Some words. Maybe can be useful for someone, mainly about some chinese smartphones SQ.
Coming to the point, I've been looking for a good SQ smartphone for months, after being quite satisfied with my old Samsung Exynos (using poweramp alpha/beta) for 2-3 times a week in subway, train... But now I use the smartphone every single day and S6's SQ is simply not enough. Then, a couple of months ago my S6 decided to jump from 1,80m. and died. So I've been thinking more seriously about LG G7/V30. Meanwhile, I purchased a Xiaomi Redmi note 5, so I'm not in a hurry now with an operative phone (and will keep it as a backup option).
Before write about Note, two interesting things about LG G7: Now, the sound of the G7 is adjusted by Meridian and, on the other hand, LG just changed the smartphones division CEO for the one who was in charge of home & entertaintment division (including TVs) what is (at first) a very good thing.
Regarding Note 5, I looked for a cheap smartphone with no expectations about SQ at all, cause it will be my backup smartphone when I purchase the new one, and got Redmi Note 5 for 170€ (4gb./64gb.).
When I first plugged A4s, I thought: Sound is not that bad. Weak (but detail retrieval was acceptable and usually I like highs and airy sounds too...)
Shortly after, browsing the device settings, I tried one of the pre configured modes for xiaomi earphones in the sound section... Quickly said: One of this modes (the best that matches your phones and audio preferences) plus EQ to compensate coloration produced by gear differences, changes all. The improvement in SQ, volume, sound signature...
I've been investigating a bit and found that
Dirac HD is adjusting the sound of a lot of smartphones from Xiaomi, Oppo, Oneplus... And it iseems to work very well.
So I was very surprised about all of this. Surprised because SQ, but surprised too cause the little information that can be found, regarding reviews or comparisons. Specifically, comparisons between Dirac's work results in these smartphones and other devices with known good SQ as LG devices. It is very hard to find info about the hardware in them too (regarding internal dac/amp) and I know that LG's quad DAC is a better solution in that regard, but would love to hear some comparison to have a reference about the SQ differences.
EDIT: Then, there's
this. I don't know for sure which "note" model have this hardware, but al the stuff sounds pretty cool.