Review on HtC 10 and Sound quality (AQstic Dedicated Integrated DAC)

[aertus]

thanks for all the responses guys and thanks witigear for the write up. I think i have ADHD when it comes to this things so the more options and choices i have the worst it gets for my brain. Im a perfectionist i want the best thing for the best value for the best price so I do a lot of research. This is probably totally unecessary and makes my life worse loll.

I guess what I was really trying to ask for instead was "what is the best overall DAP" which is something that would not compromise any of those categories you mentioned. I've concluded my lifestyle would never really need a high end DAP like that epecially for the really high price and the limitations it has I would rather much spend that money on a home speaker set up or upgrading my earphones/headphones. Desktop set upts are cool but prob a different topic since dap are designed to be carried around.

yeah I dont think its a good value for me personally. I think there is better valued to be had in getting a better pair of headphones with DAC or new ear minotors to use with my sony phone. with that these high end DAP's do look really cool. I'm surprised Austel and Kern is a south korea brand. i'd always though they were a bit behind in audio technolgy compared to japan, germany, and america.

But the design definitely looks cool especially this https://www.whathifi.com/astell-kern/ak70/review I think they are bringing some heat to sony.

 

[RockStar2005]

I can't say best sound cause there's a lot of things involved. People who like the HTC 10 sound signature might find Shanling in Smooth warm to neutral kinda thing. Might like it a lot as well. It depends on IEMs too.

But I would say M5 was my favorite dap sound so far. I have not heard questyle qp1r etc anything beyond onkyos price

I was checking out this review on the Meze 99 Classics headphones, and on Page 2 under "Tonality Matching" (which is under "Matchability") they just HAPPEN to randomly mention the M5. What's interesting to me is the author compared its sound quality to the $1200 Sony Walkman ZX2 and said the M5 sounded BETTER despite the like $700 price difference! That really says something about Shanling's design quality right there.

 

[voxie]

Hi all... quick question. HTC BoomSound with Dolby Audio. Enable or Not?

 

[tbritton]

Hi all... quick question. HTC BoomSound with Dolby Audio. Enable or Not?

That is entirely up to personal preference, and which headphones you are using.

For me, the Dolby setting of "HTC Pro Studio" resulted in the least "bass-bloat" of all the settings for my Shure SE846 in-ears. It is low on the upper-bass spectrum, and is good in material where there is already a ton of bass blowing you out of the water.
"HTC Earbuds" was a bright presentation and snug bass sound with a "V-Shape". Not bad at all. My other favorite!
"HTC in-ear" was very bass-heavy. But sometimes that is nice!
"Other" was still bass heavy, but not as heavy as "HTC in-ear" above by a long shot. It had a slightly different presentation of the mids than the "HTC Earbuds" setting.

They each have their moments where they are nice. Changing from one to the other without allowing your ears to get used to one over the other will not give you the correct impression - they are different enough that such an approach will make them all sound crummy! Give each time to settle in and see what they offer.

I preferred the Dolby item off entirely (using the Personal Audio Profile only) for my Ultrasones for the most part.

Terry

 

[voxie]

That is entirely up to personal preference, and which headphones you are using.

For me, the Dolby setting of "HTC Pro Studio" resulted in the least "bass-bloat" of all the settings for my Shure SE846 in-ears. It is low on the upper-bass spectrum, and is good in material where there is already a ton of bass blowing you out of the water.
"HTC Earbuds" was a bright presentation and snug bass sound with a "V-Shape". Not bad at all. My other favorite!
"HTC in-ear" was very bass-heavy. But sometimes that is nice!
"Other" was still bass heavy, but not as heavy as "HTC in-ear" above by a long shot. It had a slightly different presentation of the mids than the "HTC Earbuds" setting.

They each have their moments where they are nice. Changing from one to the other without allowing your ears to get used to one over the other will not give you the correct impression - they are different enough that such an approach will make them all sound crummy! Give each time to settle in and see what they offer.

I preferred the Dolby item off entirely (using the Personal Audio Profile only) for my Ultrasones for the most part.

