[breadvan]

Tell me if this is a really silly idea:


Galaxy S4 - (USB) - Fiio E17/L9 Line out - (MINI to MINI) - JDS labs C421.

As long as they sound good to you! I wouldn't call them portable though.

 

[DanBa]

Quote:

On LG G2: it is still unclear to me, whether the phone will be able to output USB audio up to 24/192 to an external DAC, or would it only be capable of playing this type of content via its onboard DAC/3.5mm output jack? The marketing text, as usual, is as unclear, as possible...

 

 
Apparently, the LG G2 is not able to output USB audio up to 24/192 to an extenal DAC using legacy music player (i.e. non-USB Audio Recorder PRO music player).
 
"The G2 has Qualcomm WCD9320 audio chipsets which support up to 24-bit/192kHz. 
When earphones & headsets are inserted, true 24-bit audio is played with the Hi-Fi icon displayed.
But when connecting to other devices (e.g. speakers) through Bluetooth & USB, the audio is down-sampled."
http://www.whathifi.com/news/lg-confirms-details-of-hi-res-audio-playback-on-g2-phone

 

[kimvictor]

Quote:

 
Apparently, the LG G2 is not able to output USB audio up to 24/192 to an extenal DAC using legacy music player (i.e. non-USB Audio Recorder PRO music player).
 
"The G2 has Qualcomm WCD9320 audio chipsets which support up to 24-bit/192kHz. 
When earphones & headsets are inserted, true 24-bit audio is played with the Hi-Fi icon displayed.
But when connecting to other devices (e.g. speakers) through Bluetooth & USB, the audio is down-sampled."
http://www.whathifi.com/news/lg-confirms-details-of-hi-res-audio-playback-on-g2-phone

What a shame!

 

[stefzulj]

Quote:

 

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20Spoiler!

 
 
Apparently, the LG G2 is not able to output USB audio up to 24/192 to an extenal DAC using legacy music player (i.e. non-USB Audio Recorder PRO music player).
 
"The G2 has Qualcomm WCD9320 audio chipsets which support up to 24-bit/192kHz. 
When earphones & headsets are inserted, true 24-bit audio is played with the Hi-Fi icon displayed.
But when connecting to other devices (e.g. speakers) through Bluetooth & USB, the audio is down-sampled."
http://www.whathifi.com/news/lg-confirms-details-of-hi-res-audio-playback-on-g2-phone

Really like the look of this phone, but seems I might just wait and see what Android 5.0 has to offer before upgrading my S3. Could a custom kernel potentially bypass the down-sampling or is it something that is stuck within the hardware?

 

[bhazard]

Quote:

What a shame!

That doesn't mean it wont work with USB audio recorder or some workaround.

 

[Raenmor]

Downsampling is an android "feature" for compatibility. It resamples every stream to 48/16 to work on every, even the cheapest DACs. It's not kernel related (well, partially), but mainly OS limitation, so bypassing this requires either heavy modifications to android sound logic, especially if you want bit perfect output. There is bunch of audio layers, such as mixer, dsp effects and so on. Global bypass is painful, but can be done relatively easy by using player, that can send pcm stream to alsa directly, but it have to get root privileges, so it will be a system app from manufacturer, if you don't want to mess with your phone rooting it and so on. Afaik iBasso did the same trick with their DX100, and probably LG will take the same approach.
 
There are other ways, but you will either have to root your phone to do it yourself, or wait for google to change their audio logic.

 

[DanBa]

Quote:

Really like the look of this phone, but seems I might just wait and see what Android 5.0 has to offer before upgrading my S3. Could a custom kernel potentially bypass the down-sampling or is it something that is stuck within the hardware?

 
USB audio is not yet implemented by Google.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/2625#post_9614979
 
Actually each Android device manufacturer implements its own USB Audio.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/2985#post_9762071
 
The different native USB audio implementations use the Android media player framework which currently has some hi-res limitation instructions (i.e. only 16/44.1).
 
