[subguy812]

So I left the thread for a few days only to return to the same thing.... What app plays what etc... Does anyone just enjoy the V30 and it's DAC?

 

[mlknez]

You buy a $300,000 Ferrari. It has 600HP and is advertised as able to go 205Mph. You get it home. It starts and sounds good. You take it out of your driveway and it runs well. You get on the highway and you can't get it over 60MPH! You call Ferrari and they say that they don't have any tech support in your country or language. The support person in the US can only read you the operations manual.

You get on the Ferrari forum pages and they tell you that you should be happy that it goes 60MPH so stylishly. After all, who really needs to go faster? Can't you just enjoy your purchase?

 

[TonyFro]

So I left the thread for a few days only to return to the same thing.... What app plays what etc... Does anyone just enjoy the V30 and it's DAC?

Here is a summary of what app plays what on the V30:

Not quite I agree it's getting a bit complicated. I described the current situation in a previous post. I'll summarize it again here, because nothing has really changed in between:

Native LG Music app
Pros:
Plays all hi-res PCM formats without down-sampling and plays DSD via DoP
Cons:
Up-samples all 44/16 FLAC to 48/16 and outputs everything via USB as 48/16

Neutron
Pros:
Plays all PCM files at original sample rate through the internal DAC (or through USB-out if the "Direct USB Driver" option under the Audio Hardware menu is set to on). DSD can also be played via USB-out with DoP on.
Cons:
DoP doesn't work via HO (no audio output). With DoP off, Neutron converts all DSD to user-given-sample-rate PCM (via both internal DAC and USB out).

USB Audio Player Pro
Pros:
Outputs everything correctly via USB
Cons:
Can't (yet) play anything other than 48 kHz Android-resampled audio through the internal DAC

Poweramp
Pros:
Some people claim this is the best-sounding player on other devices
Cons:
On the V30, it outputs everything (including DSD) as 48 kHz PCM, both via HO and USB

So the stock LG music app is good for everything apart from USB output to a separate DAC, or for 44/16 playback. It does play DSD via DoP, but from everything I've read on the subject, this should be pretty much transparent, i.e., should sound the same as native DSD playback. It certainly sounds a lot better than any other player right now for DSD (those other players that handle DSD do so via conversion to 48 kHz PCM). Neutron does no up-sampling of 44/16 PCM. It goes through a native api that pads these tracks to 44/24, but there's no up-sampling. That's a really key advantage over every other app - including the LG music app, because the 44/16 format is so prevalent. For those that are interested in the effects of up-sampling, you can check out the following. Be warned. You may not be able to un-hear these effects, once you're aware of the problem.

Spoiler: Click here to go down the rabbit hole

Here's an FFT of 30 seconds worth of Dark Side Of The Moon. Most people will know this album, or will be able to get it via Tidal, etc:


Here's the difference between the original 44 kHz file going into the DAC and the 48 kHz up-sampled version that the Android mixer produces for the same section of track:

This is just error. For sure, it's a fair bit quieter than the track itself, so high gain and minimal dynamic range in the track will help mask it. But there are some situations where it's hard to avoid, i.e., you have sensitive IEMs, and you're listening at low volume to something with a reasonable dynamic range (i.e., sound following by a silent pause). One of the worst examples is the heartbeats from the beginning of the Dark Side Of The Moon album (thanks again to @kundica, who was, I think, the first person to report this problem). The following is in 96/24 wav, which should cause no additional up-sampling effects if played back on a V30. The effects here were recorded using a Vibro Veritas coupler with SE846 IEMs:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dyo16sgv11eek0w/artifacts.wav?dl=0

Those of you with sensitive IEMs will be able to hear this effect quite easily if you find a recording with a good dynamic range in 44/16 and play it back via the stock music app at low volumes. Listen, in particular, around what should be periods of silence.

Apart from that situation, set up Neutron correctly and enjoy, that's what I am doing, enjoying hi fi music on the go

 

[SomeGuyDude]

You buy a $300,000 Ferrari. It has 600HP and is advertised as able to go 205Mph. You get it home. It starts and sounds good. You take it out of your driveway and it runs well. You get on the highway and you can't get it over 60MPH! You call Ferrari and they say that they don't have any tech support in your country or language. The support person in the US can only read you the operations manual.

You get on the Ferrari forum pages and they tell you that you should be happy that it goes 60MPH so stylishly. After all, who really needs to go faster? Can't you just enjoy your purchase?

Garbage analogy. The difference between 205 and 60 is gigantic. Sample rates are ridiculously subtle. Everyone can immediately tell that speed difference, but only head-fi nitpickers can tell these minute issues.

This is more like people throwing a temper tantrum because the car is advertised as being able to do a 0-60 in 3.0 seconds but every time you try you get 3.05 seconds.

