[asahel]

Hi there,
 
I've been looking for a smartphone with good sound quality to replace my old phone and recently deceased iAudio X5. I don't plan to use an external DAC or AMP - but something that comes close to the X5's sound quality in headphone output would be great. From what I've read on this forum and elsewhere, the Samsung S3 (with Voodoo/etc) is probably the best option for now...
 
But then I came across the news that Sharp's new SH-07D smartphone released only in Japan has a Wolfson WM8918 DAC in it. It's also specifically targeted for music listening, has 55hours battery life for music playback, it's waterproof and dustproof, and is a smaller format/screen than the S3/iPhone/etc (an advantage for me).
 
Here's some more info on the phone: a summary of its specs and Sharp's product site (translated from Japanese).
 
From the specs it looks great, but I'm not sure if that translates into sound quality. So what do people think - could this phone match the sound from my old X5 or beat the Samsung S3? Is anyone in Japan able to test out the sound quality?

 

[CrystalT]

The price is daunting.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

 

[musicday]

Is nice as a phone, and the SQ musc be great, but not Flac support, so i will pass.
Stick to my Clip+ and Nokia 808

,and Samsung 7.7 P6800.

 

[CrystalT]

It's an android phone. That means there IS Flac support. :\
 
Flac is worthless, though. Just stick to high quality MP3 encodes.

 

[yurt28]

Such a reallly good dac it's a pity that nobody really moved onto focusing onto it for future daps. Pcm FLL Filter's are shooting Ball Room Tennis Court Boom to Bang to end in clean sound +R-, just amazing