[Dartin Bout]

  I've had my LG-H990 since it was launched in South Africa in late November 2016, and have used it almost exclusively as my go-to DAP since then. Herewith my impressions.
 
It is without any question the best sounding smartphone by a huge margin when used correctly i.e. with high quality, high impedance Dynamic headphones plugged directly into the headphone jack. Nothing else in my experience even comes close on any level.
 
I have used primarily Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 ohm and AKG K171 MkII cans since these give me the sound quality I'm looking for.
 
This phone will compensate for whatever is plugged into it over 50 ohms. It is simply phenomenal. The Beyers are 250 ohm, the AKGs 55 ohm. Although the AKGs are lower impedance they are a bit less sensitive than the German monoliths.
 
Here's the thing: the V20 outputs EQUALLY loud with each! It somehow compensates for whatever it needs to drive. I have no problems with gain, and I like to listen reasonably loud to mainly Rock and Metal. I have used 80 ohm DT770s and they do not go noticeably louder than the 250 ohm version, which sound far better to me. I have listened to a number of quality headphones through the V20 and it drives everything with sufficient gain up to HD600/650s. It does NOT however like Planars of any description...
 
It does struggle with some low dynamic range material (some 24 bit 96KHz vinyl rips for eg.) I can live with it since the LG sounds great even at maximum output - I can hear no distortion of any kind when pushing 75.
 
SQ is up there with the very best DAPs IMHO. Treble is accurately rendered, the soundstage is wide open. Definitely on the bright side, this is NOT a warm sounding device. That said, at no stage on high quality source material did I ever feel that I was listening to something that wasn't part of the original recording. What goes in comes out of your cans with very little added. Poor recordings are hell to listen to however, as this phone is very unforgiving in it's accuracy. The Sabre DAC is known to be thus.
 
Bass is very well presented: deep and highly accurate with no muddiness whatsoever. Amongst the very best I've heard at ANY price point, and that's saying something. Listening to Rush's "Closer to the Heart" off "Different Stages Live" in 16bit FLAC and Geddy Lee's bass is the stuff of legend! 
 
What really amazes me though is what it does to high quality 320kbps recordings. I don't fully understand the manner in which it supposedly upscales this material, but whatever it does it makes these sound very impressive indeed, to the extent that on many recordings I don't feel the need to have FLAC copies at all! This goes against everything I assumed when I first got the phone and listened to Hi Res FLAC exclusively. Another Head Fier described it as "organic"- I prefer "supernatural"...!
 
So yes, you could say I rather like this device - in fact I am still slightly in awe of it and need to constantly remind myself that it's actually a Smartphone and not primarily an audio player.
 
The convenience is just astounding, and my portable amps/DACs have now become desktop items...I can give the V20 no greater compliment than that.

I concur wholeheartedly. I might suggest you record live music at 24\192, with the phone and  get some good garters. It will blow your socks off. Live, highly amplified rock\metal, will take some finagling with the settings but jazz, classical or any acoustic will rival the quality music directly from the mixing board with the no effort from almost from any place in the venue.

 

[mister2d]

Completely agree with that. But to be honest. It has a higher chance of wear and tear causing waterproofing to be damaged.

Not from my experience.

 

[audioxxx]

Completely agree with that. But to be honest. It has a higher chance of wear and tear causing waterproofing to be damaged.

@mister2d is on the money I think, they could easily water proof the phone as well as the phones battery compartment,
So even if the battery compartment fails the battery might get damaged at worst.
The way I see the trend of a non removable batterys​, is it ensures essential upgrades as it's much more difficult to just change the batteries with fresh cells. And it gives the customer a reason to buy a new phone, this is great for phone sales.

As it also works well with the never ending, constantly​ updated phones, and throw away mentality, as planned by clever engineer's, and marketing​.

 

[cj3209]

@mister2d is on the money I think, they could easily water proof the phone as well as the phones battery compartment,
So even if the battery compartment fails the battery might get damaged at worst.
The way I see the trend of a non removable batterys​, is it ensures essential upgrades as it's much more difficult to just change the batteries with fresh cells. And it gives the customer a reason to buy a new phone, this is great for phone sales.

As it also works well with the never ending, constantly​ updated phones, and throw away mentality, as planned by clever engineer's, and marketing​.

If replaceable batteries were important, all the companies would include it but the fact of the matter is that, for most consumers, they don't really care about removable batteries as they want to upgrade in about a year anyway.  People are like sheep and they have no problem upgrading every year or two years.  Pretty sad, actually.  

 

[audioxxx]

If replaceable batteries were important, all the companies would include it but the fact of the matter is that, for most consumers, they don't really care about removable batteries as they want to upgrade in about a year anyway.  People are like sheep and they have no problem upgrading every year or two years.  Pretty sad, actually.  

This is an unfortunate fact, and I have a feeling the v30 will not have a user replaceable battery, it seems that the v20 might be the last of this forgotten feature. If this is is the case, I'll buy a V20, and shelf the V10 soon.

The price of the V20 has also taken a dive now, to around about what I see as good value as well.

 

[capetownwatches]

This is an unfortunate fact, and I have a feeling the v30 will not have a user replaceable battery, it seems that the v20 might be the last of this forgotten feature. If this is is the case, I'll buy a V20, and shelf the V10 soon.

The price of the V20 has also taken a dive now, to around about what I see as good value as well.

I love my V20 and can see myself wanting to keep it as long as possible - therefore the ability to buy a few new batteries for future use is a major plus.
Even should I upgrade to a newer phone I would continue to use the V20 as a DAP.
Unless of course LG manage to continue on the path of providing world class audio on forthcoming handsets...
We live in hope.

