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

[Strifeff7]

ROG Phone 6 audio is a downgrade vs the previous ROG 5,
it's a bit disappointing honestly,

 

[thamasha69]

Does anyone know the audio specifics of the Redmi Note 10 Pro? I saw brief impressions earlier in this thread. I believe it has onboard Qualcomm audio but there is a Hi-fi setting in the settings that I'm wondering specifically what it does - or how does it display in Neutron? Other Xiaomi/Redmi phones have this Hi-fi setting as well. I don't own the phone yet, which is why I'm asking. Thank you.

 

[garysohn]

Anyone have experience with TCL 20 Pro 5G? For use in USA on Verizon. It's on Amazon.

 

[352178]

V60 and g7 are pretty similar in terms of sound quality with some very minor differences. I don't think most people will notice the difference unless they have used both for extended period of time. Here is my impression of the difference using Sennheiser Hd 560s (no eq, no 3d effect, set to normal and flat with short filter applied). The v60 will have a slightly wider sound stage and just a tad more detail compared to g7. The bass on v60 is a tiny bit tighter but also a bit less loud (very minor, maybe like half or quarter decibel. Unnoticeable at most times). I noticed no other difference in mids and treble. Hope this answers your question.

Yes, sir, it does answer my questions. You were crucially helpful, hats off! V60 has PWM around 350 Hz, the Velvet is around 250 Hz, and does not even feature a quad DAC! I have spent countless nights comparing G7 and V10, as I live in a noisy area, so I had to test them at night. The soundstage of V10 is definitely a notch above G7, so is the fullness of the sound, not to mention how analogue it sounds, it approaches the mighy xDuoo Link2 Bal (which itself is jaw-dropping, thanks to Andy from Donglemadness). The detail of G7 is more clear, but not in a good way - digital, more "in your face", almost aggressive. The bass is much better on V10 in every way you can imagine. But when I downloaded some DSF files, that were scanned from vinyl, and perfectly so, I must say...The G7 and V10 are closer and less distinctive. I quite like the simplicity of V10 - remove the back to access SIM / mSD. I had a few times where my trusty HTC 10 did not see either card, and I walked across the train and asked everybody if they had a pin to open the slot. Somehow HTC 10 instantly grabs you and you like it, without even having to push yourself hard to audition and listen closely. Only after extensive testing do I prefer V10 of all three. As I said, with HD 599 SE, high impedance mode is triggered on V10, G7 and V50. But the sound on V50 that is always being praised to be analog and neutral...does not hold a candle to the V10. In Europe, one can always find a brand new V10 for less than $ 200.
And the best part? Because of the frequent heating from V10, and the atrocious battery life, I learnt what I wanted to learn for years - to use my phone as a phone, less and less. So many hours wasted, every day of my life...on a phone?! That issue is now solved and case closed - it was well worth it. I even bought a nice docking station for V10, and since I bought a few batteries, I charge them constantly outside the phone - this will extend its lifespan, as no heating occurs. Imagine keeping your V10 heated a few hours per day, just to charge batteries. And I do not like the idea of 10 Ah extended batteries with a separate plastic cover. I cannot believe the comfort I get from this small docking station - I bought two more. Even on a trip, I brought a power bank and connected it to the docking station, and it was very convenient in a long train ride (a typical European, right?) across the country. And I like the wide display form factor of V10 - I never found another phone to often the same. High resolution and PPI, good color accuracy (I am a pro photographer and I have yet to see a pleasant OLED and I always laught at the lying that it surpasses LCD, I burst out laughing, being an electrical engineer, but I do not discuss it, because these are rare, precious findings, and all I get from sharing them is hate from incompetent n00bs).
I was keeping an eye out for the ROG 5, but no card slot is a no go for me, as I have a 400 GB mSD that I spent a few days preparing, now it goes between all my phones. Having a state of the art arcade system at home makes me not want to play any games on mobile, nor do I want to watch video. I can understand that some people want power, but V10 is well enough for me, without any compromise. Although I cannot wait to read a review of Xperia 10 IV. It seems to tick all the boxes, with a jaw-dropping 163H endurance rating on GSMARENA. I only want to see the PWM frequency...The G7 ad 1147 Hz is acceptable for me. But different phones at 250 Hz instantly hit my head, making me dizzy. Honestly, the V10 is so perfect...and I only have HD 599 SE, Focal Listen Pro, CCA C12. But I have tried it with many higher end headphones, including Focal Clear. Oddly enough, HD 660 SE did not sound like an improvement over the beige HD 599 to me. And I found the latter more balanced and with richer bass than HD 599 SE black. Denon AH-D9200 did stand out as unique, which is expected for the price.

