[Baroninkjet]

This thing is stunning, has high-end components and 64GB is only $349. Also it runs Cyanogen out of the box -- particularly interesting because Voodoo Sound dev  "Supercurio" just went to work there.
 
I guess we will find out soon enough what it sounds like.

 
 
http://www.cnet.com/products/oneplus-one/

 

[zzffnn]

I am waiting for their invite to buy a 64GB version (I cant say I am fan of their "Smash" marketing program or invite system by the way). As an unlocked phone at that price, OnePlus One seems to be a good deal for now. If I cannot get it by September this year, I would rather wait for Nexus 6. 
 
As a DAP though, it is lacking a card slot. Oppo Find 7a (with highly similar hardware) offers removable battery and miscroSD slot, but costs $200 more (you can buy it now though). We also do not have any detail about its audio hardware design (output impedance, distortion, dynamic range, ect).

 

[Baroninkjet]

Same here. So far I have been disappointed with every Qualcomm phone I have tried, but  maybe...I want to believe... I figure we can flip them on Ebay for a few bills if it disappoints -- like Nexus 4. 

 

[slackerpo]

im waiting for the audio specs too!

 

[zzffnn]

Their 64GB version may not be available to general public till late June. I may still wait for it as it is cheap. Maybe we Headfiers in this thread can share invites?

The phone most likely uses Qualcomm's integrated audio circuit (DAC, amp, ect). DAC is probably a Yamaha one. I don't mind that though, as I wouldn't use it as my primary DAP (I need at least 100GB storage).

 

[HeadBanger]

I won't hold my breathe for much given the price point. Expect there to be some quality cuts.

 

[Haverholm]

Their 64GB version may not be available to general public till late June. I may still wait for it as it is cheap. Maybe we Headfiers in this thread can share invites?

The phone most likely uses Qualcomm's integrated audio circuit (DAC, amp, ect). DAC is probably a Yamaha one. I don't mind that though, as I wouldn't use it as my primary DAP (I need at least 100GB storage).

 
They start rolling out the 64GB verion in late May, since they found out how many people wanted it. The "audio output chip" (not quite sure what that covers) is indeed a Yamaha one. Carl from the OnePlus team confirmed this:
http://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/24x15o/oneplus_postannouncement_ama/chbiyun

I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, though.

 

[zzffnn]

^ If you get extra invites for 64GB version in late May/early June, would you please send me one
I doubt I can have an invite till late June, unless OnePlus accelerate their production.

Yamaha DAC chips are not well recognized here.

 

[slackerpo]

found this on the reddit page:
 

Q:  how good is the headphone audio on the Oneplus One? 
 
A: [–]devildvOnePlus 0 puntos 10 días atrás
We have AudioFX, which is hardware accelerated, uses less power than a software based equalizer and is system wide, so it improves the sound through all apps, not only the music one.

 

 
Q: As a person that cares about music, can you reveal what audio chip the OnePlus One uses for the headphone jack




A: [–]carpe02OnePlus[S] 17 puntos 10 días atrás
Audio output is via a chip from Yamaha (incl. headphone jack output). The speakers are tweaked together with JBL.

 

[tws1]

Bump. I think this is good idea (sharing invites...). Although I don't have one so I can't start 'the chain'... Interested?

 

[visanj]

GSMARENA has posted their audio measurements for OPO...
 

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
OnePlus One	+0.02, -0.07	-94.1	93.8	0.0064	0.011	-94.3
Oppo Find 7 (headphones)	+0.77, -0.05	-91.4	89.7	0.019	0.485	-53.7

 
Any real world subjective reviews?

 

[zzffnn]

^ That chart from GSMArena has quite a few typos. For example, the 1st "Oppo Find 7 (headphones)" should probably be "OnePlus One (headphones)".

Here is my summary from reading that chart:
audio measurement of OnePlus One is slightly worse than S5, G3 or One/M8 (with M8 being the best in that chart).
OnePlus One's measurement seems highly similar to Oppo Find 7. Not sure about vs Find 7a, as 7a's crosstalk measurement seems to be a typo.

