[Rtsr21]

I have the deh80prs headunit, hertz esk 165.5 component speakers, kenwood xr400-4 for the components and 1 sony xplod sub and sony amp. My problem is that bluetooth sound's way better than with it plugged in with a good aux cable, and no matter what I do I can never seem to get it sound right to me. Do you guys have any ideas, thanks.

 

[bugsplat]

I've always found the same. I only use BT. AUX is soooo rental car

 

[upgrayedd]

Crappy dac in phone

 

[Rtsr21]

Crappy dac in phone

Ya I was thinking that also, I do have the us S3, lol. Are phone's with good dac better then than bluetooth?

 

[bugsplat]

I have owned and tried a Driod-X, Galaxy S1, S3, and S5 and I have found Bluetooth to have better sound quality.

 

[gijoe]

I bought the HTC One and one of the big selling points was it's "sound quality." I found out that after specifically buying a phone that seemed to actually put forth effort in improving something that was important to me, I got ripped off. The sound quality is awful, with and without beats audio it sounds like ****. What they considered great "sound quality" was just an extra external speaker to make youtube videos louder when showing your friends.

Whoa... My point is, I don't know of a single phone that has put forth significant effort in making sure that audio playback was done as well as possible on the analog side. Digital is digital though, so it doesn't matter how ****ty the analog side is, bluetooth won't suffer.

 

[RandomBeat]

i finally got a phone thats bluetooth worked well/was compatible with my head unit, and i have to agree, the sound quality is much much better... i believe it was stated above, when streaming bluetooth, your taking advantage of the head units DAC, aux cable uses the phone DAC.

 

[Rtsr21]

Thanks guys, very helpful. Now I have tired it with the fiio e0k7 dac hooked up, and I did not notice any difference in sound, I feel like I may not have something hooked up right.

 

[WestCo]

Crappy dac in phone

Most 3.5mm cables also aren't very good.
I make some nice ones though...

 

[Rtsr21]

Most 3.5mm cables also aren't very good.
I make some nice ones though...

I bought one from jiangzhan2012 on ebay, do you have a pic of your cable.

 

[WestCo]

Here's the cable I use

Here are the ends I use:

Switchcraft 3.5mm (1/8" Mini) Stereo Plug 35HDBAU B&H Photo

No experience with jianzhan

I am happy to order any ends you want.

 

[mathematics]

crappy phone DAC, that's all it is. most droids and newer headunits use a bluetooth APTX codec for higher quality sound as well.

 

[TadCat]

In my experience, the best thing to do is use an apple device with iOS 7 or 8 and just use the Lightning or 30 pin or whatever to put digital out, thereby bypassing the phone's ****ty DAC, and the disadvantages of Bluetooth. Then again I've never used Bluetooth because I tend to think badly of it even though I have no reason to do so, I guess I just like wires..

I think some otg enabled android devices can also do digital audio out via usb, but I wouldn't have a clue which ones or how to go about setting them up to do so.

 

[Rtsr21]

I can't believe how much better bluetooth is that aux on the samsung s3, I have tried the Fiio E0K7, did not notice much difference I will have to try it again I guess, all tho I don't know if there is a way to charge your phone while using the E0K7.

 

[t3sn4f2]

In my experience, the best thing to do is use an apple device with iOS 7 or 8 and just use the Lightning or 30 pin or whatever to put digital out, thereby bypassing the phone's ****ty DAC, and the disadvantages of Bluetooth. Then again I've never used Bluetooth because I tend to think badly of it even though I have no reason to do so, I guess I just like wires..

I think some otg enabled android devices can also do digital audio out via usb, but I wouldn't have a clue which ones or how to go about setting them up to do so.

Nothing wrong with a modern iDevice's analog out.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-reviews-product-comparisons/138160-iphone-5-analog-output-measurements.html

9 times out of 10, the head unit's ADC is going to be wayyyyyy worse than the iDevice's output. Hell, an iDevice measured as good or better than some of the best head unit's out there running of the CD transport.

 

[nanoodhaliwal]

Nothing wrong with a modern iDevice's analog out.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-reviews-product-comparisons/138160-iphone-5-analog-output-measurements.html

9 times out of 10, the head unit's ADC is going to be wayyyyyy worse than the iDevice's output. Hell, an iDevice measured as good or better than some of the best head unit's out there running of the CD transport.

Great, Thanks for the data. I was searching which way to go. iPhone Aux to DSP it is .

 

[TadCat]

Nothing wrong with a modern iDevice's analog out.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-reviews-product-comparisons/138160-iphone-5-analog-output-measurements.html

9 times out of 10, the head unit's ADC is going to be wayyyyyy worse than the iDevice's output. Hell, an iDevice measured as good or better than some of the best head unit's out there running of the CD transport.

I'm a number guy but I'm going by my ears with this one.. My head unit's dac clearly sounds better than my iPhone's analog out. I know the iPhone's analog out is good, it's actually specifically why I went apple over android, but it's not comparable to the head unit's sound. Of course running analog out of the phone to the hu is louder, because it's amplified twice, but it's way louder than I'd ever need it either way.

 

[cajunner]

I would have to suspect the audio pre-amp in the phone being the weak spot, rather than try to blame the phone's DAC.

I would also suspect that those people who are used to a modern head unit's 4V pre-amp outputs going into their amp's input sections, are expecting a similar response from their 3.5mm headphone out, off their phone.

I don't believe this is the same thing, even if the numbers "work" and the myriad bunch of manufacturers of cell phones/amplifiers, say it is fine.

MOST of the changes in sonic quality come from the pre-amp, and not from the changes in A-D or D-A conversions, upsampling, or the like.

You can have a phone with a great digital stream capability just completely **** the bed when you use it to drive the analog out to downstream components, if the pre-amp is sucky and that's probably why you see so many people doing a bluetooth connection advertisement, with their conclusions.

 

[t3sn4f2]

The ADC of the particular head unit (ie fixed level preamp input stage in this case) also plays just as an important role in SQ as the DAC of the portable source . That is one thing that won't come into play with internal CD and USB sources since they are digital from source file through to the head unit's DAC stage.

So if your AUX in is sub par or isn't gain matched to the sources output level, it can affect performance greatly.

 

[rxonmymind]

Love me BT in my RAZR. Now only if they could make a halfway decent audiophile phone without it costing $$$$.