[Smartaudiophone]

hey guys
i'm currently pairing my Mee Audio Pinnacle P1s with Fiio X3ii and i was wondering what would be a good smartphone to replace the x3ii with. preferably around 200$. it was mentioned in the first post that Xiaomi Mi Note can compare with X3ii. is this true? i have Xiaomi Note 4x, and i can say for sure that x3ii sounds better (using v4a). are these two smartphones that different sound-wise?
also i've heard a lot about Meizu smartphones' SQ. any comparisons with Fiio X3ii or Xiaomi Note 4x would be appreciated.

Xiaomi Mi Note/Pro has a similiar soundprint as the X3II, but the X3II has a wider soundstage and much cleaner sound, especially at high volume.
That phone is old and not worth buying for the sound or for anything else. Same goes for Meizu pro 5/Pro 6.
I also don`t understand why anyone would recommend Meizu`s or Axon`s, when phones like the HTC10 are going for around 250€/$ right now. Meizu Pro 5 is an outdated phone,and the SQ is inferior to both the HTC10 and the V20. Same goes for the Pro 6, which sounds even worse with it`s shrill highs and lack of bass. You will also never see any useful updates for those phones, especially not from Meizu.

The HTC10 runs circles around any Meizu and Axon when it comes to SQ and is also a better phone. The V20 is also an option and can be bought for the same price right now. I prefer the 10 for the sound, but if you have gear that needs much power, V20 is probably the better option. But no matter how you turn it, they`re both better than the Mi note pro, pro 5, pro 6 or axons.

 

[oyobass]

Xiaomi Mi Note/Pro has a similiar soundprint as the X3II, but the X3II has a wider soundstage and much cleaner sound, especially at high volume.
That phone is old and not worth buying for the sound or for anything else. Same goes for Meizu pro 5/Pro 6.
I also don`t understand why anyone would recommend Meizu`s or Axon`s, when phones like the HTC10 are going for around 250€/$ right now. Meizu Pro 5 is an outdated phone,and the SQ is inferior to both the HTC10 and the V20. Same goes for the Pro 6, which sounds even worse with it`s shrill highs and lack of bass. You will also never see any useful updates for those phones, especially not from Meizu.

The HTC10 runs circles around any Meizu and Axon when it comes to SQ and is also a better phone. The V20 is also an option and can be bought for the same price right now. I prefer the 10 for the sound, but if you have gear that needs much power, V20 is probably the better option. But no matter how you turn it, they`re both better than the Mi note pro, pro 5, pro 6 or axons.

I do like my Axon 7 Mini, A lot. It was a bit of luxury buy for a guy like me, but for 130 bucks, it beat the heck out of anything else at that price. Kind of like my collection of KZ earphones, they aren't the best, but darn good for the price.
TOTL would be great, but I have other priorities and interests.
More power to you if you can afford the good stuff!

 

[Smartaudiophone]

I do like my Axon 7 Mini, A lot. It was a bit of luxury buy for a guy like me, but for 130 bucks, it beat the heck out of anything else at that price. Kind of like my collection of KZ earphones, they aren't the best, but darn good for the price.
TOTL would be great, but I have other priorities and interests.
More power to you if you can afford the good stuff!

Hi,
for 130 bucks of course it`s good, but i was wondering why these phones are recommended when people ask for phones in the 200€+ range. What does TOTL stand for?

 

[stenog]

Hi,
for 130 bucks of course it`s good, but i was wondering why these phones are recommended when people ask for phones in the 200€+ range. What does TOTL stand for?

TOTL: Top of the line = the best

 

[oyobass]

Hi,
for 130 bucks of course it`s good, but i was wondering why these phones are recommended when people ask for phones in the 200€+ range. What does TOTL stand for?

The Axon 7 and it's little brother the Mini actually have quite impressive audio performance with their dedicated DAC and amp. I was looking at getting a XDuoo X3 DAP with Rockbox firmware before I saw the Axon, but the prospect of combining the two phones I had to carry and a hi-fi music player into one device sold me on the ZTE.