 

[scrypt]

I'm still deciding whether to snatch one, since I just received an invite for the 64GB model this morning.
 
Supercurio says that it aces USB Audio, and that external DAC functionality is Cyanogenmod's priority as well as his own. 
 
The phone and a minimal orange case are sitting in my shopping cart but keep kicking away the seatbelt.  Stop taking hormone shots, you two. 

 

[Haverholm]

I just received mine today, so I haven't done much testing yet. I did try to plug my DT770 pros straight into it, just for larfs, and though the sound wasn't the best -obviously- it did actually drive them pretty well, and got pretty loud. With se215s, though, it sounds great, and the build-in eq seems to work well too.
These are only initial impressions, as I've only had it for a couple of hours. I have not tried it with an external DAC/amp.

 

[ricemanhk]

Hi everyone, did a quick AB testing with a Sony PHA-1 over the weekend, reposting my review from the OPO forums, hope others can chime in with their impressions.  I still can't seem to find any official information on the DAC chip used in the OPO.
 
https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/opo-headphone-out-quality-vs-usb-dac-review.62491
 
Read my fair share of user and media reviews for the OPO while I was patiently waiting for my invite, but I noticed most reviews didn't really really cover audio quality in depth so after I finally got my phone last week I did some testing on my own, hope the audiophiles out there will find this useful. I've seen reviews say the speakers and headphone jack were tuned by Yamaha, but no clear details on what they're using for the DAC chip (doesn't seem to say from ifixit teardown either), if someone from Oneplus could chime in that would be greatly appreciated!

Anyway, quick summary: OPO's headphone out quality is one of the best I've heard for a mobile phone, I think it's even slightly better than the iphone 4/4s, which historically has been considered one of the benchmark mobile devices for good headphone out quality with the Cirrus DAC chip used. 

Thankfully CM supports USB Audio natively, so I borrowed a friend's Sony PHA-1 to do an A-B testing as well.

Testing details:
AudioFX turned off
Used a mix of 96/24 and 44.1/16 FLAC files, and 320kbps MP3 files
Mix of classical, vocal, rock, pop songs, also used the head-fi HDTracks FLAC testing files
Google Music app used to play all files (wanted to use the easiest option for most users, especially now that FLAC is supported)
Audio Technica ATH-M50x (38 ohms), UE TripleFi 10s (32 ohms) and Xiaomi Pistons 2 (12-16ohms?)

A-B testing with Sony PHA-1 and OPO headphone jack
OPO's signal is very clean, not much detectable distortion even at higher volumes. It has a very wide and detailed soundstage, especially when used with the M50x. Good resolution on the mid and high frequencies, although I found the Sony PHA-1 had a little more detail and resolution at all levels but particularly on the low end. Of course I could only catch these in a quiet room at home, for listening on the go the differences will be quite hard to tell. The differences were also more distinct with the higher quality FLAC files, which is to be expected. So for listening to 320kbps MP3s outside, I don't think a USB DAC is strictly necessary.

The OPO drove the M50x and TF10s well, used only 50-70% of the volume scale. When outdoors (in crowded Hong Kong) I'm using around 80% in general. Of course for higher impedance headphones an external amp might be needed, will update this review when I can borrow some higher impedance headphones, although I did remember one reviewer saying his 250 ohms beyerdynamics worked with the OPO at 100% volume without an amp.

Originally I was planning to get a Fiio E18 USB DAC to use both at home and with the phone, but after the listening test with the PHA-1 (which is supposed to be a better DAC than the E18), I think I'll just stick to the phone itself! 

Happy listening! And hope everyone who wants a phone gets an invite soon, it does seem like the production levels are ramping up nicely, more and more "invite received!!" posts on these forums haha!

Minor update: forgot to mention that I'm using the international OPO with CM11S XNPH25R (the July 2014 OTA update)