Terry

Hi Terry, Thanks for your time and feedback. With the mode on its way too harsh and grainy and that's listening via RHA the CL 1 Ceramic through Qobuz Lossless

 

[JaeYoon]

thanks for all the responses guys and thanks witigear for the write up. I think i have ADHD when it comes to this things so the more options and choices i have the worst it gets for my brain. Im a perfectionist i want the best thing for the best value for the best price so I do a lot of research. This is probably totally unecessary and makes my life worse loll.

I guess what I was really trying to ask for instead was "what is the best overall DAP" which is something that would not compromise any of those categories you mentioned. I've concluded my lifestyle would never really need a high end DAP like that epecially for the really high price and the limitations it has I would rather much spend that money on a home speaker set up or upgrading my earphones/headphones. Desktop set upts are cool but prob a different topic since dap are designed to be carried around.

yeah I dont think its a good value for me personally. I think there is better valued to be had in getting a better pair of headphones with DAC or new ear minotors to use with my sony phone. with that these high end DAP's do look really cool. I'm surprised Austel and Kern is a south korea brand. i'd always though they were a bit behind in audio technolgy compared to japan, germany, and america.

But the design definitely looks cool especially this https://www.whathifi.com/astell-kern/ak70/review I think they are bringing some heat to sony.

Don't worry about it! You are right because your headphones do a lot more work than the DAP!
I would say quite possibly create 60-80% (estimated) of the sound that you hear and the DAP is the rest.
Think of the DAP as the finishing toppings on top of the cake! But headphones are like the delicious melted chocolately insides of the cake.

Yes! the AK designs are very nice! even Fiio X5III has that A&K curve on it's left side and it won an award lol.

I was checking out this review on the Meze 99 Classics headphones, and on Page 2 under "Tonality Matching" (which is under "Matchability") they just HAPPEN to randomly mention the M5. What's interesting to me is the author compared its sound quality to the $1200 Sony Walkman ZX2 and said the M5 sounded BETTER despite the like $700 price difference! That really says something about Shanling's design quality right there.

I'm glad that reviewer also loves Shanling M5. It is a wonderfully crafted piece of machinery!

 

[tbritton]

Hi Terry, Thanks for your time and feedback. With the mode on its way too harsh and grainy and that's listening via RHA the CL 1 Ceramic through Qobuz Lossless

Well, not knowing that headphone OR what your personal profile settings were (if any) I can only comment that the personal profile also does insert quite a bit of play into this equation. Of course, this is only really even an issue if you use Google Play Music as the player, since this is an easy way to define the sound you want from that player. But other players offer full equalizers and several other options - for those I likely would turn the Dolby features off as being somewhat conflicting with those apps' controls, and just use the apps' controls alone.

The "Personal Profile" based on "hearing test" was still too boomy for me, so I tweaked my results substantially to push it closer to the sound I wanted in the first place BEFORE even turning on the Dolby features. Anyway, a lot to play with, but your initial experience does not mean it is the only way to approach this feature set.

Terry

 

[aertus]

Don't worry about it! You are right because your headphones do a lot more work than the DAP!
I would say quite possibly create 60-80% (estimated) of the sound that you hear and the DAP is the rest.
Think of the DAP as the finishing toppings on top of the cake! But headphones are like the delicious melted chocolately insides of the cake.

Yes! the AK designs are very nice! even Fiio X5III has that A&K curve on it's left side and it won an award lol.


I'm glad that reviewer also loves Shanling M5. It is a wonderfully crafted piece of machinery!

yeah honestly id spend that extra money buying a good pair of headphones and a mid range amp/dac. Don't even need that much money for 300 dollars with the right brand (not crappy beats ) you can get better headphones than what most people are wearing and buy an amp/dac to further improve the sound that also isn't ridiculously price. Don't like the m5 design though Fioo and A&K looks much better IMO. but i still feel like they are copying japanese though.

my favorite headphones that I wanna buy are the bang and olufsen h6 2nd generation. because it has the perfect combination of looks and sound quality. Something the beats have always compromised which is why i think they are the perfect pair of headphones. Now other headphones im sure sound better but are prob not as good looking.


HAs anyone tested the AKG earbuds from samsung? as far as I can tell they are not actually made by samsung only tuned by them. I was wondeirng how they compared to htc earbuds and other competitors.

