[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kenbhaji:
Hello All !!!

I dont know if this is right forum to post this. This is my first review so please excuse any mistakes/blunders :p

I own both Nexus 5 and Galaxy Note 2(N7100), and from past 2 weeks I have been testing sound on both the phones. Following is the setup:

Headphones Used:

1. Monster Miles Davis Tribute

2. Monster Turbine Pro Copper

3. Shure SRH440

5. Sennheiser Momentus Over the ear(Not the on ear model)

6. HiFiman RE0

Music Used:

Please note all the albums were Flac Lossles 16bit

1. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

2. Slint - Spiderland

3. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!

4. Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

5. Burial - Untrue

6. Broken Note - Terminal Static

Player Used: PowerAmp Pro (Flat equalizer)

Observation:

Before I begin, I would like to say that this is my subjective opinion which may vary from person to person.

Galaxy Note 2:

I love this phone. Been my daily driver from past one year. The ability to expand the memory and replaceable battery is amazing. More memory means more music for me :good: I only listen to flac so this is a huge plus for me.

This phone drives all headphones pretty well. Although one might feel that Momentus and RE-0 were kind of dull as compared to the other headphones. The sound seemed veiled.

So I changed the kernel to NEAK. This kernel have utility to increase the volume and some other fancy adjustments like oversampling etc. I was skeptical what changing kernel would do, and boy was I wrong. Not only did the volume increase but sound became fuller and had solid character. Instruments were perfect, texture was amazing and the bass wasn't sloppy anymore but controlled and very punchy. :victory:

Nexus 5:

Nexus 5 is totally a different beast. Coming from Note2 I was excited about this phone. The build quality and weight was quite better than Note2. I loaded up the albums and fired up the PowerAmp. From the start I could feel something was amiss. Although the resolution of the instruments was good and overall response of the headphones and music was not bad; but I was not blown away. Even after increasing the preamp volume to full, the headphones could not reach their full potential except Pro Coppers. So I broke out my trusty Fiio E5 portable headphone amplifier and sound did improve. After long listening sessions everyday my brain accepted the sound signature of this phone and by the end of 4th day I quite liked the sound.

In the end I had comparisons in a way that I listened the tracks going back-n-forth on both the phones. I definitely like my Note2 with NEAK kernel. But if you take out the kernel from the comparison, difference between the quality is not that huge although the sound from Note2 is lush compared to Nexus5. Both phones lack amplification to drive some headphones to their full potential.

For average Joe: If you are using lossy music and use headphones which are mediocre, then this phone is pretty good for you. You wont be able to tell the difference between sound quality of Nexus and any other phone.

For my Audiophile friend: To be honest this phone will leave you wanting for more. Although Nexus have good DAC but amplification is poor. I would recommend you to grab a good but cheap headphone amp and you should be good. Although 32 GB is real deal breaker if you you use lossless music. For that OTG cable comes to rescue. I would also recommend getting your hand on a kernel/utility which improves sound. I have not come across any yet.:fingers-crossed: Also battery becomes a concern when using such utility/kernal.

My rating: 3.5/5

Pros:

Exceptional pricing

Good DAC

Build Quality

Ability to play Hi-Res FLAC

Cons:

Poor Amplification

Lack of expandable storage (You can use OTG cable though)

Poor Battery (Especially if you will be using utility to improve sound)