Htc 10 doesn't even have a dedicated dac. Apart from aqstic which is qualcomm own in house developed audio codec which means it's better then soc audio in general but that can't be compared with the likes of ess.
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Jimster480
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It does have a dedicated DAC. The Aqstic DAC is a separate path, HTC made a comment about this.
It also has dedicated audio circuitry and separate power paths on its own area of the board along with a headphone OPAMP.
Some people on this forum have literally compared the HTC 10 against a Chord Mojo and said that the two are comparable or that the HTC 10 sounds about ~90% as good.
To be honest I couldn't case less what dac the HTC10 has when the end result is excellent sound quality
But yes it does have a dedicated dac and maybe more important the implementation is top notch. Again to my ears the SQ is at least on par with the LG V10.
Yea what makes one happy is what matters in the end.
No it does not.
Read here https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2016/06/02/qualcomm-aqstic-sets-new-standard-audiophiles
It clearly says that the dac is an integrated one bundled with their soc. Don't get me wrong here as i am just saying what i understand.
Jimster480
Headphoneus Supremus
The wording is misleading, its an additional option which is available with the SoC for an "external" audio circuit that comes bundled with the SoC "package". Meaning that you can order a 820 with the Aqstic or without it, then the mfg has to implement the rest of the parts outside of the SoC. Notice how it says "supports dual oscillators".
So its a different design than the standard 820 and then the rest of the audio pathing is done by HTC, and their engineers have commented on this as I posted previously.
The audio quality is no joke.
eio
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Aqstic is wcd9335, which is the bundled DAC in every 820/821/835 device.
However, it is indeed better than previous Qualcomm bundle DACs, and Qualcomm does market it as hi-fi.
Devices using wcd9335 with good implementations can yield good results, such as HTC 10, Oneplus 3, Mi 5, etc.
However, it is indeed better than previous Qualcomm bundle DACs, and Qualcomm does market it as hi-fi.
Devices using wcd9335 with good implementations can yield good results, such as HTC 10, Oneplus 3, Mi 5, etc.
Although it is true that every device carrying their soc from 820 onwards has this aqstic thingy but it is not enabled on each of them. Basically oems have to pay royalty fees to qualcomm if they enable this particular feature. That's why only top tier brands have this feature enabled in their flagship devices. It's quite similar to qualcomm quick charging feature in this regard. Nearly all latest qualcomm soc's have quick charging built in but most budget brands don't enable it to save cost.
eio
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There are no royalty fees for aqstic music playback modes afaik (for voice processings there are). and there are no lesser fallback paths for it, it is the only DAC in Qualcomm stock solution.
Then I think it is about different sound signature then.
If I am not remember wrong, htc10 is thick and warm tone while v20 is more balance with extended treble.
If I am not remember wrong, htc10 is thick and warm tone while v20 is more balance with extended treble.
marcswede
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Does the HTC 10 have op amps or some amplification stage?
Certainly it is the only dac in qualcomm soc but there is a reason that oneplus 3 sounds terrible in comparison to htc 10 which sounds amazing with the same soc as former is using.
eio
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personally i found oneplus 3 to be a good implemenation of qualcomm dac...
do you have the dolby enhancement effects (htc boom sound) enabled on htc 10? it does sound amazing.
do you have the dolby enhancement effects (htc boom sound) enabled on htc 10? it does sound amazing.
Jimster480
Headphoneus Supremus
This is also not the case from what HTC and other brands who have enabled it have said.
Additionally testing phones with the 820 shows that they don't perform at all the same.
Also they are paired with better actual audio components (as in the case of the HTC10) vs other phones.
When you look at most of the discrete DAC/DSP/DACAMP's sold most of them have the same few DAC's (and alot of them have much worse DAC's than the aqstic) but its all about the other audio components which make the sound great.
I saw someone here knocking it for being a "codec" but if you look at the chord mojo its also a "codec" implemented onto a FPGA.
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