SONY XPERIA Z5 AUDIO QUALITY

[AlbertoQ]

Hi:

I´m thinking in buying a xperia z5. I would like to use it as a hi-res portable audio player. So i would like to how are the audio components quality. Has the xperia z5 the same audio components (the DAC and the rest of the components) as the NWA25 walkman? I see that the XPERIA Z5 has similar features as the NWA25 Walkman, so I would like to know if the audio experiencie is similar. 

Thanks!

Alberto

[Uliwooly]

@AlbertoQ

I've tested the Xperia Z3 and the High-Resolution Walkman with Hi-Res headphones and the audio quality was great on the Z3, now with the Z5 you can expect the same, also make sure to have great headphones and that the audio files are on FLAC to get the most of it

[simong]

Hi, sadly the Z5 doesn't use the same quality DACs as the Z3 but the "inbuilt" stuff of the Snapdragon 810. The Z3 had a dual DAC / Class D digital amplifier, each with 24bit 48KHz, together providing a native 96KHz 24Bit Output full of musicallity and grace. It's 2x the TFA9890 device.

[Uliwooly]

@simong

Interesting, thanks for the heads up

[Excessionist]

I cannot comment on the choice of chip sets, since it is an open discussion whether there is actually "better" or "worse"-sounding chipsets, independent on implementation.

However, implementationwise, all Xperia Z2, Z3, Z3+, Z4, z5, and their Compact and Tablet derivations, all support up to 192kHz/24 bits content from FLAC, ALAC, and WAV, as well as 2.8MhZ DSD. This is valid both for internal playback and for a USB Audio device / DAC (in the latter case, dependent on the capabilities of the DAC).