I'm not a huge believer in "upstream" sound quality. I know it exists but it hasn't been a major concern.
I recently got an apple iphone 4s. By no means the latest and greatest but I thought this would be a nice music player because its based on the ipod, and can also surf the internet and use various apps.
Now right off the bat it was a hassle. I cleaned it up easy enough with a toothbrush. But the iphone itself is troublesome. There are constant alerts that there is no phone access (sim card).
And among other things this iphone tended to randomly shut off. You know what they say, if it has an apple logo it needs a new battery. Then there is the terrible itunes to PC interface. But despite all the glitches, and what I believe is probably planned obsolesence, I managed to get the thing working.
So I have a nice little iphone music player hooked up to my main system, with all the various fixes I had to employ including using third party software to get my music on it. And after about 5 minutes I notice it sounds weird.
Now slap me silly, here I was all excited about the iphone but it sounds "off". The sound isn't like leave the room bad, but it has a very fake, plastic, strange bloated midrange. Zero separation of instruments. Clearly the mids and upper mids are off. After about 5 minutes I can't take it anymore.
So I hook up my cheapo LG music player phone and it sounds noticeably better. Then I think, well maybe you're biased towards one device over another. So I hook up an old CD player and it sounded like bliss, clearly the best of the three. Try the iphone again, and I hear edgy digital sounding sibilant crap.
So all I can say is this experience has totally turned me off to apple products. Even a cheap LG flip phone sounded better. The sound is as fake as the hipsters who overpay for it. It looks nice but I just wasted a bunch of time on something that almost sounds like it was intentionally misengineered, maybe to work with some poor quality overpriced headphones, bearing the revered apple logo.
I recently got an apple iphone 4s. By no means the latest and greatest but I thought this would be a nice music player because its based on the ipod, and can also surf the internet and use various apps.
Now right off the bat it was a hassle. I cleaned it up easy enough with a toothbrush. But the iphone itself is troublesome. There are constant alerts that there is no phone access (sim card).
And among other things this iphone tended to randomly shut off. You know what they say, if it has an apple logo it needs a new battery. Then there is the terrible itunes to PC interface. But despite all the glitches, and what I believe is probably planned obsolesence, I managed to get the thing working.
So I have a nice little iphone music player hooked up to my main system, with all the various fixes I had to employ including using third party software to get my music on it. And after about 5 minutes I notice it sounds weird.
Now slap me silly, here I was all excited about the iphone but it sounds "off". The sound isn't like leave the room bad, but it has a very fake, plastic, strange bloated midrange. Zero separation of instruments. Clearly the mids and upper mids are off. After about 5 minutes I can't take it anymore.
So I hook up my cheapo LG music player phone and it sounds noticeably better. Then I think, well maybe you're biased towards one device over another. So I hook up an old CD player and it sounded like bliss, clearly the best of the three. Try the iphone again, and I hear edgy digital sounding sibilant crap.
So all I can say is this experience has totally turned me off to apple products. Even a cheap LG flip phone sounded better. The sound is as fake as the hipsters who overpay for it. It looks nice but I just wasted a bunch of time on something that almost sounds like it was intentionally misengineered, maybe to work with some poor quality overpriced headphones, bearing the revered apple logo.
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Are you using the headphone jack, or the analog line out? The latter is part of the 30-pin connector and is noticeably better, but you must use a special dock connector to RCA jacks adapter.
With iOS 7 or later (not sure if the old 4s supports it), you can connect an external USB DAC to the iPhone via the Apple USB camera adapter cable. This would take digital output from the iPhone and convert to analog with your DAC. If the DAC is good quality then you’ll have excellent sound. If the DAC supports USB audio class 2 (UAC2, not to be confused with USB v2), then up to 24 bits 192K sampling rate is possible if you have such program material. DACs with isochronous asynchronous transfer mode is also supported (much lower jitter).
The external DAC must be self-powered though (I.e., has its own power source, be it batteries or AC powered, rather than draw power from the iPhone’s USB line). The iPhone cannot supply much current over USB.
With iOS 7 or later (not sure if the old 4s supports it), you can connect an external USB DAC to the iPhone via the Apple USB camera adapter cable. This would take digital output from the iPhone and convert to analog with your DAC. If the DAC is good quality then you’ll have excellent sound. If the DAC supports USB audio class 2 (UAC2, not to be confused with USB v2), then up to 24 bits 192K sampling rate is possible if you have such program material. DACs with isochronous asynchronous transfer mode is also supported (much lower jitter).
The external DAC must be self-powered though (I.e., has its own power source, be it batteries or AC powered, rather than draw power from the iPhone’s USB line). The iPhone cannot supply much current over USB.
Doesnt the iphone have some eq settings buried somewhere? Did you check that all eq is flatted or bypassed? You mentioned using 3rd party software for loading and playing audio. I loaded some RTA app onto an iphone once but had to abandon it as it gave strange results. Id say 3rd party audio apps are not above suspicion. I wouldnt expect an apple device 8 generations out of date to be worth spending a lot of time to recusitate, but i would guess it to be basically competent...
I have two Ipods and the sound of both, even after eq, can best be described as indifferent. You could always try a dock like the Wadia or the Fatman.
Thanks for suggestions.
I used it through the main headphone jack. A digital output wouldn't be half bad, maybe get longer battery life too. I know it supports bluetooth but this might be a step down in quality.
