Gadgetory

hey folks Wan here with another video about audio we started a new series here at pocketnow.com called the real audio review to complement our real camera review we kicked this series off at the iPhone 7 and Apple's controversial decision to remove the headphone jack we got a number of comments and replies to that first real audio review we want to take a little time to address some of the concerns in our testing process explain what that testing process is and what we're going to be doing moving forward to make sure that we've got sort of an even playing field for all of our gadgets the number one issue to address many Apple fans felt we were being unfair to the iPhone 7 because we weren't testing this phone with third-party headphones that connects to the Lightning adapter the idea being Apple got rid of the 3.5 millimeter jack to encourage other manufacturers to include better signal processing Hardware on headphones and that's really what's going to improve the overall quality for consumers that we shouldn't be judging the iPhone quality through this adapter we can only judge the quality by buying more expensive accessories after we purchased the phone at that point we have a very basic reply if that's the case then we're no longer reviewing the audio quality of the phone we're just doing accessory reviews for example I could say my laptop has amazing audio quality oh but not through the headphone jack built into my laptop it's because I've invested thousands of dollars in high-end recording equipment that I can plug into my laptop is that fair to the people who watch our videos trying to understand how these things work we don't think so out of the box this is what Apple gives you so this is what we have to test just like out of the box all of these phones have a headphone jack that we could listen to and measure the output from I mean why should we even bother telling you that the Galaxy headphone jacks have been kind of disappointing this year you're just going to go out and buy really expensive headphones that plug into a micro USB port right and for some of the people complaining who obviously didn't watch our video review of the Moto Z and the Moto Z force we handled the Motorola's exactly the same way we reviewed what came out of the box which that brings me to my next point once more headphone manufacturers start building the DAX directly into the headphones there's going to be very little that we can test after that point on a phone with a headphone jack I can plug this directly into my workstation using line and patch cables to get a very clear sample of what's coming directly out of the phone once I plug lightning headphones into the iPhone what can I really measure here I've got one of two options I can try and get mics and line them up with the little drivers on these ear pods ignoring the fact that the ear canal is also partly responsible for creating the soundscape that you're listening to and that recording these tiny little drivers out in the air does a huge disservice to how these things really work or to I suppose I could try to cut the drivers off of these cables take these lines and then solder them onto some sort of 3.5 millimeter Jack which I can then plug into my workstation but honestly my soldering skills not that good moving forward for the real audio review we got a couple other comments from people requesting that we provide some kind of baseline product that we can gauge performance against some products that are gonna be better than our baseline and some devices that are going to be worse than our baseline over the weekend I invested in this adorable little fee okay one this is a USB powered 24-bit headphone DAC this is a really discreet small bus powered device it can connect to a number of different devices from phones tablets laptops desktops to improve headphone quality it works great on an iPhone while also working on a number of different Android devices just as a quick tangent though to get it properly working on an iPhone you do need the camera connector kit in addition to a USB cable so you end up with this chain of adapters versus the $3.00 USB see two micro USB cable you need to power it on an Android phone but I digress this is a handy little gadget produces great audio quality and does bump us up to 24-bit 96 kilohertz playback a nice improvement over what Apple delivers out of the box on the iPhone 7 for all of that rambling the K one improves upon the iPhone and delivering a wider frequency response a wider EQ range lower distortion numbers and a lower noise floor we think the K one is pretty keen but it still loses to some phones which still feature built-in headphone jacks but we'll have to save that analysis for a future video as always folks thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more audio commentary more real audio reviews and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for PocketNow i'm juan carlos bag now some gadget guy on twitter and instagram and i will catch you all on the next video lower distortion lower distortion numbers lower distortion numbers lower distortion numbers and the lower lower distortion numbers and the lower note lower distortion numbers lower distortion lower distortion numbers and allured lower distortion numbers and a lower noise floor