I am concerned that my new phone sounds slightly worse compared to my old one when wearing the same pair of headphones. Any way to verify this?

Submitted by FilmFrench t3_124wr12 in headphones

I have two smartphones, one purchased new and the other refurbished. I am slightly paranoid that the newly purchased, refurbished phone sounds worse than the phone that was purchased new, but it could just be all that hype about how bad refurbished phones are in my head.

I was wondering if I could do any test to confirm definitely whether or not a phone sounds differently compared to another? If there is a difference at all, it is subtle, so unfortunately, just listening to something on both devices while wearing headphones doesn't give me the confidence.

Thank you in advance!

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blargh4 t1_je1a0ui wrote

IME when it comes to audio, if you have to ask whether you could be imagining a difference, you almost certainly are. If you have a computer with line in or some audio interface or something, you could record the output of both and run some tests with RMAA or REW but seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth.

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FluffyGreyfoot t1_je4551m wrote

There could be slight unit variation, but it's more likely you're just imagining the difference. If there is a difference it's so small you wouldn't even notice it.

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KilgoretheTrout55 t1_je7s6b3 wrote

Would help to know the phone. And the hardware. You could have a different dac, codecs.... You could have a bad port or something.

Usually people are not able to tell the difference between consumer facing dacs in phones, unless you're using really high-end stuff and using maybe LG's quad Dac.

But we just don't have enough information about your hardware. And use case.

Is it two copies of the same phone?

If so, they should have basically identical sound, but it's possible one of them has replaced parts or the port could be messed up or something.

I don't know. There's infinite variables so we need more information.

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dimesian t1_je1ljpg wrote

I'm not sure why you are wondering whether you are imagining that it sounds different from your old phone. Its likely to be a different design, made to different standards, with different components and software. If you hear a difference there is one, whatever the reason. Are you certain that it actually sounds worse and not just different? Sometimes when a track you've played hundreds of times before sounds just a little bit different if seems like a fault rather than just different. Try some music that you're less familiar with.

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FilmFrench OP t1_je1lvwp wrote

Sorry for not making this clearer: They're the same phone. Except one is new and the other is refurbished.

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Turtvaiz t1_je18euq wrote

If it's the same phone and there's nothing like EQ in the background, I don't see how that'd be possible.

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