Can non audiophiles using decent budget earphones experience the greatness of LG Phone DACs compared to normal phones?

[greenhorn]

May be since I aint an expert. But the QKZ I got - VK4 got good reviews. Same goes for Tin Audio T2 which was universally hailed as a budget classic. Any ear phone I spend more than 15 dollars on - I read and see tens of reviews before I buy. OF course getting good reviews is no guarantee that my ears can identify their goodness

Good news is aliexpress free to reasonable shipping is back.

I'm not an expert either but don't listen to what these "experts" on forums say. I've found no correlation between what these so called youtube and headfi reviewers say and actual performance. E.g. the blon 03. An average earphone at best hyped to the high heavens. It's a long list. Kz zax is the flavor of the month right now. Buy a Sony mh755 and be happy

 

[fLUX]

Never tried a LG phone, but you would be better off upgrading your earphones rather than spending on the LG phone. Unless you really want to go for the LG G8X due to its specs/features you can spare 10k for the IEM and remaining towards a LG V30+ / dedicated DAP , this would be a real upgrade vs only the LG G8X

 

[arnprasad]

Thanks to covid.. I hardly move out of the house.. So don't need new earphones either..

I use the headphones only for morning walks which sometimes hit 10km..at home its 100% home theater.. So for long walks.. Carrying a DAP is not practical.. Hence was veering towards a phone with a good dac assuming it makes a difference.

I do have few sonys and one sennheiser.. I can say these Chinese ones sound better at a given price.

In fact I bought a Audio technical m50 during Amazon sale.. Didn't like.. Luckily sold on olx at same price... Same for Bose q20... Wife didn't like and that too got sold at purchase price on olx.... Guess for walks.. Chinese cheap oems are the best

 

[fLUX]

Thanks to covid.. I hardly move out of the house.. So don't need new earphones either.. Now need to figure out what to do with this phone

I too have hugely downsized my portable setup, still wondering whether to sell off further components

 

[raghupb]

I too have hugely downsized my portable setup, still wondering whether to sell off further components

.... you forgot to add this ....
"While up-sizing and adding more components into 2-Ch and HT"
Have fun and enzoi!!
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[fLUX]

.... you forgot to add this ....
"While up-sizing and adding more components into 2-Ch and HT"
Have fun and enzoi!!
Cheers,
Raghu

Haha, part of that is due to the downsizing of the portable components

 

[VRavichandar]

LG G8X ThinQ smartphones worth Rs. 350 Crore sold in Flipkart’s Big Billion Days Sale in 12 hours, more stocks soon

Nearly 1.75 lakh LG G8X smartphones sold in less than 12 hours during Flipkart sale

In a sign of how pent-up demand is driving sales of mobiles during the festive season, LG Electronics on Friday claimed it recorded Rs 350 crore revenue from th

www.thenewsminute.com

not sure if its fake news.

Doesnt seem to be as ndtv gadgets picked it up.

LG G8X ThinQ Saw Staggering Sales in First 12 Hours of Flipkart Sale, Company Says

LG G8X ThinQ is currently listed at Rs. 21,990 on Flipkart.

gadgets.ndtv.com

 

[VRavichandar]

Got the phone yesterday.
My experience with LG started off with cookie and that was the first poor man's iphone then! Had a resistive touch screen and had to sit on the touchscreen as it grew old. Then came a Nexus - gifted to my son - who used it for around 5 years and it was a great performer. This is the third LG.
With two screens, it is heavy! Easily detachable but repeated detaching may cause loose connection?
Sound quality good, but nothing outstanding - tested with the supplied (Poor Q) headphone and a sony noise cancelling. The built-in speakers are loud, real loud, the speakerphone did not distort on voice calls even at full volume.
Takes long to charge with the magnetic attachment, better with the c type connector directly. Will try to find a suitable wireless charger soon - there are reports of some Q chargers not working with this phone.
First impressions: not highly impressed - the dual screen flaunt value apart, the screen is quite good, phone is snappy. Removed some of the preinstalled games and apps (not too many were there to start with). Will update if I see anything significant in the next few days

 

[arnprasad]

Got the phone yesterday.
My experience with LG started off with cookie and that was the first poor man's iphone then! Had a resistive touch screen and had to sit on the touchscreen as it grew old. Then came a Nexus - gifted to my son - who used it for around 5 years and it was a great performer. This is the third LG.
With two screens, it is heavy! Easily detachable but repeated detaching may cause loose connection?
Sound quality good, but nothing outstanding - tested with the supplied (Poor Q) headphone and a sony noise cancelling. The built-in speakers are loud, real loud, the speakerphone did not distort on voice calls even at full volume.
Takes long to charge with the magnetic attachment, better with the c type connector directly. Will try to find a suitable wireless charger soon - there are reports of some Q chargers not working with this phone.
First impressions: not highly impressed - the dual screen flaunt value apart, the screen is quite good, phone is snappy. Removed some of the preinstalled games and apps (not too many were there to start with). Will update if I see anything significant in the next few days

