Evening all.
Although I don't expect stellar sound from any mobile, I want to make the best of my S7E. My 50+ year old ears can't differentiate between my carefully ripped and converted CD FLACs and mp3s, but I'd appreciate a little more oomph.
Looking for a small cheap DAC, the Audioquest Dragonfly Black is contender #1 due to availability, coupled with USB Audio Player Pro.
Any tips/advice/experiences/critique will be hugely aporeciated.
Actually, HTC10, LG V10 and sony (almost all) phones (seriously, the old Xperia E1 sounds a lot better that GS7 with headphones) have a really good audio because they have a dedicated audio chip, there be more out there, but I know those
and about DAC I could recommend to you the audioquest dragonfly black, audioquest dragonfly red (a little better than black), and if u want a little more quality (and options) I shall name the oppo HA-2 (or the HA-2SE for the best sound)
Thanks QBerto. I was aware that the phones you mentioned sound better - a colleague has the HTC10 and it frankly blows the S7E away soundwise.
The Oppo DACs look tempting, but not sure I can justify the price for use with my old IEMs (Sennheiser IE 8). Right now I think I'd rather upgrade the earphones and see if/how a cheaper DAC works with them.
Not a huge choice of instore DACs here, but I want to audition ASAP and am too impatient to order online ?
The dragonfly black really improved the audio quality of my (exynos) s7e + it is very portable and does not affect the battery too much. You have to use very good IEMs to utilize it effectively.
the audio will be improved a lot with the dragonfly ones, they are actually pretty good (also ur earphones are not bad), so if is your first time trying a dac, is a really good start, I have owned the three of those dacs, and I'm sure the Oppo one worth it, but in my case, becasue I take advantege of all of their connections xD, still again, the dragonfly worth it too u won't regret it!
I use a Fiio E17K via USB-OTG and USB Audio Player Pro with my S7 Edge. Excellent for the price.
Thanks to all for the input - very helpful.
I'm going to go for the Dragonfly Black. Cheap (about 90 Euro here in Norway), so a safe purchase as my first DAC. The FiiO E17K looks very tempting too (215 Euros here), I'll consider it for a later date. Will buy new IEMs too - I love my IE8s, but they're 7 or 8 years old now and a bit battered. Any recommendations in the 300 Euro range, preferably with a mic?
I was inspired to dig my old Cowon S9 out of my desk drawer last night. Oh my... now THAT's quality. Time to resurrect it for non-casual use
I'm using the B&O Modul that came with my dad's LG G5. I like it a lot. Although i must say that the sound of my S7Edges Exynos DAC with adapt sound enabled is pretty good too! But the B&O DAC amplifies a lot!
Nothing wrong with the dac in the Exynos version at least - what you need is an amp depending on your headphones (doesn't really matter which one you choose). People usually say "oh this is so much better" when in reality they couldn't tell a difference when doing a blind test. Some audio myths for those interested.
Toss3 said:
Nothing wrong with the dac in the Exynos version at least - what you need is an amp depending on your headphones (doesn't really matter which one you choose). People usually say "oh this is so much better" when in reality they couldn't tell a difference when doing a blind test. Some audio myths for those interested.
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Agree. The amp in the Dragonfly will suffice hopefully. And I ABXed myself to death 5 years ago, can't differentiate between FLAC and vbr mp3.
Buying RHA T20 IEMs on a friend's recommendation.
I personally use a Fiio Q1 (simply because I've had it for ages) and while it offers more clarity, and in my opinion better rounded low-ends, but it would also depend on the headphones you use.
I couldn't recommend the Q1 enough.
It's a fantastic little bit of kit, however it's a little large compared to the Dragonfly.
Just my two cents
On the contrary, my S7E with chord mojo provides top shelf portable sound that can rival many desktop setups costin 5x. As long as you're sending bitperfect data source doesnt really matter much. UAPP is BY FAR the best music app.
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B3311 said:
Thanks to all for the input - very helpful.
I'm going to go for the Dragonfly Black. Cheap (about 90 Euro here in Norway), so a safe purchase as my first DAC. The FiiO E17K looks very tempting too (215 Euros here), I'll consider it for a later date. Will buy New IEMs too - I love my IE8s, but they're 7 or 8 years old now and a bit battered. Any recommendations in the 300 Euro range, preferably with a mic?
I was inspired to dig my old Cowon S9 out of my desk drawer last night. Oh my... now THAT's quality. Time to resurrect it for non-casual use
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EMPIRE EARS has paired with Asius technologies to release their new lineup of IEM/CIEMs feaaturing ADEL module technology. Highly suggest you look into this revolutionary tech.
ike_1985 said:
On the contrary, my S7E with chord mojo provides top shelf portable sound that can rival many desktop setups costin 5x. As long as you're sending bitperfect data source doesnt really matter much. UAPP is BY FAR the best music app.
---------- Post added at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:38 PM ----------
EMPIRE EARS has paired with Asius technologies to release their new lineup of IEM/CIEMs feaaturing ADEL module technology. Highly suggest you look into this revolutionary tech.
