Sony WH-1000XM4 sounds better on iphone than PC?

[Taemero]

I'm noticing that listening to music via spotify sounds better on my iphone (XS) vs my PC (XPS 15 2019). Why is this? The bass is more present and the overall volume is louder, and the clarity is noticeable on the iphone compared to the PC. I don't think I'm imaging this, so what's the reason? And how can I make the sound better on a PC? Thanks in advance!

[thermalgoop]

The included DAC (the adapter dongle) with the iPhone is actually pretty decent. Apple has always made an effort with their sound hardware, as it's kind of their forte. I still use my 15 year old iPod Mini (with a CF card, batt upgrade, and rockbox) because the audio hardware built into it is pretty solid. 

Dell is not known for their audio hardware and likely threw the cheapest audio hardware they could find into the XPS, to focus the budget elsewhere (excellent screen, specs, chassis, etc.). There's also going to be more electrical interference with the audio hardware inside your laptop vs. the external DAC on an iPhone. 
If this is really a concern to you, you could invest in an external USB DAC for your PC audio needs. 

[Taemero]

Oh Okay I see that makes sense! But I heard DACs are useless for bluetooth headphones? Is that true? 

[The_russian]

2 things, equalizer settings and/or codec. The headphones support the AAC codec which is used for Apple products and has a higher quality than SBC, which is probably what your PC supports. The more likely reason though is the equalizer settings, whether the headphones one or the Spotify one. If you set a customer equalizer for the headphones in the Sony app, the settings will revert back to the factory settings when the headphones change codecs (such as going from AAC with the iPhone to SBC for the PC). The equalizer for Spotify on your phone might be more preferential for you than the one on the PC. I would suggest playing around with the equalizer to see what you like. 

[AngeloDeligi]

I have the sony WF-1000XM3 and I can agree that they sound better with my Iphone SE 2020 then my PC, not 100% sure why but i would guess that the iphone just has better compatibility with it.

[thermalgoop]

Oh, they're bluetooth? Your iPhone may support a higher bluetooth rev. than your laptop, and use a better codec. Windows is known to have spotty support for bluetooth audio, and when it does uses pretty crap codecs. 

[TylerDurden!]

8 minutes ago, Taemero said:

better on a PC

before buying additional hardware to compensate for poor audio quality , try to mess around with in your audio setting page (headphone power, eq, something like that?  or Download an alternate audio driver.

[Taemero]

So it looks like Spotify doesn't allow you to change your EQ. And I noticed the music sounds a little better on Youtube but still doesn't reach the quality of the iphone. I was able to play around with the Windows EQ settings and enabled the enhancements "bass boosted, Headphone virtualization, and loudness equalization". Still doesn't match the iphone but it's an improvement so thanks guys! 

If I were to just invest in greater audio would a DAC work even with a bluetooth headset? Or would a program like Equalizer APO work?

 

[Derkoli]

2 hours ago, Taemero said:

So it looks like Spotify doesn't allow you to change your EQ. And I noticed the music sounds a little better on Youtube but still doesn't reach the quality of the iphone. I was able to play around with the Windows EQ settings and enabled the enhancements "bass boosted, Headphone virtualization, and loudness equalization". Still doesn't match the iphone but it's an improvement so thanks guys! 

If I were to just invest in greater audio would a DAC work even with a bluetooth headset? Or would a program like Equalizer APO work?

 

A DAC would not effect anything, the headphones have their own DAC to convert the incoming Bluetooth into analogue for the small amplifiers to send to the actual drivers themselves.

 

EqualizerAPO should work well for messing around with things.

[Ahoy Hoy]

Probably something to do with downloading the Sony headphone app on your phone and it changing audio settings in the headphones to make it sound better which your computer cant do.