LG V20 Sound Quality
Sep 19, 2017 at 1:28 PM Post #2,911 of 4,139
guys guys!

i only ever made to mods to my phone:
enabled native 16/44.1 playback
increased the volume on media profiles

now i can't record a video. the video doesn't play when i play it back. i think it's the camera recorded videos because other vids online work well. what happened?
 
Sep 24, 2017 at 5:22 PM Post #2,912 of 4,139
I picked up a lg 20 for a good price yesterday - don't have any good high impediance cans with my right now ( I did get high gain with my sennheiser hd 558 but those are not good headphones - will test with my akg k7xx when i get to the office tomorrow. my hifiman 400s only show up as normal as expected ) and currently testing with my isine 10 with different players and music apps and it does sound very good but I really cannot tell much of a difference between the lg g20 and my fiio x5 3rd gen and straight off my galaxy s8 + lol so I must have been listening too much today - they all sound very good to me

will test it out tomorrow with some dsd tracks - I am hoping to sell the fiio as the lg is much bigger higher with a higher resolution screen it would only be a dap as I prefer samsungs for my main and back up phones
 
Sep 24, 2017 at 5:54 PM Post #2,913 of 4,139
I picked up a lg 20 for a good price yesterday - don't have any good high impediance cans with my right now ( I did get high gain with my sennheiser hd 558 but those are not good headphones - will test with my akg k7xx when i get to the office tomorrow. my hifiman 400s only show up as normal as expected ) and currently testing with my isine 10 with different players and music apps and it does sound very good but I really cannot tell much of a difference between the lg g20 and my fiio x5 3rd gen and straight off my galaxy s8 + lol so I must have been listening too much today - they all sound very good to me

will test it out tomorrow with some dsd tracks - I am hoping to sell the fiio as the lg is much bigger higher with a higher resolution screen it would only be a dap as I prefer samsungs for my main and back up phones
I picked up a lg 20 for a good price yesterday - don't have any good high impediance cans with my right now ( I did get high gain with my sennheiser hd 558 but those are not good headphones - will test with my akg k7xx when i get to the office tomorrow. my hifiman 400s only show up as normal as expected ) and currently testing with my isine 10 with different players and music apps and it does sound very good but I really cannot tell much of a difference between the lg g20 and my fiio x5 3rd gen and straight off my galaxy s8 + lol so I must have been listening too much today - they all sound very good to me

will test it out tomorrow with some dsd tracks - I am hoping to sell the fiio as the lg is much bigger higher with a higher resolution screen it would only be a dap as I prefer samsungs for my main and back up phones

Funny, when I first bought my V20 I started using it exclusively, mostly for the streaming capabilities but also because it sounded good. I thought with my Oppo PM-3's that it sounded very nearly as good as my FiiO X5 gen1. After about two months I decided to sell my X5. I put it up for sale online but even at a very good price it took over two months to sell. Finally it did sell and before packing it up for shipping I needed to put it through it's paces one last time to insure it was fully functional. I listened to many of the exact same music files that I had also loaded onto my V20. Well imagine my surprise when the sound I heard was much fuller, more organic and natural with better cohesion and flow and bass that was not just deeper and more dynamic but more tuneful and rhythmic as well. I switched over to the V20 and yep I was definitely hearing what I was hearing. It was more than just different sounding it was better in all aspects. Not a huge discrepency but not a subtle one either. It had suddenly occurred to me that I had not done a direct comparison between the X5 and the V20. Do not misunderstand me, the V20 is a very good sounding device especially for a phone, but with my files and with my headphones in my opinion it just does not measure up performance wise to a well designed dedicated hi-res DAP. Sure if the most important thing to you is to lighten your load while mobile, and to restrict yourself to a single device for both music and communication then the V20 is at or near the top of your options, but for someone like me who's top priority is sound quality over convenience I think I will be returning to a two device situation. I am in the market for a new dedicated DAP. Unfortunately my X5 is now with it's very happy new owner. Hmmm, the new FiiO X7ii looks interesting.

Oh, and one other thing. I did a lot of experimentation with listening to my V20 in normal mode and tricking it into high impedance mode. I have to say that with my PM-3's I much preferred normal mode. High impedance mode certainly gave a more open, detailed sound but the entire presentation became somewhat sterile and a little cold sounding. It lost a significant amount of the warmth and naturalness that real music contains. It was really no competition. Perhaps it has something to do with the extension cable I am using. I have what I hope is a higher quality one arriving soon so maybe that will make a difference but I'm skeptical, and yes I removed the impedance adaptor while listening in high impedance mode.
 