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Hadn't heard of them before. But at at an entry level of $430 they're unnecessary for me. If my ears were 20 years younger I'd be interested, but they'd be wasted on this 70s-Funk-bass damaged pair?
Bought the RHA T20s I mentioned. Really impressed, can't fault them yet. A bargain at €200.
Related
While I don't totally trust GSMArena's reviews, they are one of the few review sites that offer loaded headphone out measurements, and the Moto G 2014 caught my eye in that it seems to have a vastly improved headphone out compared to past models, which seems to be on par with the Quallcomm solutions used in LG G2, Nexus 5, while maintaining somewhat lower IMD.
A lot of times implementation is more important than the silicon, and I love to use my mobile as a portable music player, hence I am still hanging on to my old i9000, but I think it may be about time to move on.
So the question for this community is, how do people think this phone sounds? There are things like spurious processor noise and radio noise that won't show up on common measurement methods, but are obvious and annoying as heck (Nexus 7 1st gen's random buzzing comes to mind)
This affordable phone with a promising looking headphone out as well as SD card expansion capacity seems like a probable new music phone for me, any thoughts?
It doesn't sound as good as the i9000, unsurprisingly (I'd still be using one if it had a flash...), but for the price, it is pretty damn good. Mine doesn't exhibit any audible interference via the headphone jack; it's really clean compared to some China brand budget phones I've tried... The same cannot be said of the earpiece speaker, which picks up the radio when it is working hard due to poor reception. Hopefully it isn't radiating excessively at frequencies that would harm your health... I spoke to Motorola about it and they refuse to deny or confirm the issue, but I'm certainly not the only one.
Let's just say the output is good enough to merit using decent headphones. I found the quality was high enough to warrant buying a better pair of portable cans, and to be honest, I find the AKG K481s I subsequently bought have more obvious deficiencies than the Moto G, itself. I rather suspect that on a limited budget, the Moto G paired with decent headphones would definitely be up there with most flagships paired with cheaper headphones.
The headphone output of the Xiaomi Redmi 1S is also supposedly surprisingly good for a budget device. Either way, if you want to do more critical listening, Android 5.0 supports USB DACs...
@rufflove: Thanks for the detailed reply. By picking up radio you mean it's picking up on the local AM/FM radio?! That's rather interesting... If money was no subject LG G3 or Samsung Note 4 looks rather good in the headphone out department, but those are too rich for my blood. I am only interested in a well built phone with moderately good specs, but good headphone out and perhaps a okay camera.
USB DACs may be an option, but I am really not a fan of lugging another piece around, attached by wire. Similar quality to i9000 can be obtained through a Sansa Clip for a rather low cost.
Sorry, no, I mean the cellular radio interferes with the earpiece, especially when signal strength is poor...
If money were no obstacle, I'd be tempted by a Vivo Xshot or the LG G3 in particular for the best camera and audio.
Yeah, my housemate had a Sansa Clip -- incredibly good for the money. I used to have a Rio Carbon and was mortified when I lost it abroad... I'm not convinced any of this expensive new high sample rate kit is anything more than another way of fleecing people... On the USB front, I use a cheap Behringer UCA202 USB audio interface at home. They're unbelievably good value for money, though they have problems driving low impedance headphones... Great for hooking up portables to hifi gear.
I checked the GSM Arena review before getting an XT1068 and was still not convinced about how good headphone output would be, based on past experience of budget devices. But all I can say is that I was pleasantly surprised by the Moto G. The Redmi 1S seems to be the only other worthy competitor atm, but reports of the screen being too reflective put me off. That and the fact that I would have more confidence in Motorola than Xiaomi when it comes to build quality. There are a couple of very capable developers working together on the 1S, though.
Sound quality is not that good compared to previous phones (e.g Galaxy Ace 2 and Experia Mini). E.q makes little difference.
I take moto g2 because got more chance to get lollipop than sgs3. Some people says moto got better speaker than samsung. Camera i think better in s3. i use cameramx app.
Now about headphone sound quality. Its not what i needed. Too loud and sound is not clean at max volume. But i use playerpro and is ok. So if you need better quality find phone with dedicated audio chip, i mean like sgs3,4,5 or htc one m7,8. Some of them is my next phone when they will be still in store and get lollipop
I was blown away by Moto G's 2014 sound quality paired with decent headphones - I doubt any other device could do any better.
squidlr said:
I was blown away by Moto G's 2014 sound quality paired with decent headphones - I doubt any other device could do any better.
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Which headphones do u use...?
ifu said:
Which headphones do u use...?
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Sony ZX310
Sent from my XT1068 using XDA Free mobile app
nereis said:
While I don't totally trust GSMArena's reviews, they are one of the few review sites that offer loaded headphone out measurements, and the Moto G 2014 caught my eye in that it seems to have a vastly improved headphone out compared to past models, which seems to be on par with the Quallcomm solutions used in LG G2, Nexus 5, while maintaining somewhat lower IMD.
