# Portable audio players vs Smartphones



## tkin (May 1, 2015)

Hey guys, back here after a long time.

I'd like to start a discussion here regarding the usefulness of Portable Audio Players in these days. Smartphones had pretty much replaced our portable audio devices, no more fm radios(back in the nineties I'd go nuts for a digital fm radio which sold for around a 100 bucks and sounded like $hit), or portable audio players like ipod etc. A smartphone is quite good at all of these, playing audio(even flac), fm, or streaming via internet. 

Portable audio players have something which no smartphone can compete with, dedicated dac and amps which sound a lot better, but you have to use a quality headphone to even tell the difference, also they lack in some areas as well. Specially the fact they lack internet connectivity or fm radios, also most of them won't serve as a video player or a lousy one at best.

So how useful are portable audio players these days? Would you use one? There are the hassles of carrying an extra device as well. 

Discuss freely and respond to the poll.


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## High-Fidelity (May 1, 2015)

Yes I would go for a dedicated audio player. In UI, smartphone may win but if I want to experience sheer sound quality, I always prefer listening my IEMs and full sized can with my DAP. There is a significant difference between a mobile phone and DAP when it comes to sound quality, driving capabilities, sound stage, imaging. 

I would attach amplifier to the line out of my DAP only in case if my DAP failed to drive my IEMs and full-sized CANS(because it cannot remain as portable as a DAP alone when we go outside for evening walk and morning walk). 

As for the FM Radio, when I listen to FM on my mobile, I rather put my mobile and earphones on the table because in my locality or city, FM sound quality is so bad. Even it's reception is good so it still cannot sound as good as my FLAC and WAV collections in my DAP.

If you are a music lover so DAP won't be a hassle to carry it around. These days DAPs sizes are so small and light (if we leave high end DAPs) to carry.


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## $hadow (May 1, 2015)

I will certainly go for smartphone + amp. This make the IEM's or Headphones sound so amazing. I am using E11 and it is certainly money well spent.


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## tkin (May 1, 2015)

$hadow said:


> I will certainly go for smartphone + amp. This make the IEM's or Headphones sound so amazing. I am using E11 and it is certainly money well spent.


Since Amp just boosts the headphone signal it appears you are satisfied with your phone's sound quality i.e the inbuilt dac of the phone. I'm also satisfied with my G2's audio quality, I haven't found ipods to be any better, would like to try some other brands like FiiO, or Sansa.


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## $hadow (May 1, 2015)

tkin said:


> Since Amp just boosts the headphone signal it appears you are satisfied with your phone's sound quality i.e the inbuilt dac of the phone. I'm also satisfied with my G2's audio quality, I haven't found ipods to be any better, would like to try some other brands like FiiO, or Sansa.



I am not much of a portable audio player type of a person but using Fiio amp did make a visible difference in the SQ as far as I am concerned and I am happy with it.


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## tkin (May 1, 2015)

$hadow said:


> I am not much of a portable audio player type of a person but using Fiio amp did make a visible difference in the SQ as far as I am concerned and I am happy with it.


Yes, they come with an inbuilt equalizer, some enhancement can be done.


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## Anorion (May 1, 2015)

I use Cowon D2+
it's not a great player (smile curve on frequency response)
but the battery life is too good, about 50 hours. That's really useful, combined with portable speakers it lasts longer than a smartphone. 
Also use portable battery  

experimented with saavn, 8tracks and shoutcast on phone, but barely use it for music. Streaming is not bufferless, especially if moving around.


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## tkin (May 1, 2015)

Anorion said:


> I use Cowon D2+
> it's not a great player (smile curve on frequency response)
> but the battery life is too good, about 50 hours. That's really useful, combined with portable speakers it lasts longer than a smartphone.
> Also use portable battery
> ...


Saavn streaming is very bad, also gaana, sometimes songs just doesn't play or gets stuck, add to that the huge cost of 3g, I sometimes use TuneIn, but saavn is too expensive to maintain.


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## RCuber (May 2, 2015)

I prefer DAP over smartphone. 
I own a Sansa Fuze+ & a Fiio X1 coupled with Astrotec AM-90 , I also have a iPod Shuffle lying somewhere in the house!


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## tkin (May 2, 2015)

RCuber said:


> I prefer DAP over smartphone.
> I own a Sansa Fuze+ & a Fiio X1 coupled with Astrotec AM-90 , I also have a iPod Shuffle lying somewhere in the house!


How would you rate the FiiO X1 in terms of sound quality, operating system/ui operations and battery life? Overall?


