audiophile) but here are my thoughts:

I primarily use Rdio's streaming service set to their highest quality. Not the best audio test in the world, but this is what I use everyday.

The Lumia 920's headphone output sounds clean enough but it's about 3/4 the loudness gain of an iPhone 5 or 4 ( phones I compared it with). At 30/30 level on the 920, it doesn't have the same impact as the iPhones because the 920 is quieter.

Also, with EQ off, the iPhones have a slightly fuller low range ( easily remedied by the 920's EQ) but the 920 has a more sparkly high end (most probably because of the slightly subdued mid to low frequencies) so the 920 sounds more detailed and crisper (if you set the volumes at the same level)

It's a bit of a gripe for me because I really like the 920's universal EQ which works across all apps compared to the iPhone's which works only on the iOS native player. Dolby, although I don't use it that much since it introduces a bit of artificial reverberation, is a nice fun extra.

I like my music loud so I have to resort to an external Fiio headphone amp to have the 920 match the loudness of an iPhone. The 920's levels is pretty much like an iPhone with Sound Check on and the Volume Limit set to about 75% (on the iOS native player).

With an external amp, the Lumia 920 suits my streaming needs because of the universal EQ.

Hope that helps.

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And that Fiio amp is from adelphi? :P

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Originally Posted by slashd0t

I'm also a bit of a HiFi nut and I can tell you the audio quality on the One X is absolutely terrible.. Just because it has "beats", doesn't mean it sounds good..

So far the best audio quality I have found on a phone has been the iPhone 4/4S and the Nokia N9 ..

I own a One X and I can't even listen to music on it..

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Interesting ... have you had a chance to compare to Lumia 920 ?

I really like the sound from my 920, and love the fact there's.very little distortion when you crank the volume up. Just a shame its a little quiet.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jaripi

Interesting ... have you had a chance to compare to Lumia 920 ?

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I just got the 920 yesterday and finally put music on it last night.. I will do some serious music listening today and report back!

I have my 920 with a set of purity headphones and it's pretty much zune hd (RIP) quality. I'm still in the process of burning in my headphone so the quality should get even better.

Nokia Music App and Beats By Dra rock.

Hello to achieve best sound performance it really depends on your headphones, at under £40 i prefer the soundmagic / sony / sennheiser headphones / earphones Headphones & Earphones | Sony Sennheiser Skullcandy Monster

Quality is great, but they don't pump as loud. Funny that when I hit 20/30 it warned me about ear damage and it wasn't even near the level I'm used to listening. I play most of my music at 25/30, but that's almost full blast, the equivalent level on the iPhone would be 75%, although I could never pump my iPhone all the way without ear damage so I guess it doesn't matter really.

Maybe that's because you already have damaged ears :D

25 and after on the volume control is plenty loud enough. I don't feel "short changed" in the volume department by the 920. Of course, the volume you're hearing will depend on the impedance rating of the headphones.....
I'm not sure how I feel about the audio quality. I think it's good, but I'd rather see a third-party music player. I do miss my PowerAmp app from Android (one of the only things I do miss). The on-board player is not really enough for me, but I can see that for most people it will be more than adequate.

I just love the audio effect from my lumia 920 no matter through 3.5mm jack port or the built-in speaker. It's one of my all time favorite mobile devices which give arguably loud, crisp, stero encompass sound. I think it at least on par with iphone 5 audio quality, even better.

I am using Bose MIE2 earphone on Lumia920 and it's insanely amazing.... I love this earphone, even more after the update of Equalizer and Dolby.... The MIE2 got more functions like press to take, end calls, press and hold for speech commands, double press for next track..volume control only via phone.

It's very handy while driving..I just say call "Contact Name".. and that's it.

Only concern is the sound is little bit lower than the other headphone but I don't care as more the sound by earphones, bad for the ears. So probably Bose kept the sound at a resonable level so we should not have our ears permanentlyl damaged.

I actually used headphones for the first time with the phone the other day, and it was good :) Clear sound with a punch. But off course is also depends on what headphones you use.