koluludome
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2015
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WCD9335
So if I turn off hifi mode, it will trigger this DAC instead ES one, right?
WCD9335
So if I turn off hifi mode, it will trigger this DAC instead ES one, right?
Received my V20 on Friday and had some time with it over the weekend. First impressions are good, it has excellent details and able to power my headphones adequately (FAD Padora Hope VI (aux) and Fostex T50RP mk.III (high imp.)). However, it does lack dynamic range, soundstage, and instrument separation compared to my usual setup of ak100ii + Oppo HA-2. Pairing the V20 with the HA-2 does help with soundstage and instrument separation somewhat, but it still not as good overall as ak100ii + HA2. Maybe that'll change over time, we'll see. I'm planning to root my V20 and install the high impedance fix. I'll report back if anything changes.
Great phone overall, though. I'm very pleased with the features it offers coming from a Note 3.
Bear with me here, this is gonna be kinda long...and probably confusing
So I'm really not enjoying the way my V20 sounds, but I'm not quite sure why. Ever since switching to it from my old HTC M8, vocals in particular seem recessed and majorly lacking. It seems like they easily get overrun by the rest of the music. The sound stage, noise level, and instrument separation is definitely better than the M8 though. Now that being said, whats confusing me is they seem to be recessed on all of my gear equally. The same strange sound signature propagates to Bluetooth devices and even USB-DAC's. I've A/B tested back and forth multiple times and (my?) V20 is definitely imposing some kind of sonic alteration to its playback.
So far I've tried just about every combination I can think of with what gear I have (V20, Fiio E17, Fiio E12A for sources, and my cars audio and Westone W4R's for sound), and I can't seem to shake this change to the vocals. What has me most confused, is using the E17 as a USB-DAC with the E12A as an amp inline, identical settings in power amp and any ROM based MusicFX disabled, and the sound signature between the V20 and the M8 is completely different...something I didn't think was possible with an external USB-DAC doing the heavy lifting. Eventually I gave up and actually broke out my old 5th gen iPod and passed its output through the E17 and E12A, and it was a vast improvement (to my ears?) over what the V20 was producing. (Yes, I know that the iPod is now doing the decoding in this configuration).
So whats going on here? Am I just a complete audiophile scrub? Is my V20 somehow defective and altering the audio? Do I just not like the sound sig of the V20? Did I leave the stove on?
Thanks for hearing me out!
Muscle memory. Like artpiggo mentioned, your ears has been 'tuned' to the old setup. Your ears need to adjust when you add/switch to something new. But most people here just tell you to 'burn in' whatever you're using....