Originally Posted by ethan3686

well that amp is gud for home use..but who will carry it outdoors? i hope volume levels are not that bad in person.

Volume levels are fine. I listen with my MDR-7550's and if I turn the volume up all the way my ears really hurt.

Originally Posted by ethan3686

So it seems it does have low volume levels..audio quality is VERY VERY GOOD according to gsmarena..noise level -81.7 with headphones :|

I really wouldn't call the audio volume low atall. It isn't the loudest by any means but it is loud enough and certainly isn't low.

Yea well then i guess its ok..but it would be great if we cud flash DSP/Beats audio for more

Originally Posted by ethan3686

Yea well then i guess its ok..but it would be great if we cud flash DSP/Beats audio for more

Those things usually just make bad things worse.

Thing is how loud/good does it sound on it's own internal speaker?
GSMArena in particular are saying it's got a really poor internal speaker

^We are talking about the headphone volumes here..so discussing the DAC..It has nothing to do with the external speaker. Though i have heard its pretty good..not the loudest though.

External speaker sounds good but doesn't go as loud as most phones. Still adequate for pretty much everything though.

I had a listen to a demo unit in phones4u today, can't say i'm impressed. I stopped using my SGS2 for audio because I couldn't stand the poor sound quality and the XZ is not a lot better. I know it's just a phone and a standalone player will always be better, but it would be nice to at least have a phone music player that is listenable!

I did a side by side comparison. The XZ was able to drive my AKG headphones a little better than the SGS2, the bass was a little warmer and mids were possibly a touch less mudded, and I can't comment on if the antenna radio buzz is still present because obviously it wasn't connected to the network. Really disappointed, was going to preorder my upgrade today, but not now. I'll wait for the HTC one and SGS4, then demo those before I decide on my upgrade.

If the rumours are right then both the HTC One and SGS4 will use Snapdragon 600's, which most likely use the same DAC and everything as the Xperia Z - so they'll probably sound similar too.

There just isn't enough internal space to add a proper DAC and amplifier that really offers better sound quality. And nobody really cares either, I call myself a mild audiophile, have a lot of high-end dedicated players and IEM's and the difference between using a good player and my Xperia Z is actually not all that big (at all).

If you really want sound quality while on the go you need one of these:
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-aud.../product-PHA1/ - they work with the Xperia Z.

Originally Posted by Forsh

I had a listen to a demo unit in phones4u today, can't say i'm impressed. I stopped using my SGS2 for audio because I couldn't stand the poor sound quality and the XZ is not a lot better. I know it's just a phone and a standalone player will always be better, but it would be nice to at least have a phone music player that is listenable!

I did a side by side comparison. The XZ was able to drive my AKG headphones a little better than the SGS2, the bass was a little warmer and mids were possibly a touch less mudded, and I can't comment on if the antenna radio buzz is still present because obviously it wasn't connected to the network. Really disappointed, was going to preorder my upgrade today, but not now. I'll wait for the HTC one and SGS4, then demo those before I decide on my upgrade.

Hi Forsh, as Ambroos said, the output is too weak to drive headphones well. The only solution would be to carry an external DAC/amp, or to go with IEM.
Also, SQ and volume are two different things.
Headphones usually have higher impedance than IEM, therefore they will get less power (lower volume) on a low-voltage audio source.
Sound quality depends on several factors, among which RF/EMI noise isolation and DAC quality.
We said earlier in the topic that the DAC was OK, refering on N4's SQ. We also said that the output was low, which would explain why the music you heard in your headphones was muffled.