Audiophile phone. ESS SABRE 9018 DAC

rxonmymind

Super Member
Inside the LG V10 and the recently released LG V20. Anybody have experience with either of these phones? Might be interested in getting the older model.
Would the sound improve over the Droid Turbo 2 I currently have listening to Google play?
Thanks
Happy new year!
 
Cell carrier employee here. I almost bit on a V10 when the price dropped because of the high impedance mode as well as the above mentioned internals. However LG phones have been failing lately via a boot loop cycle that can't be fixed. This primarily effects the G4 but has been reported in the G3, G5, V10 and V20. LG seems to be doing little to fix the problem and at one point our replacement cue for affected customers was two months long. I'd rather just continue using an iPhone with an external, high current amp.
 
What are you "listening to Google play"? Compressed lossy files? Then don't bother, you have the best you need as of now.
 
Whatever rig you use, stream tidal. Store albums via offline mode and engage airplane mode to cut out any interference. I use an extra data line on an old iPhone for that in conjunction with a Fiio E11 portable amp and it works great.
 
Whatever rig you use, stream tidal. Store albums via offline mode and engage airplane mode to cut out any interference. I use an extra data line on an old iPhone for that in conjunction with a Fiio E11 portable amp and it works great.
So turn ON airplane mode? Would that apply to someone who has unlimited data?
 
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So turn ON airplane mode? Would that apply to someone who has unlimited data?

I always got audible interference and static when I'd use headphone amps with smartphones. Storing tracks offline and engaging airplane mode cuts out the interference. Which, I'm assuming, is coming from the cellular antennae.
 
What are you "listening to Google play"? Compressed lossy files? Then don't bother, you have the best you need as of now.

I don't like compressed audio either, but because of space issues I have my music collection on my phone stored as 320kbps AAC and, admittedly, it sounds quite good.
 
I don't like compressed audio either, but because of space issues I have my music collection on my phone stored as 320kbps AAC and, admittedly, it sounds quite good.
There's certainly minimum threshold that I would not go below.
What software can be used on the phone for best sound?
 
I don't like compressed audio either, but because of space issues I have my music collection on my phone stored as 320kbps AAC and, admittedly, it sounds quite good.
Yeah, I get it, a phone is a phone, not an audiophile device. Ambient noise is the biggest issue.
When I buy my phones I have a few requirements. One of them is storage expansion. I have a 64GB phone that also takes microSD cards (up to 200GB), and I am using another 64GB card in it. That's plenty :)
 
Yeah, I get it, a phone is a phone, not an audiophile device. Ambient noise is the biggest issue.
When I buy my phones I have a few requirements. One of them is storage expansion. I have a 64GB phone that also takes microSD cards (up to 200GB), and I am using another 64GB card in it. That's plenty :)

Yeah, I've got a 128GB Nexus 6P at the moment. But, my entire music collection in FLAC format would require nearly 300GB.

As was just said above, bring on the bigger uSD cards!
 
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