 

[csglinux]

Apologies in advance for posting this. If you're one of those people that doesn't care about re-sampling, please don't read any further. I know that not everybody cares about this - but for me, there's a very audible degredation on certain tracks when 44/16 FLAC or DSD are resampled to 48 kHz PCM. I make no apologies for the fact that I want that extra 0.05 m/s^2 acceleration.

Some good news today - the Neutron dev has produced a beta that plays back all PCM formats at native sample rate and now outputs (via USB and the headphone jack!) DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 via DoP. Its DSD playback now sounds as good as that of the native LG music app. (At this point, I have no reason to use the LG music app anymore, since it can't play my most common format - 44/16 FLAC - without re-sampling.) Hopefully we'll see this update pushed to the Play Store sometime soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans!

 

[430844]

I've had this phone for a week and it has everything I could want. Here are a list of my favourite features.

1. 3.5mm jack! Oh and that Quad DAC comparable to even some DAPs.
2. Military grade build, the phone feels like it's built to last.
3. Water/dust proof, no problem having used in the shower a few times.
4. Perfect form factor in my hand, haven't had a slip or drop yet.
5. Light! Comparatively lighter than other 2017 flagships.
6. Excellent camera with useful wide angle lens and a wealth of features. Great pictures, mediocre video recording but crap front camera.
7. Solid battery life that lasts a whole day with heavy use.
8. OLED screen with vivid colours and strong blacks, movies look fantastic.
9. Flagship CPU/GPU which are super snappy and the 4GB is more than enough at the moment.
10. MicroSD slot, quickly filled up the 128GB that came with the V30+.
11. FM radio, download Simple Radio, the stock radio app sucks. Listening to BBC Radio 1 with ease now. Great quality TBH.
12. Wireless/fast charging, both work flawlessly and fast charging is a beast.
13. Bluetooth 5.0, much wider range than previous 4.2 spec. I can actually go to the toilet or kitchen without it skipping behind walls.
14. Always on display, a nice little FU to Samsung.

Seriously, unless you want an S pen, this phone is better than the S8/Note8 series hands down. I'm no Samsung hater either, I had the Note 7 for as long as possible after the recall because it was the best piece of hardware at the time. The Note8 is just too long with that 18:9 ratio and the S8 is too small.

The the S8+ while having a decent size simpy doesn't have that wow factor for me. It feels like a toy, it looks like a toy IMHO. In the end, it came to the Quad DAC and that thing simply makes me smile everytime I go outside. I actually smirk at people listening to their headphones plugged into a phone other than V20/30.

As for alternatives, the Iphone has the better selfie cam, so if you're all about that Instagram, then you may prefer that. The Pixel 2 has the best rear camera, but if I was that serious about photography, I'd get a DSLR. The Pixel is also difficult to get hold of as I live in Hong Kong and the price is insanity. Other than that, the V30 takes the crown for me as the best phone of 2017.

GET, THIS, PHONE, NOW!

 

[dragion]

Apologies in advance for posting this. If you're one of those people that doesn't care about re-sampling, please don't read any further. I know that not everybody cares about this - but for me, there's a very audible degredation on certain tracks when 44/16 FLAC or DSD are resampled to 48 kHz PCM. I make no apologies for the fact that I want that extra 0.05 m/^2 acceleration.

Some good news today - the Neutron dev has produced a beta that plays back all PCM formats at native sample rate and now outputs (via USB and the headphone jack!) DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 via DoP. Its DSD playback now sounds as good as that of the native LG music app. (At this point, I have no reason to use the LG music app anymore, since it can't play my most common format - 44/16 FLAC - without re-sampling.) Hopefully we'll see this update pushed to the Play Store sometime soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans!

That's great news for the members with the Neutron app that care about the up sampling.
If you have any follow up news, please share.

I myself switched back and forth from native LG player, PowerAmp Alpha and Neutron.
With this update, Neutron will be my dedicated player.

I feel that the LG native player does a good job on majority of the types of music files and most people could live with outside of "our" audio world.
Glad that there are choices which can please everyone.

 

[scottm18]

LG V30 holiday promotion clarified:

For those of you on the fence for this phone...and like me...were confused over the verbiage of their rebate offer of up to $400 back for a second purchase...here's the fine details according to LG themselves:

You get a rebate check (probably debit card) back for the price of the second single item--up to $400. Example--if you buy a wireless charger for $50, you get a $50 check...if you get a $400 portable A/C unit, you'll get a check for $400. If you buy a $2k refrigerator, you get $400 of that back. I thought you got a random amount back based on what you spent on second item...I'm sure i wasn't alone.