 

[henrywil]

Xiaomi Mi Note/Pro has a similiar soundprint as the X3II, but the X3II has a wider soundstage and much cleaner sound, especially at high volume.
That phone is old and not worth buying for the sound or for anything else. Same goes for Meizu pro 5/Pro 6.
I also don`t understand why anyone would recommend Meizu`s or Axon`s, when phones like the HTC10 are going for around 250€/$ right now. Meizu Pro 5 is an outdated phone,and the SQ is inferior to both the HTC10 and the V20. Same goes for the Pro 6, which sounds even worse with it`s shrill highs and lack of bass. You will also never see any useful updates for those phones, especially not from Meizu.

The HTC10 runs circles around any Meizu and Axon when it comes to SQ and is also a better phone. The V20 is also an option and can be bought for the same price right now. I prefer the 10 for the sound, but if you have gear that needs much power, V20 is probably the better option. But no matter how you turn it, they`re both better than the Mi note pro, pro 5, pro 6 or axons.

@Smartaudiophone have you ever tried/A-B compared all the phone you mentioned here for yourself? True experience is greatly appreciated.
@behnawm I use both Meizu Pro 5 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x for my daily driver, and I can confirm that sound quality wise Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x pale in comparison to Meizu Pro 5. You can feel the lack of authority and detail in Xiaomi, even though this particular model, Note 4x, is one of the best sounding Xiaomi.
When it comes to comparison as a phone Meizu Pro 5/6 and LG V20 might fall short to newer flagship models but as DAP/phone combos it's still very capable, as the phones we talked here usually falls under flagship category yet the older one. For example, my Meizu Pro 5, while it's older than my Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, still feels snappier and have more bells and whistles than Xiaomi's like amoled screen, quick charging and good battery endurance as DAP.

 

[Smartaudiophone]

@Smartaudiophone have you ever tried/A-B compared all the phone you mentioned here for yourself? True experience is greatly appreciated.
@behnawm I use both Meizu Pro 5 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x for my daily driver, and I can confirm that sound quality wise Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x pale in comparison to Meizu Pro 5. You can feel the lack of authority and detail in Xiaomi, even though this particular model, Note 4x, is one of the best sounding Xiaomi.
When it comes to comparison as a phone Meizu Pro 5/6 and LG V20 might fall short to newer flagship models but as DAP/phone combos it's still very capable, as the phones we talked here usually falls under flagship category yet the older one. For example, my Meizu Pro 5, while it's older than my Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, still feels snappier and have more bells and whistles than Xiaomi's like amoled screen, quick charging and good battery endurance as DAP.

Yes, i`ve had all mentioned devices and the X3II. This is why i mentioned only the pro 5 and pro 6 plus out of the meizu`s, didn`t own any other.

 

[mx19]

Yes, i`ve had all mentioned devices and the X3II. This is why i mentioned only the pro 5 and pro 6 plus out of the meizu`s, didn`t own any other.

It's interesting as pro5 has a long standing reputation for being one of the best audiophile smartphones with it's ess es9018k2m sabre dac and TI opa1612 amp chips.
Pro 6 has got integrated Cirrus logic's dac/amp chip CS43L36 which is quite low-end mobile chip in Cirrus' (Wolfsons...) lineup. Pro 6 Plus was a different phone with sabre dac/amp chip similar to one used in LG V10 as far as I remember.

 

[Sebilion]

I want to buy a phone as a secondary device. I am between Nokia 8 and Sony Xperia xz premium. I have an external amp so I don't care about how loud they are going to be via headphones just for the dac quality and overal performance. Anyone has any suggestions?

 

[artpiggo]

I want to buy a phone as a secondary device. I am between Nokia 8 and Sony Xperia xz premium. I have an external amp so I don't care about how loud they are going to be via headphones just for the dac quality and overal performance. Anyone has any suggestions?

I still believe in xperia's performance as a phone than nokia's.

 

[mx19]

I want to buy a phone as a secondary device. I am between Nokia 8 and Sony Xperia xz premium. I have an external amp so I don't care about how loud they are going to be via headphones just for the dac quality and overal performance. Anyone has any suggestions?