A lot of times implementation is more important than the silicon, and I love to use my mobile as a portable music player, hence I am still hanging on to my old i9000, but I think it may be about time to move on.
So the question for this community is, how do people think this phone sounds? There are things like spurious processor noise and radio noise that won't show up on common measurement methods, but are obvious and annoying as heck (Nexus 7 1st gen's random buzzing comes to mind)ual
This affordable phone with a promising looking headphone out as well as SD card expansion capacity seems like a probable new music phone for me, any thoughts?
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Click to collapse
I would put the sound quality of the Moto 2014 on the very good side. It may not deliver enough punch for demanding headphones (It's not a Cowon, like all smartphones) but the sound is very clear, noise free.
I use it as my main listening device coupled with a Graham Slee Voyager headphone amp and the sound is very very good.
Hmm. My ears must be failing me. My Moto G doesn't sound that good through any of my head/ear phones. For reference I use Senn HD 480, AKG K450 headphones and Shure E2c in ears. The in ears sound the best with the right material.
@V4lve
true dat but you should try furnace kernel and app for increasing volume
Also does anyone have a flashable zip for viper4android or beats bass which works with bluetooth
I want to know if TIDAL uses our HI-FI Quad Dac. I'm thinking about paying for an account if it could play HI-RES files from my v20.
Is it worth?
Thanks for your answers.
hi
I think what you was need HiFi Format from Tidal ( FLAC/APE/CUE 24bit/96 khz - 192 khz ) and too High Impedance earphones ( over 50 ohms )
OberonMX said:
hi
I think what you was need HiFi Format from Tidal ( FLAC/APE/CUE 24bit/96 khz - 192 khz ) and too High Impedance earphones ( over 50 ohms )
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Not sure why people keep thinking high impedance means better quality. All it means is it makes the sound much louder at lower volume.
People keep talking about ohms while not understanding what that actually is. I suggest looking up ohms law, then grab a clac.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
BROKEN1981 said:
Not sure why people keep thinking high impedance means better quality. All it means is it makes the sound much louder at lower volume.
People keep talking about ohms while not understanding what that actually is. I suggest looking up ohms law, then grab a clac.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
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...
I think you should send your comments to LG for selling a product that is advertised as HiFI and also indicates that your product is capable of handling sound equipment of those specifications
Hahaha
OberonMX said:
...
I think you should send your comments to LG for selling a product that is advertised as HiFI and also indicates that your product is capable of handling sound equipment of those specifications
Hahaha
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Why would you even make a comment like that?
HiFi works on low impedance as well. That's also seen by the free B&O earphones we got that are 32 ohms. Again, ohms aren't a factor on music quality.
The DAC and earphones/headphones make the difference in quality.
You can buy an awesome pair of earphones for 1K that are only 34 ohms. Yes they are worth the money if you have it.
All ohms are for is how much power you need. That's it.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
BROKEN1981 said:
Why would you even make a comment like that?
HiFi works on low impedance as well. That's also seen by the free B&O earphones we got that are 32 ohms. Again, ohms aren't a factor on music quality.
The DAC and earphones/headphones make the difference in quality.
You can buy an awesome pair of earphones for 1K that are only 34 ohms. Yes they are worth the money if you have it.
All ohms are for is how much power you need. That's it.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
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Now that you mention it, I have had the opportunity to try the B & O and the headphones of a Nubia Z11 as well as the Headphones of a Huawei equipment and certainly the B & O headphones have the worst performance comparing them with the previous ones., Well as you say it is a subject of DAC / Earphone
OberonMX said:
Now that you mention it, I have had the opportunity to try the B & O and the headphones of a Nubia Z11 as well as the Headphones of a Huawei equipment and certainly the B & O headphones have the worst performance comparing them with the previous ones., Well as you say it is a subject of DAC / Earphone
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I love the B&O, but that's always going to be subjective.
https://usa.1more.com/collections/headphones
I do imagine the $200 version would be much better then the B&O. Also giving more base which the B&O lacks. I know many people hate B&O due to the base really lacking.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
BROKEN1981 said:
I love the B&O, but that's always going to be subjective.
https://usa.1more.com/collections/headphones
I do imagine the $200 version would be much better then the B&O. Also giving more base which the B&O lacks. I know many people hate B&O due to the base really lacking.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
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thanks for the link now I check it
I had both Tidal and Spotify , cause Sprint gave me a 6 month free trial of HiFi Tidal.
Honestly Spotify sounded better with the use of an equalizer, Tidal was just OK but their app just isn't as well developed as Spotify for my taste.
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BROKEN1981 said:
I love the B&O, but that's always going to be subjective.
https://usa.1more.com/collections/headphones
I do imagine the $200 version would be much better then the B&O. Also giving more base which the B&O lacks. I know many people hate B&O due to the base really lacking.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
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the 1more previous version which are only 99 bucks are pretty damn good, yes the latest version is slightly better (Very slightly better, IMO not worth the extra 100 bucks)
I'd skip those and get the older ones.
kbrn said:
I had both Tidal and Spotify , cause Sprint gave me a 6 month free trial of HiFi Tidal.
Honestly Spotify sounded better with the use of an equalizer, Tidal was just OK but their app just isn't as well developed as Spotify for my taste.
---------- Post added at 08:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:11 AM ----------
the 1more previous version which are only 99 bucks are pretty damn good, yes the latest version is slightly better (Very slightly better, IMO not worth the extra 100 bucks)
I'd skip those and get the older ones.
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Thing is, I'm not sure if tidal or Spotify is taking advantage of the quad DAC. When the LG V20 First came out, LG's own music app was not. Then came an update and LG's own music app started using it.
I don't know if it still holds true, but I think LG's stock music app only takes advantage of it.
I never answered you because I don't know myself.
Sent from my NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 using XDA Labs
I got a pair of Sennheiser IE8, they may not be high impedance, but still a good pair of in-ear headphones.
My question is: Does Tidal outputs HI-Fi sample rate/bit-depth to headphones via Sabre DAC?
Or does it downsamples to 48kHz 16-bit like the most media players available in Playstore?
Thanks dudes.
OberonMX said:
Now that you mention it, I have had the opportunity to try the B & O and the headphones of a Nubia Z11 as well as the Headphones of a Huawei equipment and certainly the B & O headphones have the worst performance comparing them with the previous ones., Well as you say it is a subject of DAC / Earphone
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the B&O included on our phone were the low/cheap version. altough some people claim that the US variant had B&O H3 which are better. and i agreed to the person above, big impedance doesnt mean its better, i once join auidofans gathering on my region and some guy showing his tia fourte and guess what? that damn IEM only had 16ohm impedance and costing 3500k$ ( i could buy a damn car/motorbike/great pc gaming with that money) and the sound quality? damn man, it really blows up my heads. meanwhile, i also tested some guy's ks 500ohm and v20 easily drived it when other phone ( iphone 7 and S8) need external dac/amp to use it.
Salvaparalyzer said:
I got a pair of Sennheiser IE8, they may not be high impedance, but still a good pair of in-ear headphones.
My question is: Does Tidal outputs HI-Fi sample rate/bit-depth to headphones via Sabre DAC?
Or does it downsamples to 48kHz 16-bit like the most media players available in Playstore?
Thanks dudes.
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Honestly, I think it down samples like other media players.
That's why I stick to the stock LG music app. The other option is to root and use V4A. Then you can use anything and not worry.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
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alldine345 said:
the B&O included on our phone were the low/cheap version. altough some people claim that the US variant had B&O H3 which are better. and i agreed to the person above, big impedance doesnt mean its better, i once join auidofans gathering on my region and some guy showing his tia fourte and guess what? that damn IEM only had 16ohm impedance and costing 3500k$ ( i could buy a damn car/motorbike/great pc gaming with that money) and the sound quality? damn man, it really blows up my heads. meanwhile, i also tested some guy's ks 500ohm and v20 easily drived it when other phone ( iphone 7 and S8) need external dac/amp to use it.
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I got the H3. They are entry level audiophile grade earphones. That's why people don't recommend them for the price they cost. At that cost, there are many mid entry-level earphones that are much better. Since they were free, I'm not going out to buy anything else since to me they are "good enough". When they break, I'll buy something that's mid entry-level earphones.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
alldine345 said:
the B&O included on our phone were the low/cheap version. altough some people claim that the US variant had B&O H3 which are better. and i agreed to the person above, big impedance doesnt mean its better, i once join auidofans gathering on my region and some guy showing his tia fourte and guess what? that damn IEM only had 16ohm impedance and costing 3500k$ ( i could buy a damn car/motorbike/great pc gaming with that money) and the sound quality? damn man, it really blows up my heads. meanwhile, i also tested some guy's ks 500ohm and v20 easily drived it when other phone ( iphone 7 and S8) need external dac/amp to use it.
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500 ohm ? Umm I looking for a earphones between 50-150 ... Hahaha ,
BROKEN1981 said:
Thing is, I'm not sure if tidal or Spotify is taking advantage of the quad DAC. When the LG V20 First came out, LG's own music app was not. Then came an update and LG's own music app started using it.
I don't know if it still holds true, but I think LG's stock music app only takes advantage of it.
I never answered you because I don't know myself.
Sent from my NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 using XDA Labs
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Well IMO it does, as simple as switching the DAC On/off and you can hear the difference... at least I do.
I gotta back up Broken, I have 9 ohm shure se846s on an adapter that bumps it up a few more that kick major ass if tuned correctly, what you're forgetting is most crappy poor built head/earphones are lower impedance and anything with high ohms. Use quality parts, that dont mean some low ones have quality. Most people are confusing the dac as only good in high mode which isn't true, bout all 500 ohm headphones are gonna be awesome if given the power to do so. They have heavier less easy to move parts which can have more precision, but require the power to do so, i have a subwoofer that has a 30 pound magnet behind the driver but also a 3000 watt digital amp and the woofer barely moves by hand, so when power stops it stops w/o flapping if that makes sense. Just cuz ur $30 earbuds suck don't mean they all do. There's benefits of high and low impedance which i will not get into.
cpete2112 said:
i have a subwoofer that has a 30 pound magnet behind the driver but also a 3000 watt digital amp and the woofer barely moves by hand, so when power stops it stops w/o flapping if that makes sense. Just cuz ur $30 earbuds suck don't mean they all do. There's benefits of high and low impedance which i will not get into.
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that's called "damping factor".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_factor
I would hazard a guess that you'd need a lab instrument to have conclusive evidence whether Tidal was using the Q-DAC or not, so that you can eliminate the audio quality perception of different loudnesses. This issue frustrates me, to know what apps and services actually give us the sound quality we want!
I have used Tidal for a year now and it is worth the $20 for me sounds killer. I happen to use the 1more 3 driver earbuds and love them too.
The tidal app sounds way better than spotify. I asked my wife to use tidal for a week and she said the spotify sounded terrible when she went back so now uses tidal. I also use the v20 for my home audio system and a big difference there too. If you don't invest in good speakers, buds, or phones don't waste your money.
No worries about the ohms stuff if your buds or headphones need the extra power to drive them they will have a higher impedance and the v20 will adjust accordingly.
I'll never get a phone without a hifi dac and headphone jack.
Hello people, so I'm the kind of person who listen music every day on my headphones, right now I'm using Sony MDR-XB50APW and they might not be the most expensive headphonse they are pretty good. As for my phone, I have HTC M7 wich is really really old. I'm thinking to buy a new phone and my mind goes to LG V20, over the LG G6.
Now my wonders are,
- is LG V20 a good pick right now at this time? should I look for a much newer phone? the budget allows me to buy a phone in V20 price range.
- I heard that LG V20 has a special 3.5 dac that lets you enjoy music with big headphones, but what about the small ones? the in ear headphones, does V20 sounds better than other phones? for example HTC M7 has beats audio, wich is pretty garbage for today standards but still, I only to listen music on V20 on in ear headphones.
- is V20 overall a good pick right now? I play it to buy it in 2-4 months from now.
The absolute best audio experience I've ever had from a phone. You don't have to have the 200 dollar earbuds to hear the difference. All ear buds I've tried between my V20 and S7 took a gain from the quad DAC. Premium headsets still benefit the most . Real HiFi audio played in flac is unparalleled.
When it comes to audio quality, the v20 is among the best. Literally is the best audio I've ever heard from any mobile device ever. The only thing that I own that beats the v20 is a custom built desktop with a Soundblaster zxr modded with a set of Burson audio v6 chips on it (about a 400 dollar audio card while modded like that)
You absolutely must use a set that kicks of the full power and glory of the DAC\AMP. All other solutions are no better then decaf coffee, non-alcoholic beer or a blow up love doll. They have (HAVE) to be over 50 ohms with 150 being the sweet spot. There are plenty of great IEM\s ear speakers from Aliexpress that sound great ToneKings, Venture Electronics, etc at very reasonable prices. Get the V20 at these wonderful prices (<$300). It is equivalent to dedicated DAPS costing 3 to 5 time more (I'm looking at you Astell&Kern).
dartinbout said:
You absolutely must use a set that kicks of the full power and glory of the DAC\AMP. All other solutions are no better then decaf coffee, non-alcoholic beer or a blow up love doll. They have (HAVE) to be over 50 ohms with 150 being the sweet spot. There are plenty of great IEM\s ear speakers from Aliexpress that sound great ToneKings, Venture Electronics, etc at very reasonable prices. Get the V20 at these wonderful prices (<$300). It is equivalent to dedicated DAPS costing 3 to 5 time more (I'm looking at you Astell&Kern).
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well as I said in my main post, I use a sony pair of in ear headphones. 4 - 24000 Hz & 40 Ohm ... hope they are enough to feel the difference xD or hit the sweet spot as you said
iLikebigdacs said:
well as I said in my main post, I use a sony pair of in ear headphones. 4 - 24000 Hz & 40 Ohm ... hope they are enough to feel the difference xD or hit the sweet spot as you said
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Don't listen to that guy. You don't need anything that kicks in High impedance.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
---------- Post added at 02:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 AM ----------
dartinbout said:
You absolutely must use a set that kicks of the full power and glory of the DAC\AMP. All other solutions are no better then decaf coffee, non-alcoholic beer or a blow up love doll. They have (HAVE) to be over 50 ohms with 150 being the sweet spot. There are plenty of great IEM\s ear speakers from Aliexpress that sound great ToneKings, Venture Electronics, etc at very reasonable prices. Get the V20 at these wonderful prices (<$300). It is equivalent to dedicated DAPS costing 3 to 5 time more (I'm looking at you Astell&Kern).
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That is clearly not true. You don't need anything that is high impedance.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
I scored a VS995 a little over a week ago and I've tried the HiFi DAC toggle and I honestly cant tell much of a difference. There may be a sliver of extra clarity in the upper treble range but that's it. No extra stereo separation and sound stage is about the same. Quite honestly it sounds flat to me.