 

 
 
Luckily, the USB Audio Recorder PRO app available on Google Play store, including a USB audio driver at the Android user space, allows a lot of stock Android devices with or without native USB audio to interwork with a lot of USB DACs,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.extreamsd.usbaudiorecorderpro
 
USB Audio Recorder PRO can transmit high resolution PCM streams to 32/384 capable USB DAC like the M2Tech hiFace DAC.
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
USB Audio Recorder PRO is my preferred hi-res / non-hi-res music player because it can output a very natural sound. I have also Neutron and Poweramp music players.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/2475#post_9511388
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/1185#post_8989408

http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/2475#post_9513867

 

[bmichels]

[size=1.7em] Acer Announces Liquid S2[/size]

 
v
 
[size=13.333333969116211px]"Users can store a large library of photos, music and videos on the expandable memory of up to 128GB to complement the standard 16GB on-board storage."[/size]
 
[size=13.333333969116211px]interesting isn't it for storing all those large High-Res files ?    Just hope that it can output 24/96 out ![/size]

 

[zhang965]

I Have a Note II
 
 But the player seem fast forward the song and i cannot hear any sound come out from my head phone, 
 
with the samsung music player and neutron the same problem

 

[DanBa]

Which USB DAC do you have?
 
How about using USB Audio Recorder PRO music player?
There is a free trial version.

 

[White Lotus]

   
[size=13.333333969116211px]expandable memory of up to 128GB to complement the standard 16GB on-board storage."[/size]

So it probably takes full-size SD cards then? 

(as 128gb Micro SD cards aren't on the market yet)

 

[FraGGleR]

  Galaxy Note II & HRT microStreamer:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue65/microstreamer.htm
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/audeze2/1.html
http://www.head-fi.org/t/647693/sonic-satori-hrt-levels-the-field-with-the-microstreamer/420#post_9759399
 
Galaxy Note II > USB audio out >> USB OTG cable >> HRT microStreamer USB DAC/amp >> Audeze LCD-3 headphones
 
 
   

The only problem with this setup is that there is a lot of noise with sensitive headphones (IEMs).  The amp runs at full power and the phone reduces the volume of the music digitally.  So noise and a loss of sound quality.  With higher impedance or lower sensitivity headphones, this setup is better.
 
PS.  Were you able to get hi rez music to play?  It played at half speed through USB Audio Recorder Pro.

 

[breadvan]

The only problem with this setup is that there is a lot of noise with sensitive headphones (IEMs).  The amp runs at full power and the phone reduces the volume of the music digitally.  So noise and a loss of sound quality.  With higher impedance or lower sensitivity headphones, this setup is better.

PS.  Were you able to get hi rez music to play?  It played at half speed through USB Audio Recorder Pro.

I did it just for the sake of fun and sort of a 'proof of concept', not saying this is THE way to go.

For your info., to 'me' noise was next to not there, and I was using 80% of the MS volume to get to a very satisfactory volume, consider its diminutive form factor I would think it's more than done its job.

 

[SV_huMMer]

 
 
 

Originally Posted by DanBa /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Apparently, the LG G2 is not able to output USB audio up to 24/192 to an extenal DAC using legacy music player (i.e. non-USB Audio Recorder PRO music player).

 
DanBa, thanks for the update. Basically what it means is that LG used a 24/192 capable chip to make internally D-A converted audio non-downsampled, instead of making the entire audio layer capable to output non-downsampled digital audio. To me - a strange move. If they bothered to fiddle with OS to make the first part happen, why not add a couple of minor tweaks to enable the second?....

 

[DanBa]

 
 
Quote:

  The amp runs at full power and the phone reduces the volume of the music digitally.  So noise and a loss of sound quality. 
 

 
According to HRT, the microStreamer has a digitally-controlled analog volume control:
http://highresolutiontechnologies.com/microstreamer
 
"Dual purpose built, it incorporates both a high–performance headphone amplifier with an analog volume control that allows you to connect the microStreamer between your computer and headphones; and a fixed-level, low impedance 2.25V line output that allows you to connect between your computer and home stereo, other entertainment system or to powered loudspeakers.
Volume control of microStreamer’s OCL (output capacitor-less) headphone amplifier is accomplished by using the digital ‘slide’ control on the host computer’s music playback software to adjust microStreamers’s internal analog volume attenuator. This clever analogue attenuation arrangement allows the full audio quality of the microStreamer to remain pure, clean and full-ranged, avoiding the known sonic degradation of digital attenuators."
 
 

 

 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs/2790#post_9674021
 
Such an analog volume control of the USB DAC/amp is adjusted by a virtual or physical up/down knob of the PC which has an implementation of USB HID (Human Interface Device).
The digital volume control of the USB DAC/amp is adjusted by a virtual up/down knob of a music player running on the PC.
 
I don’t have a USB DAC/amp which has a digitally-controlled analog volume control, I don’t know if Android device has an implementation of USB HID.