[deepoison]

Did someone happen to listen to Fire phone? Although, its a forgotten phone..... I happened to listen it and found its sound quality to be much superior than Iphone 6,Galaxy S6, HTC M8. Just wanted to check where fire phone stands when compared to hifi audio devices like meizu, vivo etc so that i can decide on upgrading or not.
 
I go to AT&T to listen to them before purchasing. With these chinese phones not being sold at AT&T, I am in a dilemna.

 

[Pxncture]

  Did someone happen to listen to Fire phone? Although, its a forgotten phone..... I happened to listen it and found its sound quality to be much superior than Iphone 6,Galaxy S6, HTC M8. Just wanted to check where fire phone stands when compared to hifi audio devices like meizu, vivo etc so that i can decide on upgrading or not.
 
I go to AT&T to listen to them before purchasing. With these chinese phones not being sold at AT&T, I am in a dilemna.

According to https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Amazon+Fire+Phone+Teardown/27458 the Amazon Fire phone uses a Qualcomm WCD9320 audio codec, with a rooted phone you could make use of the BiQuads project http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/reference-qualcomm-audio-codec-iir-t3093000 and seeing as they are dirt cheap at the moment I would say go for it.
 
Apologies if the post seems off, the link system is different from what im used to.

 

[Whitigir]

This review from androidauthority is very interesting. Personally i wont' by the LG G5 after reading this


Here is the part that allowed me to make my choice as i'm a bass lover with a JVC SZ2000 which need lots of power to shine. Have a look :

""""""""""""
Aside from the extra width, my main take-away is that the Sabre 9602c amplifier seems more capable at driving bass through low impedance headphones. I went back to conduct a frequency sweep of both DACs to see if I could confirm this a little more scientifically.



Keeping the volume levels down in the ear friendly range (50 percent), I conducted multiple sine sweeps with the jack open and with two sets of headphones that have different impedances. The test reveals that the regular LG G5 output struggles with some early bass roll-off.



[COLOR=719D41]
[/color]



The results show that the default G5’s bass response falls short before 200Hz, even without any headphones to load down the amplifier. The issue becomes far more noticeable when using lower impedance, higher quality headphones. This explains a lot about what I could hear when comparing the tone between the two, particularly when it comes to drums and lower frequency bass instruments.



By comparison, the B&O’s amplifier can happily drive 32 ohm headphones with a mostly flat response until 80Hz and below. Even then, we are only looking at a virtually inaudible 1dB of loss here, compared with the slightly more noticeable 2.5dB to 3dB of loss when using the regular G5 output. This difference is a lot less pronounced with higher impedance headphones.



This leads nicely into my final point about sound. Although the B&O DAC sounded a little better than the normal G5 through some very cheap earbuds, the differences were far less noticeable than when listening through my more expensive pair. The problems with the headphones easily outweighed the gains offered from the DAC. So if your purchasing options are limited to either the DAC or some better headphones, the latter is by far and away the choice you should make.

Wrap Up

LG’s Hi-Fi Plus add-on was always designed with the audio enthusiast in mind and I think that you probably need that kind of ear to get the most out of it. That said, I’m not quite sure that the module has too much to offer the most seriously spec hungry audiophiles either, as there are external DACs with superior numbers and features on the market already.



""""""""""

Thanks for the measurements, and the stock DAC look so horribly done, and even with the module, doesn't seem that it help out as much as it should.....lol, I am glad I held back, I think HTC 10 will be at the least the Z3 quality but with headphones amplifier which will make it even better.

 

[deepoison]

  According to https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Amazon+Fire+Phone+Teardown/27458 the Amazon Fire phone uses a Qualcomm WCD9320 audio codec, with a rooted phone you could make use of the BiQuads project http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/reference-qualcomm-audio-codec-iir-t3093000 and seeing as they are dirt cheap at the moment I would say go for it.
 
Apologies if the post seems off, the link system is different from what im used to.

