Sony Xperia 1 IV - The “AUDIOPHILE” Phone? 🤣

Why should audiophiles, or anybody who loves great sound, care about the Xperia 1 IV? Sony has packed it with some audiophile-friendly features. And they’ve also left the headphone jack in so that you don’t have to connect a type-C to 3.5mm converter. If you wanna go wired, your IEMs, headphones, they plug straight into the Xperia’s DAC unit. Not that the Sony’s DAC is anything special, it’s a pre-built Qualcomm Snapdragon one, but it is Hi-Res certified for both wired and wireless listening, and has the most advanced version of DSEE called the Ultimate.

DSEE Ultimate is really useful for wireless streaming because it patches the high-frequency data that gets lost in bluetooth transmission, so your audio ends up sounding more Hi-Fi. It also has LDAC streaming and aptX HD support for higher bit rates. So after turning on both DSEE Ultimate and streaming over LDAC, is there a difference listening on the 1 Mark 4 both wirelessly and wired?

There is a difference, definitely in terms of how lively the sound is. It seems like on wireless mode there is a bump in bass and lower mid frequencies. Wired mode sounds a bit flatter, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, cause some people do prefer a flatter sound signature with less bass-boosting and a bit more rolling off in the treble. It depends on your personal taste. DSEE Ultimate, now that seems to work very well. It seems like I’m getting similar levels of fidelity and detail in the high frequencies wirelessly as I am getting wired. Now just to clarify, the XM4 headphones on Bluetooth mode has got its own internal DSEE processing, but that was not activated, I made sure of that. This means that even if you are not using Sony wireless headphones, you could be using other brands, you can expect the same level of upscaling from the Xperia as if you are using Sony’s latest wireless audio gear.

And there are ways to apply a certain tuning to its sound whether wired or wireless. It’s got 360 Reality Audio upmix which turns your regular stereo into surround sound, and Dolby Sound features. Now, if you turn on Dolby Sound, it basically applies a universal EQ filter to enhance the sound you’re getting for both music and videos. There’s an automatic “Dynamic” setting that will apply the appropriate filter depending on the content. I found that for music it boosts the bass and treble just a little so you get more bite and excitement out of your music. For movies it makes the ambient sounds a bit louder and more spacious. I actually prefer Dolby’s movie setting compared to that 360 reality audio upmix. It sounds more immersive and cinematic, while 360 RA makes my movie sound more diffused. And I’m just not getting as much volume or impact as Dolby sound. And if you’re still not satisfied with the sound you’re getting, Dolby Sound lets you customize the sound the way you want, and the settings will be locked in for any content you might be consuming on your Xperia.

So, if you’re an audiophile, should you care about the Xperia 1 IV? My personal take is, I can’t say that you should, cause even though the Mark 4 has a headphone jack, it doesn’t actually mean it’s gonna sound better than using other phones. I compared it side by side to my S22+ using a type C to 3.5 converter and there was very little difference in sound quality. The only advantage the Xperia had was volume. It seems like the converter I was using on the S22+, its output impedance was too high, so I got roughly 2db more out of the Xperia’s headphone jack.

But in terms of pure quality, the Xperia did not have an advantage over the Samsung at all. And if you’re talking wirelessly, assuming that you’re streaming the same bit rate over the same codec, you are not gonna hear a difference regardless of the phone you’re using, since the bulk of the processing will be done on the headphone’s internal DAC itself anyway. So the Xperia 1 Mark 4 is a great phone, and it’s got nice features for audio, but I don’t think you should be buying this purely for the sake of audio if you’re an audiophile. Better to invest that extra money in an external DAC.