[ZMan2k2]

I see... 
How fast is Canadian internet? do you guys get max 10MB/s speed? 
It depends on providers, of course. If I put down $35 a month, how fast internet speed do I get? 
and how fast 4G network do you guys have over there?

Yes we have 4G. But it's only with the big guys. WIND is garbage for coverage, as they really only have the 2100MHz band, so in a building, you can lose coverage. As for 4G, it's with most other providers, but depends on how much data you need. I'm with a budget provider, Virgin Mobile, and I pay $57.44/m for unlimited calling, text etc., and 2Gig of data. Pay to play in Canada, there's almost an oligopoly up here, as the Big 3 kind of work together on pricing, so you really have to shop around.

 

[davidmthekidd]

Has anyone compared the v10 vs the oppo ha-2 in terms of sound quality?

 

[kawaivpc1]

Yes we have 4G. But it's only with the big guys. WIND is garbage for coverage, as they really only have the 2100MHz band, so in a building, you can lose coverage. As for 4G, it's with most other providers, but depends on how much data you need. I'm with a budget provider, Virgin Mobile, and I pay $57.44/m for unlimited calling, text etc., and 2Gig of data. Pay to play in Canada, there's almost an oligopoly up here, as the Big 3 kind of work together on pricing, so you really have to shop around.

Cool, I think I will move to Toronto soon. It seems like there are fewer items available for shopping in general Canadian online stores such as Amazon. 
Do you have any advice for that?

 

[canali]

 
 
just came across this particular thread.
 
as per the comment below made much earlier, how is it
(smarphones really upping their game in audio) destroying the DAP market?
 
if anything, imo good competition like this makes the dap guys (which i think often are making $$$1K+
products out of reach for many) to up their game and perhaps reach a broader audience.
i think daps are still an evolving market with many changes to come, which is why i'm hesitant to
go there and spend the big bucks, when in a yr or so the value of what i've bought is reduced by half....at least
with a quality audio smartphone it's still enjoyable--and practical--on a number of levels for a few yrs, due to it's multitasking
capabilties.
 
i'm still awating something from the portable dap or smartphone world that can be
as user friendly and versatile as the apple ipod touch, but made with the budding audiophile in mind
and can also support quality streaming (which imo is a hugely growing market).
hopefully the lg v10 and samsung galaxy s7 are signs of great things to come.
 
interesting article below i wanted to share on the possible future of portable audio,
around daps and smartphones.
 
too:http://cymbacavum.com/2015/05/13/the-biz-where-is-portable-audio-going-an-overview-of-the-new-age-dap-market/
 
 
Quote:

  Not to go off topic, but the samsung galaxy s7 will have ess9018aq2m, which is used in LH labs products including the Geekout v2 that just came out. Good to see phone companies taking audio seriously, but it hurts to see it will destroy the dap market soon. Good thing LG is forcing samsung to up their game. Hope they bring removable storage back

 

[SeeSax]

Has anyone compared the v10 vs the oppo ha-2 in terms of sound quality?

 
I have both and found the sound quality to be nearly identical between the two. The HA-2, however, obviously has much more output power (though many people are praising the V10 for it's amp). I almost feel as if the HA-2 is now redundant, but I use it with my Nexus 5 and Galaxy S6 to drive higher-impedance headphones at home. 
 
-Collin-

 

[Roscoeiii]

I have both and found the sound quality to be nearly identical between the two. The HA-2, however, obviously has much more output power (though many people are praising the V10 for it's amp). I almost feel as if the HA-2 is now redundant, but I use it with my Nexus 5 and Galaxy S6 to drive higher-impedance headphones at home. 

-Collin-

Wow, that is impressive! Of the headphones you've tried, at what point in terms of difficulty to drive does the HA-1 offer better performance?

 

[AlexRoma]

   
I almost feel as if the HA-2 is now redundant, but I use it with my Nexus 5 and Galaxy S6 to drive higher-impedance headphones at home. 
 
-Collin-

 
Sounds unbelievable, considering the fact that Oppo HA-2 is generally considered the best sounding portable device under 300$ , beating most DAPs under 500$

 

[SeeSax]

Wow, that is impressive! Of the headphones you've tried, at what point in terms of difficulty to drive does the HA-1 offer better performance?

 
I'm at work today, but I'll have a listen when I get home. The only pair of headphones that are higher impedance right now are the DT990s, but I'll get you a better breakdown of the volume differences once I'm home. 
 
 

   
Sounds unbelievable, considering the fact that Oppo HA-2 is generally considered the best sounding portable device under 300$ , beating most DAPs under 500$

 
Many people throughout the thread mentioned that they think the V10 easily competes with mid-priced DAPs/DACs and to me, they sound very comparable. I guess I'm not totally surprised given that they have the same DAC (ESS Sabre 9018K2m - going by memory here). Again, I'll have a closer listen, but to me they sound very comparable. Great news, although I'm kind of wondering why I spent $300 on the HA2 now
 
-Collin-

 

[canali]

i inquired about this phone coming to canada by logging into LG
s site last night.
...just got a reply from some service rep that it is not...guess we canucks aren't deserving
of a good audiophile level phone from LG...hope they change their minds.
 

Thank you for your interest in LG

Regretfully we have been informed that the LG V10 will not be coming to Canada.

Thank you for choosing LG

LG Customer Service

LG Canada

 

[kawaivpc1]

 

It's great that Samsung S7 has ESS DAC chip too. But the problem is microSD card slot. Galaxy series will no longer feature a microSD card slot which you can store big size 24bit FLAC files. 
No matter how good S7 will sound, you can put only 32 albums into their slow and inefficient 32GB internal flash storage. 
It's not better than LG V10 unless Samsung decide to implement two microSD card slots for audiophiles.

 

[kawaivpc1]

  i inquired about this phone coming to canada by logging into LG
s site last night.
...just got a reply from some service rep that it is not...guess we canucks aren't deserving
of a good audiophile level phone from LG...hope they change their minds.
 

Thank you for your interest in LG

Regretfully we have been informed that the LG V10 will not be coming to Canada.

Thank you for choosing LG

LG Customer Service

LG Canada

It doesn't matter...
 
buy your V10 on Ebay.com and ask your seller to ship it to Canada.

 

[Roscoeiii]

  It's great that Samsung S7 has ESS DAC chip too. But the problem is microSD card slot. Galaxy series will no longer feature a microSD card slot which you can store big size 24bit FLAC files. 
No matter how good S7 will sound, you can put only 32 albums into their slow and inefficient 32GB internal flash storage. 
It's not better than LG V10 unless Samsung decide to implement two microSD card slots for audiophiles.

Though lack of an SD card is less of an issue for folks streaming lossless via Tidal. 
 
Will the S7 also have the ESS amp in addition to the DAC? 

 

[canali]

to both kawaipvc1 and roscoeiii
thanks, guys
 
but i feel like such a dope .
sorry guys...i'm just getting into fidelity so don't fully understand the different file types 
the streamers use (i've looked them up but still trying to understand the interaction
between that and wifi streaming...)...and obviously i'm clueless....sorry.
esp in now understanding usb out with a dac/amp but nexus doesn't have it.
 
and here i was  bemoaning the fact of 'why don't many daps offer wifi so i can enjoy spotify or whatever' thinking
the sound would be better thru good daps, but not knowing the full spectrum of things to consider...ay vay.
 
what i'm trying to do in a nutshell: enjoy great sound on some portable device
whether that be a newer smartphone as listed (lg v10 or newer samsung galaxy s7...or other)
or even a dap ..streaming, choices of music at good quality transfer rates.
 
currently (silly me i know) i'm just using my lg nexus phone for streaming music
and my nano for my iems and such.
 
i love streaming due to the freedom of choice it offers me: but i want top quality sound, too
...and I am no longer into buying cds or ripping things anymore (only ripping i did was itunes...

)
...sold alot of my cds to be frank.
 
just got some new sony 7520 cans today (they so sound fine from nano, admittedly but want
to up the sound quality too)...eventually would love to upgrade my iems (sony xba h1) to shure 846
but i know to fully appreciate them  you need a good source, too.
 
 

  Though lack of an SD card is less of an issue for folks streaming lossless via Tidal. 
 
Will the S7 also have the ESS amp in addition to the DAC? 

 

[Roscoeiii]

 

 
Don't worry about it! We're here to help each other out!  
 
Best streaming sound quality will be with Tidal on their $20/month lossless streaming plan. CD quality stuff in FLAC format (IIRC). Great selection, even though not quite as big as Spotify or Google Play (which both have maximum resolution of 320kbps mp3s IIRC). File types don't differ if you are streaming over wifi or a cellular 4G network. But if you are streaming (especially lossless) over a 4G network make sure your plan has a lot of data!
 
For anything higher resolution than that, you'll need to keep them as files on your phone. Whether on-the-go you'll be able to notice much difference between CD quality and higher resolution is debateable. I and many others are for the most part satisfied with CD quality sound. I only spring for higer res stuff for music I really love and know was recorded and mastered well enough for the higher resolution to make a noticeable difference. But I'd probably need to be in a pretty acoustically isolated environment for those differences to be audible over background noises. But if you want to have the physical files in lossless FLAC at CD or higher resolution, your phone's storage will get eaten up pretty quick. Enter the SD card option to give you tons more space. 
 
Hope this helps. Any more questions, just let us know. 

 

[canali]

thanks Roscoeiii
 
I am trialing both tidal and spotify...over wifi at home on my laptop.
 
the other night I was going back and forth between both vendors, same track...and I will be frank:
( couldn't notice a real difference...had tidal on full on iflac (or whatever it is)...and had spotify on premium
....both sounded quite good ...had  no dac/amp from laptop even..so wonder if the sound will be that much better if i do get one
(looking at HRT microstreamer, dragonfly or iFi micro dsd....eventually hook up laptop to can...or thru to my ear plus purist headphone tube amp
 
but anyway, i'm being sidetracked: couldn't really tell diff between tidal and spotify, using premium/max settings on both.
 
and for portable use, well that is still up in the air as per earlier posts.
 
Quote:

   
Don't worry about it! We're here to help each other out!  
 
Best streaming sound quality will be with Tidal on their $20/month lossless streaming plan. CD quality stuff in FLAC format (IIRC). Great selection, even though not quite as big as Spotify or Google Play (which both have maximum resolution of 320kbps mp3s IIRC). File types don't differ if you are streaming over wifi or a cellular 4G network. But if you are streaming (especially lossless) over a 4G network make sure your plan has a lot of data!
 
For anything higher resolution than that, you'll need to keep them as files on your phone. Whether on-the-go you'll be able to notice much difference between CD quality and higher resolution is debateable. I and many others are for the most part satisfied with CD quality sound. I only spring for higer res stuff for music I really love and know was recorded and mastered well enough for the higher resolution to make a noticeable difference. But I'd probably need to be in a pretty acoustically isolated environment for those differences to be audible over background noises. But if you want to have the physical files in lossless FLAC at CD or higher resolution, your phone's storage will get eaten up pretty quick. Enter the SD card option to give you tons more space. 
 
Hope this helps. Any more questions, just let us know.