 

[benchan2]

…

I was checking out this review on the Meze 99 Classics headphones, and on Page 2 under "Tonality Matching" (which is under "Matchability") they just HAPPEN to randomly mention the M5. What's interesting to me is the author compared its sound quality to the $1200 Sony Walkman ZX2 and said the M5 sounded BETTER despite the like $700 price difference! That really says something about Shanling's design quality right there.

M5 is fairly good, just the background noise is distracting. But mostly it is just ZX2 that is bad. So I won't give Shanling too much credit here haha.

 

[RockStar2005]

…


M5 is fairly good, just the background noise is distracting. But mostly it is just ZX2 that is bad. So I won't give Shanling too much credit here haha.

So you're saying there IS some background noise??

 

[zachgraz]

@RockStar2005 Sorry I do not know yet how the quoting works but this is a reply to the Viper4Android topic.

I rooted my HTC 10 with stock firmware and I only encountered problems trying to install V4A. Then I decided to switch to the ROM Viper10. Now my HTC 10 setup is amazing.
I got Boomsound running (somehow I like it and I wanted to keep it), V4A and Jetaudio Plus which adds a 20 band EQ and a High Res option. The 3 apps work at the same time.
The sound and tweaking options are simply amazing.
I can recommend this software path to everyone BUT it voids the warranty and there is a possibility to brick the phone.

 

[Badelhas]

Thanks for all your input, guys!
Regarding the HTC Hi-Res included headphones, are they really worth the "Hi-Res" certification? I can't seem to find any noticeable difference between them and my Xiaomi Piston 3 Earbuds.

Cheers

 

[voxie]

Thanks for all your input, guys!
Regarding the HTC Hi-Res included headphones, are they really worth the "Hi-Res" certification? I can't seem to find any noticeable difference between them and my Xiaomi Piston 3 Earbuds.

Cheers

Get what your saying Baselhas..."Hi-Res" certification? Seems to me its just some sort of marketing tag. Correct me if I am wrong but from observation lots of "high end" headphone manufactures don't have this tag labelled to its products. Which in itself makes up my mind. The Xiaomi Pistons 3 are great Earbuds and out match the included iems. But the HTC 10 is a fantastic sounding Phone. Cheers and keep well. Voxie....

 

[Badelhas]

Get what your saying Baselhas..."Hi-Res" certification? Seems to me its just some sort of marketing tag. Correct me if I am wrong but from observation lots of "high end" headphone manufactures don't have this tag labelled to its products. Which in itself makes up my mind. The Xiaomi Pistons 3 are great Earbuds and out match the included iems. But the HTC 10 is a fantastic sounding Phone. Cheers and keep well. Voxie....

These are the features HTC claims they have. Is this for real? How does this compare with the Xiaomi Piston 3?

Specifications:

• Driver Unit: 13mm, Dynamic
• Diaphragm: PEEK
• Frequency Response: 10-40kHz
• Sensitivity: 106 dB/mW
• Impedance: 35Ω (at 1kHz)
• Cord Type: OFC, Y-type
• Power Handing Capacity: 100 mW

Features:

• Hi-Res audio certified
• Large 13mm dynamic driver for stronger bass and richer treble
• Aerospace-grade ultra thin (8μm) PEEK diaphragm delivers more powerful sound
• Ergonomically designed to fit your ear comfortably
• Double the sound range (10Hz-40kHz)

I don't understand much about these specs but I believe that what makes HTC claim they are Hi Resolution is the frequency response range (10Hz-40kHz) since the Xiaomi Piston 3 claim to have only from
20-20,000 Hz http://www.mi.com/en/headphones3/#param

 

[JaeYoon]

No....
Hi-Res certification means the HTC 10 DAC is capable of processing 24-bit lossless files like FLAC.
HTC website
"For instance Just press play and you’ll hear how Hi-Res audio processing, 24-bit DAC and our new high performance headset amplifier are all carefully tuned to work together to deliver a true symphony of sound."

Cayin N3 has Hi-Res sticker because AK4490 Chip can process up to 32-Bit lossless (Useless since nothing is 32 bit yet.)
Or Aune M1S ESS Sabre 9018K2M 32bit/384k