After 2 days of LG G5 (Amazon.de still no news on my HiFi DAC order grrrrr)
Over all an awesome little phone! I love it. Coming from 5 years of Samsung Note usage there are some serious features I am missing (The note functionality and the screen stay on while reading something my 2 most important ones) But I am discovering some LG "things" that I LIKE! For example you can program the remote app by learning any IR remote command you want! I could not do this with the NOTE 3. (not to mention that IR is not included in new samsung modules!)
The screen is not AMOLED but it is not bad. Colours are more natural, outdoor visibility under the HOT Cyprus sun is OK. The only thing not visible outside is the always on time display and that is when direct under the sun. If under some shade or in the car, it is fine.
I haven't played much with the camera yet but it seems exciting!
Built quality is great! I don't know what some reviewers are complaining about quality have been on to! Seriously! Design is nice and modest. I prefer it than the flashy glass of the late Samsung models. I think these reviewers either got some early pieces that had built quality issues, or are paid by Samsung...
What else, love the knock features and the fingerprint scanner is accurate and super fast! Charing time is great but I think battery life could be better. Well at least it is replaceable!
But lets go to the sound:
I have been testing comparing to my NOTE 3 (has a wolfson DAC) using my TripleFi 10 IEMS with an aftermarket LUNA cable from Null Audio.
I use power amp. I tested both with my favorite settings set the at same levels on Note 3 and G5 and also with all equalizers and tone settings off.
I tested a range of different types of music including pop, rock, classical, orchestral, instrumental, new age, trance etc. ( I love any music as long as it's ...musical
![Headphone Smile :) :)](https://cdn.head-fi.org/e/headfi/smily_headphones1.gif)
)
The 2 phones have very different sound signature. NOTE 3 sound is cleaner, more surgical while the G5 is a bit warmer and much more natural. Usually I dont like warm, but this is not too much so it is actually great. With the Note 3 I feel the sound is in a studio but with the G5 I feel I have the whole orchestra and singers in front of me live. Actually the soundstage of the G5 is noticeably bigger.
The level of detail is about the same. I can hear all the instruments and those guitar and violin scratches like in real life
![Headphone Smile :) :)](https://cdn.head-fi.org/e/headfi/smily_headphones1.gif)
I can hear the breath in the flutes and saxophones..
Another thing, the G5 can go louder without much distortion while if I push the NOTE 3 too loud, sound gets a bit more distorted.
I have also played some difficult recordings (live recordings of complex orchestral and choir pieces) that my NOTE 3 was not handling very well (too much noise and clippings). The G5 was sounding better.
So overall I think that the internal DAC of the G5 is a really good one. It is a big improvement from the horrible G4 dac and a small improvement from my beloved NOTE 3. But it does not compare to what I have heard from my friend's LG v10! So I can't wait to get the Hifi plus DAC and test!
PS Come on Amazon.de what happened? everybody else got their stocks already!