Last edited:
Sep 24, 2017 at 6:15 PM Post #2,915 of 4,139
wow fiio x5 gen 1 sounds better - guess I need to retest before I sell the x5 3rd gen

Remember this is my personal opinion with my files and my headphones. Preference can play a significant determining factor. Perhaps I just do not have a preference for how some companies implement the various Sabre DAC's. Had a Dragonfly Red for awhile and after some initial enthusiasm for it's performance it quickly wore on me as well. I also own an OPPO BDP-105 and despite it's stellar performance I do not use it for serious music listening in my home system.
 
Sep 24, 2017 at 7:37 PM Post #2,916 of 4,139
Well imagine my surprise when the sound I heard was much fuller, more organic and natural with better cohesion and flow and bass that was not just deeper and more dynamic but more tuneful and rhythmic as well.

I also tend to gravitate towards this type of sound, the AKM and Wolfson chips are for whatever reason more musical and involving than basically every SABRE implementation I've heard (Including an Auralic Vega).

They are great at presenting fine details and for discovering mastering flaws but for music listening, they could get a little fatiguing.
 
Sep 24, 2017 at 11:21 PM Post #2,917 of 4,139
I picked up a lg 20 for a good price yesterday - don't have any good high impediance cans with my right now ( I did get high gain with my sennheiser hd 558 but those are not good headphones - will test with my akg k7xx when i get to the office tomorrow. my hifiman 400s only show up as normal as expected ) and currently testing with my isine 10 with different players and music apps and it does sound very good but I really cannot tell much of a difference between the lg g20 and my fiio x5 3rd gen and straight off my galaxy s8 + lol so I must have been listening too much today - they all sound very good to me

will test it out tomorrow with some dsd tracks - I am hoping to sell the fiio as the lg is much bigger higher with a higher resolution screen it would only be a dap as I prefer samsungs for my main and back up phones
what type of IEM or headphones are you using and what kind of files? Mp3 or flac?
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 8:50 AM Post #2,918 of 4,139
all my music is flac, just tested it with my akg k7xx headphones and these headphones are recognized as a high impediance device and they sound very very good. I guess I have to trick it to think my isine 10 are over 50ohms - what is the best way to do this a splitter with the isine and akg both in and then take out the akg's ?
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 8:59 AM Post #2,919 of 4,139
all my music is flac, just tested it with my akg k7xx headphones and these headphones are recognized as a high impediance device and they sound very very good. I guess I have to trick it to think my isine 10 are over 50ohms - what is the best way to do this a splitter with the isine and akg both in and then take out the akg's ?

Get a headphone jack extender. I think it has to have a 3-pole plug, not a 4-pole. Plug in the extender + AKGs together. Unplug only the AKGs, leaving the extender plugged in. Plug in the iSines. It can also be done with an impedance adapter + headphone jack extender as detailed here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lg-v20-sound-quality.816024/page-177#post-13538812
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 11:32 AM Post #2,920 of 4,139
I'm sure this has been mentioned at some point in this huge thread, but anyone have any experience outputting directly to a headphone amp from the jack with any success? Is it worthwhile in anyway? From what I gather if you plug in an aux. cable it should default to some type of line-out setting, correct?

I don't really plan to use it with an amp, but it would be nice to know that if I did it would actually be an upgrade over just outputting from the jack.
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 12:33 PM Post #2,921 of 4,139
the headphone spliter worked for me - now my isines are playing in high mode, still trying to get the EQ right

I will probably sell my fiio as the screen on the V20 is much bigger and the sound of the 2 devices seems to be very close to my ears
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 1:42 PM Post #2,922 of 4,139
all my music is flac, just tested it with my akg k7xx headphones and these headphones are recognized as a high impediance device and they sound very very good. I guess I have to trick it to think my isine 10 are over 50ohms - what is the best way to do this a splitter with the isine and akg both in and then take out the akg's ?