 

[yfei]

Yes, sir, it does answer my questions. You were crucially helpful, hats off! V60 has PWM around 350 Hz, the Velvet is around 250 Hz, and does not even feature a quad DAC! I have spent countless nights comparing G7 and V10, as I live in a noisy area, so I had to test them at night. The soundstage of V10 is definitely a notch above G7, so is the fullness of the sound, not to mention how analogue it sounds, it approaches the mighy xDuoo Link2 Bal (which itself is jaw-dropping, thanks to Andy from Donglemadness). The detail of G7 is more clear, but not in a good way - digital, more "in your face", almost aggressive. The bass is much better on V10 in every way you can imagine. But when I downloaded some DSF files, that were scanned from vinyl, and perfectly so, I must say...The G7 and V10 are closer and less distinctive. I quite like the simplicity of V10 - remove the back to access SIM / mSD. I had a few times where my trusty HTC 10 did not see either card, and I walked across the train and asked everybody if they had a pin to open the slot. Somehow HTC 10 instantly grabs you and you like it, without even having to push yourself hard to audition and listen closely. Only after extensive testing do I prefer V10 of all three. As I said, with HD 599 SE, high impedance mode is triggered on V10, G7 and V50. But the sound on V50 that is always being praised to be analog and neutral...does not hold a candle to the V10. In Europe, one can always find a brand new V10 for less than $ 200.
And the best part? Because of the frequent heating from V10, and the atrocious battery life, I learnt what I wanted to learn for years - to use my phone as a phone, less and less. So many hours wasted, every day of my life...on a phone?! That issue is now solved and case closed - it was well worth it. I even bought a nice docking station for V10, and since I bought a few batteries, I charge them constantly outside the phone - this will extend its lifespan, as no heating occurs. Imagine keeping your V10 heated a few hours per day, just to charge batteries. And I do not like the idea of 10 Ah extended batteries with a separate plastic cover. I cannot believe the comfort I get from this small docking station - I bought two more. Even on a trip, I brought a power bank and connected it to the docking station, and it was very convenient in a long train ride (a typical European, right?) across the country. And I like the wide display form factor of V10 - I never found another phone to often the same. High resolution and PPI, good color accuracy (I am a pro photographer and I have yet to see a pleasant OLED and I always laught at the lying that it surpasses LCD, I burst out laughing, being an electrical engineer, but I do not discuss it, because these are rare, precious findings, and all I get from sharing them is hate from incompetent n00bs).
I was keeping an eye out for the ROG 5, but no card slot is a no go for me, as I have a 400 GB mSD that I spent a few days preparing, now it goes between all my phones. Having a state of the art arcade system at home makes me not want to play any games on mobile, nor do I want to watch video. I can understand that some people want power, but V10 is well enough for me, without any compromise. Although I cannot wait to read a review of Xperia 10 IV. It seems to tick all the boxes, with a jaw-dropping 163H endurance rating on GSMARENA. I only want to see the PWM frequency...The G7 ad 1147 Hz is acceptable for me. But different phones at 250 Hz instantly hit my head, making me dizzy. Honestly, the V10 is so perfect...and I only have HD 599 SE, Focal Listen Pro, CCA C12. But I have tried it with many higher end headphones, including Focal Clear. Oddly enough, HD 660 SE did not sound like an improvement over the beige HD 599 to me. And I found the latter more balanced and with richer bass than HD 599 SE black. Denon AH-D9200 did stand out as unique, which is expected for the price.

Highly recommend to try LG V60.
To me, not only the sound is different from V10~V50 (V20~V50's sound are more or less the same. while V60 is very different), the screen is also much better than V30~V50.
And I am a photographer, V60's camera is my favorite, better than iPhones, Samsungs, Huawei, Xiaomi. I use Open Camera app, to bypass all phone's built-in processing. The result is very high resolution, high clarity, film like image free of any digital artifacts, correct color and lighting.

 

[imparanoic]

ROG Phone 6 audio is a downgrade vs the previous ROG 5,
it's a bit disappointing honestly,

don't both phones use the same dac? if yes, how much difference, have u heard rog 6 next to rog 5?

 

[megapapa2022]

don't both phones use the same dac? if yes, how much difference, have u heard rog 6 next to rog 5?

While I have not actually tried them, ROG 5 used ess saber dac and ROG 6 used Qualcomm dac. That is according to the spec from Asus website. That being said, I have recently tried Sony Xperia V III as a possible replacement for my v60 in case lg ends all update. Sony actually did a pretty good job with the Qualcomm dac. While it lacks power to drive higher impedence cans (anything above 50 ohm sounds bad), it can drive all my iem very well (I tested sennheiser ie300, 7hz timeless, akg n40, n5005). Personally I am shocked at how good the akg n5005 sounded on the Sony because that iem was a bit plain on the v60.

