Alrighty then. I'm gonna flip the script. I ran my 40 through some cans all night long the past two nights. Again, I never believed much in chip burn in, but the sound quality has vastly improved. Now I'm going say it's better than the 30, but it may be. At this point, it's no longer a downgrade, and certainly a side grade.
I always ran my quad dac filter on enhanced with my 30, so naturally I set the same with my 40 and never gave it a 2nd thought. Big mistake. The sound is much fuller on the natural setting. Made a world of difference to my ears. After this quick fix and over 100 hours of burn in, I'm hearing an even more engaging sound than the 30. It's still not quite as dynamic as the 30. It's a little leaner, but not much. I always felt there was a little grain / haze with the 30, especially after acquiring my Opus #1s. I'm not hearing that with the 40. I think it has even slightly better clarity than my Opus. It's a very coherent sound. I'm also hearing better separation from the 40, improved imaging over the 30. I'd go as far as to say the imaging, separation and clarity are the highlights of this phone.
What I'm hearing is a better balanced, more natural sound than the 30. I also hear more air around the instruments. To me the 30 excelled with attack. The 40 has better decay. I listened to some tracks from The Who this evening, and while just kicking back I could picture the band playing and visualize where each musician could be posted. The 30 is more aggressive in nature, and being a butt rocker my entire life, if you asked me which sound I wanted after telling me the two different descriptions I've just written, I no doubt would have opted for the 30. But in all honesty, I think I may like the 40 better. I also listened to all four of Steel Panthers albums today. This is a band I'm very familiar with, as I've seen them in concert 3 times. The 40 gives me a way more live performance listening experience than the 30 did.
So I feel compelled to apologize to Meridian Audio. I bagged on them all too quick. I think they did a fantastic job tuning this device - Kudos.
So what are we getting with the 40 over the 30 - Slightly better screen resolution, slightly bigger display, slightly better battery life, and a much better camera. Yeah, I'm not sold at this point. However, now that I feel the audio not only comparable to the 30, but in some ways better, I'm whole heartedly happy I made the switch. I think it was a smart move for LG to have this hand tuned, because with the other little improvements I listed over the 30, I personally see no reason for change. Now had Meridian totally muffed up that tuning as I quickly, and wrongly originally believed, it would have been an epic fail. So for those who have a recently acquired 40 and aren't pleased with the audio, I'd say give it a fair shake and some time if you haven't already.
The volume thing still baffles me a bit, but if you run your cans in high impedance mode, things really come alive. Even with my Hifiman Edition S and Beoplay H6 in auxiliary mode, the sound is just kinda dull. Different story in high impedance. My 58X sounds so spacious and real with the 40. It's pretty incredible, gets plenty loud, and now makes me want to move to the music. Of course as always, your mileage might vary, but I'm a happy camper.
