[tekwrx]

ESS or not, I don't really care. All I know is it has a built-in headphone amp that gets loud enough and sounds goid enough that I dont have to take my FiiO stack out of the house with me to get good sound. That plus it's a pretty nice phone and the 2nd screen is very cool. It's a great upgrade from my Xperia Z3. I'm a total Sony fanboy and I really wanted to like the Z5, but from all accounts this V10 smokes it in audio quality. Heck, the V10 can drive my Sony MDR-Z7 headphones satisfactorily so it's got some power under the hood. My educated guess is ESS, lolz

 

[naddm]

 
Here's confirmation of the 32 Bit Hifi ESS Sabre DAC from the man responsible for the specs. Its from 7:00 minutes onward.

 

[Muddysmind]

I had not heard before that it would up sample mp3 files automatically, not sure how that is going to play out.

 

[yiannis550]

Great video! Thanks!

 

[jedthehumanoid]

I had not heard before that it would up sample mp3 files automatically, not sure how that is going to play out.

I'm probably going to buy the V10 either later today or maybe tomorrow depending on time so I don't mean this to sound negative but the whole concept of up sampling sounds like bs to me. How exactly is it doing that? Its pulling the missing frequencies out of thin air? I'm sure it will sound good based on the dac and the way it was designed to be away from the processor, etc. so it should be better than other smart phones but the term up sampling is at best a misnomer.

 

[Delance26]

I think what it is essentially is doing is "sharpening" the sound, let me explain cause I know that sounds ridiculous.
 
Have you ever taken a photo and had a tone of noise/blur in the photo? A low sample rate/bit rate is comparable to this.  Often times there is software which take an educated guess as to what should be placed in the blurry areas.  These tools are often referred to as "noise reduction" or "sharpening"
 
My guess (and this is just a hypothesis) is that the DAC uses a smart software which helps refine the sound.  While it will never reach the potential of actual 32-bit audio, it will be better then say its 16-bit self.
 
Another analogy would be with Blu-ray players.  If you put a non-Blue-ray DVD into a Blu-ray player the image is slightly enhanced (more so then a standard DVD player of course).  I think this could also be true for this DAC.
 
I can personally confirm that lower bit songs (meaning from iTunes) do sound more refined than off a "normal" audio device. 
 
*personal not this improvement I hear could be a placebo affect, however I do genuinely feel it is more refined and clear to my ears.*
 
So yes it could all be a bunch of BS, but other devices use a form of "up-sampling" so it is logical to think it could also occur in audio.
Cheers!

 

[ehjie]

  I think what it is essentially is doing is "sharpening" the sound, let me explain cause I know that sounds ridiculous.
 
Have you ever taken a photo and had a tone of noise/blur in the photo? A low sample rate/bit rate is comparable to this.  Often times there is software which take an educated guess as to what should be placed in the blurry areas.  These tools are often referred to as "noise reduction" or "sharpening"
 
My guess (and this is just a hypothesis) is that the DAC uses a smart software which helps refine the sound.  While it will never reach the potential of actual 32-bit audio, it will be better then say its 16-bit self.
 
Another analogy would be with Blu-ray players.  If you put a non-Blue-ray DVD into a Blu-ray player the image is slightly enhanced (more so then a standard DVD player of course).  I think this could also be true for this DAC.
 
I can personally confirm that lower bit songs (meaning from iTunes) do sound more refined than off a "normal" audio device. 
 
*personal not this improvement I hear could be a placebo affect, however I do genuinely feel it is more refined and clear to my ears.*
 
So yes it could all be a bunch of BS, but other devices use a form of "up-sampling" so it is logical to think it could also occur in audio.
Cheers!

....'' Up sampling '' - meaning / more like a really Good DSP (Digital Signal Processor) Chip, maybe..... polishing those rough ''bits'' to sound less veiled....

 

[jasonb]

All i know is that this phone sounds excellent.

 

[tekwrx]

The up-sampling is probably something similar to Sony's DSEE sound enhancement found on their DAPs and Xperia phones

 

[warrior1975]

Not sure if you guys are aware, just a heads up, this phone has an issue with the fingerprint with certain cases. I did purchase one from Spigen, fits perfectly, and fingerprint works flawlessly, link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016CBE8R6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1446853809&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&keywords=Spigen+v10+hybrid

 

[Makiah S]

   
You got Neutron to work with the Sabre DAC? How did you do it?

From what I've been reading, of the apps that can work with the Sabre it can only work for 1 app at a time. If it's working for Tidal in the background then it needs to be closed before using Play Music, or at least that's what I'm understanding.

 
two things, I got Rhapsody an WOW their library of music SUCKS, holy moly do they have some REALLY bad sources q.q Listened to a couple of my Flac to mp3 transcoded albums from my SD then listened to the same ones on Rhapsody an wow... terrible, but what ever I get it for like $3 at work, an it's nice for discovering new music[it really is]

Getting Nuetron to work, I open music play the LG flac they have there, open Nuetron play what ever I'm listening to, an then close Music. I use the LG Music app as the switch to get neutron to work with the dac. Ofc the NOTICEABLE JUMP in volume let's you know the dacs working... the little bugger puts out some powah! 
 

  Great video! Thanks!

 

[Delance26]

Not sure if you guys are aware, just a heads up, this phone has an issue with the fingerprint with certain cases. I did purchase one from Spigen, fits perfectly, and fingerprint works flawlessly, link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016CBE8R6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1446853809&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&keywords=Spigen+v10+hybrid

Yeah I got he Incipio straight from t-mobile, mainly cause it is such a new phone there are not many good cases on the market yet.  I do have some issues with the scanner as having a rugged case makes your ginger press at an off angle.  I have adapted, however, and have learned how to position my finger giving me a fine success rate.  Also instead of using my pointer finger I found using the middle finger works better sometimes (so I stored both prints in the phone).  I may look into a slim case as I bet this would remedy the problem, but I really do not find it that bad.
 
I find it funny that people freak out at LG for a major design flaw, when you cannot expect the company to test every case (not designed by them) to work correctly with the phone.

 

[warrior1975]

The other problem is if your fingers aren't touching the side metal case it won't register. Mine actually isn't working as well as I thought. When I have headphones or my charger plugged in, it works. It's weird, sometimes it work well, this morning, not at all. I'm going to notch a piece of my case out for my first get to fit.

 

[jedthehumanoid]

  I find it funny that people freak out at LG for a major design flaw, when you cannot expect the company to test every case (not designed by them) to work correctly with the phone.

To be fair, if you look at the reviews on Amazon, it seems like almost all the cases out for this phone create issues so that sort of is LG's fault. I might get a case because they are so cheap right now on amazon but I don't know if I'll even use it. I got the insurance on the phone so it shouldn't matter...

 

[Delance26]

  To be fair, if you look at the reviews on Amazon, it seems like almost all the cases out for this phone create issues so that sort of is LG's fault. I might get a case because they are so cheap right now on amazon but I don't know if I'll even use it. I got the insurance on the phone so it shouldn't matter...

Yeah this is true, it does not bother me much cause half the time I use the finger pattern simply because I forget I have the scanner (never had one until now ha).  Plus I will take this one quirk if it means my phone as awesome audio.