Nexus 5 audio quality through headphone jack is abysmal

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GuestK00450

Guest
Is it just me or is the audio quality abysmal out of the Nexus 5's 3.5mm headphone jack? With my ATH-m50x it sounds like someone is making popcorn in the background of every song I play. The crackling is so intense that it ruins a lot of my tracks. One of the best examples I can find is Lamb of God - Black Label. If anyone can try this song out on Google Music or Spotify on their phone and let me know if it sounds abysmal as well I would highly appreciate it.

All of my music is on Spotify, and I use their "Extreme quality" download option which is 320kbps. Man, it sounds HORRIBLE!

I'm going to try a headphone amp this weekend because this is ridiculous. I tried out the same song my my Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100 yesterday and it sounded crystal clear!
 

danarama

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2010
31,277
18,811
Oxenhope, West Yorkshire, UK
I use viper4android highest audio driver, Spotify extreme and ath-m50x and I LOVE my sound quality. The DAC is pretty poor though so viper is a must.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
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GuestK00450

Guest
I use viper4android highest audio driver, Spotify extreme and ath-m50x and I LOVE my sound quality. The DAC is pretty poor though so viper is a must.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Thanks RootSU, I just installed Viper4Android and the sound quality is definitely better and the crackling/popping is a little less but is still present. Do you think this is a hardware issue? Like I said, my i9100 sounds perfectly fine with stock drivers and so does my dad's i9300! Idk why I have this popping!
 

danarama

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2010
31,277
18,811
Oxenhope, West Yorkshire, UK
I haven't got any crackling or popping. I get a bit of hiss but that's to be expected with my set up.

It could be hardware or even software. Its hard to say.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk