[jasonb]

Can it be done on a Verizon variant?

 

[warrior1975]

Not yet unfortunately.

 

[tekwrx]

Does anybody know why the wired remote/mic that came with my Sony XBA-A2 IEM cable doesn't work with the V10? The controls and mic worked fine with my Sony Z3, so I assumed it would work with all Android devices. Is there a setting I'm missing? Or does the V10 not support inline remote/mic?

 

[jasonb]

I can check later with the Brainwavz Jive i got as a review sample. Its got an android remote on it that worked fine with my M9.

 

[BearWant]

Here are my preliminary findings.  I got the phone and uploaded a few flac files onto the lg music player.  I used Q701 (bass modded) for listening.  On more quiet recordings I was wishing for a little more headroom, but with my normal listen would probably not exceed the max of 75.  On other recordings, I was listening at about 60-70.  Impressions of the sound are pretty consistent with others.  It seems very clean, detailed, and natural.  While listening through the music player could have asked for a little more authority in bass and dynamics.  Treble was airy very detailed, but had the potential to be fatiguing at higher volumes.  Not so sure about the mids they sounded a little recessed which is not something I associate with the Q701, but I'm not that familiar with the recording I used.  I would venture to say the sound overall could be considered slightly bright and possibly thin, but I'm used to listening to the Q701 on vintage amplifiers.  Regardless, my very limited impressions are that this thing sounds good.
 
Here is where things get interesting.  I switched over to Spotify with a track still playing in the lg player and then paused the track on the lg player.  The phone continued to leave the dac and amp enabled; however, it could not be disengaged via the toggle switch. It continues to play music through the dac and amp until a notification comes through and then it disengages.  You must go through the same process again to re-enable it.  I have not done a comparison regarding the sound, but can tell you the Q701 were significantly louder while using Spotify.  Like I said I'm not really familiar with the tracks I used.   Perhaps they are typically low tracks, or maybe I did something when ripping them.  
 
I would imagine it's only a matter of time before they fix this.  It seems to me its definitely a coding issue.  Those more savvy then I could possible theorize, as to who needs to make those changes whether it is lg, the individual apps, or google.  This is an unfortunate oversight though given that they want to market this as an audiophile player.  Not even those conducting the reviews were cognizant of this issue, so you wonder what audio enthusiasts who pick up this phone and have not read up on theses issues impressions will be.  Unfortunately, between reviews and consumer impressions if they don't fix this, the audio quality of this phone might miss out on the attention it deserves.

 

[jasonb]

Nice write up. I was using Google Play Music, paying the $10 a month to stream. Hifi mode wasnt working with the streaming portion of Google Play, so now i am using Tidal which works 100% with the hifi dac and amp. Tidal allows for streaming and offline downloads of flac so its the better choice anyway. With 64 gigs of internal storage (50 gigs available to the user) thats plenty of room to keep a few dozen flac albums.

 

[ajaxender]

 
I would imagine it's only a matter of time before they fix this.  It seems to me its definitely a coding issue.  Those more savvy then I could possible theorize, as to who needs to make those changes whether it is lg, the individual apps, or google.

 
Yeah impressions like yours give me hope, too.
 
It seems an odd implementation. I think apps could be coded to activate it, but it also seems pretty clear that when it is activated and already in use (via the stock app) then all audio is routed through it, besides system sounds. So its not as if other apps can't use it without being coded for this specific phone, which would be a pain and really poor design by LG. I'm wondering if part of the issue is the system sounds like notifications, which you'd prefer using the standard dac but then have to turn the hifi dac off and on. Still, I definitely think its their fix to make, and it should be possible. 

 

[warrior1975]

It's definitely possible. The apps may need to be updated by their specific developers, at least that's my uneducated guess. It will only be a matter of time.

 

[jamor]

Developers and companies do pay attention to Google Play reviews. In an effort to bring the issue to their eyes, give them 1 star reviews and tell them your V10 ESS DAC doesn't work with their app.  Might help the effort.

 

[SeeSax]

  Hi...I'm looking forward to LG taking my money for this phone.  Just saw the GSM arena review http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_v10-review-1333p7.php in which they say that the audio quality is clean but low in volume and that it may have trouble driving high-impedance headphones.  This of course contrasts with what I've been reading here, so could anyone confirm why would they say that?  My current phone is an HTC one M8 with faux sound just in case...

 
The Phone Arena review also shows very low output voltage (below the Note 5), which I just don't understand. All these reviews contradict what I'm reading on the forums. 
 
At the end of the day, though, I trust you guys a lot more than GSM and Phone Arena
 
-Collin-

 

[Whitigir]

The Phone Arena review also shows very low output voltage (below the Note 5), which I just don't understand. All these reviews contradict what I'm reading on the forums. 

At the end of the day, though, I trust you guys a lot more than GSM and Phone Arena

-Collin-

Their problems is because the v10 Sabres DAC will not play well with many apps, so whatever they used to measure it, probably based onto the snap dragon.

The next thing is that Sabres DAC need to be toggled on, if it is not...then it is snap dragon dac

 

[Jedimaster5577]

I'm getting mine today, but won't see it until late tonight since I'm at work. I have two questions if anyone has the time to answer. First, I am curious to know who it sounds with apps such as TuneIn Radio. I do listen to streams when I can and want to know if there is a dramatic drop off since it's not at a high bit rate.
 
Second, I am reading that streaming music through Google Music Play does not working with the DAC. Nevertheless, does downloading music for offline play, since it is at 320, affect the DAC?
 
Thanks and appreciate anyone's time. Cheers! 

 

[jasonb]

That or its the way the ess amp works when trying to measure it. I dont know much about the design, but maybe it has something to do with the power being adaptive. If they are measuring at a low impedance it would kind of make sense for the amp to scale back the power. There is no reason for it to ramp up the power to a 16ohm load for example.

I know this amp definitely does some adapting, and somebody that has never used an amp like this may find it strange. Its very odd that i listen to sensitive iem's at the same volume level as the suposedly hard to drive Q701. I listen to all my iems and my Q701 at around 30 to 35 out of the max of 75. Then comes something which seems even more odd. My Brainwavz HM5 is 64ohm, which is 2 ohms higher than the Q701, but it is a very sensitive 64 ohms. I listen to the HM5 at a volume of 20 out of the max of 75 and its the same loudness. So it sees the HM5 as being high impedance which it is, but its very sensitive.

So if they are measuring at one single low impedance that could also explain low results. If they are actually measuring the ess amp section then they should probably measure at a few different impedances to get a real clear picture.

 

[SeeSax]

Good points. And I believe they say that they test the phones with no audio effects or enhancements turned on, so they probably did not even bother to turn on the HiFi DAC. 
 
I give these guys credit for trying and they're the only two that include any useful audio information in their reviews, but it's gotten pretty generic lately. Not very useful anymore. In fact, I can pretty much sum up what any non-HTC review says from GSM Arena. I'll take a stab at it:
 
"This phone aced our active amplifier test and provided very clean output. Plug in a pair of headphones and stereo crosstalk creeps up, but overall it was an okay showing, though it fell short of HTC's flagship phones." 
 
Am I close?
 
-Collin-

 

[jasonb]

Well, this in reality is definitely better than the M9.