[WhatAmIDoing]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure about how this stuff works so I need to ask you. I plan on upgrading my phone to the LG v30 and it has a built in “32-bit Advanced Hi-Fi Quad DAC”. I need to know if this is compatible with my Momentum 2's.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

yeah it's compatible. it won't hurt your headphones.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'm not sure about how this stuff works so I need to ask you. I plan on upgrading my phone to the LG v30 and it has a built in “32-bit Advanced Hi-Fi Quad DAC”. I need to know if this is compatible with my Momentum 2's.

First off, you're not even going to be able to activate the "Quad" part of that with those headphones.

Second, as long as you don't get clipping and overexcursion - in very simple terms you can tell it's there when listening loud and you can hear sounds that aren't even music in a different tone - kicking in. Like a "thwack! thwack!" sound accompanying bass hits.

 

[WhatAmIDoing]

First off, you're not even going to be able to activate the "Quad" part of that with those headphones.

Second, as long as you don't get clipping and overexcursion - in very simple terms you can tell it's there when listening loud and you can hear sounds that aren't even music in a different tone - kicking in. Like a "thwack! thwack!" sound accompanying bass hits.

oh, ok. Well could you recommend me some headphones that would be able to take advantage of this quad channel DAC?

AFAIK the phone comes with B&O earbuds which I assume would take advantage of this. At least I hope so

 

[ProtegeManiac]

oh, ok. Well could you recommend me some headphones that would be able to take advantage of this quad channel DAC?

It only activates on high impedance loads. The problem is that activating the feature doesn't not mean "taking advantage" if that means "making full use of it." Using a 300ohm headphone on a smartphone even with a Quad DAC is still not optimal. In other words, it's like choosing between a 1.3L I4 (regular smartphone) and a 2.0L I4 to power a heavy sports sedan. The lack of isolation on, say, an HD600 just makes that worse.

There are a few exceptions, ie, high impedance IEMs, but given that they have sensitivity well over 100dB/1mW coupled with good isolation anyway, it's not totally necessary. Not to mention you might not like their response curve in the first place while they can still do reasonably well with any decent though not Quad DAC phone.

Note that this is not to say the V30 is a bad phone for music. It's great. I'm just saying don't sweat over beign able to activate Quad DAC or not - just use it with whatever IEMs you prefer the sound of and know that the V30 isn't that far off from using a portable amp, even without Quad DAC. At worst, anybody who is looking for a phone should get a smartphone based on other features that they would deem relevant, barring of course the ones that really measure badly, or the ones that don't even have a 3.5mm socket.

AFAIK the phone comes with B&O earbuds which I assume would take advantage of this. At least I hope so

Not sure if it does but again, regardless of whether it does or does not, if you like the sound then good. If not, try a different IEM, but not necessarily only the high impedance ones just to activate Quad DAC.

The reality is that it can have a wow effect vs other smartphones (though again it falls short of an actual amp, not to mention at that impedance and design one is likely sitting down at home anyway where an amp is easier to use rather than clogging up pockets along with cables) but very likely it only does that for high impedance (as opposed to being manually activated for lower sensitivity headphones/IEMs at any impedance) so they would still get good battery life on reviews.

Maybe, maybe, a firmware update allows for manually activating that later when the review cycles are over, but again don't sweat it. Just pick whatever runs well enough from a smartphone and if you like the sound then use that, or if not, move on to another IEM or headphone.

 

[JoePR31]

First off, you're not even going to be able to activate the "Quad" part of that with those headphones.

Second, as long as you don't get clipping and overexcursion - in very simple terms you can tell it's there when listening loud and you can hear sounds that aren't even music in a different tone - kicking in. Like a "thwack! thwack!" sound accompanying bass hits.

oh, ok. Well could you recommend me some headphones that would be able to take advantage of this quad channel DAC?

AFAIK the phone comes with B&O earbuds which I assume would take advantage of this. At least I hope so

Most of what ProtogeManiac said is accurate. However, there are a couple of easy ways of overriding the LG V30 or V20 QuadDac's default behavior.

The QuadDac has 3 different power modes based on the resistance/impedance it detects when you plug a headphone cable into its headphone out. Most portable headphones or iems have such a low impedance that when you plug them in to the phone, the QuadDac automatically runs at its lowest setting which it says is for "regular audio devices". It seemed gimped to me, and like ProtogeManiac said, it's just a cheap way for LG to extend the battery life.

I started tricking my V20 by holding down the middle volume button on the inline mic of my headphone's cable and then plugging the cable into the headphone jack while continuing to hold the button down for a few seconds after plugging it in. This raises the inline resistance and the V20 compensates by setting the QuadDac to its middle power setting, which it says is for "external audio devices". The extra juice seems to make most of my high quality low impedance headphones sound more open, layered, and controlled to my ears....especially my B&W P9's.

If you're using headphones that don't have an inline mic with button but that have a removable cable, you can use another method to trick the phone into going into the "external device" power setting. Disconnect the headphone cable from the headphones, plug the 3.5mm end into the phone's headphone jack, then reconnect the cable to the headphones.

Also, be aware that my listening volume when on the lowest QuadDac power setting was around 50-55, but I needed to drop that down to about 35-40 when on the middle power setting to maintain a comfortable listening volume.