Ive played with equalizer fx from the play store because of the absent native eq and that wakes up the sound to me. The effects tab with bass boost (bass on top of bass), virtualization (introduces a little hiss) and loudness (a slider for the bold) make up for some of this because they do a little more than the portray.
It shows the potential on the power and clarity side of this quad DAC/AMP combo to where the volume plenty loud at 50 and 55+ is asking for ear problems. My testing source is Spotify(free) set at high quality. I tried not to fatigue my ears on treble listing on Phillips SHE3581 and various custom built speakers on a sure "8w x 8w" amp at 16v. Nothing pricey but not total junk. In the end, with the eq, it sounds good and the volume boost over my Xperia Z3v is welcome but I miss the treble clarity and smooth bass response it put out. At times I still get the Z3v to listen to music with it. . . like right now. I'll invest into a better set of headphones later down the road that are 60+ bucks. SHP 9500/s? or some sennheizers.
BROKEN1981 said:
Don't listen to that guy. You don't need anything that kicks in High impedance.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
---------- Post added at 02:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 AM ----------
That is clearly not true. You don't need anything that is high impedance.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs
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Obviously any reported improvement is subjective but, when the V20 plays local 24\192 flac's (there is no streaming service that makes use of the dac at present, as they don't provide sufficient band width) and I use >50 ohm headphone. HD 650, Fostex t50, ATH MSRNC, Hifiman Massdrop R00, Toneking 150 and a few others, then "subjectively" my socks fall down (literally, as I can't keep from dancing around). I humbly suggest that you just try this little recipe but get your garters ready, otherwise the chill you might feel, at ankle level,is no accident.
DB
(i never liked Nescafe, near beer or squeaky girls named n0ra, but others might 8*)
I use shure se846-cl IEM's, verizon lg v20 with a bump to simulate higher impedance connected to an IFi IE match adapter for hissing elimination, not really needed on v20 but otherwise the IEM's are only 9 ohm at certain frequencies, i wouldnt use the extra power w/o it. And you guys have to try the new SAURON AINUR AUDIO MOD FOR MAGISK!!! a Russian found a totally better cleaner way of doing audio mods, blows arise out of the water, trust me. The Bass is so much tighter, puncher and more tunable to precision, with way less bloat and ported crap that mostly don't work anyway. And u can use viper, atmos, and a few other mods with it. "Amazing Quality" Read the thread! He just got it working for phones with dac's, but be warned it's pretty early in development so if u don't like to take risks or not good with magisk mods as I wasnt it is risky. I learned magisk and xposed and tried the new alpha ROM which was the cause of most of the problems I believe, new update fixed them. It's basically a new Weta version with new security ota updates. But to answer ur question, for how much the v20 costs right now and how awesome u can make them sound, high quality - mid ear/headphones and low or high impedance, dont have to be in high mode to sound good btw, It would be stupid not to get this phone, Imo. If you really like quality audio anyway. And the removable battery and SD card is a must for me. Just wanted to share my finds anyway. Good luck.
---------- Post added at 04:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:28 AM ----------
Just read previous guys post, if you are playing around with crap eq's from play store w/android audio limitations it sucks, gotta root it w/dirty Santa and get viper to get the glory, if you know how to tweak anyway, and my 9ohm IEM's sound better than any .5 million dollar home theater that I have ever installed in my life, which I do, i do wanna get some nice high end cans to compare to, thinking bout the sennheiser 800s might do the trick, saving pennies since I'm not rich, $700 on these shure se 846's was a leap for me, they're usually $1k most places, but glad I quit buying $100 buds that the cables always failed on. Invest and reap the rewards. Study tweaking on xda and really have some fun. Will make you dance as previous guy said.
Coming from a slightly faulty HTC 10, I thought I'd try the Italy-only LG Q8 as it has the V20's quad-dac set-up and is smaller. (It's known elsewhere as the LG V20 mini/V34 etc).
It drives my HD25 I ii (70 Ohm) beautifully. And my HD600 (300 Ohm), better than the HTC 10. But I have a headphone amp to drive my headphones at home.
My Fiio F9 (32 Ohm) however triggers 'normal' mode and while the sound quality is pleasant, the phone can't drive them at all loud. I couldn't use these on public transport and at home playing quieter classical recordings, I can hear the cat yelling in the garden over the strings. Comparison to the HTC is pretty unflattering for the LG.
To sum up, I have a mobile phone that can drive a 300 Ohm pair of open-backed cans for home use but not a 32 ohm pair of iems. Nice one, LG.
It goes back tomorrow.
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UPDATE
I'm keeping it. This is a lovely phone. While it's quieter with low-impedance IEMs than the HTC 10, the problem only arises with very quiet passages of classical music and the quality of reproduction is a lot better. Instrument separation is extraordinary for a phone.