If you want DAC then... neither of these is a good choice, as either doesn't have stand-alone DAC, only integrated Snapdragon's one which of course is poor quality.
Top of the line LGs (V series, some G series), Samsungs (Galaxy S series Exynos), Meizus(5 pro, 6 pro plus), Vivos(many of them), Nubias(can't remember, but some have AKM chips), Lenovo (vibe x3 series incl. cheap youth version) and if you're in Europe you can also consider spanish BQ Aquaris X Pro (with ess es9118 sabre chip) - other BQs also have/had dac chip most notably wolfson's and akm's but they were lower end phones.
edit: I forgot of course about HTC 10 which is also considered as having good dac+amp.

 

[Sebilion]

If you want DAC then... neither of these is a good choice, as either doesn't have stand-alone DAC, only integrated Snapdragon's one which of course is poor quality.
Top of the line LGs (V series, some G series), Samsungs (Galaxy S series Exynos), Meizus(5 pro, 6 pro plus), Vivos(many of them), Nubias(can't remember, but some have AKM chips), Lenovo (vibe x3 series incl. cheap youth version) and if you're in Europe you can also consider spanish BQ Aquaris X Pro (with ess es9118 sabre chip) - other BQs also have/had dac chip most notably wolfson's and akm's but they were lower end phones.
edit: I forgot of course about HTC 10 which is also considered as having good dac+amp.

I have htc 10 at the moment and an iPhone 6s plus, I want to sell the iPhone and get another one as a secondary device. I am waiting for either the lg g7 or oneplus 6 to come out so I can get them as my daily driver, I am just looking for something to get me going until then because my htc 10 is getting too slow. I bought an amp so I just care about audio quality and overal performance. I am only considering nokia 8 or Sony Xperia xz premium as options because they are the only ones I can get at that price point.

 

[seanc6441]

I have htc 10 at the moment and an iPhone 6s plus, I want to sell the iPhone and get another one as a secondary device. I am waiting for either the lg g7 or oneplus 6 to come out so I can get them as my daily driver, I am just looking for something to get me going until then because my htc 10 is getting too slow. I bought an amp so I just care about audio quality and overal performance. I am only considering nokia 8 or Sony Xperia xz premium as options because they are the only ones I can get at that price point.

You should consider a mini DAP then? Like Shanling M/l2S or the new M0. Or even better the new Hiby R3 for $189 on kickstarter. Although not sure when they will ship the first patch could be a few months :/

 

[mx19]

I have htc 10 at the moment and an iPhone 6s plus, I want to sell the iPhone and get another one as a secondary device. I am waiting for either the lg g7 or oneplus 6 to come out so I can get them as my daily driver, I am just looking for something to get me going until then because my htc 10 is getting too slow. I bought an amp so I just care about audio quality and overal performance. I am only considering nokia 8 or Sony Xperia xz premium as options because they are the only ones I can get at that price point.

If you want something better than HTC then it's either LG V30 with Sabre quad-dac (there's also 6gb ram version of it) or LG G6+ or G6 for korean market (both of which has sabre quad-dac). But don't be fooled - standard/worldwide G6 has got single dac. V30 should be faster than HTC 10, especially 6gb ram version. But I don't know if G6 is faster (or by how much faster) than 10.

 

[Arunabha Lahiri]

I have htc 10 at the moment and an iPhone 6s plus, I want to sell the iPhone and get another one as a secondary device. I am waiting for either the lg g7 or oneplus 6 to come out so I can get them as my daily driver, I am just looking for something to get me going until then because my htc 10 is getting too slow. I bought an amp so I just care about audio quality and overal performance. I am only considering nokia 8 or Sony Xperia xz premium as options because they are the only ones I can get at that price point.

How is the audio quality of the iPhone? I think they use Cirrus logic chipsets. How does it compare to the sound of htc 10, also what headphones and what genre of music do you generally listen to. Thanks. Thinking of buying a phone but Android just isn't for long term use.