 

[352178]

Highly recommend to try LG V60.
To me, not only the sound is different from V10~V50 (V20~V50's sound are more or less the same. while V60 is very different), the screen is also much better than V30~V50.
And I am a photographer, V60's camera is my favorite, better than iPhones, Samsungs, Huawei, Xiaomi. I use Open Camera app, to bypass all phone's built-in processing. The result is very high resolution, high clarity, film like image free of any digital artifacts, correct color and lighting.

Thanks, sir, the V50 screen has the most OLED-typical blueish tint I have ever seen, almost like the colour of cold death (no joke). The design of the V60 looks way ahead of anything else (I have only seen photos of the phone). While the low-PPI might be acceptable, I won`t use the camera, except to film a stray cat and send it via chat, but thanks for clarifying that too. I always carry a Panasonic or Sony 1" F 2.8 superzoom, or an APS-C with 2 fixed primes, I am so used to this for the last 10 years, that I won`t change, especially since I like catching fast-paced reportage scenes (seagulls fighting over food, etc.), where using the phone will be slower and may well cost me to lose the scene.
Since you are also a photographer, let me please eloborate on that. I do not think that any phone holds a candle to even 10-year old cameras. It is very hard to keep the phone lens clean all the time, and one can even find a cheap NEX-3 with kit lens for $ 50, which will destroy any phone in terms of quality, possibilities, etc. Keep that battery, as the camera apps are draining, especially in roaming. Having two great displays at home for photo-editing, and powerful PCs means I do not need any powerful phone. The best part...somehow I always drop or lose phones, so an expensive phone is a no-go for me.
V60 can be found around $ 300, refurbished, on AliExpress. I read that PWM is diagonally on V50 and V60, but I still hesitate. Even without being PWM-sensitive, a trained photographer`s eyes can immediately spot the low quality. From GSMarena for the V60:

"Otherwise, the most accurate profile is "Cinema", which showed us an average deltaE of 2.9 and maximum deltaE was at 4.9, based off the same DCI-P3 space. This color mode is significantly more accurate with much more natural whites, grays, and semi-vibrant colors."

This does not sound great, but not too bad either. Why the...do phone manufacturers always quote the DCI-P3, this artificial standart is not officially the industry-wide accepted one...no photos or videos are being shot using it...this is beyoned me. You mentioned V60 sounding different than V10, but in what way? I did not like the different sounding of G7, with the artificial clarity and dynamics hitting your face, as if to hide and mask the shortcommings of the sound.

 

[352178]

Thanks, sir, the V50 screen has the most OLED-typical blueish tint I have ever seen, almost like the colour of cold death (no joke). The design of the V60 looks way ahead of anything else (I have only seen photos of the phone). While the low-PPI might be acceptable, I won`t use the camera, except to film a stray cat and send it via chat, but thanks for clarifying that too. I always carry a Panasonic or Sony 1" F 2.8 superzoom, or an APS-C with 2 fixed primes, I am so used to this for the last 10 years, that I won`t change, especially since I like catching fast-paced reportage scenes (seagulls fighting over food, etc.), where using the phone will be slower and may well cost me to lose the scene.
Since you are also a photographer, let me please eloborate on that. I do not think that any phone holds a candle to even 10-year old cameras. It is very hard to keep the phone lens clean all the time, and one can even find a cheap NEX-3 with kit lens for $ 50, which will destroy any phone in terms of quality, possibilities, etc. Keep that battery, as the camera apps are draining, especially in roaming. Having two great displays at home for photo-editing, and powerful PCs means I do not need any powerful phone. The best part...somehow I always drop or lose phones, so an expensive phone is a no-go for me.
V60 can be found around $ 300, refurbished, on AliExpress. I read that PWM is diagonally on V50 and V60, but I still hesitate. Even without being PWM-sensitive, a trained photographer`s eyes can immediately spot the low quality. From GSMarena for the V60:

"Otherwise, the most accurate profile is "Cinema", which showed us an average deltaE of 2.9 and maximum deltaE was at 4.9, based off the same DCI-P3 space. This color mode is significantly more accurate with much more natural whites, grays, and semi-vibrant colors."

This does not sound great, but not too bad either. Why the...do phone manufacturers always quote the DCI-P3, this artificial standart is not officially the industry-wide accepted one...no photos or videos are being shot using it...this is beyoned me. You mentioned V60 sounding different than V10, but in what way? I did not like the different sounding of G7, with the artificial clarity and dynamics hitting your face, as if to hide and mask the shortcommings of the sound. As for the display, I use my own photos that I had edited on an Adobe RGB display, to evaluate the screens of all my phones. Only the LG V10 could show the strong magenta cast (some older Sony sensors do make Lightroom add a lot of tint), which is incredible. Delta measurements are not everything, I guess... And some people in the V60 thread claim it does not produce a good sound at all. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lg-v60-thinq-smartphone.926477/page-21#post-16945812
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lg-v60-thinq-smartphone.926477/page-19#post-16777986

 

[Results45]

Hey all,

Here's the quarterly update of the "List of US-compatible Phones that Still Has a 3.5mm Headphone Jack":

Enjoy!