Nice. I too had a cookie way back in 2008-9 and nexus 5 as well!! Guess we also have to look at its price to value ratio.. Given it kinds of gives us a galaxy fold feel for cheap.. We can value second screen at 10k and the phone itself at 20k..so it's a good bargain.. But if one already had 855/865...better to sell it for a premium if possible. I see that post sale days.. Mrp back to 55k

 

[VRavichandar]

Nice. I too had a cookie way back in 2008-9 and nexus 5 as well!! Guess we also have to look at its price to value ratio.. Given it kinds of gives us a galaxy fold feel for cheap.. We can value second screen at 10k and the phone itself at 20k..so it's a good bargain.. But if one already had 855/865...better to sell it for a premium if possible. I see that post sale days.. Mrp back to 55k

This phone would have never made the shortlist but for the price! It is definitely a steal at this price. MRP back to 55k made my day!

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

I'm not an expert either but don't listen to what these "experts" on forums say. I've found no correlation between what these so called youtube and headfi reviewers say and actual performance. E.g. the blon 03. An average earphone at best hyped to the high heavens. It's a long list. Kz zax is the flavor of the month right now. Buy a Sony mh755 and be happy

I compared the blons with the Sony mh 755, master and Dynamic me05, shure Se 215, tin Audio t2 and 3 headphones - Beoplay h6, bowers and Wilkins P7 and hd 650. source was always iphone lightning dongle except for 650 I used a mojo. The blons have a tonality which is dark like the hd 650. roll off on top but very thick mids , not detailed but too full bodied and sounds bigger than the shure and the other earphones I mentioned here. If detail and neutral tonality is what you are looking for then it’s not here. But it’s like s small tiny version of hd 650. until I understood what they were trying to do or accidentally did , I felt like I wasted my money again. Anyway I sold it, as I moved to just a Samsung true wireless first gen which sounds very even though not detailed!

 

[rishiguru]

I'm not an expert either but don't listen to what these "experts" on forums say. I've found no correlation between what these so called youtube and headfi reviewers say and actual performance. E.g. the blon 03. An average earphone at best hyped to the high heavens. It's a long list. Kz zax is the flavor of the month right now. Buy a Sony mh755 and be happy

With all my years of music listening and being an avid music lover, I have understood sound quality is subjective and varies from person to person. Personal preferences like inclination to a certain sound signature leads a big way of how the person perceives the final sound quality of an audio product and how he rates it good or bad over another audio product. Also there is the pairing with his/ her existing headphones and how he/she perceives the final sound is very important.

Our human head can also be misleading sometimes. Suppose you are accustomed listening to Vivo X5Max which is tuned for fast paced but slightly suppressed bass, tight and kinda dry vocal region for excellent treble response then your head gets tuned with the excellent detail retrieval capabilities on the phone. Suddenly you get hold of Vivo NEX (Vivo NEX S in China) and pair with your same headphone and BAAM!!! Bloated bass, thick mids and no details in the treble region. Listen with NEX for a week with no X5Max in between, and you head gets re-tuned. Now NEX signature sound like having solid bass, rich vocals and great details in the treble region. Again going the opposite way from NEX to X5Max, and BAAM!!! X5Max signature now sounds like non-existent bass, thin vocals and ear piercing highs. Season your ears for a week with X5Max with no NEX in between and suddenly one day it sounds just right. All this phenomenon is happening in our head as we are treating the sound signature subjectively and our ears and head is getting accustomed with the sound signature.

In the end if you are happy with the sound quality of your Sony mh755, nothing else matters. Enjoy.

 

[rishiguru]

Hi,

Was awake at midnight so just tried my luck at grabbing the LG g8X dual screen for under 20K on flipkart and got lucky. Just hoping they dont cancel the delivery saying there was a supply-demand mismatch.

I am no audiophile, but i do use KZ/Tin Audio T2/QKZ type of decent earphones. Will the increment change between say my Redmi K20 Pro and this one be 2-3% which the ear cannot perceive or will I be impressed?

I mostly play Spotify or Amazon music with the occasional FLAC files on my phone downloaded from the internet.

They say..its got "

• Premium Audio with Balanced Stereo Speakers, DTS:X 3D Surround, 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC"

LG G8X ( 128 GB Storage, 6 GB RAM ) Online at Best Price On Flipkart.com

Buy LG G8X online at best price with offers in India. LG G8X (Black, 128 GB) features and specifications include 6 GB RAM, 128 GB ROM, 4000 mAh battery, 12 MP back camera and 32 MP front camera. Compare G8X by price and performance to shop at Flipkart

www.flipkart.com

I love my K20 Pro. Assuming I do get delivery - need to decide if its worth keeping or sell it on OLX for a nice premium!

