[rockingthearies]

Plus you can have good DAC but crappy Amp chip

And that too

 

[bataskhayal7]

Ok, all things considered I've been doing some research and I think the best of both worlds is to get the Smartphone YOU like and get an external, mobile DAC. this company called HiFiMe does sell their latest 9018 Sabre edition in 3 variants, regular usb, micro usb ( android ) and the latest and greatest USB type C for 69$....

Unlike the dragonfly black by Audioquest which uses worse dac and is priced higher.

http://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs/Sabre-9018-Type-C-DAC

Now it's defenitely not the best in terms of looks ( to keep it cheap ) but it's a below 100$ solution that you can use with any phone that sports usb OnTheGo (OTG), qnywindows machine or Mac for that matter. It draws little power but I'd still consider getting a phone with a good to hefty battery capacity.

Sabre 9018Km is the same one that sits in the Meizu Pro 5 that a lot of you praise here. Of course there are other factors involved not just the dac but this thing gets very good reviews wherever I searched and is priced very low for what it offers.


I was seriously considering getting a Meizu Pro 5 or LG V10 or Lenovo Vibe X 3 but all of them have large screens which I really would rather avoid. The 5,2" of Huawei's P9 is the largest I'd be comfortable with in my daily use I think.
I'm still using my good old iPhone 4s bought on launch which is 5 years old now and it's battery is really on it's last legs...

I don't intend to play any games on my phone but being a sucker for that Leica monochrome images for years I think, getting myself a p9 or waiting for p10 and buying that external sabre dac from hifime would be a good choice.


However I also have to invest in new pair of headphones as I'm not too lucky with mine.

My main Fidelio X1 have an audio in broken, lost my klipsch x10i couple of months ago, 2 pairs of klipsch image one sent back to amazon as they broke in the same spot from normal use.

I'm now left with old sennheisers hd418 which I bought to be the "just in case" crappy solution many years ago, I do also have the a jays four iems but they are lifeless to me, no emetion while listening to those cheap'os.

I"m thinking of getting the momentum mk2 over year next.

Anyhoot long post, sorry ^^'

 
While I agree with external DAC as one of the solution for achieving great sound on-the-go, but that solution doesnt completely serve the purpose of this thread. I think there are phones out there with great sound but of course some (or even most of it) comes with its trade off. Now since this thread almost reach 300 pages, it would be great to have a round up about which phones are the best to achieve optimum sonic experience. I know its already been done in the previous pages of this thread, but now lets divide the category into 2 :
 
a. List of best smartphones for audiophile ==> Non Global Brand
b. List of best smartphones for audiophile ==> Global Brand
 
Hopefully the list will help the viewers of this thread to make a decision, especially people with concerns regarding software experience, LTE coverage, software support etc. Im not the expert one of this thread (more of a silent reader) so hopefully someone with rich perspectives could start the list.
 
Cheers.

 

[Kyrts]

Please amend the list with:
 
c. List of best smartphones for the el-cheapo minded audiophile ==> Whatever Brand
 

 

[TabCam]

  Please amend the list with:
 
c. List of best smartphones for the el-cheapo minded audiophile ==> Whatever Brand
 

If you look into the many questions in this thread, you would also get at least two
categories extra with the last two maybe divided into global/regional brands
- el cheapo phones
- mid range phones
- flagships/money no object phones

 

[Dobrescu George]

 
If you look into the many questions in this thread, you would also get at least two
categories extra with the last two maybe divided into global/regional brands
- el cheapo phones
- mid range phones
- flagships/money no object phones

 
But many flagship phones have a bad audiophile sound too.. 
 
And finding a solution for my needs, for example, didn't return any real solution since I wanted a phone that would be big (>6") and that would provide a very good usage experience + good audio. 
 
The Xiaomi mi max or Mate 8 from huawei are pretty much the only ones existing in the world that would work for me. and neither looks like a great option, both having questionable software 

 

[alexandis]

Hi, guys,
any idea, what would be inside LeEco Le Pro3?
It's coming out very soon.
Still, not very excited about disappeared 3.5mm jack. I have headphones that I'd like to keep using. And still not sure USB Type-C would be ALMOST the same battery-eater as 3.5mm jack...

 

[Godfsvor]

I have ordered a letv x800 pro from aliexpress, the us version probably (hongkong Ft store). A few pages back the us version is regarded to have worse sound quality due to the buggy software. Is it possible to install another rom to avoid these issues?

 

[Wagnelles]

  Hi, guys,
any idea, what would be inside LeEco Le Pro3?
It's coming out very soon.
Still, not very excited about disappeared 3.5mm jack. I have headphones that I'd like to keep using. And still not sure USB Type-C would be ALMOST the same battery-eater as 3.5mm jack...

This Liaow store seems to be a very nice Aliexpress alternative to import phones. Can anyone relate to them?

 

[artpiggo]

I have ordered a letv x800 pro from aliexpress, the us version probably (hongkong Ft store). A few pages back the us version is regarded to have worse sound quality due to the buggy software. Is it possible to install another rom to avoid these issues?

Rom has updated. Everything would be fine out of box now.

 

[alexandis]

  This Liaow store seems to be a very nice Aliexpress alternative to import phones. Can anyone relate to them?

I have made 4 purchases there, starting from 2013: Meizu MX2, VIVO XPlay, Nubia Z9 and VIVO X6 Plus. The prices are not as low as you can find on AliExpress. But what I like in them - I can trust them

 

[discord76]

Which phone has the best built in speaker for music?

 

[Taggerung]

Which phone has the best built in speaker for music?

HTC, Motorola, Nexus 6P

 

[artpiggo]

Which phone has the best built in speaker for music?

HTC10 and axon7

 

[umvue]

My Galaxy S3 i9305 just got the stuck power button syndrome, so I have to buy a new phone.
 
After reading the last 50 pages of this thread, I came into the conclusion that LG V10 seems to be the best phone for my price range. 
 
But it is too heavy for me, I would like to have a phone lighter than 150g. Is there a phone with similar audio performance but lighter than 150g?
 
Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[mx19]

Check Meizu Pro 5 - they say it sounds even better than V10 (and probably is the best smartphone for audiophile in terms of sound), also HTC 10 is said to sound great (check the thread about it). But I don't know about the weights of those two.
 
Personaly my favourite is Galaxy S7 (non-edge, exynos) ATM, as I'm looking for compact-sized phone with high-end specs and good sound.
Sadly everything with proper audio section is with 5.5 or even 5.7" screens (or is around 145-7mm of height which is too much for me and one-hand useability)... and S7 with Exynos is the only one with dedicated DAC+AMP in this size.