Sorry for not being clear, I already happen to use fire phone which i purchased last year after listening to it. Now, I am considering an upgrade to meizu,vivo provided they sound significantly better. Thanks for the links

 

[Gosod]

if you listen on a smartphone then I think there is a need, in the amplifier!

 

[mx19]

  This review from androidauthority is very interesting. Personally i wont' by the LG G5 after reading this

Here is the part that allowed me to make my choice as i'm a bass lover with a JVC SZ2000 which need lots of power to shine. Have a look :
 
""""""""""""
Aside from the extra width, my main take-away is that the Sabre 9602c amplifier seems more capable at driving bass through low impedance headphones. I went back to conduct a frequency sweep of both DACs to see if I could confirm this a little more scientifically.

Keeping the volume levels down in the ear friendly range (50 percent), I conducted multiple sine sweeps with the jack open and with two sets of headphones that have different impedances. The test reveals that the regular LG G5 output struggles with some early bass roll-off.



The results show that the default G5’s bass response falls short before 200Hz, even without any headphones to load down the amplifier. The issue becomes far more noticeable when using lower impedance, higher quality headphones. This explains a lot about what I could hear when comparing the tone between the two, particularly when it comes to drums and lower frequency bass instruments.

By comparison, the B&O’s amplifier can happily drive 32 ohm headphones with a mostly flat response until 80Hz and below. Even then, we are only looking at a virtually inaudible 1dB of loss here, compared with the slightly more noticeable 2.5dB to 3dB of loss when using the regular G5 output. This difference is a lot less pronounced with higher impedance headphones.

This leads nicely into my final point about sound. Although the B&O DAC sounded a little better than the normal G5 through some very cheap earbuds, the differences were far less noticeable than when listening through my more expensive pair. The problems with the headphones easily outweighed the gains offered from the DAC. So if your purchasing options are limited to either the DAC or some better headphones, the latter is by far and away the choice you should make.

Wrap Up

LG’s Hi-Fi Plus add-on was always designed with the audio enthusiast in mind and I think that you probably need that kind of ear to get the most out of it. That said, I’m not quite sure that the module has too much to offer the most seriously spec hungry audiophiles either, as there are external DACs with superior numbers and features on the market already.

""""""""""

 
I'm not sure if I understood correctly... there is a little difference on quality IEMs between integrated qualcomm's (or whoever) into SoC DAC, and the B&O ESS Sabre DAC + ESS amp?
It would be a heart-breaker...
I was thinking to get a proper as small as possible smartphone (something like Meizu Pro 5 with some a little bit warmish sound - like iRivers of old) to feed my beloved Phonak Audeos and maybe in future Audeo PFE232 which I'm dreaming about and now I read that the smallest available smartphone with ESS DAC (for a lot of extra) sounds just as good as integrated sh**-DAC?

 

[flashmp3]

I think how dream to have a small smartphone that will have an amplifier strong enough to provide power like a cayin c5 or mojo chord can can't be fullfilled for the moment........we will have to wait and keep having to grab external gears

 

[Pastapipo]

Just wait till the HTC 10 gets measured out! I've got great expectations of that phone.

 

[Muataz]

You have it
 
http://store2.up-00.com/2016-04/146116140331851.jpg

 

[Muataz]

deleted

 

[Whitigir]

You have it

http://store2.up-00.com/2016-04/146116140331851.jpg

Is that v10 with hifi DAC active ? If so, damn....the HtC 10 is going to be great

 

[Pastapipo]

  You have it
 
http://store2.up-00.com/2016-04/146116140331851.jpg

Thanks!
The numbers look excellent. Now one of you guys needs to take it for a spin

 

[Whitigir]

Thanks!
The numbers look excellent. Now one of you guys needs to take it for a spin

Take what ?

 

[Pastapipo]

Take what ?

 
It would be nice if a few headfi members could review the audio of the HTC 10.

 

[torro32]

Does Z3 compact gives the same quality headphone out like 5.2 inch vrrsion does?