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## RCuber (May 2, 2015)

tkin said:


> How would you rate the FiiO X1 in terms of sound quality, operating system/ui operations and battery life? Overall?



Sound quality is the very good that I have experienced with all the DAPs I have owned (including smartphones), I upgraded it from my Fuze+, but both sound different. It cannot compare with my Xonar Essence ST sound card. I need to still experiment with the EQ. OS needs improvement, but is passable for daily use, if you load lots of songs then it will be difficult to manage. Battery life stated is about 11 hrs, but cannot confirm as I haven't listened continiously for more than an hour. 
The most horrible thing on the X1 is the wheel, its horrible. but the sound quality makes up for the downsides.

EDIT: Another thing. when my colleagues saw the deivce they asked "why didnt you get a iPod"!!!  .. get to my nerves when trying to explain just because it sells a lot or its from Apple doesn't make it sound better, yea and FLAC.


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## tkin (May 2, 2015)

RCuber said:


> Sound quality is the very good that I have experienced with all the DAPs I have owned (including smartphones), I upgraded it from my Fuze+, but both sound different. It cannot compare with my Xonar Essence ST sound card. I need to still experiment with the EQ. OS needs improvement, but is passable for daily use, if you load lots of songs then it will be difficult to manage. Battery life stated is about 11 hrs, but cannot confirm as I haven't listened continiously for more than an hour.
> The most horrible thing on the X1 is the wheel, its horrible. but the sound quality makes up for the downsides.
> 
> EDIT: Another thing. when my colleagues saw the deivce they asked "why didnt you get a iPod"!!!  .. get to my nerves when trying to explain just because it sells a lot or its from Apple doesn't make it sound better, yea and FLAC.


Same here, I just recently purchased a long sought after Headphone and a Desktop Amp+Dac, when my friend heard they thought I was crazy, according to them a 500/- over the ear hp is good as anything, although they would not mind paying through their nose to get a Bose or Beats, but paying over 1k for an unknown brand is crazy. Same with the dac, onboard sound is better than anything, unless its from Bose. It doesn't bother them that they cannot hear 50% of the instruments when using those cheap headphones. If I bought a PMP they would again think I'm crazy, unless its an ipod. Apparently style and brand beats everything.


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## SaiyanGoku (May 2, 2015)

I had an old phone lying around unused (Galaxy Y). So I flashed CM11, stripped off unnecessary apps, disabled some system apps and now I'm using it as a music player only with PowerAmp and Soundmagic ES18. Stand by time is 10-12 days in flight mode without the sim card. Haven't tested the playback time at a stretch.

I'm quite satisfied so haven't thought of buying a dedicated music player yet.


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## tkin (May 2, 2015)

SaiyanGoku said:


> I had an old phone lying around unused (Galaxy Y). So I flashed CM11, stripped off unnecassy apps, disabled some system apps and now I'm using it as a music player only with PowerAmp and Soundmagic ES18. Stand by time is 10-12 days in flight mode without the sim card. Haven't tested the playback time at a stretch.
> 
> I'm quite satisfied so haven't thought of buying a dedicated music player yet.


A good idea that, a lot of phones come with good dacs now a days, a 10k smartphone can be flashed to create the perfect media player. Are there any android distro out there that can turn a phone into a dedicated music player? Strip off the calling systems, wifi etc, stop all but 2 cores like that. I know there is already an OS for that, like this: RuneAudio - Embedded Hi-Fi music player

I am thinking of buying a raspberry pi 2 and use rune audio to turn it into a digital music system, wish it could be done to mobiles as well.


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## SaiyanGoku (May 2, 2015)

tkin said:


> A good idea that, a lot of phones come with good dacs now a days, a 10k smartphone can be flashed to create the perfect media player. Are there any android distro out there that can turn a phone into a dedicated music player? Strip off the calling systems, wifi etc, stop all but 2 cores like that. I know there is already an OS for that, like this: RuneAudio - Embedded Hi-Fi music player
> 
> I am thinking of buying a raspberry pi 2 and use rune audio to turn it into a digital music system, wish it could be done to mobiles as well.



I haven't thought about finding a dedicated rom, however i doubt I'll be able to find one. It'll be a headache to make it for a specific phone and would be better to not fiddle with your current phone(s).


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## Anorion (May 2, 2015)

never tried but there is AndroidPort < Main < Wiki


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## $hadow (May 5, 2015)

Buying cheaper phone and converting them into a audio player works for many of my friends.


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## RCuber (May 5, 2015)

$hadow said:


> Buying cheaper phone and converting them into a audio player works for many of my friends.



so just carrying another smartphone only for Audio?


