Best Smartphone for audiophile Part II (Updated: Jan 2020)

[RishiGuru]

Will do. Will compare it to my F2 Pro(Snapdragon 865)and see if it's worse or better.

I use to own the Xiaomi K20 Pro(Snapdragon 855)which had a better sound quality than the F2 Pro. Seems Audio quality likely getting worse every year with each Snapdragon release.

From what 30 odd smartphones that I own, sound quality wise will rate them in following order:

LG V30, Vivo NEX S, LG V60, LG G8X, Meizu 16th, Vivo X5Max, LG Velvet, iQOO 3

1) V30, NEX S are the only ones capable to play native DSD audio, a ultra rare feature in smartphones. DSD sound is amazing.
2) V30, V60, G8X, X5Max all had dedicated ESS dacs
3) NEX S had dedicated Cirrus Logic dac
4) 16th & Velvet used Qualcomm audio codec chip. Special mention to 16th as it used perhaps the best audio codec Qualcomm ever created aka Aqstic WCD9341 during the time when hifi dac companies poured into smartphone arena. The way the WCD9341 was implemented in 16th my Meizu, hardware wise, shelding wise and tuning wise its almost there with V60 in sound quality. At least in my ears.
5) iQOO i think had a AKM AK4375 and sound was solid
6) A special mention to X5Max, the thinnest smartphone in the world with pathetic battery life and glorious audio quality. It had no competition until I got the V30.

 

[kutulu32]

I agree with you about Meizu 16th , the problem is that hires Playback is down sampled to 16 48. Don't know if this can be fixed with changes in audio config files. If possible it will increase audio quality of hires . Mx4pro "bypasses" the android mixer.

 

[kutulu32]

It's easy to check that with the dumpsys media , command in terminal during hires Playback. Even with UAPP.

 

[REXNFX]

From what 30 odd smartphones that I own, sound quality wise will rate them in following order:

LG V30, Vivo NEX S, LG V60, LG G8X, Meizu 16th, Vivo X5Max, LG Velvet, iQOO 3

1) V30, NEX S are the only ones capable to play native DSD audio, a ultra rare feature in smartphones. DSD sound is amazing.
2) V30, V60, G8X, X5Max all had dedicated ESS dacs
3) NEX S had dedicated Cirrus Logic dac
4) 16th & Velvet used Qualcomm audio codec chip. Special mention to 16th as it used perhaps the best audio codec Qualcomm ever created aka Aqstic WCD9341 during the time when hifi dac companies poured into smartphone arena. The way the WCD9341 was implemented in 16th my Meizu, hardware wise, shelding wise and tuning wise its almost there with V60 in sound quality. At least in my ears.
5) iQOO i think had a AKM AK4375 and sound was solid
6) A special mention to X5Max, the thinnest smartphone in the world with pathetic battery life and glorious audio quality. It had no competition until I got the V30.

Thanks! Were any of them improved by adding a dongle DAC?

 

[RishiGuru]

I agree with you about Meizu 16th , the problem is that hires Playback is down sampled to 16 48. Don't know if this can be fixed with changes in audio config files. If possible it will increase audio quality of hires . Mx4pro "bypasses" the android mixer.

I never investigated the down sampling issue on my Meizu 16th. I keep almost all my PCM audio in 16th and 75% of them are in 16/44.1. Rest in higher resolution. The phone is Google GMS certified, so Google Playstore came pre-installed. Use UAPP for everything audio.

16th was the last flagship from Meizu to offer an audio jack. They just lost a lengthy battle with Qualcomm, had to pay them a fortune to settle the case. Then only Meizu was able to use the then flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. To me this phone is a reference for Snapdragon sound and what can be sonically achieved with a flagship grade audio codec like Qualcomm WCD9341. Meizu being Meizu did not skimp on the audio hardware implementation for WCD9341. The motherboard was designed to provide max power the audio chip was designed for, which resulted in max fidelity and driving capability. Dedicated separate shielding of the WCD9341 was also provided to reduce interference and of course the final audio tuning.

 

[RishiGuru]

Thanks! Were any of them improved by adding a dongle DAC?

In the related post I compared analogue audio through headphone jack of respective smartphones. The DAC/ audio chip is present inside the phone.

If I am going to use a USB dongle with an inbuilt audio DAC, it will sound the SAME no matter which phone I use.

 

[REXNFX]

In the related post I compared analogue audio through headphone jack of respective smartphones. The DAC/ audio chip is present inside the phone.

