[Rioter]

  I can confirm that s7 audio sucks, the same goes with lg g4
 
have not heard v10 but I doubt it's very good. Besides v10 is massive and very awkward to handle, not to mention it's expensive and not available in many countries.

Comparing to what? Can you confirm headphones, players and how long you've listen S7 and G4? Also your preferable sound signature and music tastes. Just to be sure.

 

[scutterflux]

  many people have many opinions!

So true, mine is my own for anyone to disagree with.  Opinions are based on experience and we are all coming from different places.  My statements of phone audio is less than stellar is because I've heard some $2000 cans through some $2000 tube equipment playing high-res files on $4000 DAC etc... and still I favour a good Stereo system (I got about $15k into mine a couple buddies have upwards of $40k and $50k (but price isn't everything)).  So from my perspective it's tough going down to a phone for audiophile purposes, but if you're on your way up say from a Motorola to the V10, no doubt it's a significant improvement and I can see why there's excitement there, and I'll still care about these things too when I purchase my next phone.
 
I guess I don't mean to discourage or offend, every step along the way in an audiophiles journey is exciting and I still remember how good I felt about each upgrade I've gone through.

 

[skywalker99]

 
Comparing to what? Can you confirm headphones, players and how long you've listen S7 and G4? Also your preferable sound signature and music tastes. Just to be sure.

Comparing to pretty much anything I've had in the last few years (xonard dgx, stx, g2, g4, mojo, pureview 808)
 
Don't get me wrong though, I love my s7. It's snappy, great camera, decent battery, versatile, vr etc. I've had it since the release.
 
I purchased MSR7 (fantastic headphones btw) a few weeks ago as my out and about headphones and thought that my s7 may not do them justice. So my portable DAC/amp quest started. I did some A-B tests on some "quiet" evenings and compared xonar essence stx (desktop), dragonfly black and mojo with s7 (on poweramp). I was using my few weeks old msr7 and fidelio x2. Played a number of songs mostly in flac, various genres (rock, metal, classical, house).
 
S7's sound quality is in a different league (B or D league to be clear). I personally don't care what dac/amp it has it just sounds poor. Keep in mind that prior to that I was using s7 as my portable player so my ears were biased/conditioned towards s7. Even so it didn't help s7. I'm not an audiophile so can't describe s7 sq in technical terms but the closest adjectives I can think of are, flat, tinny, lack of details, lack of power (90-100% volume required), tinny, no instrument seperation, poor soundstage. It was probably unfair to compare it to mojo as it's £400. But even in comparison to 808 (which is good only for photos and music) s7 sounds like a cheap chinese knock-off. That's really unacceptable for a high end phone costing £560 (when released). Not sure if it's samsung's idea or android shortcomings. Good thing is that it plays high quality songs flac etc. Anyways, I picked £90 dragonfly black which brings buckets of energy, details and soundstage. I feed it with my s7 using usb audio player pro (£5). Seriously, try it. It's night and day difference. I also though that S7 sound was good but you don't really know until you try something else. If you after good sound quality £90 is quite reasonable for the huge upgrade you are getting and it doesn't add much bulk/weight (unlike mojo). Just try anything (dac/amp) or don't if you happy with s7 sq
 

 

[skywalker99]

I have not heard v10. It may as well be as good as some say. I did consider it briefly in the past I remember but discarded it due ot its size and price.

 

[Rioter]

 
Comparing to pretty much anything I've had in the last few years (xonard dgx, stx, g2, g4, mojo, pureview 808)
 
Don't get me wrong though, I love my s7. It's snappy, great camera, decent battery, versatile, vr etc. I've had it since the release.
 
I purchased MSR7 (fantastic headphones btw) a few weeks ago as my out and about headphones and thought that my s7 may not do them justice. So my portable DAC/amp quest started. I did some A-B tests on some "quiet" evenings and compared xonar essence stx (desktop), dragonfly black and mojo with s7 (on poweramp). I was using my few weeks old msr7 and fidelio x2. Played a number of songs mostly in flac, various genres (rock, metal, classical, house).

Dont get me wrong, I'm not fan of S7 and listen it only in shop with my IEMs, ATH-IM03. Not fantastic but not too bad. And I can't install Poweramp 3 Alpha with 24-bit driver. And I know someone who play DSD on S7. May be MSR7 just not suited for S7?

 

[spongeworthy]

 
Comparing to pretty much anything I've had in the last few years (xonard dgx, stx, g2, g4, mojo, pureview 808)
 
Don't get me wrong though, I love my s7. It's snappy, great camera, decent battery, versatile, vr etc. I've had it since the release.
 
