[Kejusan]

So after reading that thread and being aware that asus changed their dacs to a qualcomm built in dacs i bought myself a new Zenphone 9, being fully aware that it might have its dac badly done.

Well the answer - it is done perfectly.



So there's small review.

Actively used amps\dacs

1) Abigail and Charmtek trp24
2) Sonata E44
3) Steinberg UR22mkII with balanced connection to Ifi Zen Can

Actively used iems

1) Moondrop Chu
2) Salnotes Zero
3) Shouer S12
4) Sony IER-M9

So small preable. I wanted some new phone with actual good jack output, seeing the comments here and seeing that asus rog phone 6 switched to qualcomm dac there was concerns over how Asus implement that dac. I am fully aware that my actively used IEMs are quite efficient so i am fully aware that this dac probably wont drive something overly juicy. But the combination of small size (I LOVE SMALL PHONES), big battery (oh it is BIIIG) and jack sold be on buying that phone.

Frequency response: One of the reason i actively use cx31993 dongles and Sonata e44 is that they have same FR as my desktop Steinberg + IFI Zen Can. And Zenphone 9 deliveres same FR. Dead same.

Soundstage and imaging: After testing it with E44 and Abigail i found out that Zenphone has the same soundstage width as E44, and same somewhat cramped depth as E44 (compared to Zen Can). It was quite clear that Abigail was more dense and blurry in that regard.

Dynamics: That's where Zenphone did a sliiight step back compared to E44. Sometimes in some track it was audible for a moments that decays were bit off compared to E44 (I was testing it with balanced cable and 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter). Granted that cases were REALLY rare. And you need to actively search out for them. Meanwhile compared to Abigail it was quite clean on testing that more cramped soundstage in Abigail hid some dynamics problems as well.

Power: Never did more than 50% on volume with POWERSAVE AUDIO OUTPUT ON (ye, it seem that they did full power implementation of dac with ability to make it low power in power management setting).

Conclusions: I'd say if the phone had same output as cx31993 dongle i would be pleased, but the phone actually overdelivered. The implementation of that DAC is quite great.
Master audio is crap as all DSPs yeh, but overall "hack" is to put it on music mode and it will skip all DSP.

I am really happy that i dont need to carry on dongles anymore to get great sound. Thanks Asus for a phone with actually good 3.5 jack. And actual day lasting battery (easily does 10hours of seeding wifi, playing youtube with screen on and playing music through iems).

I know that i might be insufficient for headphones or iems that requires power just to drive them but given my iems i'd say that "scalability" of power is not an issue here for more or less efficient ones.

Good to know that Zenfone sounded good. More option to choose from other than Xperia when the time comes for my V60. Price for Xperia is quite expensive and my experience with Xperia 10 II isn't that good (my wife's phone) as there's this frequent rebooting of phone which will soon descends to bootloop (happened twice so far) which was only recoverable by using Xperia tools which means that it reset and clean everything on the phone. It still have the frequent self-reboot issue even after. And there're many reports of green/pink lines appearing on Xperia 5ii.

If V60 is still viable at that time I might still go with V60.

 

[artpiggo]

I can find vivo nex s in less than $100, so I bought it. Another good one for my collection.

 

[TheUnknow]

I can find vivo nex s in less than $100, so I bought it. Another good one for my collection.

Nice

At some point, i was attempted to get a Vivo Xplay 3S on Dhgate (new, around 150 €) , just curious to hear how it sounded , but i took too much time too decide and now you can't find them anywhere anymore.

 

[Results45]

Just for info, I just changed my phone to xperia 10 IV because of compact size and lightweight.

I would say the sound tuning is on bright side, kinda less bass than I expected and like you already know, the power output is low.

For the sound, I think my old samsung s10+ sounds better than sony to my ears.

Nice! I just scored a deal on one for £243 or $276. The dude bought them in August and just doesn't want it anymore apparently so I expect it to arrive in pretty decent condition.

I know someone mentioned PWM issues, but I don't think that affects audio quality. I'm just glad it has a 3.5mm jack and 5,000mAh battery that edge out the Galaxy M51 and gives the iPhone 13/14 Pro Max a run for it's money in longevity.



It seems like the idle vs load wattages on the 10 IV are a lot more similar to the iPhone Pro Max than the Mi Max 3 or Galaxy M51 which is good.

