Hey! What is considered the best audiophile phone? Xplay 5s or 6, NEX s, LG v30/v40/G7 (these are those i know of) and how will you rank them?
Do someone own both vivo and LG to compare? that would be nice i need a phone and want one with good audio!
Thanks
I live in India, hence I buy smartphones which are readily available here and are Google certified. Google eco-system and its security are mandatory requirements for me in a phone. Almost all major smartphone manufacturers have their manufacturing plants in our country and phones are relatively cheaper than other countries due to fierce market competition.
I personally own following phones with dedicated DACs:
1) LG V30+ (A pair of them)
HiFi Mode: ESS ES9218P SABRE (DAC + Integrated Headphone Amplifier, LG's QuadDAC)
Standard Mode: Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9341
Native DSD Playback Support: Yes (DSD64 & DSD128)
Soc: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
OS: Android 9
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2) Vivo NEX (Vivo NEX S in China)
HiFi Mode: Cirrus Logic CS43199 (DAC) + 3 X Analog Devices SSM6322 (Headphone Amplifiers, stacked triple-stage amplification)
Standard Mode: Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9340
Native DSD Playback Support: Yes (DSD64)
Soc: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
OS: Android 10
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3) Lenovo Vibe X3
HiFi Mode: ESS ES9018C2M SABRE (DAC) + Texas Instruments OPA1612 (I/V converter) + 2 X Texas Instruments OPA1612 (Headphone Amplifiers, stacked two-stage amplification)
Standard Mode: Wolfson WM8281
Native DSD Playback Support: No
Soc: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
OS: Android 6.1
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4) Vivo X5Max
HiFi Mode: ESS ES9018K2M SABRE (DAC) + ESS SABRE9601K (I/V converter) + Texas Instruments OPA1612 (Headphone Amplifier)
Standard Mode: Qualcomm generic audio codec
Native DSD Playback Support: No
Soc: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615
OS: Android 4.4
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5) Vivo V5Plus (Vivo X9 in China)
HiFi Mode: AKM AK4376 (DAC + Integrated Headphone Amplifier)
Standard Mode: Qualcomm generic audio codec
Native DSD Playback Support: No
Soc: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
OS: Android 7.1.2
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6) Meizu 16th (Meizu 16 in China)
Standard Mode: Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9341 (DAC + Integrated Headphone Amplifier)
(A better implementation than AKM AK4376, as implemented in high performance mode in 16th)
Native DSD Playback Support: No
Soc: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
OS: Android 8.1
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I am a music lover. My job requires lot of travelling so I pick smartphones with good music playback capabilities & great audio quality over 3.5 mm audio jack.
It all started in 2014, when I first bought the Vivo X5Max. Stellar audio quality courtesy the holy trinity of ES9018K2M, SABRE9601K and OPA1612 combination in a phone. Audio was heaven on earth back then on this phone. Still is. I listen to this phone even today, it has the level of resolution & detail which was unheard back then and still is. Very accurate and natural sounding and sometimes may sound downright clinical. However it has the level of audio resolution which is very hard to come by in smartphones. To my eyes a collectors item. However it lacked the juice to power proper sized cans, hence best options were to stick to good in-ear earphones and maybe some very efficient headphones. And may I add X5Max holds the record of the thinnest smartphone in the world at just 5.1 mm and still Vivo was able to add a headphone jack with excellent audio quality. I just laugh when jerks speak removal of audio jacks was necessary to slim down the phone.
The next phone I bought was the Lenovo Vibe X3. Back in 2016, this phone was selling like hot cakes in our country. A proper flagship of a phone with great audio capabilities. Vibe X3 simply put in my eyes was Lenovo's (aka Motorola) best phone ever created in its respective time-frame. Using an even more advanced ESS dac and stacked dual-stage OPA1612 headphone amplifiers instead of just one in X5Max, it provided what X5Max desperately lacked, the ability to drive big over-the-ear headphones. From headphone drive perspective this was definitely a huge jump in the right direction for a smartphone. X3 had two dedicated audio paths. The "Turbo Hi-Fi" is for purists using ES9018C2M and triple OPA1612 configuration. The sound quality was sublime, more melodious and slightly mellower sounding than X5Max. But this time with good amount of drive capability. You can properly drive Sennheiser HD598 with Vibe X3. The "Standard Hi-Fi" on the other hand used Wolfson WM8281 audio codec, which was leagues ahead of Qualcomm audio solutions back then. Vibe X3 was also the overall better device of the two. And X3 had the best front firing stereo speaker I have ever heard on any phone. Period. It even had Dolby ATMOS so the speakers sounded very musical. It was a complete multimedia powerhouse. I am a keeper so I still own my Vibe X3.