I purchased MSR7 (fantastic headphones btw) a few weeks ago as my out and about headphones and thought that my s7 may not do them justice. So my portable DAC/amp quest started. I did some A-B tests on some "quiet" evenings and compared xonar essence stx (desktop), dragonfly black and mojo with s7 (on poweramp). I was using my few weeks old msr7 and fidelio x2. Played a number of songs mostly in flac, various genres (rock, metal, classical, house).
 
S7's sound quality is in a different league (B or D league to be clear). I personally don't care what dac/amp it has it just sounds poor. Keep in mind that prior to that I was using s7 as my portable player so my ears were biased/conditioned towards s7. Even so it didn't help s7. I'm not an audiophile so can't describe s7 sq in technical terms but the closest adjectives I can think of are, flat, tinny, lack of details, lack of power (90-100% volume required), tinny, no instrument seperation, poor soundstage. It was probably unfair to compare it to mojo as it's £400. But even in comparison to 808 (which is good only for photos and music) s7 sounds like a cheap chinese knock-off. That's really unacceptable for a high end phone costing £560 (when released). Not sure if it's samsung's idea or android shortcomings. Good thing is that it plays high quality songs flac etc. Anyways, I picked £90 dragonfly black which brings buckets of energy, details and soundstage. I feed it with my s7 using usb audio player pro (£5). Seriously, try it. It's night and day difference. I also though that S7 sound was good but you don't really know until you try something else. If you after good sound quality £90 is quite reasonable for the huge upgrade you are getting and it doesn't add much bulk/weight (unlike mojo). Just try anything (dac/amp) or don't if you happy with s7 sq
 

What's the battery drain like with the Dragonfly?

 

[skywalker99]

  Dont get me wrong, I'm not fan of S7 and listen it only in shop with my IEMs, ATH-IM03. Not fantastic but not too bad. And I can't install Poweramp 3 Alpha with 24-bit driver. And I know someone who play DSD on S7. May be MSR7 just not suited for S7?

I don't think that's the case.
 
I used s7 (naked?!) with Fidelio x2, in ear soundmagic e10/e50 (forgot to mention in my previous post), jaybrids x1 (rubbish earphones), msr7 and the same thing with all of them. I don't think there is a point of spending loads of money on dac/amp if you intend to use it on the go as ambient sound is going to be a factor and will eradicate £££ spend on incremental improvements. I'm a fan of light set up, which is why I'm not going to use mojo on the go.

 

[Rioter]

I'm a fan of light set up, which is why I'm not going to use mojo on the go.

 
Thanks for review. Good I don't pick S7 (don't like Samsungish interface and wanted Google Store). Waiting for HTC 10 though it's not perfect to my taste.

 

[skywalker99]

   
Thanks for review. Good I don't pick S7 (don't like Samsungish interface and wanted Google Store). Waiting for HTC 10 though it's not perfect to my taste.

don't get me wrong. I think s7 is really (comfortable to operate in one hand) good phone. But as we all know there isn't a perfect phone out there. Imo s7 has rubbish sq but this can be easily fixed (dragonfly or something similar).
It depends what you want. My priorities were, battery, camera, speed, user interface at the time. in these categories s7 scores highly in my eyes.

 

[Wagnelles]

Does anyone here speaks chinese? Here's ZTE's official site about the Axon 7's audio chips. All I can say is that there's 2 of them and they are indeed AKM chips! I'm hyped.
 
I would like to ask a favor for the experienced ones to make comparations with the LG V10's DAC and tell if the Axon 7 is indeed superior audio wise if possible. Thanks!
 
http://www.ztedevice.com.cn/topics/axon-7/HiFi.html

 

[Aradea]

Any info on Alcatel phones? The flash plus 2 is launching with a dedicated AKM DAC and an amp

 

[skywalker99]

What's the battery drain like with the Dragonfly?

to me acceptable but I'll note exact values and report back.

 

[nort ycagel]

So anyone knows which one would be better beetwen Pro 6 and MI5?

 

[malifact]

Does anyone here speaks chinese? Here's ZTE's official site about the Axon 7's audio chips. All I can say is that there's 2 of them and they are indeed AKM chips! I'm hyped.

I would like to ask a favor for the experienced ones to make comparations with the LG V10's DAC and tell if the Axon 7 is indeed superior audio wise if possible. Thanks!

http://www.ztedevice.com.cn/topics/axon-7/HiFi.html

You can read the same info in English on the ZTE USA's launch page for the Axon 7. It just doesn't have the fancy pictures of the Chinese site.

I am interested in the Axon 7, but the reviews in Chinese I've looked at have left me a bit hesitant. The general consensus is the audio is better than your average smartphone. One said the Axon 7 is quite "bottom heavy" and another compared it to the Vivo XPlay 5 and said the latter is definitely superior. Hopefully Soonmal or a similar site will do a review.

 

[Gosod]

I can't listen to music because I think it's worse!