In our country (India), I have personally found only two smartphones worthy of true audiophile pedigree. They are:
1) Vivo X5Max
2) Lenovo Vibe X3
Let me start by saying I am no audiophile but just a music lover. My humble headphone collection consists of Sennheiser HD 598 and Sennheiser HD 518. Earphones are RHA T20, Fiio EX1 and Cowon EK2. My English is also not good and this is going to be a long post. So kindly bear with me. Coming back to these phones I own both of them and love each for different reasons. In smartphone audiophile space I have often seen the affinity to speak only relative to audio hardware. But to me the other part which is sound tuning & sound signature of audio in software level is equally important. For musical sounding smartphones I had always looked up to Vivo as they are the pioneer of audio centric phones in the world. From the first phone ever to ship with a dedicated discrete DAC in Vivo X1 to the current Vivo Xplay6, they have huge knowledge in building audio centric smartphones.
I bought the Vivo X5Max in January 2015. It came with Vivo’s own Hi-Fi 2.0 audio architecture, a significant boost from the previous generation Hi-Fi 1.0. It is still their only phone that is available in HiFi 2.0 architecture. Hardware wise this new architecture contained an ESS Sabre ES9018-K2M (DAC), an ESS Sabre ES9601 custom op-amp for I/V conversion and a Texas Instuments OPA1612 op-amp acting as a headphone amplifier in X5Max. All the best audio DACs and headphone amplifiers mentioned above will not produce great sound until they are fed properly. As such X5Max sported a dedicated secondary power supply to provide clean power from the battery without any ripples or jitters to these audio chips.
Below is the audio chain of X5Max:
HiFi Mode ON: Snapdragon 615 --> ESS Sabre ES9018-K2M (DAC) --> ESS Sabre ES9601 (I/V conversion) --> TI OPA1612 (Headphone amplifier) --> 3.5mm audio jack
HiFi Mode OFF: Snapdragon 615 --> Qualcomm PM8916 (Audio Codec) --> 3.5mm audio jack
So much for the audio hardware. Coming to the software and user experience point-of-view X5Max came with built-in proprietary iMusic player. I love this player for its simplicity and ease of use. iMusic uses its own audio software codec pack just like Neutron music app to preserve audio quality to maximum. This music player is a delight to operate and I hope someday Vivo make it available on Google Play Store.
Coming straight to X5Max's audio quality, in these two years I am yet to come across a phone that can dethrone it on sheer sound quality. I need to remind you, I am doing this subjective evaluation with my collection of earphones. X5Max has the ability to remove layers of sonic glaze and provide you the purest and one of the most clinically accurate sounds in a phone. The stereo separation, and imaging is spot on. The strength of this phone lies in vivid high frequencies while the lows are very tight and precise. The mids are slightly on the colder side, not warm sounding but tonally very accurate. If I have to pick any flaws in X5Max’s audio quality, it will be its inability to properly drive my big HD598 & HD518 headphones. Which is where my Lenovo Vibe X3 comes in.
Vibe X3 also comes with dedicated audio power supply, a more advanced and smaller version of X5Max’s DAC. Three Texas Instuments OPA1612 op-amps are used, so definitely it has more headphone driving power than X5Max. Lenovo/ Motorola did a mighty job with their 2015 flagship from audio perspective. After acquiring Motorola Mobility, Lenovo instructed Moto to design their own flagship Vibe X3. Hence Motorola designed a more multimedia centric derivative of their own flagship Moto X Style. Both phones were released in 2015, have so much in common be it looks, construction or hardware. Both phones look unmistakably Motorola in design, implements the same metal frame with poly-carbonate back construction. Both uses the same Snapdragon 808 SoC with 3 gigs of RAM, the same 21 MP Sony IMX230 sensor and a 6-piece F2.0 lens for main camera, same dual tone dual LED CCT flash, stereo front firing speakers, LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection... they are basically two pages from the same book written by Motorola. In the end the one with 5.7 inch quad-HD display became known as Moto X Style and the smaller 5.5 inch FullHD display version became Vibe X3.
Speculations aside Vibe X3 comes with the ESS Sabre 9018C2M (DAC) followed by two OPA1612 for I/V conversion one for each channel in differential mode. Lastly another OPA1612 is added in the chain to act as a discrete headphone amplifier. Below is the audio chain for Vibe X3’s “Turbo Hi-Fi” mode:
Turbo Hi-Fi : Snapdragon 808 --> ESS Sabre 9018C2M (DAC) --> 2 X OPA1612 (I/V conversion) --> OPA1612 (Headphone amplifier) --> 3.5mm audio jack
Vibe X3 also supports a “Standard Hi-Fi” mode to save battery consumption from hungry OPA1612’s. In this mode the WM8281 audio codec is used:
Standard Hi-Fi : Snapdragon 808 --> Cirrus Logic/ Wolfson WM8281 (Audio Codec) --> 3.5mm audio jack
From software side and audio experience, Vibe X3 left a lot to be desired. The only player available with this phone was Google Play Music. So I had to install fully paid version of Neutron Music player and foobar2000 and now the experience is similar to that of X5Max. Listening to music on Vibe X3’s “Turbo Hi-Fi” mode is a pleasure. If there is any phone that can come ultra close to the benchmark X5Max performance it has to be the Vibe X3. And then it gives you awesome driving power coupled with great sound quality. While X5Max could drive any earphones you can through at it, Vibe X3 will even drive big headphones like HD 598 with aplomb. Vibe X3 even comes with specific headphone settings for AKG K702, Sennheiser HD650 and Audio Technica ATH-MSR7 to name a few. Subjectively, I have found Vibe X3’s bass to be slightly more pronounced over earphones. I believe it’s due to its high driving power, because when I use my HD598/ HD518 which requires more power, the bass become very tight with just the right amount. While the mids being just as clinically accurate as X5Max the separation of highs falls slightly short to X5Max. But it can be due to limited amount of headgear I have. I understand pairing is very important and there may be a headphone just built for Vibe X3 sound signature. But still to me Vibe X3 is almost there with X5Max in terms of audio quality.
There are many other phones available in our country that comes with great sound quality, mostly from Vivo. There are a batch of phones using the cost effective AKM AK4375 integrated DAC plus headphone amplifier solution. Examples are Vivo V3, Vivo V3Max, Vivo V1Max, Vivo X5Pro and Vivo Y27L. There is also Vivo Xshot that came with a better Cirrus Logic CS4398 (DAC) with Maxim MAX97220 headphone amplifier solution. I have owned many of them, heard them all. I was also fortunate to spend some quality time with LG V10, a bunch of HTC flagships and even ZTE Axon 7 (comes with AKM AK4490 dac). But to me none of them came close to the sound quality achieved by Vivo X5Max & Lenovo Vibe X3. So in the end if you collection mostly consist of earphones get a X5Max. Else Vibe X3 as it will even drive big headphones with very slight loss in audio quality over X5Max. On seconds sale in OLX or Quikr you will get them within your budget. But is you want a firsthand audio centric smartphone with near INR 14K price then to me the Vivo V3 with dedicated AKM AK4375 DAC is the only viable solution. V3 will beat any of the phones in your list in sound quality over earphones.
Hope this helps!!!