A year later Vivo introduced the Xplay 6, with slightly upgraded but near identical audio hardware setup to Lenovo Vibe X3 as mentioned below:
Lenovo Vibe X3: ESS ES9018C2M SABRE (DAC) + Texas Instruments OPA1612 (I/V converter) + 2 X Texas Instruments OPA1612 (Headphone Amplifiers, stacked two-stage amplification)
Vivo Xplay 6: ESS ES9038Q2M SABRE (DAC) + Texas Instruments OPA1622 (I/V converter) + 2 X Texas Instruments OPA1622 (Headphone Amplifiers, stacked two-stage amplification)
I was very keen on this device as it was Vivo's first phone with native DSD playback capability with hardware decoding support inside the DAC. This produces the best audio quality I can think off. This was the first opportunity for me to load all the precious DSD collection as DSF & DFF files in a smartphone. Sadly Vivo India never launched this phone here. A close friend of mine, an audio buff to the core once traveled to China due to business reasons and had the opportunity to test the Xplay 6. He listened to same songs on Xplay 6 and Lenovo Vibe X3 side-by-side and came to the following conclusion: Both phones sounds near identical with any type of PCM audio files and HiFi mode enabled, having same audio sound signature & resolution. But with native DSD playback enabled Xplay 6 goes to another realm and is a step above Vibe X3. Only DSD64 is available for native playback, and on this mode it can slay many expensive portable players. I trust him and I regret not having one till date.
Next LG V30+ grabbed my attention. I always knew V series was great for audio so had a V30+ for last two years. I am so impressed with this phone I recently bought another one for my wife. I got the new one three month back for a bargain price of $150 brand new. Simply put the ESS ES9218P SABRE (Quad DAC) is one of the best audio implementations I have ever heard on a smartphone. B&O tuned V30+ have the attack of X5Max, actually it is the big brother of X5Max in maintaining the same sound signature. Natural sounding, crystal clear, ultra revealing are some words that come to my mind while thinking of V30+. But the biggest advantage of ES9218P SABRE is headphone drive capability, with 2 Vrms in disposal. I am able to drive almost all of my over the ear headphones with ease. The second biggest advantage of V30+ is native DSD playback with support for both DSD64 & DSD128. Having 128GB internal memory + 256 GB memory card, it has all the space required for my entire DSD collection in the phone.
The last phone I want to talk about is my Vivo NEX (NEX S in China). Very few people know about this phone. I own one as it is readily available in India with full Google certification in place. Not only is it a high end flagship device with SD845 & 8 gigs of ram but as you have guessed very good headphone audio quality with 130 dB SNR & -115 dB (THD+N). The NEX is the only other phone that can truly rival the LG's Quad DAC while having a sound signature that is drastically different compared to LGs. This makes NEX so special to me. Every DAC manufacturer have its own sound signature, hence playing back the same song on LG V30+ & Vivo NEX provides very different experiences with same headphones. Where as with V30+ the sound signature is detailed with incredible instrument separation and a vertically narrow sound-stage, the NEX with Cirrus Logic DACs produces warm, textured sound with awesome vocals and super wide sound-stage in the horizontal plain. Vocals just shine on NEX and this phone have the ability to create a big sound stage. If you hear Norah Jones on NEX, it feels like you are in her live concert, but if you hear the same song on V30+, it will picking every nuances of her breath while she is singing the song and reveal every micro-detail of the song. NEX also have a lot of headphone driving power just like the V30+, and with cans over 50 ohms NEX starts to flex its muscles. Micro details now gets even more prominent on NEX.
Lastly, NEX has perhaps the best native DSD playback in a phone. It is only the second phone from Vivo's stable after Xplay 6 to support native DSD playback. It supports only DSD64, but the level is much higher than DSD128 on my LG V30+. I am talking on a subjective level though. In NEX there is a dedicated professional DSD mode switch in sound settings. If that switch is disabled and I play DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 files, all files will be software decoded from DSD to PCM by the default music player and get played. But if I enable the DSD switch, its like Pure Direct mode gets enabled, and all other types of notification sounds gets immediately disabled. In this mode raw DSD gets fed to the DAC for hardware decoding inside the DAC. I can now play DSD64 using default music player while NEX produces the best DSD listening experience to my ears on a smartphone. Others may vary.
So yeah.. it all boils down to two phones for me, LG V30+ and Vivo NEX S. I cannot choose one, I need both for providing two distinctly different flavors of the same song in my ears. Now the choice is yours.