 

[imran27]

  I love my V20 and can see myself wanting to keep it as long as possible - therefore the ability to buy a few new batteries for future use is a major plus.
Even should I upgrade to a newer phone I would continue to use the V20 as a DAP.
Unless of course LG manage to continue on the path of providing world class audio on forthcoming handsets...
We live in hope.

Absolutely.
LG V20 with my Brainwavz HM5 headphones (64Ω) sound incredible. This is the sound I loved, I was recommended Chord Mojo but I didn;t like it's slightly sweet and lush sound. V20 sounds more natural, sort of analytical to me which I absolutely love, brings out the fine details and nuances easily, has good separation.
 
I hope next time LG will launch thei V series they will let B&O tune it for all markets, not just for Asia.

 

[capetownwatches]

  Absolutely.
LG V20 with my Brainwavz HM5 headphones (64Ω) sound incredible. This is the sound I loved, I was recommended Chord Mojo but I didn;t like it's slightly sweet and lush sound. V20 sounds more natural, sort of analytical to me which I absolutely love, brings out the fine details and nuances easily, has good separation.
 
I hope next time LG will launch thei V series they will let B&O tune it for all markets, not just for Asia.

I would think that the Brainwavz would be an excellent pairing with the V20 if you prefer your sound very crisp and well defined. Great value for money cans, I'm considering a pair myself. 
We in South Africa were fortunate to get the V20 with Quad DAC - the G6 model available here does not have it.
I believe LG are doing themselves a major disservice by segmenting their market in this way.
I for one would have picked up a fully loaded G6 just to be able to compare the sound quality of the newer Sabre DAC.

 

[Dartin Bout]

This is an unfortunate fact, and I have a feeling the v30 will not have a user replaceable battery, it seems that the v20 might be the last of this forgotten feature. If this is is the case, I'll buy a V20, and shelf the V10 soon.

The price of the V20 has also taken a dive now, to around about what I see as good value as well.

From the rapid increasing in charging efficiency, the removable battery may not be as much of a deal breaker as in prior iteration of phones. Starting with the V10, the S7 Edge and the Note 7, the V20 is a further continuation of the improvements of fast charging.
 
If the V30 is a continuation of this trend, I could live with out a removable battery, as long as I get another iteration of this DAC and mobile recording abilities. A water proof, removable battery seems to me, to be an unlikely innovation, given the many warranty issues the industry has had to cope with in the recent past. 
 
The non-Korean model of the G6 didn't even have the newest version of wireless fast charging. The Galaxy S8 appears to be using a proprietary Qi protocol that is having troubles being back ward compatible with it's previous wireless charging station. Sooo, thank goodness for USB C ports as they are more more robustly engineered and can provide a decently quick charging experience, as opposed to the the G4, G3 Galaxy S5, etc.

 

[audioxxx]

Quick charging is fantastic on a practical sense, but from the way I see this lithium battery technology, the faster you charge a battery, the more stress it's put through, and this will give even less cycles, I think, and the fact it's almost glued inside the phone will make it hard to replace.

I do agree that we need LG to focus more on a universal phone for all models, and not this picking and choosing which country gets what features, all within the cloak of one model.
Which gets really confusing.

 

[jagwap]

Quick charging is fantastic on a practical sense, but from the way I see this lithium battery technology, the faster you charge a battery, the more stress it's put through, and this will give even less cycles, I think, and the fact it's almost glued inside the phone will make it hard to replace.

I do agree that we need LG to focus more on a universal phone for all models, and not this picking and choosing which country gets what features, all within the cloak of one model.
Which gets really confusing.

Yes it is absolutely true that the faster you charge a battery the faster is ages. Also the long it is left at 100% and the hotter it is. That is why battery powered stuff is shipped at 30-40% charge.

No phone company can make one global model due to the huge permutaions of carrier frequencies and LTE bands. However I think you mean Quad DACs etc of the G6. If they made a global phone I don't think it could have a Quad DAC, as Europe wouldn't allow the external and high impedance modes as high outputs on phones are baned there.

 

[imran27]

I played with some settings on Poweramp Alpha (build 703 from play store). The following settings, in my experience, are as good as the stock music player:
Output -> Audio Track for Wired
Audio Track -> Float32 sample rate
Audio Track -> No EQ

I want others to try these settings and verify if my observation is true or just a placebo/software fluke

 

[good sound]

I purchased a V20 a few days ago. Certainly the best sounding phone I have ever heard. It either matches the fidelity of my FiiO X5 first gen when matched with my PM-3's or comes very very close. The only complaints about the sound quality I may have is that it is a little bass light with the PM-3's in direct comparison to the FiiO. Now to be fair the Oppo's can be a liitle light in the lower registers inherently. The one other thing is that while the V20 certainly drives my PM-3's to acceptable volume levels for my tastes, someone looking for anything remotely close to realistic SPL's will definitely have to look elsewhere. Today I listened to a ripped DSF file of The Doors debut. Simply sublime!

I have yet to try my Shure se215's and I'm not really in any hurry. I am not really enamored of these particular IEM's, very uncomfortable for me, and most likely will be looking to replace them shirtly. Any recomendations for a good set of in ears in around the same price range as the Shure's with good bass?

 

[Benn Beckman]

Hey, i have a few question
Can v20 become a dekstop dac?
If i use e17k as an amp, will it upgrade the sound or downgrade the sound?

 

[colour97]

i just got my v 20 and paired ath-a700 at home, incredible sq !! i never expect it can perform so good.

i have some questions:
1. can it be as transport, otg type c / usb to dac? what output sample rate would it be?

2. the plastic foam is not comfortable , can i replace with comply foam?
what size is suitable?

thank you.