The camera is decent, on a par with the HTC 10, the battery is a bit better than the HTC and I've even grown to like the launcher and UI. The audio recording is great too. Basically, this is literally a mini V20 with waterproofing instead of a removable battery.
No idea if this phone will get Oreo and it seems very unlikely that there will ever be root access but as there is zero information on this device on the internet I thought I'd post these lines.
Thanks for this - the Q8 has an intriguing mix of specs, but reviews are hard to find.
Do you miss the stereo speakers or other aspects of the HTC after a few months? Also, have you been able to trick it into high output mode with a 3.5mm adapter like people did with the V20?
Edit: does it also come with a full complement of languages or just Italian and English?
Hi
I barely use my phone speakers. Its definitely not as good as the sort-of-stereo speakers on the HTC 10 but it's fine for occasionl use. Yes you can trick it into external-device impedance using an adapter but I use it mostly with 70 ohm Sennheiser HD25s and 300 ohm HD600s - very impressive. It sounds great as well with my Fiio F9 IEMs which do not trigger one of the higher impedance modes.
The camera is on a par with the HTC 10, which perhaps shades it in HDR pics. Battery life is also comparable.
Headphone output on both is very good but while the Q8 has a noticeably more refined sound, nobody listens critically ALL the time and I'd be happy with either as both are way ahead of most phones. The Q8 has a very good RDS FM radio, which is one of the reasons I bought it.
Overall, I'm happy with my decision, especially the fact that the Q8 is a lot lighter than the HTC 10. No development (nobody on XDA appears to have one apart fro me) means no root however.
It seems I will get Android 8 and today the phone received an update (v10d-mar-26-2018) which included the March 18 security patch.
All the usual languages are available via the menu. There is nothing specifically Italian about the phone, it's clearly destined for use in Europe as it asks you to specify Europe or 'other' when updating software.
Thanks very much. Have to think about whether I can live without root, because otherwise it sounds really good to me.
Hello,
Just bought one today on Amazon.it I should received it next week but it's crazy how nobody know this one and it's very sad about the root as I need to spoof my gps I hope I will find a workaround anyway thanks for your feedback on the phone how much did you pay it if it's not too much ask? I got mine for 313€ with shipping fees to France.
Hello,
I find headphones dongle with my earphones quite lacking quality/soundstage, but searching through forums I stumbled upon this: Viper detects our essential dongle as a speaker. Was it fixed, or do you have any suggestions how to improve sound quality?
I'm using AuriSonics ASG 1Plus, which are an excellent IEM's, with low Impedence:
(11 ohm +/ 10% @ 1kHz16 ; Sensitivity: [email protected]).
So there should be no problem powering 'em and dishing as good sound performance as possible.
I know essential uses Cirrus DAC (which is average, but I'm not really buying any high-quality USB-c DAC or portable AMP).
I come from Pixel XL, which had dedicated 3.5mm jack and SD DAC, it sounded okay and WAY better than essential.
Some EQ tweaks can elevate a bit of problems, but I'm looking for a more all-around solution (whether it's fixed viper(drivers/libraries/etc.)(( or something else)).
Thanks!
Bump.
Tautvydas said:
Hello,
I find headphones dongle with my earphones quite lacking quality/soundstage, but searching through forums I stumbled upon this: Viper detects our essential dongle as a speaker. Was it fixed, or do you have any suggestions how to improve sound quality?
I'm using AuriSonics ASG 1Plus, which are an excellent IEM's, with low Impedence:
(11 ohm +/ 10% @ 1kHz16 ; Sensitivity: [email protected]).
So there should be no problem powering 'em and dishing as good sound performance as possible.
I know essential uses Cirrus DAC (which is average, but I'm not really buying any high-quality USB-c DAC or portable AMP).
I come from Pixel XL, which had dedicated 3.5mm jack and SD DAC, it sounded okay and WAY better than essential.
Some EQ tweaks can elevate a bit of problems, but I'm looking for a more all-around solution (whether it's fixed viper(drivers/libraries/etc.)(( or something else)).
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about this DAC?
https://www.zorloo.com/zuperdac-s
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zuperdac-s-zuper-charge-your-music#/
I bought it when it was pre-release for quite a bit less.
Much better than the included dongle that comes with the phone.
tech_head said:
How about this DAC?
https://www.zorloo.com/zuperdac-s
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zuperdac-s-zuper-charge-your-music#/
I bought it when it was pre-release for quite a bit less.
Much better than the included dongle that comes with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, I'm not up for buying any DAC's, but this one got me quite interested since it's for pc as well.
How is it?
Thanks!
Tautvydas said:
To be honest, I'm not up for buying any DAC's, but this one got me quite interested since it's for pc as well.
How is it?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interested in knowing as well. After my experience with the Aero Indiegogo, I have a pretty bad taste for Zorloo.
stompysan said:
Interested in knowing as well. After my experience with the Aero Indiegogo, I have a pretty bad taste for Zorloo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the first headphone Z:ero and got them on time.
They worked great.
I bought the DAC while still on pre-order and received it a while ago.
