[jamor]

Thanks for the review! Is the DAC/amp tied to native player or will it work with Neutron, Spotify, etc.?

The marketing material says it makes low fi streaming services sound better so I'd imagine the dac works universally.

 

[Whitigir]

Thank you for you service sir. Your information is invaluable.

So it looks like you can change tracks on the 2nd display when the screen is off. This is a huge relief because I was under the impression you couldnt.

Yes you could, just make sure to put the music app there. Before you do that you would have to swipe the little screen torte right to expose the controls buttons on it. It is to avoid accidentally pressing it because the second screen is in all the time

 

[jamor]

That's great news thanks.

 

[Whitigir]

Thanks for the review! Is the DAC/amp tied to native player or will it work with Neutron, Spotify, etc.?

Unfortunately, the only app that can have access into this DAC and hi-fi amp is the stock Music app. I tried using the Poweramp and Neutron...nada, both could only access to the default one, which is the Snapdragon chip ?

The same as YouTube and streaming services such as Netflix and or spotify. LG probably need to release their source code so these 3rd party apps can update ? I don't know. The weird thing is that there are different DAC in here. Snap dragon and android will always natively utilize and default their conversion from this snapdragon DAC.

Perhap a root can help to permanently default this ESS Hifi combo ?

In stock form, only the stock music player get access to this ESS combination and the adaptive amplification.

Default sounds from standard DAC as shown.



Hifi "on" only the stock player shows effects

The most obvious thing would be that it is much louder on the MDR Z7. More details will come later

 

[jamor]

Really that's kind of odd considering their verbiage in the marketing material:
 
 
---

Get hi-fi 
sound from 
lo-fi music.

Not every song you love sounds like it was recorded in a studio, but the LG V10 will make it sound amazing. The phone improves streaming music and old MP3s to a higher quality when you listen with wired headphones."
---
I wonder what that means.

 

[Whitigir]

Really that's kind of odd considering their verbiage in the marketing material:


---

Get hi-fi 


sound from 


lo-fi music.

Not every song you love sounds like it was recorded in a studio, but the LG V10 will make it sound amazing. The phone improves streaming music and old MP3s to a higher quality when you listen with wired headphones."


---


I wonder what that means.

I am not sure. But there is obvious quality effects with Hi-fi on and off. It is not just simply louder or lower volume. But rather the overall sound quality suffer.

Hifi on, the seperation, soundstage is much more defined. Airy and sounds just right.
Hifi off, and the seperation became congested, soundstage is blurry......bass loses it definitive edges, trebles is less sparkling.

Just obvious changes.

Definitely needs a way to always default everything toward the Hi-Fi combo for this. Otherwise everything beside the stock music app can only do the normal DAC.

 

[jasonb]

I am not sure. But there is obvious quality effects with Hi-fi on and off. It is not just simply louder or lower volume. But rather the overall sound quality suffer.

Hifi on, the seperation, soundstage is much more defined. Airy and sounds just right.
Hifi off, and the seperation became congested, soundstage is blurry......bass loses it definitive edges, trebles is less sparkling.

Just obvious changes.

Definitely needs a way to always default everything toward the Hi-Fi combo for this. Otherwise everything beside the stock music app can only do the normal DAC.

You're 100% sure about this? Only the stock music app allows the use of the hifi DAC? So Google play music or Spotify can't use the hifi DAC with headphones?

 

[Whitigir]

You're 100% sure about this? Only the stock music app allows the use of the hifi DAC? So Google play music or Spotify can't use the hifi DAC with headphones?

100% sure. The Hifi will only be enabled by plugging in the headphones. And only the "Stock Music app" will utilize this Hifi DAC. Other apps does not work with it, even with Neutron player, it could not recognize the DAC, but rather the one built into Snapdragon.

Look like this will be a deal breaker for LG, unless they could totally bypass the Snapdragon DAC, and allow all apps to default into the Hi-fi, otherwise it will be a deal breaker for sure.

Beside, the Asia version of V10 does not work with USA LTE.

 

[jasonb]

Well, that is a deal breaker then. I guess I'll keep using the htc one m9 that I've already been extremely happy with. At least half of my music listening is done with Spotify or Google Play so I guess switching is pointless. I could always just use USB otg with something like the oppo ha2 if I wanted even better sound.

 

[Whitigir]

Well, that is a deal breaker then. I guess I'll keep using the htc one m9 that I've already been extremely happy with. At least half of my music listening is done with Spotify or Google Play so I guess switching is pointless. I could always just use USB otg with something like the oppo ha2 if I wanted even better sound.

Absolutely a deal breaker ! And yes, with all other apps rendered useless by Hifi DAC in the V10, there is nothing else that interested us ! Like the title said, in-depth audio quality review.

The point of a "Multi media consumption" from a smartphone such as V10 with the built in HiFi codec is to be able to use it with YouTube in high resolution streaming, Netflix, prime in high resolution streaming with good movie and shows audio quality. Without this, any smartphone with a USB stacked will do a better job. For example an HTC M9 with the Mojo

LG, if you are reading this, please find a solution. But I guess it wouldn't be easy. It would be easier if the main CPU wasn't Snapdragon, Perhap anything like Mediatek or Exynos would have done it well.

 

[mochill]

Try noozy music player

 

[ajaxender]

Did you try Poweramps Music FX function? From your pictures, it looks to me like the Hifi settings are a separate equalizer/audio settings app, rather than purely integrated into the player. In a similar way, I can use Sonys ClearAudio and ClearBass etc etc on my Z3c with Poweramp if I choose (although I choose not to). 
 
If it still doesn't work, I suspect this would force me to wait until a fix comes. Poweramp is still the only player I've found that can do album/list shuffle (with songs still in order), besides having really robust and stable functionality in general, even if its not the best sounding. If the stock player can do that, interest remains... can it at least deal with music on the SD card? Still stuns me that so many stock players can't even do that. 

 

[Whitigir]

Did you try Poweramps Music FX function? From your pictures, it looks to me like the Hifi settings are a separate equalizer/audio settings app, rather than purely integrated into the player. In a similar way, I can use Sonys ClearAudio and ClearBass etc etc on my Z3c with Poweramp if I choose (although I choose not to). 

If it still doesn't work, I suspect this would force me to wait until a fix comes. Poweramp is still the only player I've found that can do album/list shuffle (with songs still in order), besides having really robust and stable functionality in general, even if its not the best sounding. If the stock player can do that, interest remains... can it at least deal with music on the SD card? Still stuns me that so many stock players can't even do that. 

Yes, I tried Power-amp sound adjustment in EQ, Tone, FX and all that good stuff. I played around with Neutron Hardware setting.....then proceeded toward any other apps such as Prime music, Netflix, Spotify, Web stream....etc.

All of them are default into the Snapdragon DAC. Like I said, it is easily observable when the Snapdragon codec is made default. Sound quality suffer heavily, and the sound output is much weaker.

Even the stock "music" app sometime will default back to the Snapdragon DAC that will need me to enable, disable the Hi-fi a couple times to get it to work properly. Especially after pulling out the headphones plug and re plug in.

 

[ajaxender]

Oh well. Given its a selling point of the phone, particularly for streaming services, it seems likely LG will open it up in the future. If not, someone else will. The phone still isn't available from the usual importers in NZ so waiting is not an issue. 

 

[jasonb]

Such a shame. I was kind of looking forward to a better camera and to just try an LG device out in general. We'll have to see where this goes and what the other phone makers like HTC will do next. Maybe Samsung will put a micro sd slot into the S7, unlikely, but we will have to see.