[Aliante]

Oh yes, there is and it's a long reading

http://www.head-fi.org/t/820747/chinese-asian-brand-info-thread-portable-headphones-and-iems/0_30

Thanks mate! Will take a look!

And as for the other question - I actually prefer Chinese brands, where you pay just for the stuff they offer, and not the "name". More value in Chinese brands, I think

 

[vtkc]

*double posted*

 

[vtkc]

I try kz zs3. It is nah for me with stock cable. I'm thinking ve monk plus is the best for budget. <10 usd

Actually i think visang and kinera is good for 30 usd.
For 40-60 usd, i think ttpod t1e and ostry kc06 is great.
but for 10-20 us iem cannot find good one.

KZ ZS3 need lots of burn in, if your are a burn in believer, to sound good.

 

[Smartaudiophone]

Like i said a few sites back, i will post my impressions about the Nubia Z11 with an AK4376 32 bit DAC as soon as i get it, which was today.
 
So, to be honest, this is one of the worst phones with regards to audio quality that i`ve ever listened too.
The basses are not clean (you know that fart kinda bass and bleed into the highs and especially the mids, which both are recessed and don`t sound good at all - and the same goes for voices, both male and female. I had major hopes in this phone, but it is extremly dissapointing. The whole sound is dull and muddy. It is not even comparable to the audio quality of say Meizu Pro 5, Xiaomi mi note, Leeco le max or Htc/LG V/Iphone devices. 
Hell, even many Smartphones without any dedicated audio hardware will sound better than this one. The integrated dolby app doesn`t help either, and also, this phone is way to quiet for my taste.
This is also the first phone with a HI-FI chip that i`ve had which doesn`t have an option to enable hi-fi sound.
In short, they completly screw*d up in the sound department and it´s double dissapointing, because the phone itself is great. Good camera, very snappy performance, nice UI with tons of useful features, etc. But if sound is your priority, skip on this one.

 

[ThomasHK]

KZ ZS3 need lots of burn in, if your are a burn in believer, to sound good.

Wait, so if you don't believe in burn in it will sound great from the beginning?

 

[vtkc]

Wait, so if you don't believe in burn in it will sound great from the beginning?

I mean if you believe in burn in and done burn in on the ZS3, it will sound alot better.

 

[artpiggo]

Like i said a few sites back, i will post my impressions about the Nubia Z11 with an AK4376 32 bit DAC as soon as i get it, which was today.

So, to be honest, this is one of the worst phones with regards to audio quality that i`ve ever listened too.
The basses are not clean (you know that fart kinda bass and bleed into the highs and especially the mids, which both are recessed and don`t sound good at all - and the same goes for voices, both male and female. I had major hopes in this phone, but it is extremly dissapointing. The whole sound is dull and muddy. It is not even comparable to the audio quality of say Meizu Pro 5, Xiaomi mi note, Leeco le max or Htc/LG V/Iphone devices. 
Hell, even many Smartphones without any dedicated audio hardware will sound better than this one. The integrated dolby app doesn`t help either, and also, this phone is way to quiet for my taste.
This is also the first phone with a HI-FI chip that i`ve had which doesn`t have an option to enable hi-fi sound.
In short, they completly screw*d up in the sound department and it´s double dissapointing, because the phone itself is great. Good camera, very snappy performance, nice UI with tons of useful features, etc. But if sound is your priority, skip on this one.

Thanks for sharing and great contribution for all of us! What is your ranking on audiophile phone till this day.

 

[Shawn71]

Thanks mate! Will take a look!


And as for the other question - I actually prefer Chinese brands, where you pay just for the stuff they offer, and not the "name". More value in Chinese brands, I think

Yes, thats your destiny - what To.M directed...... These monitors pair excellent with smartphones too, just under $10/$15!

 

[NiHaoMike]

  Le Eco decided to go jackless (and thus DAC-less as well)

I recently got the Le Pro 3 and it actually includes two USB-C DACs in the box. One is built into the stock headphones and another to use your existing 3.5mm headphones with. They seem to be pretty decent, about on par with a $50 sound card. I think it's only a matter of time before even better third party USB-C DACs show up.