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## SaiyanGoku (May 5, 2015)

$hadow said:


> Buying cheaper phone and converting them into a audio player works for many of my friends.


If by cheaper you mean <4-5k, then its better to get a dedicated music player instead.


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## $hadow (May 5, 2015)

SaiyanGoku said:


> If by cheaper you mean <4-5k, then its better to get a dedicated music player instead.



Nah they bought those 3k lava and mmx phones.

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RCuber said:


> so just carrying another smartphone only for Audio?



yup they say they can't risk their primary phone battery for just listening to audio


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## SaiyanGoku (May 5, 2015)

$hadow said:


> Nah they bought those 3k lava and mmx phones.


They wasted their money then TBH.


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## $hadow (May 5, 2015)

SaiyanGoku said:


> They wasted their money then TBH.



They certainly did but we can't do anything about it.


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## ratul (May 5, 2015)

definitely DAP>Smartphones for me, i love my Sansa Clip Zip for it's small and compact size, flat frequency response, easy to use and much more durable (the poor guy has seen some pretty rough falls. ). Keeps the music up for 12-15hrs, saves my phone for much more critical tasks. Though some phones these days do have pretty good audio chips, but still i'd prefer a DAP anyday.


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## ajayritik (May 5, 2015)

Guys any famous mobile models which have inbuilt DAC's?


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## tkin (May 5, 2015)

ajayritik said:


> Guys any famous mobile models which have inbuilt DAC's?


I think the LG G2 comes with Wolfson 5110 DAC, not sure, but the sound coming from my phone ss really clear.


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## Faun (May 7, 2015)

Dedicated audio player because I don't want to be left out in middle of nowhere with my phone's battery down to zero.

Apart from that a DAP with good memory >128GB and a high quality resolution.

LG G2's sound is not that good compared to other alternatives I have. It has a perceptible noise floor with low impedance earphones.


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## $hadow (May 7, 2015)

ajayritik said:


> Guys any famous mobile models which have inbuilt DAC's?



Samsung flagship with exynos processor usually have a good DAC, I don't remember the nam though.


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## icebags (May 9, 2015)

tkin said:


> I think the LG G2 comes with Wolfson 5110 DAC, not sure, but the sound coming from my phone ss really clear.



since u already researched much, can u just put a categorized list of recommended & good DAC supported fones & PMPs in the first post ?


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## SaiyanGoku (May 9, 2015)

Anorion said:


> never tried but there is AndroidPort < Main < Wiki


Thanks, going to try it.



> Rasher is providing daily builds at Rasher's Rockbox related stuff - daily builds of Rockbox for Android


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## Anorion (May 10, 2015)

^do let us know how it is
Expect it to be buggy, because it is not listed even under the unstable builds of rockbox
but then rockbox for Android devices might be a special case, as it is not replacing firmware on PMP


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## Hrishi (May 11, 2015)

DAP with Rockbox support , all the way!
Using Sansa Clip with Rockbox firmware. I love it for the possibilities of tweaking the audio output in so many ways.
Its way better than any smartphone I have used ( n91 was an exception in audio quality ).
I


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## SaiyanGoku (Aug 19, 2015)

Anorion said:


> ^do let us know how it is
> Expect it to be buggy, because it is not listed even under the unstable builds of rockbox
> but then rockbox for Android devices might be a special case, as it is not replacing firmware on PMP



Tried it finally on Galaxy Y. Felt like it crippled the phone. Lag was significant. CM11's stock music player was smoother. Back to using poweramp again.

Same phone is giving *>24 days of standby time* on flight mode and minimal music usage. 

I guess it'll give 2-3 days battery life easily for music playback only. Won't be buying a dedicated music player soon.


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## The Incinerator (Aug 19, 2015)

The power or the current of Personal audio players are better over smartphone, dedicated music players can drive headphones and IEMs better. And since they don't carry the noisy GSM signals they tend to sound better, my personal opinion.


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## anirbandd (Aug 20, 2015)

i use a Sansa Clip Zip, rockbox'd, and it sounds better than any smart phone i have heard [iphone/flagship to mid tier android phones]. 

i have also had the good fortune of pairing it with a Fiio Amp[dont remember the exact model] and listening through the ATH M50 and A700.

it was an experience unlike anything.. 

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also, it can play 24bit 192khz flac records without any lag. its another topic that 24bit-192khz is overkill and not needed. but the capability of the tiny player to play files of such high resolution without any lags is just tremendous. 

the phones that i have tried generally transcode the flac to play them. and iphone does not support flac 

and 15hrs of music playback capability = major win.

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oh.. there is ALAC for Apple.


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