My Q701s sound great out of this phone as well...a very good pairing.
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 4:54 PM Post #2,923 of 4,139
I have an option - V20 with or without B&O logo on the back (don't ask me how, world works in mysterious ways sometimes). I've read a comparison here which praises the version without B&O logo but this is pretty much the only info about this that I could find. It's probably been asked here before but I just can't bring myself to read 200 pages, especially after seeing on a glance how many problems and issues people have had with file formats/players/settings/adapters and a bunch of other phone related stuff. Can someone help, is this even an important choice now that I actually have it?
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 6:55 PM Post #2,924 of 4,139
I think the LGV20 is a steal at its current ebay prices. I have not heard the B&O version to compare. LIke many on these boards, people have personal biases as to family sound signatures. It seems many prominent members feel the ESS Sabre sound is on the side of over analytical, not musical...even over detailed. B&O no doubt probably undoes some of that. For me personally, I have had DACs based on wolfson and BB/TI etc.. Not until I heard my first ESS based DAC was I astounded. The implementation is what makes or breaks it, but he core DNA of the DAC is the core of the sound. I have since gone out of my way to have a higher end external DAC, and higher end AV receivers all just because they feature the ESS DAC. For me, there is something harmonically correct. Sometimes unforgiving, but otherwise true to the recording and music (to my ears). I can listen to a good ESS DAC for hours and hours with no fatigue or boredom rediscovering my music. In the case of the SoC used in the V20 (9218) -- it is everything we listen to. There are compromises in my opinion with using IC opamps and output stages. These are necessary steps when creating a tiny output device like the ESS DAC/headphone amp. It is an end-to-end solution for better or worse. The integrated analog volume control is one big benefit of reducing everything to a single System on a Chip. In short, I think the sound of the V20 is very very good. It is musically accurate and flat. It lacks some soundstage stability, some low-end heft for sure, and some high-end delicacy. But what it does have is a very low noise floor, and extremely detailed presentation. I hear the Sabre Pro core it is based on in its nuance extraction and what seems like minimum phase filtering. It has the kind of "snap" and attack I would expect to hear from a very good digital filter and DAC. In summary, I would trust the ESS folks to create a transparent product.....one capable of high resolution and fidelity. IMO the Sabre32 Pro is state of the art. I don't have any faith in B&O to maintain these things, as I don't with the likes of Bose (or B&O for that matter) or Beats by Dr Dre LoL. Good luck with your choice, and report back your impressions.
 
Sep 25, 2017 at 7:17 PM Post #2,925 of 4,139
I think the LGV20 is a steal at its current ebay prices. I have not heard the B&O version to compare. LIke many on these boards, people have personal biases as to family sound signatures. It seems many prominent members feel the ESS Sabre sound is on the side of over analytical, not musical...even over detailed. B&O no doubt probably undoes some of that. For me personally, I have had DACs based on wolfson and BB/TI etc.. Not until I heard my first ESS based DAC was I astounded. The implementation is what makes or breaks it, but he core DNA of the DAC is the core of the sound. I have since gone out of my way to have a higher end external DAC, and higher end AV receivers all just because they feature the ESS DAC. For me, there is something harmonically correct. Sometimes unforgiving, but otherwise true to the recording and music (to my ears). I can listen to a good ESS DAC for hours and hours with no fatigue or boredom rediscovering my music. In the case of the SoC used in the V20 (9218) -- it is everything we listen to. There are compromises in my opinion with using IC opamps and output stages. These are necessary steps when creating a tiny output device like the ESS DAC/headphone amp. It is an end-to-end solution for better or worse. The integrated analog volume control is one big benefit of reducing everything to a single System on a Chip. In short, I think the sound of the V20 is very very good. It is musically accurate and flat. It lacks some soundstage stability, some low-end heft for sure, and some high-end delicacy. But what it does have is a very low noise floor, and extremely detailed presentation. I hear the Sabre Pro core it is based on in its nuance extraction and what seems like minimum phase filtering. It has the kind of "snap" and attack I would expect to hear from a very good digital filter and DAC. In summary, I would trust the ESS folks to create a transparent product.....one capable of high resolution and fidelity. IMO the Sabre32 Pro is state of the art. I don't have any faith in B&O to maintain these things, as I don't with the likes of Bose (or B&O for that matter) or Beats by Dr Dre LoL. Good luck with your choice, and report back your impressions.

I will, for sure. I don't think that V20 is a steal, there are just way too many small compromises in term of pure smartphone experience (waterproofing, battery life, size, camera, LG boot loop issues that could creep up out of nowhere...). But, take into account audio and it quickly not only becomes a good deal but an only option (ok, next to HTC 10 and about 3 times more expensive V30).
I am with you when it comes to trusting life style audio brands, however, B&O does make some nice products if value is of no concern. What I am trying to say is, they have the knowledge and I can't really see them ruining the hardware of V20.
Even after saying this, I will definitely aim for the non-branded V20.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top