 

[shagrasniper]

to whom it may concern
 
3 days ago i went to a phone store, and i compared 3 high end phones plugged with a 22 Ohm planar
my advice is don't bother with any hi-fi dac phone (unless maybe if it was something like a g5 with its B&O module, which i didn't use)
as far as the phones are concerned i tried out a Lenovo vibe X3 (the hi-fi dac model) : and i found out that the sound is very low in volume compared to my Exynos S7E (when plugged to a Hifiman HE-400S)
and then i tried out the HTC10 and again compared to my phone, the HTC was louder with a little more bass, but it has very low hiss when you hear in quiet parts of the song !!! (overall the difference was extremely tiny and i preferred the S7E overall although i maxed it out in volume)
 
today i finally received a 30 grams DAC/AMP called Hifime Sabre 9018 USB DAC (not the D model), it only costs only 80$ on amazon
and i can say that the difference was huge in terms of volume and clarity (especially if you use the free Onkyo HF Player), with this thing i can clearly distinguish the sound between different android players, unlike like i used to. (its like a real sound now)
 
it beats any HI-FI DAC phone out there in terms of clarity ,the only issue is compatibility, since you have to enable Flight Mode in order to work on my Exynos S7E due to a bug with android !!! other than that, it sounds much better than the HTC, Lenovo & the Samsung.

 

[ljnew]

  to whom it may concern
 
3 days ago i went to a phone store, and i compared 3 high end phones plugged with a 22 Ohm planar
my advice is don't bother with any hi-fi dac phone (unless maybe if it was something like a g5 with its B&O module, which i didn't use)
as far as the phones are concerned i tried out a Lenovo vibe X3 (the hi-fi dac model) : and i found out that the sound is very low in volume compared to my Exynos S7E (when plugged to a Hifiman HE-400S)
and then i tried out the HTC10 and again compared to my phone, the HTC was louder with a little more bass, but it has very low hiss when you hear in quiet parts of the song !!! (overall the difference was extremely tiny and i preferred the S7E overall although i maxed it out in volume)
 
today i finally received a 30 grams DAC/AMP called Hifime Sabre 9018 USB DAC (not the D model), it only costs only 80$ on amazon
and i can say that the difference was huge in terms of volume and clarity (especially if you use the free Onkyo HF Player), with this thing i can clearly distinguish the sound between different android players, unlike like i used to. (its like a real sound now)
 
it beats any HI-FI DAC phone out there in terms of clarity ,the only issue is compatibility, since you have to enable Flight Mode in order to work on my Exynos S7E due to a bug with android !!! other than that, it sounds much better than the HTC, Lenovo & the Samsung.

Have you heard the lg v20 with quad dac enabled?

 

[shagrasniper]

  Have you heard the lg v20 with quad dac enabled?

no i didn't, but i also heard that the v10 (which i also didn't use) sounds a little better than the new model !!!
just plug a dac/amp and you'll end up happier than any phone, thats what i think
 
the Hifime Sabre 9018 sounds better than the fiio x3 1st gen

 

[ljnew]

 
no i didn't, but i also heard that the v10 (which i also didn't use) sounds a little better than the new model !!!
just plug a dac/amp and you'll end up happier than any phone, thats what i think
 
the Hifime Sabre 9018 sounds better than the fiio x3 1st gen

No the v10 doesn't sound better.  Just my two cents but I think you might want to try Viper4android as well on a phone.  It makes a world of difference.
 
For example, with the exception of the v20, I agree with you that a dac is definitely better than a phone.  But a decent phone with viper4android and Dolby Atmos is a different story.

 

[shagrasniper]

  No the v10 doesn't sound better.  Just my two cents but I think you might want to try Viper4android as well on a phone.  It makes a world of difference.
 
For example, with the exception of the v20, I agree with you that a dac is definitely better than a phone.  But a decent phone with viper4android and Dolby Atmos is a different story.

i remember Dolby written in the back of the lenovo vibe x3 (believe me it didn't sound like a dac/amp)
i surly didn't try out the V20, but i would go for a G5+B&O Module if i wanted better internals)
and i really doubt it, if the V20 is ever going to beat this tiny (30grams) dac/amp which costs only 80$ !!!
 
i think Onkyo HF Player sounds very natural compared to the Play Music app, which i couldn't detect without a dac/amp

 

[club968]

Honestly if there was gonna be any mobile phone that would be able to drive those planar headphones, the v20 might be it.  Its definitely got the most output. The sound is all about the same, but I think the v20 has the cojones to put that sound out to more demanding HPs.  Worth a shot if you can find one to try out.