While I have not actually tried them, ROG 5 used ess saber dac and ROG 6 used Qualcomm dac. That is according to the spec from Asus website. That being said, I have recently tried Sony Xperia V III as a possible replacement for my v60 in case lg ends all update. Sony actually did a pretty good job with the Qualcomm dac. While it lacks power to drive higher impedence cans (anything above 50 ohm sounds bad), it can drive all my iem very well (I tested sennheiser ie300, 7hz timeless, akg n40, n5005). Personally I am shocked at how good the akg n5005 sounded on the Sony because that iem was a bit plain on the v60.

Have you considered the Xperia 10 IV? MSRP is around USD $400 and apparently it's got the longest battery life out of all upper-midrange phones on the market right now -- maybe even edging out the 7000mAh Galaxy M51.

Only caveat is that the network support here in the US is pretty weak.

Though that's not a deal breaker for me since I'll be mainly using it (if not the M51) with a dongle DAC-AMP as a "poor man's Fiio M15".

 

[Thieftime]

which in your opinion will play better LG V series or Onkyo Dp-cmx1 ?

 

[megapapa2022]

which in your opinion will play better LG V series or Onkyo Dp-cmx1 ?

While I don't have the Dp-cmx1, I do have a pioneer xdp-30r which is a rebranded Onkyo dap (dp-s1) with the same dac and amp stage as the cmx1. Assuming the cmx1 have the same tuning as the xdp-30r (which is very likely because between Onkyo and pioneer, they have released 4 different models with exactly same chip and same tuning), I will highlight some deference I noticed between v60 and xdp-30r (using Sennheiser hd560s). The v60 generally have a narrower soundstage and a slightly forward bass. This results in a more fun and dynamic sound but somewhat less transparent than the xdp-30r. Also the xdp is somewhat weak in reproduction in the very low-end of sub bass (I know sennheisers are usually pretty weak at the bass department but the v60 can push some pretty good sub bass notes on the hd560s). That being said, the xdp do have a 2mm balanced output which the v60 does not have. The 2mm port will double the output power vs the 3.5mm port and produce a much better sound (adds more energy to the bass and improve transparency even further, however, the sub bass roll off is still there). Both players are actually pretty good in terms of sound, but if streaming is the main way you get your music then I highly recommend lg v series. The only thing that won't work on lg is tidal and all other major services works fine and will likely be so for a few more years. Not so sure about the cmx1 as it is pretty old.

 

[Thieftime]

Will the LG V60 version from the USA work in Europe a. more precisely in Germany?Is used electronic equipment subject to customs duties or other charges?

 

[352178]

There is a local seller in Bulgaria, who has an American V60 with Android 11 (LM-V600TM). He tested it to work with all 3 cellular telecoms in Bulgaria, so I guess it works in this part of Europe, but specifically in Germany...I do not know. The bass sounds promising on the V60. I only need to hear V20 and V60 now, as I already heard and disliked the Korean V50. V30 and V40, I will skip them due to screen PWM. And may I say, the LG V10 does not fall far from the mighty xDuoo LInk2 Bal (thanks, Andy). The musicality, the timbre, the tonalilty...I even prefer them on the V10. They both sound very analogue and neutral, but are very different. ESS and CS are different, but I did not expect it to be that much drastically different.

 

[Thieftime]

W Bułgarii jest lokalny sprzedawca, który ma amerykański V60 z Androidem 11 (LM-V600TM). Przetestował go do pracy ze wszystkimi 3 telefonami komórkowymi w Bułgarii, więc myślę, że działa w tej części Europy, ale konkretnie w Niemczech... nie wiem. Bas brzmi obiecująco na V60. Teraz muszę tylko usłyszeć V20 i V60, ponieważ już słyszałem i nie lubiłem koreańskiego V50. V30 i V40 pominę je ze względu na ekran PWM. I powiem, że LG V10 nie odstaje daleko od potężnego xDuoo LINK2 Bal (dzięki, Andy). Muzykalność, barwa, tonalność… Nawet wolę je na V10. Oba brzmią bardzo analogowo i neutralnie, ale są bardzo różne. ESS i CS różnią się od siebie, ale nie spodziewałem się, że będzie to aż tak drastycznie różne.

give me some bearing on that seller