I live in the US so cellular band compatibility won't be great -- no worries though cuz I plan to mainly use it as a compact DAP with my Hidizs S9 Pro dongle DAC-AMP + Audioquest Jitterbug noise filter. Should last at least 8-10 hours even with high impedance headphones cranked or 15-18 hours via just the standard jack maybe even 20 hours with Bluetooth headphones.

If ya can't tell I'm excited [:

With the exception of my daily driver all my dedicated "hobby phones" have headphone jacks (Realme X2 Pro for gaming, soon Xperia 10 IV for my listening setup, 3 Moto Z-series phones + 2 x JBL speaker mods, and hopefully an Oppo Reno 10X Zoom for photography)

I wonder if we'll ever see a foldable or expanding phone with a headphone jack, but even if it doesn't I bet your average 2027 model will have a 10,000mAh+ battery, great cameras, decent dual or quad speakers, and performance equivalent to today's newest desktop CPUs.

We may be in an "audiophile phone" lull right now, but I bet some brand somewhere will revive the trend to differentiate themselves from mainstream offerings. That or if the open source computing ecosystem (RISC-V for example) & customizable endomodular devices (Framework, Fairphone, Shiftphone) matures and becomes accessible to the mainstream market -- imagine being able to choose what ports you want or sacrificing a camera & some battery capacity for a dedicated DAC chip and better speakers

So from reading few pages ago i still see the same familiar names like v10, 20, etc HTC 10, so i must gess the new audiophile phone gen hasn't comes out

Oh guys, i can't describe how much im happy you are still here and this place still exist...

It's like a year i didn't come here since when i picked a Vivo nex S and was really satisfied with it sound even i would have well thrown an ear on the 6 plus.

So, are there new gear to surpass last vivo's kingdom still?

Does the Sony has a dedicated dac ?

So the audiophile concept on phones describe the ability to carry high impedance headphone above the sound accuracy because if the Sony phone sound can get u lost in it, it definitely can't sound like any random phone.

With what other phones did you compare the markiii with?

As @sh0bo mentioned any phone that can handle earbuds/IEMs, headphones, or even portable wired speakers with a high Ohm value could be considered an "audiophile device".

I currently have the V50, but I've heard good things about the LG V60 and G8X as successors to the V40 and G7.

The ROG Phone 5 & 5S ares the latest phones to have the ESS Sabre 9280AC PRO quad-DAC. Someone on Reddit saud it's comparable to a Fiio M11 DAP in terms of output power & quality so it can probably easily power headphones up to 150 Ohms on the 3.5mm jack.

https://www.fiio.com/m11_parameters

It seems like Asus ditched the internal dedicated DAC this year on the ROG Phone 6 & 6S for the $100 "CLAVIS dongle" with thr Sabre ES9821 PRO quad-DAC inside.

Would be interesting IMO to see how it stacks up against the Dragonfly Cobalt, Earman Eagle, Earman Sparrow, Fiio BRT5, Fiio KA3, S9 Pro (the battery hog apparently), and Cayin RU6


https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/earmen-eagle.24817/reviews

And if you're looking into buying a phone from the tail-end of the "golden era of audio enthusiast phones" or are just in mood for adding to your collection I recommend checking out the ZTE Axon 7 for $75-$90 used and the Axon 7 Mini for $60 used/$190 brand new on eBay.

Both sport the AKM AK9461 which is a minority when it comes to seeing phones with AKM DAC circuits versus ESS Sabre models.

I'd love to hear how well it holds up against both older ESS Sabre phones as well as the latest ones!

What does a ****ing smartphone need 18 gigs if ram ***???

Yeah 8-10 gigs is borderline overkill already and all my current phones have 6 gigs or less.

16 gigs is what a lot of gaming and workstation laptops have by default so that's definitely outrageously overkill for a phone let along wasting several hundred bucks just to have the "most RAM phone ever" xD

I guess it helps if you're an Android developer or just like to disable the background app limit to keep multiple games, music apps, large PDF documents, browsers with dozens of tabs, and other heavy apps running in the background all at once.

 

[Results45]

These are the most useful posts I've come across on this thread so far since I started discussing here early this year:

LG V60 vs. ROG PHONE 5 output levels:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...pdated-jan-2020.853115/page-306#post-16848159

Low vs. High impedance mode on the LG G7:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...part-ii-updated-jan-2020.853115/post-16848718

LG V10 is superior........

