[Jack71]

Ive been trying to use my Explorer2 amp/dac and Momentum 2.0 headphones with my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 with limited success. I connect the Explorer2 to the Note 9 with the USB adapter that came with the phone. The phone appears to power the Explorer just fine and it sounds great, which indicates that the dac is doing its job. However, the volume is ridiculously low. Much lower than when plugging straight into the headphone jack.

When I had an iPhone, I had to use the lightning camera adapter to power the Explorer seperately from the phone. It sounded great with no volume issues. Could it be that the Note 9 is only powering the Explorer's dac but not its amp? I know others have had the same issue with their Samsung smartphone using other USB headphone amps/dac's.

 

[Victorfabius]

What's the volume level on the Note 9 when you experience this?

 

[Jack71]

Even with the volume all the way to the max, it is still not very loud. It's not that its inaudible, but even maxed, I'd classify the volume as low-mid level at best.

 

[Victorfabius]

Do you have a volume difference with different applications?

Namely, if you use UAPP (USB Audio Player Pro - there may be a free version to try this out), do you get a different result?

I ask because on the Essential Phone, I had a channel imbalance out of the Topping NX4 DSD, but not out of UAPP.


Long shot:
If that doesn't work, you can try this last thing: unplug DAC from phone, unlock developer options, select the "Default USB configuration" option. In that menu, you should have 5 options: "File Transfer", "USB Tethering", "MIDI", "PTP", and "No Data Transfer". You can try one of those. Maybe it'll work, maybe not. Didn't work on the Essential, if I recall correctly, but yours is a different manufacturer, and this might make a huge difference. My Pixel 2 had no problem with the Topping.

Good luck!

 

[Jack71]

The low volume happens in both Spotify and YouTube, so it doesn't appear app related.

Im not sure how to unlock the developer options in the Galaxy Note 9, but I'll give it a try. Thank you for the advice.