I tried to find an answer for this but i know of no one who has heard them side by side.
I can only comment on opa627au, in short it reduces battery life but it improved the sound to the level that I can truly recommend if sound alone is to be the deciding factor.
OPA627AU paired with DSD128 upsampling to me produces a very natural sound that surpasses what I heard from AK240 and calyx M. It is a very balanced sound without giving up musicality.
It is not as wide as LPG but its midrange is more inline with the rest of the sound where as with LPG I find it dry at times and slightly U shaped whem comparing with valoq.
But all things considered valoq paired with opa627au attracts the same audience that colorfly C4 did. What I mean by this is certainly it will not be for everyone, it will be for the minority of the minority for various reason. For my the battery last me to and from work.
Have I found my ultimate DAP? Will no as I just ordered the dp-x1 (thanks for the hint at mojo thread
) but after dealing with valoq i know what I want that dap to be.
Valoq got the SRC feature spot on, battery just average, UI on the adequate side, built on the decent side but where it failed is the physical navigation. I like my valoq, I know I will like it for many years to come, I just like strange things that requires a bit of patience.