Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

shenfrey

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 23, 2010
2,507
778
Is there a huge difference in sound quality? I have never owned a beats phone, however I have owned beats earphones and they do sound good, (I use skullcandy fix ones now as they stay in, but thats beside the point) but would the beats engine inside these phones make the music we listen to it sound alot better regardless of the earphones? If so, do you think Apple will compete with this by including a better sound engine? (if that is such a thing).
 

Rangomango

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2012
94
2
I know the beats used to be only software based, basically just eqing the bass and treble up. I am not sure if there is a hardware differences or software changes on new phones, if someone else knows please update.

This link compares many of the top smartphones audio quality

As of yet, I havent found a phone that can drive my headphones as well as my iphone 4s and iphone 5. However, a few android tablets with the wolfson audio chip, rooted, and voodoo sound have sounded better to me (But seem to drain the battery extremely fast)

My Headphones: Beyerdynamics DT770 80ohm, Monster Turbine Pro Gold, Soul SL99, Klipsch s4i.

These arent power heavy headphones, but definitely sound worse if the source has a low quality audio chip.
 
Last edited:

cnev3

macrumors 6502
Sep 13, 2012
462
56
I would be skeptical. Sounds like mostly marketing fluff. And I'm assuming that the most audio differences that will be noticeable will be an increase in Bass, as that's a major factor for their demographic.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
Actually I really enjoyed the beats on my HTC one X (on the 8X beats just seemed to be audio pre-amp rather than equaliser) and found at least with the One X it made audibly better experience listening to the same MP3 as on my iPhone.

Use beats headphones and the devices will recognise they are beats and give further enhancement to sound.

But with the One X you can enable beats audio on any headset, and even over bluetooth and it still provides really good EQ.

From Smashing Pumpkins to Probot, from James Taylor to Taylor Swift, from Run DMC to Ludacris, it made all types of music sound great.

However on the 8X it didn't do anything other than pre-amp the sound making it much louder.
 

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,689
170
I used to have Ibeats headphones and my iPhone 5 and out of the box apple headphones sound better

The new apple headphones are very good
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.