If there are some equalization settings that need to be bypassed then that would be an easy fix. I used the built in player.
Thanks for the airplane mode tip.
I did think there might something going on where the sound is equalized to fit with certain headphones, but then if this is the case, considering how many people use different headphones one would expect it to be a well known issue. It did almost sound like it was clipping.
It seems in good working order, just a bit old. I might try it with another amp. Listening to headphones with it didn't sound good. I can't rule out some internal issue with it.
I think I will try another iphone, at some point, just to listen for a difference. Right now I feel like tossing the thing.
I used it through the main headphone jack. A digital output wouldn't be half bad, maybe get longer battery life too. I know it supports bluetooth but this might be a step down in quality.
If there are some equalization settings that need to be bypassed then that would be an easy fix. I used the built in player.
Thanks for the airplane mode tip.
I did think there might something going on where the sound is equalized to fit with certain headphones, but then if this is the case, considering how many people use different headphones one would expect it to be a well known issue. It did almost sound like it was clipping.
It seems in good working order, just a bit old. I might try it with another amp. Listening to headphones with it didn't sound good. I can't rule out some internal issue with it.
I think I will try another iphone, at some point, just to listen for a difference. Right now I feel like tossing the thing.
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I just found this article. I had done what is being described here. He mentions that because its designed for headphones it might not sound as good with an stereo receiver. He also recommends spending more on good connectors, which I've never found to make a difference
How to connect your iPhone or iPod to your home stereo. - Macintosh How To
Interesting quote, "“Apple Documentation says that it has both Headphone & Line Level output BUT I am unable to achieve this. Apple support could not help find out how to accomplish this and simply stated that the documentation “must be incorrect.”
How to connect your iPhone or iPod to your home stereo. - Macintosh How To
Interesting quote, "“Apple Documentation says that it has both Headphone & Line Level output BUT I am unable to achieve this. Apple support could not help find out how to accomplish this and simply stated that the documentation “must be incorrect.”
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I've used various iPhones (4, 5S, SE) as music players at work with Sennheiser HD-580 headphones. They sound fine to my ears. One can do better with a DAC+amp combination, but that's nowhere near as portable. I use 320 kbit Apple file format (AAC).
Make sure you turn off the "Sound Enhancer", "Sound Check" and similar processing options.
Tom
Make sure you turn off the "Sound Enhancer", "Sound Check" and similar processing options.
Tom
The iPhone 4s was introduced in October, 2011. If you wanted audiophile quality sound, buy one of the cables Fsatsil mentions above. You can find them online, as well as a newer 5s or 6s iPhone for cheap. It's almost eight years and that's a long time in dog years and iPhones. It's a mobile phone and not a audiophile stereo system. What you really want is a music server. There is lots of information on the inter webs. Type in- listen to audiophile music on iPhone 4S.
Based on these tests I'd have to say there was something else going on for it to sound the way it did.
Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: Apple iPhone 4 & iPhone 6 audio output.
Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: Apple iPhone 4 & iPhone 6 audio output.
I’ve seen the audio measurements a bunch of different iDevices and they seem to measure quite well especially considering they are cellphones and not audiophile DACs. Here’s the measurements for the iPhone5 which should be pretty close to the 4S.
https://kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-5/audio-quality.htm
https://kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-5/audio-quality.htm
Make sure it's set to stereo not mono, switch the volume limiter off, set the eq to off, set the sound check to off, discard the Apple ear buds, get some decent headphones, and listen to some yummy lossless Apple ALAC files or WAVs.
If you want a cheap DAC with a headphone socket Behringer do one for buttons. You'll need the Apple CCK for that.
Oh yes, clean out the headphone and 30 pin sockets of any fluff, grease or any other gunk such as sunscreen.
And another oh yes - has it been jail-breaked? If it has, then it could cause problems.
If you want a cheap DAC with a headphone socket Behringer do one for buttons. You'll need the Apple CCK for that.
Oh yes, clean out the headphone and 30 pin sockets of any fluff, grease or any other gunk such as sunscreen.
And another oh yes - has it been jail-breaked? If it has, then it could cause problems.
I have a couple of old iPhone 4S and don't remember them sounding awful. Maybe I could measure and test them, but I don't have any Android phones to test them against.
Gotta say my little MAC Powerbook Pro sounds waaaay better than either Dell we have in the house. But that's thru the built in speakers.
Gotta say my little MAC Powerbook Pro sounds waaaay better than either Dell we have in the house. But that's thru the built in speakers.
I shut off all sound enhancement and use it in stereo. I also have an iphone 7 that i don't use for music but I tried it compared to the 4s and it sounded better with some lofi headphones.
So I cleaned the jack of the 4s with a cue tip and alcohol. Somehow it leaked into the case and ruined the screen. So that's the end of thr iphone 4s. It would have made a nice little music server had it worked right. Based on the measurements I've seen there shouldn't have been such a noticable difference, so i don't know. Its a complicated device thats getting old.
So I cleaned the jack of the 4s with a cue tip and alcohol. Somehow it leaked into the case and ruined the screen. So that's the end of thr iphone 4s. It would have made a nice little music server had it worked right. Based on the measurements I've seen there shouldn't have been such a noticable difference, so i don't know. Its a complicated device thats getting old.
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