For a small DAC the quality is really good.
The volume buttons make it very usable since you can set the input to the DAC from the phone at an optimal level then use the volume buttons on the DAC for the input of the car stereo, headphones, etc.
I'm quite happy and it's much better than the little dongle that comes with the phone.
Is it Focusrite or Apogee? No, but it's not $2K either.
I found the same issue. I don't think it is the DAC, but instead the native Android USB/DAC driver.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/essential-phone/themes/finding-music-player-essential-phones-t3710793
The problem is that this won't work for streaming applications. But I listen to FLAC / hi-bit MP3 so it solved the issue for me.
TimboC2000 said:
I found the same issue. I don't think it is the DAC, but instead the native Android USB/DAC driver.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/essential-phone/themes/finding-music-player-essential-phones-t3710793
The problem is that this won't work for streaming applications. But I listen to FLAC / hi-bit MP3 so it solved the issue for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Great thread you've created, really explains it.
Which app would you prefer, Neutron or Onkyo? You explained about Onkyo, but it's almost 10 euros for me, Neutron is a bit cheaper and I was thinking for quite some time to buy it. Had it on my old Blackberry Z10, it was native to BB OS.
Right now I'm using foobar, since I'm using it on pc, where I think it's the best music player, but when it comes to Android, you live you learn hehe.
Tautvydas said:
Thanks! Great thread you've created, really explains it.
Which app would you prefer, Neutron or Onkyo? You explained about Onkyo, but it's almost 10 euros for me, Neutron is a bit cheaper and I was thinking for quite some time to buy it. Had it on my old Blackberry Z10, it was native to BB OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I only have experience with Onkyo and Hiby. The Onkyo is pretty well developed and something I use fairly regularly so it was worth the money to me.
Hopefully somebody else can provide comments on Neutron for you.
Anyone tried the Viper audio add-on in Magisk? I purchased Bluetooth Skull Candy Ink'd for $20 and love the sound quality. Actually have the volume at 80% most of the time
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
I just purchased a pixel audio adapter, as it measures well for its price ($9).
The market for high-end usbc adapters isn't quite there yet it seems, a traditional dac+amp setup is probably still better if you need more power.
If you're using IEMs though, powerful amps tend to have a higher noise floor.
Just tested Neutron player, it's excellent.
Huge increase in soundstage, overall processing quality, sounds great.
Magic is done under Audio Hardware options, selecting 'Direct USB Driver' to allow direct access to the USB device.
Duo8 said:
I just purchased a pixel audio adapter, as it measures well for its price ($9).
The market for high-end usbc adapters isn't quite there yet it seems, a traditional dac+amp setup is probably still better if you need more power.
If you're using IEMs though, powerful amps tend to have a higher noise floor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have that adapter and the Essential adapter. Using Onkyo HF application it was able to use multiple bit rates with the Essential adapter, but the Google adapter only works at 48kHz.
I have the Sabaj Da3 as well. It works great with the Onkyo HF app, it supports multiple sample rates and upconverts to DSD512 as well. Issues are: 1. It's huge. 2: It burns significant battery, especially if upconverting. 3. When I bought it was $90, right now it is $119 on Amazon - so it's expensive!
Honestly, for non-critical on the go listening the Essential adapter works really well once you bypass the Android USB driver.
---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
Tautvydas said:
Just tested Neutron player, it's excellent.
Huge increase in soundstage, overall processing quality, sounds great.
Magic is done under Audio Hardware options, selecting 'Direct USB Driver' to allow direct access to the USB device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad it fixed your issues!
TimboC2000 said:
Unfortunately, I only have experience with Onkyo and Hiby. The Onkyo is pretty well developed and something I use fairly regularly so it was worth the money to me.
Hopefully somebody else can provide comments on Neutron for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your original thread which pointed me to these apps..
1. I tried Hiby, and did like its music quality, but its very rough for me.. I could not make/receive voice calls when it locks my headphones.. Also it does not show any info on the actual bitrates its using..
2. I am trying out Neutron trial version, which is a 5 day limited use full feature version. It too seems to be limiting the output to 48kHz. Yet to try Onkyo.
mvadu said:
Thank you for your original thread which pointed me to these apps..
1. I tried Hiby, and did like its music quality, but its very rough for me.. I could not make/receive voice calls when it locks my headphones.. Also it does not show any info on the actual bitrates its using..
2. I am trying out Neutron trial version, which is a 5 day limited use full feature version. It too seems to be limiting the output to 48kHz. Yet to try Onkyo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USB Audio Player Pro also seems well regarded and developed. I believe Hiby is a single developer and is much more of a work in progress.
Just found the perfect setup for my IEM's.
Ainur Sauron Magisk module and Neutron player's "direct USB support" option. Sounds amazing now!
Had quite similar experience in the ol' days with Colorfly C3 and Klipsch iem's (can't remember the model).
Or just that I'm easily impressed
Tried viper, just really dislike its signature sound. Clarity, bass, convolver turned on and tuned a bit, still, not to my ears.