i9500 DAC vs i9505 DAC

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wackyD

wackyD

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Nov 9, 2008
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Just thought I'd throw my two cents out there. I have the international i9500 version of the galaxy s4 and it was kind of irritating me. The camera was slow and buggy and the phone heats up intermittently.. Not to mention samsung botched the implementation of big.LITTLE... I decided to buy the i9505, which has a good camera, is as fast as the octa and doesn't overheat.

Anyway I listen to music all the time (I listen with the Shure SE535s at the moment). All I have to say is that the DAC in the i9505 is rubbish compared to the Wolfson 8740 in the i9500.. For this reason only I have decided to keep the octa and ditch the i9505. I don't mind living with the little flaws in the i9500 for the sake of the amazing sound it outputs. And I mean the difference is huge.

Just a heads up for anyone thinking of getting an S4 and who listens to a lot of music through head / earphone.
 
wackyD

wackyD

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2008
232
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Correction, the DAC is actually the Wolfson WM5102E (low power version)
 
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ballsofsteel

Senior Member
Aug 16, 2010
472
123
London
I've noticed this too coming from the i9300 to the i9505. Unfortunately I believe this is one of the drawbacks of the 9505.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4
 
R

ranger4740

Senior Member
Jan 17, 2011
1,497
447
Melbourne
You say the i9505 DAC is crap, if you dont mind, can you please try and explain the difference between the i9500 & i9505?
I have an i9505 and I think the music is the best from any other phone or music device I've used (HTC legend, HTC desire HD even an iPhone 4s with Beats™) or even a gen 4 iPod nano.
P.s. I do use power amp with tweeked sound settings and direct sound.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
 
wackyD

wackyD

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2008
232
23
ranger4740 said:
You say the i9505 DAC is crap, if you dont mind, can you please try and explain the difference between the i9500 & i9505?
I have an i9505 and I think the music is the best from any other phone or music device I've used (HTC legend, HTC desire HD even an iPhone 4s with Beats™) or even a gen 4 iPod nano.
P.s. I do use power amp with tweeked sound settings and direct sound.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yep sure: highs sounded tinny and harsh with the 9505.. When I swapped back to the i9500, the sound stage seemed larger, more details and the highs really natural.. both compaired using the Shure SE535 IEMs..
 
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kingofthebraves

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2010
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Manila
I have had the s3, note 2, htc one and using the s4 i9505 right now. My favorite is easily the note 2 with boeffla sound supported kernel, no complaints whatsoever. The htc one is a joke, sounds very similar to the one x which generally produces a weak sound. The s4 on the other hand sounded average with stock Rom, terribly weak on a Ge Rom but phenomenal with cm10.1 with dsp support. The difference between this and the Ge Rom is night and day.

Performance is equal or almost equal to the note 2. I am more than satisfied.

With the i9500 however I would not know :)

Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
 
mlacunza

mlacunza

Member
Oct 24, 2011
25
1
Lima
www.lacunza.biz
wackyD said:
Just thought I'd throw my two cents out there. I have the international i9500 version of the galaxy s4 and it was kind of irritating me. The camera was slow and buggy and the phone heats up intermittently.. Not to mention samsung botched the implementation of big.LITTLE... I decided to buy the i9505, which has a good camera, is as fast as the octa and doesn't overheat.

Anyway I listen to music all the time (I listen with the Shure SE535s at the moment). All I have to say is that the DAC in the i9505 is rubbish compared to the Wolfson 8740 in the i9500.. For this reason only I have decided to keep the octa and ditch the i9505. I don't mind living with the little flaws in the i9500 for the sake of the amazing sound it outputs. And I mean the difference is huge.

Just a heads up for anyone thinking of getting an S4 and who listens to a lot of music through head / earphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hi

Very strange,I own a GT-I9500 a and it don't have any of the bugs you reported and the music sounds great, maybe you need to check the phone in support.

Enviado desde mi SGS4 usando Tapatalk 4
 
D

drakexpl

Senior Member
Mar 10, 2011
633
118
Wolfson is a beast, period. I have i9505 but i9500 with my beyerdynamics just destroy everything. I still love 9505 version more so I'm with it right now.

Wysłane z mojego GT-I9505 za pomocą Tapatalk 4
 
wackyD

wackyD

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2008
232
23
kingofthebraves said:
I have had the s3, note 2, htc one and using the s4 i9505 right now. My favorite is easily the note 2 with boeffla sound supported kernel, no complaints whatsoever. The htc one is a joke, sounds very similar to the one x which generally produces a weak sound. The s4 on the other hand sounded average with stock Rom, terribly weak on a Ge Rom but phenomenal with cm10.1 with dsp support. The difference between this and the Ge Rom is night and day.

Performance is equal or almost equal to the note 2. I am more than satisfied.

