Ipad air 2 headphone jack, too good?

[TheOneAboveAII]

So I have a pair of sony mdr-xb950ap headphones and when connected to my s8+ they sound ok and the bass is just fine...but when i connect them to my brother's ipad air 2 on the same song...man...the bass literally massages my ears. Is there anything special with the headphone jack from the ipad air 2, or is just that the headphone jack from my s8+ sucks *** compared to the one from the ipad?

 

[darius_robin]

So I have a pair of sony mdr-xb950ap headphones and when connected to my s8+ they sound ok and the bass is just fine...but when i connect them to my brother's ipad air 2 on the same song...man...the bass literally massages my ears. Is there anything special with the headphone jack from the ipad air 2, or is just that the headphone jack from my s8+ sucks *** compared to the one from the ipad?

Nothing like that. You may be feeling like that, but it’s got nothing to do with the headphone jack. The quality of the sound depends entirely on the headphone, and nothing else.

 

[TheOneAboveAII]

No, it's not just a feel...i literally tried the headphones with about 5 different phones from my house...mostly samsungs...and they sound ok and the bass is ok...but i swear...when i put them on the ipad and only on the ipad...the headphones get freaking superpowers...it's way louder, a tiny bit clearer and the bass...just goes from 1 to 10...i don't know what it is about the ipad that does this...but i now i feel like i need to get myself one of these ipads only for this reason

 

[iwoodland]

The speakers on my ipad 10.5 are excellent

 

[dcoke22]

It could be a number of things. Is it the same file on multiple devices? For instance, you could have a lower bit-rate MP3 or AAC file on some devices than others. If you're streaming, perhaps some devices are getting a lower quality stream.

Headphones are miniature versions of regular speakers. They have impedance values and sensitivity ratings just like every other speaker. As such, different amplifiers make slight differences in the performance of the speakers. When the iPad Air 2 came out, it was Apple's most fancy tablet and they charged serious money for it. As such, they might've specified a higher quality headphone amp than you might find in a less expensive phone.

Finally, it is a bit of an art of turning digital bits into an analog signal. This is done by something called a DAC (digital-analog-converter). Different DACs produce slightly different sound from the same digital input.

In the land of audiophiles, folks spend serious money for fancy DACs, speakers, amplifiers, and just about everything else because they perceive a difference in the sound produced. In the realm of headphones, differences between headphone generally produce the most noticeable changes in sound. Same song, same player, different headphones sounds slightly different. It is less common, but entirely possible, that your ears and headphones are good enough to hear a difference between players with the same song and headphones.

 

[tadpoles]

As an audiophile who has spent considerable money in the hobby I can assure you that it could easily be the difference in DAC and headphone amps that you're hearing. I do believe that, at least in the past, Samsung has added some sound tuning gizmos that you may want to turn on in the audio settings. Apple devices, IME, do tend to have a "warm" sound that many find pleasing whereas the Samsung DAC and amp may sound "cooler".

So yes, the hardware does indeed make a notable difference. Play the same song with the same headphones on 2 different mobile device and a dedicated head amp and you'll hear this. There's 5 headphone amps pictured below and they all sound different with some having notably more bass response than others.