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[Pete the Ferret]

I currently have a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium and am due my upgrade from mid February onwards. I'm not sure which phone to get, I'll certainly keep an eye on Mobile World Congress before making my choice but I need some help...

Not particularly interested in going to iPhone, really like my Sony but could be swayed towards Samsung. Apart from all the usual features...decent Camera etc I'm looking for a phone which has better than average amplification for headphones. I listen to a lot of hip hop and EDM and no matter what headphones I use in my Sony they never seem to get loud enough. I mean they're acceptable, sound quality is decent but sometimes it would be nice to really blast them. Any suggestions where a particular line of phones would suit me?

 

[Ptaaty]

The LG V series is the standard. V10, v20, v30.

 

[luxsol]

My old 2nd gen iPhone is pretty boss when it comes to powering anything from its headphone jack, hence me keeping it around still and using it as my main music player.
Newer iPhones didn't come close to delivering the older iPhone jack powers.

My Samsung Note8 comes close to delivering that amount of power (and i think the Galaxy 8 was also similar, but i only had that for a short time), unlike previous Samsung smarties. So i have a couple of headphone amps that i don't really use anymore.
Samsung phones have a cool personalization setting too, where they test your hearing to see how bad it is and raise the levels of various frequencies to make your music sound like it should. IT also had a tube-amp emulator that is surprisingly good.

Have you thought about just buying a headphone amp for your phone? They're not that expensive and do a great job of loudening anything.
DACs pretty much do the same thing too, if your phone lacks in quality sound.

 

[Narroo]

You might want to check head-fi.org for the answer to this.

 

[n0razi]

LG V20/V30 or the Exynos versions of the Galaxy/Note taht have the upgraded DAC

 

[Zoidbe]

I went from a Z5 to a LG V30 and so far it's been great. The integrated DAC can really push headphones, there is 75 sound levels and it goes way louder than my old Z5 with a few different profiles which really add to the music. The only things that I miss are the front facing speakers and notification LED (Always on display helps this). I would wait to see what the S9 is like in a month but I can say EDM through the V30 is super ace!

 

[Rellik]

there is 75 sound levels

Wow, I want one just for that.

 

[Hazzard4life]

Check out the Honor 9.

 

[boneso]

Razer Phone! 2 onboard amps, 1 for each channel (L & R) and a 24bit DAC in the USB type-C to headphone dongle. Loudest phone out there!

 

[Pete the Ferret]

Thanks for the replies and advice everyone. Well, 1 month before my upgrade is due my z5 Premium ceased to operate. It got very, very hot a week ago whilst using Google Maps for driving along with Bluetooth...then turned itself off. It will not power up nor charge so I think the battery has given up. Using my partners old Z3 at the moment, I will see what is announced at MWC at the end of the month...considering the S9+ for my upgrade if the headphone output is good enough but I'll see if I can test it vs the LG etc before I order.

 

[MultiCore]

Razer Phone! 2 onboard amps, 1 for each channel (L & R) and a 24bit DAC in the USB type-C to headphone dongle. Loudest phone out there!

In case you, or anyone else in this thread haven't seen this, Monty from Xiph has a couple amazing videos on why high resolution music doesn't make sense.

https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
https://wiki.xiph.org/Videos/Digital_Show_and_Tell

 

[luxsol]

In case you, or anyone else in this thread haven't seen this, Monty from Xiph has a couple amazing videos on why high resolution music doesn't make sense.

https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
https://wiki.xiph.org/Videos/Digital_Show_and_Tell

That reminds me that i was trying to get into high def music like two or three years ago when i got my Grados. totally forgot that that was an actual thing, because it really is not anything.
Buy tube amplifiers instead. Burn the shit out of your hand by making a portable one... or not https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K4BLG5C/?tag=neogaf0e-20
I guess this one doubles as a hand warmer.

Seriously, if you like louder anything, you just buy a headphone amplifier. Even those $30 ones in mint cases work great. The one like Little Bear uses vacuum tubes to make the sound sound "warmer" aka, bassy. Like mentioned in my post above, that bass-iness that comes from using tubes can be faked by adjusting the EQ settings which Samsung labeled as Tube Amp Pro. Regular headphone amplifiers are just clean sounding, basically unchanged from what your phone/player outputs.
Bigger, higher end headphones may also benefit if they're underpowered through the normal headphone jack, so it may surprise people who felt like their headphones were shit because they lacked in bass or sounded too "small"

 

[Pete the Ferret]

Tested the S9+ in store and was very happy so having a purple one delivered on Saturday. Can't wait!

 

[avnisharma]

But obviously its Iphone

 

[bluestar15]

LG V20/V30 or the Exynos versions of the Galaxy/Note taht have the upgraded DAC

I can confirm that the Samsung galaxy s6 has really good audio quality. There's also a lot of settings you can use to change the quality to your liking. I'd definitely recommend this phone for anything.

 

[burnside13]

My LG V20 has high quality DAC. When it is enabled there is a noticable bump up in quality. You will not want to go back.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Another vote for the v30 here. It's a great phone to boot.