The upcoming unlocked version at B&H *is* included as long as you pre-order it by Dec 2.

Not a bad deal of you need a V30 and something else near $400.

 

[DeadeyeM]

I've had this phone for a week and it has everything I could want. Here are a list of my favourite features.

1. 3.5mm jack! Oh and that Quad DAC comparable to even some DAPs.
2. Military grade build, the phone feels like it's built to last.
3. Water/dust proof, no problem having used in the shower a few times.
4. Perfect form factor in my hand, haven't had a slip or drop yet.
5. Light! Comparatively lighter than other 2017 flagships.
6. Excellent camera with useful wide angle lens and a wealth of features. Great pictures, mediocre video recording but crap front camera.
7. Solid battery life that lasts a whole day with heavy use.
8. OLED screen with vivid colours and strong blacks, movies look fantastic.
9. Flagship CPU/GPU which are super snappy and the 4GB is more than enough at the moment.
10. MicroSD slot, quickly filled up the 128GB that came with the V30+.
11. FM radio, download Simple Radio, the stock radio app sucks. Listening to BBC Radio 1 with ease now. Great quality TBH.
12. Wireless/fast charging, both work flawlessly and fast charging is a beast.
13. Bluetooth 5.0, much wider range than previous 4.2 spec. I can actually go to the toilet or kitchen without it skipping behind walls.
14. Always on display, a nice little FU to Samsung.

Seriously, unless you want an S pen, this phone is better than the S8/Note8 series hands down. I'm no Samsung hater either, I had the Note 7 for as long as possible after the recall because it was the best piece of hardware at the time. The Note8 is just too long with that 18:9 ratio and the S8 is too small.

The the S8+ while having a decent size simpy doesn't have that wow factor for me. It feels like a toy, it looks like a toy IMHO. In the end, it came to the Quad DAC and that thing simply makes me smile everytime I go outside. I actually smirk at people listening to their headphones plugged into a phone other than V20/30.

As for alternatives, the Iphone has the better selfie cam, so if you're all about that Instagram, then you may prefer that. The Pixel 2 has the best rear camera, but if I was that serious about photography, I'd get a DSLR. The Pixel is also difficult to get hold of as I live in Hong Kong and the price is insanity. Other than that, the V30 takes the crown for me as the best phone of 2017.

GET, THIS, PHONE, NOW!

My take on this:
- V30 screen has black crush, banding issues
- Note 8 (UK) was slightly louder when i was doing testing in Samsung shop, i was using Soundmagic E10

I think V30 is great phone and love it but because of the screen issues i'm thinking returning it.

 

[ljnew]

Apologies in advance for posting this. If you're one of those people that doesn't care about re-sampling, please don't read any further. I know that not everybody cares about this - but for me, there's a very audible degredation on certain tracks when 44/16 FLAC or DSD are resampled to 48 kHz PCM. I make no apologies for the fact that I want that extra 0.05 m/s^2 acceleration.

Some good news today - the Neutron dev has produced a beta that plays back all PCM formats at native sample rate and now outputs (via USB and the headphone jack!) DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 via DoP. Its DSD playback now sounds as good as that of the native LG music app. (At this point, I have no reason to use the LG music app anymore, since it can't play my most common format - 44/16 FLAC - without re-sampling.) Hopefully we'll see this update pushed to the Play Store sometime soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans!

True, but it takes reference non forgiving iems. This is an age old debate on headfi. People listening to mp3 with extremely forgiving iem will say there's no difference.

People with non forgiving iems listening to flac and above will notice a difference.

Maybe we should mention the iems, flac vs mp3 and maybe even the genre. I bet that will clear the confusion (unfortunately, inevitably starting another debate..)

 

[fredfusion]

Sorry if this was covered. Can you bypass the internal amp and use the V30 as a dac /preamp?
Also if listening ti MQA encoded music using bluetooth will I receive all the benefits of MQA?

 

[subguy812]

My take on this:
- V30 screen has black crush, banding issues
- Note 8 (UK) was slightly louder when i was doing testing in Samsung shop, i was using Soundmagic E10

I think V30 is great phone and love it but because of the screen issues i'm thinking returning it.

Shouldn't be any screen issue with a October manufactured date... Maybe some still exist but most things I have read said the issues have been solved.

 

[kazuya95]

Hello,


I don't think the banding issue will be fixed.
Because the issue is also on all TV Oled.
All the Oled panel TV in the market are manufactured by LG Display.
Some has less or more banding.

 

[DeadeyeM]

Shouldn't be any screen issue with a October manufactured date... Maybe some still exist but most things I have read said the issues have been solved.

How do i check what date is on mine?

 

[dragion]

How do i check what date is on mine?

It can be found on the box's label where the serial number is.