[Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Android Development] U-3C:
TL;DR

The onboard audio is great in my opinion, and is tuned to have a bit more on the low end, making it less analytical and clear, but smoother and more forgiving. Maybe this is what you are referring to? Samsung is known to add a warmer touch to their devices, but it's not a hardware implementation, so you should be able to bypass it if rooted. The headphone jack on mine is fried, so I have long forgotten how it sounds like aside from memories of it being warmer and smoother than my iPhone, so I can't really listen for you. Getting a dedicated dac isn't really worth it unless you have specific issues with onboard. Using EQ to push out the bass should yield much more significant results unless your headphones are lacking bass because they are hard to drive and the tablet cannot output enough power. In this case, an amp may help. If you do want to spend money, bassier headphones/IEMs might be a better investment (dacs and amps change so little compared to headphones and even less compared to software tweaks. You can get very good iems for only a few bucks now).

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Long version:

I might not be the best person to ask as I cannot to a side by side comparison. Plus, audio goes heavily into subjective territory.

First, I use the CEntrance DACport Slim. It offers a neutral sound signature, so no colouration of sound hardware wise. The iPhone 5s has a similar reference sound signature, while the tab 3 (and my s3) have a slightly warmer, fuller sound signature. It's more consumer friendly and less analytical, I guess. This is not due to hardware implementations, so it can be bypassed with rooted devices. Since it's not the hardware, the sound from my dac/amp gets similar colouration (which I subjectively prefer). Depending on what dac/amp you use, the colouration might stack up. I find that the dacs and amps in modern phones quite respectable and really do not need a dedicated dac/amp unless you are listening to something like classical music (which have huge dynamic range and can get very quiet at times) paired with hard to drive headphones. This is based on notes from the past, when I compared the different devices as much as I could by ear, so take it with a grain of salt.

Next, I mainly use an external dac because I fried my headphone jack on the tab. I do not use it to improve my audio experience and would much prefer to simply plug my headphones directly until the tablet. As a result, I cannot do a side by side comparison. Sorry. :(

A recent AES meta analysis showed that people, under very careful listening conditions, can notice a difference between high res audio and low res audio, but that difference is so small and there are many variables that might have caused errors. If the device cannot play high res files with onboard audio and you can somehow get it to play via a dac that supports it, then maybe you can hear a very slight difference in a quiet room. For use on the go, you won't hear a difference.

Adding on, with my sensitive iems, I can hear a very high noise floor on my s3. None on my iPhone, and I never really listened for it when the jack was working on my tab 3 so I can't say. It doesn't bother me when I'm listening to music. But people have claimed that it's terrible with older devices that has a spinning hard drive as the IEMs pick up all the noise.

Finally, looking at measurements, mobile phones do tend to distort audio a bit, especially when putting out as much power as they can into low impedance headphones/IEMs (such as 16 ohm or lower ones). For most people, it shouldn't matter at all, especially if you are listening to them while walking.

Oh, and on my s3, the audio stutters at times when playing music through the dac. Not quite sure why, nor do I know if the tab 3 had similar issues. Stuttering audio on pc is a common problem with usb dacs though.

As a rule of thumb, if the noise floor/interference isn't loud enough to bother you, and your onboard audio gets loud enough, I wouldn't bother with a dedicated dac/amp. Buy more music instead. ;) It should only be used to fix issues (in my case, broken headphone jack), as onboard is very good. It takes up space/adds cable clutter in your pockets, and if you are putting them in your pockets for a walk outside, you won't hear that much of a difference unless it's the colouration of the dac that you prefer. They might also cause more issues, too. If you want a different sound signature, different headphones, EQ, or using Viper4Android should give much better results.

Joe Bloggs made a bunch of digital compensation profiles for popular headphones/IEMs for people to try out.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php...ish ms!

[url]http://superpowered.com/latency

Still not as good as my iPhone's 7ms though... :(

PS: sorry for the disorganized post. In a bit of a rush to get somewhere right now.

PPS: if you do plan to purchase headphones/IEMs because eq doesn't cut it, try getting something with a good seal and isolates well. IEMs/headphones with a good seal tends to capture more bass. That's one reason why closed headphones usually have more bass and sound more full than their open counterparts. If the isolation is good, music will sound louder without needing to turn up the volume. That's better for your hearing protection. With harder to drive headphones, you might need an amp to bring out the bass, but those are never really designed for mobile use.