[Galaxy Note II General] NZtechfreak:
Anyways, I posted some thoughts to Elfary who had a specific enquiry about the Note 2 sound quality, thought I might as well share them here:

"So, what we did yesterday was a blind, volume matched A/B test of the iPhone 4 Vs Note 2 (followed by informal listening including with the S3). The person switching phones was able to switch A&B randomly.

When measuring volume output we had the S3 maxed, the Note was within 1dB (best equipment at our disposal would allow) of the S3 at one step down from max volume, the iPhone was three down from max (and measured ~18dB higher max volume output over the S3!). Then we had a number of test tracks - 46&2 by Tool (the intro is a master class in splash cymbals and an excellent test of imaging, good for looking at mids presentation and attack in the guitars too), Teardrop by Massive Attack (primarily looking for bass extension, used the LCD-2 as a reference), Karma Police by Radiohead (really assessing mids for the most part), Who Knew by Eminem (just for a different genre as much as anything). Although some tracks leant themselves to drilling down into particular details we tried to consider each track from all points of view also. We really wanted to do some jazz testing also, but the iPhone was a loaner and additionally running low on battery before we got back to formal tests after a lengthy informal listening period to refresh the concentration a bit.

In the blind test we both felt there was very little in it for the most part. Interestingly we both came from the position of assuming the iPhone was the better sounding phone, but overall the Note 2 actually had a slight advantage in our picks for each track. The fact that we both came into it with a preconception was an excellent validation of the blind testing method. Even better, we were also able to pick it when the phones were swapped on the same track in the back and forth listening, despite the fact that there wasn't a lot of difference in the sound.

I know the one thing you are really desperate to know about is noise, unfortunately I'm not convinced I can advise of that (I have the bit of high frequency hearing loss) - we were listening with the 13ohm UE600 (I sold my ACS T15 a while back, and at 42ohm they weren't as well suited for assessing noise floor as the UE600 in any case). I couldn't hear hiss in either case, which means it was either not there, or my hearing loss prevented me from detecting it. Nik didn't note any hiss in his listening either though. You're probably aware the UE600s have a fairly precipitous treble roll off, so assessing highs wasn't really in the scope of this listening test.

Other specific little notes: the electronic rimshot in Teardrop was really, really strident and fatiguing on the Note 2 - I actually blinked or slightly flinched in anticipation of it (Nik independently noted that too) - but apart from the rimshot I preferred the rest of the sound from the Note 2 better on that track (Elfary kindly measured the frequency of this for me, at around the 1200KHz mark). In corollary to that the snare snap in Who Knew was a similar level of intolerable on the 4, so that was a little each way. Resolved detail was very hard to call, I picked the Note 2 for some tracks, but the iPhone 4 edged it slightly overall. Instrument separation favoured the iPhone a bit. I think looking overall the iPhone maintained some advantages in terms of resolution and imaging, but the Note 2 had the more musical presentation which is why we tended to pick it overall slightly more.

Naturally that is very encouraging for the Note 2, however the volume output is still a massive advantage to the iPhone, which is obviously not trivial. I expect we'll see some custom kernels shortly that will fix that though - we measured the S3 on Siyah kernel with audiotweaks and maxed headphone amp at only around 5dB less than the iPhone."

---------- Post added at 10:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 AM ----------

On the Note 2 I think only the headphone amplification bit of the E7 will give the sound a lift, not the DAC.