[good sound]

For me personally , whether or not the quad mode is on / off is made no huge difference .
Regardless Quad on or off , without the activation of the high impedance gain mode , the V20 sounds really bad and lacks the power to drive my 41ohms .
Sonically , it depends largely on its high gain impedance mode .
It sounds much full bodied much much more enjoyable when high gain mode is enabled , as compared to low gain normal mode .
At least in my case this is what I had experiencing with the aurisonics asg 2.5 .

Yes, but that's just with one specific headphone. I'm sure there are other headphones with an impedance rating south of 50 ohms that are the same as yours in that they will sound and perform better in high impedance mode. The vast majority of IEM's and other headphones with a rating of under 50 ohms will be fine in normal mode. My OPPO PM-3's, rated at 32 ohms won't get overly loud in normal mode. I have put the V20 into auxiliary mode and it certainly gives me more volume, but the sound quality is no better. It might actually be a little worse. I detect some excess brightness which translates into a degree of harshness I don't like. I haven't yet induced high impedance mode, don't have the required adaptor, but I wouldn't really expect it to deliver anything more than increased volume. Maybe one day I will try it and see.

In any event it would seem we now have a definitive answer to the question in debate, that is whether or not you need to have the V20 in high impedance mode to activate the Quad DAC's. You do not.

 

[ZoneX23]

Does this new info mean that my 16/32 ohm earbuds, IEMs, and full-size headphones will have the same excellent sound quality whether I use the v20 aux trick with a cable or not?

This would be huge for me. I'm still deciding between the HTC 10 and LG V20, and want the best sound quality possible for all my low impedance headphones without additional cables or accessories. I have no headphones above 32 ohms at this point, and I have a new LZ-A4 on the way. Any thoughts would be great!

 

[good sound]

Does this new info mean that my 16/32 ohm earbuds, IEMs, and full-size headphones will have the same excellent sound quality whether I use the v20 aux trick with a cable or not?

This would be huge for me. I'm still deciding between the HTC 10 and LG V20, and want the best sound quality possible for all my low impedance headphones without additional cables or accessories. I have no headphones above 32 ohms at this point, and I have a new LZ-A4 on the way. Any thoughts would be great!

Most likely, but not absolutely. There may be more to how well the V20, or any amp for that matter, drives a particular set of headphones or IEM's than just the impedance rating of that head set. Difficult to know for certain without a deeper look into the specs or actually listening to the combination.

 

[SAMplify101]

Has anyone tried the V20/V10 with dt770 80ohm or beyerdynamic custom studios? looking to get a used v10/v20 or m8 as a dap for my custom studios. From my understanding, a headphone with high impedance, low sensitivity or a combination of both needs to be detected by the phone to unlock the full 2 volts, but otherwise it'll be running at 1 volt if the phone deems the headphone easy to drive. But if the 80ohm/98db SPL custom studio needs more than 1volt(1.4v according to the headphone calculator @ 110dB loudness level), will the LG give that extra juice or is the v10 output a binary choice between 2 and 1 volt? I'm thinking maybe I should get the HTC m8 with it's 1.2volts if that's the case with the LG.

 

[Luvdac]

I know most of the talk in here is about the quad dac but i just purchased a pair of the new Audio Technica ATH-DSR9BT's which have AptX HD. Only thing I can say is these have extremely crisp full sound with the V20! I haven't fully broken them in yet so i can only imagine what they're going to sound like after 20-40 hours of use but 1st impressions are very good.

Hi, just curious to know if the aptx hd light on the headphones light up. This could be a good indicator that the v20 actually does broadcast in aptx hd over bluetooth. If this is the case I will definitely go in for these headphones.

 

[bluelavender]

I used to own v20. And while LG has officially answered that gains have nothing to do with quad dac, I do agree with some posts above that somehow, with normal settings, v20 sound is so underwhelming that it once made me wonder what's so good about this phone. Only after getting it to high impedance mode, then I understand what make this phone special.