I have got hold of a LG G8X on 16th Oct dead midnight, Flipkart BBD sale. Personally I was pretty happy with my Vivo NEX (Vivo NEX S in China), LG V30+ catering two opposite poles of sound signature. G8X with the dual screen case normally use to retails for INR 55,000. During the sale period and card offer combined I was able to buy one for just INR 17,998 (My cart value was above 30K). This is a flat INR 37,000 discount! Ultimately I bought one at a heart beat.

For that price you get flagship Snapdragon 855 SoC, 6GB LPDDR4x RAM, 128GB UFS 2.1 internal memory, microSD card support for memory expansion (I am using a 256GB card), LG's Quad DAC (ESS ES9218P) tuned by Meridian Audio, adequately loud stereo speakers again tuned by Meridian Audio, DTS:X, and finally the detachable dual screen. For this bargain asking price G8X offers a lot in my humble opinion.

For DSD lovers there are bad news as Android 10 comes pre-installed, and LG stopped supporting native DSD playback on software layer from Android 10. Those G8X bought earlier with Android 9 pre-installed, still supports native DSD playback. In my ears Vivo NEX (on Android 10) have the best sounding native DSD playback of all, however limited to DSD64 only. For PCM audio (FLAC, MPE, APE, WAV, etc) there are no issues. I am using it for two weeks now and am very satisfied with the purchase.

Regarding audio quality the sound signature, G8X is dramatically different from my B&O tuned LG V30+. V30+ tuning makes it analytical sounding with an acute knack for detail retrieval. Meridian tuned G8X are more musical and more forgiving on headphones while sounding lush and vivid but not loosing anything in terms of details. There is a spatial openness and also more spatial resolution in G8X over V30+. But V30+ is more accurate, studio sound. Meridian Audio are known for their DSP (Digital Signal Processing) & MQA. In the end, both V30+ & G8X have their pros and cons in terms of audio quality. Both audio tuning houses have their own preferences and tuned the same hardware (ESS ES9218P) differently. Personally I like both.

 

[rishiguru]

Yeah True. This can always be used as a standalone phone and for 20k..only this and redmi k20 pro are available with 855 and I got both!! Unbelievable value though.. Only the original and first Poco phone comes close... And funnily enough I got that one also!!!! God bless the Chinese mobile manufacturers!

How is the wired audio quality of K20 Pro compared to LG G8X? Which one you prefer more while listening audio? Which one do you think is the more complete phone?

 

[arnprasad]

gave my LG to my nephew. Again I did try it for a day. For someone going on walks..I dont think it matters much. Maybe listening to FLAC or DSDs in a silent room may make a difference! or to notice a difference, the comparison has to be scientific. Not sure swapping phones in a noisy environment helps one decipher the difference.

 

[rishiguru]

I compared the blons with the Sony mh 755, master and Dynamic me05, shure Se 215, tin Audio t2 and 3 headphones - Beoplay h6, bowers and Wilkins P7 and hd 650. source was always iphone lightning dongle except for 650 I used a mojo. The blons have a tonality which is dark like the hd 650. roll off on top but very thick mids , not detailed but too full bodied and sounds bigger than the shure and the other earphones I mentioned here. If detail and neutral tonality is what you are looking for then it’s not here. But it’s like s small tiny version of hd 650. until I understood what they were trying to do or accidentally did , I felt like I wasted my money again. Anyway I sold it, as I moved to just a Samsung true wireless first gen which sounds very even though not detailed!

Can you name some good cheap IEMs under INR 5K, available here or can be imported from AliExpress. I have some like Cowon EK2, Soundmagic E50C & Blon BL03. My preference is towards balanced sound, I do not want headphones with bloated bass or shrilly highs. If others chip in it will be of great help.

Another point, high impedance IEMs are welcome, as my smartphones like LG V30+. LG G8X & Vivo NEX are capable to outputs 2 Vrms through headphone jacks while Samsung Galaxy S & Notes puffs at 1 Vrms. My Soundmagic E50C @ 51 ohms pairs great with all this phones and they all can drive E50C to the maximum.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Can you name some good cheap IEMs under INR 5K, available here or can be imported from AliExpress. I have some like Cowon EK2, Soundmagic E50C & Blon BL03. My preference is towards balanced sound, I do not want headphones with bloated bass or shrilly highs. If others chip in it will be of great help.

Another point, high impedance IEMs are welcome, as my smartphones like LG V30+. LG G8X & Vivo NEX are capable to outputs 2 Vrms through headphone jacks while Samsung Galaxy S & Notes puffs at 1 Vrms. My Soundmagic E50C @ 51 ohms pairs great with all this phones and they all can drive E50C to the maximum.

Thanks in advance!!!

I haven’t tried many iems around this price range. So, don’t can’t say what would work at this price range.I had only few - urbanfun hifi, tin audio t2, kz (don’t remember which one!) and the blons. But they all are only half of the budget. All of them are good for its own sound profiles.