With the i9500 however I would not know :)

Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The Note II has a Wolfson chip, that'll explain why it sounds good :)
 
demlasjr

demlasjr

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2012
1,213
256
I had S3 and I can say the DAC in my 9505 is way better than in S3. 9505 rocks, 9500 fails everywhere. You need to be crazy to get the 9500 for maybe 5% more powerful volume :D Just saying...
 
wackyD

wackyD

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2008
232
23
demlasjr said:
I had S3 and I can say the DAC in my 9505 is way better than in S3. 9505 rocks, 9500 fails everywhere. You need to be crazy to get the 9500 for maybe 5% more powerful volume :D Just saying...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It's got nothing to do with volume. Did you read the previous posts? The quality of the sound output on the I9500 is superior.. And yes theres a little bit of extra volume.
 
demlasjr

demlasjr

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2012
1,213
256
wackyD said:
It's got nothing to do with volume. Did you read the previous posts? The quality of the sound output on the I9500 is superior.. And yes theres a little bit of extra volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

There is everywhere saying that there is no difference in the quality mate, there are even professional tests and official graphics made by gsmarena proving that ;)

Sent from my GT-I9505 32GB black using Tapatalk HD
 
zaki aziz

zaki aziz

Senior Member
Mar 24, 2011
215
13
Kuala Lumpur
ranger4740 said:
You say the i9505 DAC is crap, if you dont mind, can you please try and explain the difference between the i9500 & i9505?
I have an i9505 and I think the music is the best from any other phone or music device I've used (HTC legend, HTC desire HD even an iPhone 4s with Beats™) or even a gen 4 iPod nano.
P.s. I do use power amp with tweeked sound settings and direct sound.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yupp..u r rite man..for any android device, no need to listen std music player.We have poweramp.if compare with any iphone or thousand ipod player u can't beat poweramp player with audio tweak on kernel (siyah for S3 & perseus for S4).for me audio sound the most important on every my devices..
of course my fav. music is hardcore, that's why sound the most important to me..
mine only having issue with laggy sometimes.it's okay, nothing can be perfect on real life.

---------- Post added at 05:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 AM ----------

one more thing to ensure poweramp pushing to the limit, make sure u need earpiece with output more than 90db.it sure the "beats tour" one of perfect output with high clarity sound.
 
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zaki aziz

zaki aziz

Senior Member
Mar 24, 2011
215
13
Kuala Lumpur
i9500 with poweramp + stweaks playing hardcore & metalcore.

this is wht i mean..
 

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POLO_i780

POLO_i780

Senior Member
Jun 15, 2008
798
260
Thoroughly enjoy the audio quality in my I9500, it's very "full", clear with very deep bass, it's the 1st phone where I haven't changed the equaliser settings as it comes out-the-box amazing :D

Personally haven't had the lag problems with my I9500, so I'm very happy. Sony Exmor RS camera sensor, Wolfson DAC, great GPU, beastly A15 CPU at just 1.6GHz, loving it :D couldn't careless for LTE as it's still very limited down here. :)
 
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    Towle
    Towle
    Refer to the device comparison/discussion sticky.

    Thread closed
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    wackyD
    wackyD
    ranger4740 said:
    You say the i9505 DAC is crap, if you dont mind, can you please try and explain the difference between the i9500 & i9505?
    I have an i9505 and I think the music is the best from any other phone or music device I've used (HTC legend, HTC desire HD even an iPhone 4s with Beats™) or even a gen 4 iPod nano.
    P.s. I do use power amp with tweeked sound settings and direct sound.

    Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Yep sure: highs sounded tinny and harsh with the 9505.. When I swapped back to the i9500, the sound stage seemed larger, more details and the highs really natural.. both compaired using the Shure SE535 IEMs..
    View
    1
    Headless96
    Headless96
    NBruderman said:
    That is one of the reasons i preferd the I9500, this and the way better GPU
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Better GPU? My i9505 is significantly smoother than my i9500 in gaming

    Sent from my :tank:
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    zaki aziz
    zaki aziz
    ranger4740 said:
    You say the i9505 DAC is crap, if you dont mind, can you please try and explain the difference between the i9500 & i9505?
    I have an i9505 and I think the music is the best from any other phone or music device I've used (HTC legend, HTC desire HD even an iPhone 4s with Beats™) or even a gen 4 iPod nano.
    P.s. I do use power amp with tweeked sound settings and direct sound.

    Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    yupp..u r rite man..for any android device, no need to listen std music player.We have poweramp.if compare with any iphone or thousand ipod player u can't beat poweramp player with audio tweak on kernel (siyah for S3 & perseus for S4).for me audio sound the most important on every my devices..
    of course my fav. music is hardcore, that's why sound the most important to me..
    mine only having issue with laggy sometimes.it's okay, nothing can be perfect on real life.

    ---------- Post added at 05:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 AM ----------

    one more thing to ensure poweramp pushing to the limit, make sure u need earpiece with output more than 90db.it sure the "beats tour" one of perfect output with high clarity sound.
    View

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