Smartphone Audio Quality Testing
by Chris Heinonen on December 8, 2013 5:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Audio
- Mobile
- Tablets
- Testing
Many readers have been asking for audio testing on phones and tablets, and we are happy to be able to deliver it now. Because I live far away from Brian and Anand, I can’t easily access units they are reviewing so audio data may not run the same day a review is published. I do hope to be able to add it on to everything in the future so that all of our reviews will be as in-depth as possible, from processor to software, display to audio.
I also have to thank Audio Precision for their loan of the APx582 and their access to their offices and support staff. Without that these tests would not be possible. I also wanted to use their equipment as it is the reference standard for the industry and there can be no doubt about its quality. As I do a lot of AV testing as well, I found that more generic sound card methods of testing are becoming limited as the capabilities of products exceeds what they can easily measure. There are no such worries with the Audio Precision.
I also look forward to feedback from readers on the information here, and what else you would like to see tested going forward. Hopefully this will provide another set of data to help you determine if a product will fit your needs, and which vendors are trying to push performance in all categories.
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Scootiep7 - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
Wonderfully well thought out and written article. Thank you! FFora future article my one request would be for a llcomparrison of all phones on each test parameter instead of only comparing 2 or 3 on some metrics. Again, thank you!qualitycounts - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
Thank you so much for doing this testing. It would also be very helpful if your wrap up section did some side by side comparisons, kind of like they do on Consumer Reports. It's very hard from this article to tell which one comes out on top. Also, it would be nice to see an audio/phone quality report on the HTC One since it is also one of the most popular smartphones available.sergoliv - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
In my opinion, audio quality testing is a very welcome adition to Anandtech. I am maily a classical music listner. Good dynamic range, wide and flat frequency response and capacity to respect all harmonics present in recordings are very important for classic music. Can you broaden your testing to in order to give an idea of what smartphones are more capable with classical music?mike8675309 - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
A major use case for me and my phone is as a spoken language playback device through a speaker (not headphones). Be it podcasts or audible books, a good percentage of my "audio" listening on my phone is via powered "stereo" speakers plugged into the headphone port. Often with the volume on the phone at max so the powered speakers have more range especially if in the garage doing noisy stuff or taking a shower. What if any weight should be placed on these results for such a use case?Additionally, I've historically found phones unable to provide enough power for the various headphones I use (currently Klipsch S4) when using them with mowing the grass or such. Thus I have added a small personal audio amplifier for some uses of my phone and listening to things. In that case I usually have the phone at mid or lower levels and control most of the sound at the amp. Any thought to testing some of the more common portable audio amplifiers?
skynet11 - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
Could you please test on-board speakers in like manner?BobN - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
Anyone know of an app that improves the call quality of the Galaxy S4? I know about Adapt Sound but it doesn't give my phone good phone call sound. Thanks.AnnonymousCoward - Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - link
What a good article. I'd love to see this data for sound cards vs integrated, and MP3 players, using only high quality reference headphones (or speakers).hmaarrfk - Friday, December 13, 2013 - link
Interesting article.From the stepped response, it seems that they are all using 16 bit DACs (16 bits would give you close to 96dB of dynamic range if the only source of noise was quantization for a signal at full power).
Can you confirm this? Does this mean, that having 24 bit encoded music is simply wasteful on a mobile device?
hmaarrfk - Friday, December 13, 2013 - link
Or did you simply use 16 bit audio? Have you tried your tests with 24 bit audio?panda-fu - Thursday, December 19, 2013 - link
24 bit encoded audio for end-user listening purposes has never been shown to have any advantage or difference from 16 bit in double blind tests. The potential advantage of 24 bit DACs lies in being able to use digital attenuation for volume control without losing any dynamic range. However, with proper dithering after attenuation, you have quite a bit of leeway even with a 16 bit one before it gets audible. So, don't worry about that spec!