If I am going to use a USB dongle with an inbuilt audio DAC, it will sound the SAME no matter which phone I use.

Yes, what I was asking was how does the phones headphone jack sound compared to if you added a dongle DAC?

 

[kutulu32]

Some new dongles are great. . And they offer balanced connection. If you use balanced cables for your gear it's the only way.

 

[kutulu32]

There is one phone that accepts balanced connection , but reviews are mixed till now . Didn't try it .

 

[Results45]

Merry Christmas + 90 minutes!

Brands that have kept up the pace of including 3.5mm headphone jacks in several if not all their latest models this year:

• Asus
• Motorola
• Nubia (Red Magic)
• Oppo
• Realme
• Sony
• TCL
• Umidigi

The major changes are the addition of models released within the past year and the removal of models released in 2018. I may post an update around new year's if enough new additions warrant one.

I still have last year's list archived in the master Google Sheet. Just ask me if you'd like to reference it (or look back to earlier posts with this list)

 

[REXNFX]

Merry Christmas + 90 minutes!

Brands that have kept up the pace of including 3.5mm headphone jacks in several if not all their latest models this year:

• Asus
• Motorola
• Nubia (Red Magic)
• Oppo
• Realme
• Sony
• TCL
• Umidigi

The major changes are the addition of models released within the past year and the removal of models released in 2018. I may post an update around new year's if enough new additions warrant one.

I still have last year's list archived in the master Google Sheet. Just ask me if you'd like to reference it (or look back to earlier posts with this list)

A few more on this list :
https://m.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2024&chk35mm=selected&sAvailabilities=1

 

[RishiGuru]

Merry Christmas + 90 minutes!

Brands that have kept up the pace of including 3.5mm headphone jacks in several if not all their latest models this year:

• Asus
• Motorola
• Nubia (Red Magic)
• Oppo
• Realme
• Sony
• TCL
• Umidigi

The major changes are the addition of models released within the past year and the removal of models released in 2018. I may post an update around new year's if enough new additions warrant one.

I still have last year's list archived in the master Google Sheet. Just ask me if you'd like to reference it (or look back to earlier posts with this list)

Selling smartphone is a business. That is what it is. Now they have a new product known as crappy TWS which they need to sell customers to gain some extra bucks. How to force them? Outgoes the headphone jack in smartphones. Apple was "brave" enough to do it first. Others quickly followed. Fast forward few years we are left with few smartphones sporting a headphone jack. Bar a few gaming phones they are mostly available on only entry level phones.

The last two smartphones with near flagship grade performance sporting the GOLDEN jack were Redmi K50i/ Poco X4 GT (Mediatek Dimensity 8100) and Poco F5 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen2). I own both. The F5 is the better phone overall, K50i have better audio quality. As usual Xiaomi skimped with audio implementation of F5 while providing some attention to the older K50i. The later had HiFi mode, and with Mediatek audio codec was good for casual listening. The bass was a bit overpowering on K50i, but this can be sorted out with matching earphones.

However as of today, the phone that I always additionally carry for audio nirvana and some multimedia is the V60. This phone is the absolute pinnacle from LG stable and provides the ultimate balance between audio and general performance for my daily use case scenarios.

 

[Results45]

A few more on this list :
https://m.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2024&chk35mm=selected&sAvailabilities=1

I already filtered through all that and the list only includes models that can be used on US cell carriers and not literally every single phone ever made in the past 5 years with a headphone jack -- it would otherwise be triple or even quadruple the size with at least half of them being "burner smartphones" that happen to have jacks. Kimovil filtering UI is more pleasurable to use IMO.

 

[REXNFX]

I already filtered through all that and the list only includes models that can be used on US cell carriers and not literally every single phone ever made in the past 5 years with a headphone jack -- it would otherwise be triple or even quadruple the size with at least half of them being "burner smartphones" that happen to have jacks. Kimovil filtering UI is more pleasurable to use IMO.

This site has a global audience, posting a list of US available phones is about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

 

[Results45]

This site has a global audience, posting a list of US available phones is about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

Totally get it. If I had more time or got around to train an AI to comb through hundreds of phone specification pages in a very specific workflow I would. I've done my best to include as many models as possible not readily sold in North America.

It also happens that midrange and flagship US-compatible phones also support the frequency bands of cellular networks in the vast majority of other countries and not the other way around.

P.S. there's actually places that serve cocktails comprised of espresso, drinking chocolate, and rum so sounds pretty tasty to me!