 

[HipHopScribe]

I used to own v20. And while LG has officially answered that gains have nothing to do with quad dac, I do agree with some posts above that somehow, with normal settings, v20 sound is so underwhelming that it once made me wonder what's so good about this phone. Only after getting it to high impedance mode, then I understand what make this phone special.

I don't think anyone has ever disputed that some headphones benefit from high gain, but some people were under the impression that the DAC was somehow not fully active except on high impedance mode, which appears not to be the case

 

[bluelavender]

I don't think anyone has ever disputed that some headphones benefit from high gain, but some people were under the impression that the DAC was somehow not fully active except on high impedance mode, which appears not to be the case

Agree with you. Speaking of gain, At that time, I was seriously infuriated by this feature. I don't mind v20 switch automatically to lower gain for sensitive iem, but why must it change the sq to something underwhelming with low gain I think this is the one that make many people think wrongly that the gain has something to do with quad dac

 

[TJ Max]

I think people fell under this notion because there is no visual confirmation that high impedance mode is activated when the Quad dac is off.
I see no reason to ever turn off the Quad dac though, I just leave mine on.

 

[bluelavender]

I think people fell under this notion because there is no visual confirmation that high impedance mode is activated when the Quad dac is off.
I see no reason to ever turn off the Quad dac though, I just leave mine on.

What still make me wonder, what does V20 software do inside when high gain is activated? the sound is too different with normal gain mode, that i can understand why people can mistakenly conclude "no quad dac with normal gain mode". In DAP, low vs high gain are just matter of volume. A good IEM with low impedance will sounds good in DAP even with low or normal impedance. That's not the case with V20 unfortunately, hence prompting many to use "high impedance trick" to bring out the best from V20

 

[artpiggo]

What still make me wonder, what does V20 software do inside when high gain is activated? the sound is too different with normal gain mode, that i can understand why people can mistakenly conclude "no quad dac with normal gain mode". In DAP, low vs high gain are just matter of volume. A good IEM with low impedance will sounds good in DAP even with low or normal impedance. That's not the case with V20 unfortunately, hence prompting many to use "high impedance trick" to bring out the best from V20

I am not sure which DAP you test and conclude that low or high is just matter of volume. It doesn't simply just volume. (Try DX200 or sony 1A) But sound signature changed a lot as well. So LG V20 high gain does exactly the same as what DAP can do.

 

[bluelavender]

I am not sure which DAP you test and conclude that low or high is just matter of volume. It doesn't simply just volume. (Try DX200 or sony 1A) But sound signature changed a lot as well. So LG V20 high gain does exactly the same as what DAP can do.

i used onkyo X1A, then KANN. when i use gain setting in both, i don't find them changed significantly. Low gain still produce beautiful sounds, same as high gain. But normal gain in V20 is.. well, a bit dissapointing to me. At high impedance level, i have no complaint. V20 is the best i've ever heard and can run rings around many DAPs.
i haven't tried with my current G6 now, since i almost never use it for music. Not sure if G6 still have this big difference

 

[Dellwolf]

Whenever you change the gain of an amp, it changes the amount of power it can output, but with that it also changes the output impedance curve, which has a very noticeable sound sig/quality change with Balanced Armature type IEMs, but is also noticeable with nearly anything.

 

[bluelavender]

Whenever you change the gain of an amp, it changes the amount of power it can output, but with that it also changes the output impedance curve, which has a very noticeable sound sig/quality change with Balanced Armature type IEMs, but is also noticeable with nearly anything.

I stand corrected. But I wonder though, in this case, why the difference was so great that it prompted many to use high impedance trick specially with v20. I personally never see the need to do high impedance trick or tweak to high gain when using iem in dap I use, because I find the difference negligible.

 

[capetownwatches]

I haven't seen this query addressed in this thread, but please forgive me if it has been. Has anyone had experience using the V20 as a source/DAC straight into an amplifier through line out (headphone socket)? What is the SQ like assuming the phone goes into "external device" mode with quad DAC switched ON? In other words, is the phone a high quality source for high quality amplification? Has anyone used the phone as a source using USB-C output? Thanks in advance!