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...pdated-jan-2020.853115/page-312#post-17007188

Xperia 10 IV vs. Other recent Sony phones.......

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...pdated-jan-2020.853115/page-317#post-17076264

Reviewing Chinese Hi-Fi phones:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...pdated-jan-2020.853115/page-313#post-17013673

What's the difference in DAC tuning between each LG phone model?

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...pdated-jan-2020.853115/page-317#post-17086695

Apparently no difference in default tuning in American V30-V40-V50 and LG V60 is neutral:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...pdated-jan-2020.853115/page-317#post-17088639

 

[artpiggo]

And if you're looking into buying a phone from the tail-end of the "golden era of audio enthusiast phones" or are just in mood for adding to your collection I recommend checking out the ZTE Axon 7 for $75-$90 used and the Axon 7 Mini for $60 used/$190 brand new on eBay.

I have tried it since 2016. It didnt impress me.

 

[352178]

I remember someone statinf that HTC 10 dances circles around both Axon 7. Meanwhile, I renewed my 2 year plan and the mobile operator in Bulgaria gave me a brand new Oneplus Nord CE 2 Lite for just $ 65 cash, or $ 3.50 per month. Including protective back and preapplied screen protector!!! I bought it out of curiosity to see how are those low PPI IPS LCD doing, and I was curious to test the 33W Super VOOC. Man, does this thing have killer, deep black colours! Unbelievable minimal brightness. It cannot match the colour accuracy of the Golden era phones like HTC 10 or LG V10, but I honestly don't get how people spend thousands on phones. When strangers stop me and ask about the price of my headphones, I reply they cost $ 300. And some of them yell "Are you insane"...The irony... Meanwhile, I spent over $100 on batteries for LG V10. I prefer its sound and I sold Arcam rPac with an OFC cable. The xDuoo link 2 Bal has very different tuning, and still sounds analogue. The V10 is on par. I wonder if a balanced cable is worth it for Sennheiser HD 599 SE...

 

[Results45]

The little battery beast has landed! °^_^°

 

[andrewski]

Pleasantly surprised by an Android 12 update on my LG G8, with September security patch. Does my Bluetooth sound better? It's certainly louder. At least LG is going out with class

 

[Results45]

Pleasantly surprised by an Android 12 update on my LG G8, with September security patch. Does my Bluetooth sound better? It's certainly louder. At least LG is going out with class

Dunno why, but apparently the one upward-firing speaker on my Moto Z4 is just as loud and better tuned than the dual speakers on my slowly dying (cuz many drops off a bike) LG V50. Go figure.

I just switched back to the Moto for the next month or two until I get the broken Pixel 5a I got for $90 fixed.

 

[andrewski]

Dunno why, but apparently the one upward-firing speaker on my Moto Z4 is just as loud and better tuned than the dual speakers on my slowly dying (cuz many drops off a bike) LG V50. Go figure.

I just switched back to the Moto for the next month or two until I get the broken Pixel 5a I got for $90 fixed.

I'm really not fond of the speakers of the G8. The stereo speakers on the HTC One m8 were so much better.

 

[Brain Damage]

I'm really not fond of the speakers of the G8. The stereo speakers on the HTC One m8 were so much better.

However, plug in wired iems/headphones and how the table turns .

 

[Brain Damage]

However, plug in wired iems/headphones and how the table turns .

The HTC Desire 10 Pro and Desire 10 Lifestyle had good boomsound speakers too - not to mention the best internal dac pre-LG V-- series phones imho.

 

[andrewski]

The HTC Desire 10 Pro and Desire 10 Lifestyle had good boomsound speakers too - not to mention the best internal dac pre-LG V-- series phones imho.

I missed out on two of the best, the HTC 10 and LG V30. Still have my V20 though. I tapped out and bought a Walkman. Can't afford an Xperia anymore, so probably going Motorola

 

[daveya]

Ok, downloaded Audio player pro, cost £10.48 UK to buy and get MQA, started 3 month Tidal trial

Using Qudelix 5k and Sundara with Oratory PEQ, Sony Xperia 5 iV

So, compared the Sony LDAC ultra HD from Amazon to The usb Audio pro and Tidals MQA

Literally no difference