Sound quality

[plkyduk]

When it came time to replace my HTC 10, only because battery life had gotten to the point where I was charging up several times a day, I chose the G8 because of all the reviews of the sound quality from the DAC's, a 3.5 Jack and a memory card slot. I have to say I was rather excited to hear what all the hype about the quad DAC's was.

I've been an audiophile for years, and really enjoyed the HTC 10 with multiple headphones and earbuds. I especially enjoyed the custom tuning ability to set up a sound profile exclusive to each pair of headphones customized to my specific hearing ability.

I listen pretty much exclusively to flac files. I was excited to be able to have such a high quality audio player in my pocket with the G8.

I have to say though, I'm somewhat disappointed. I guess I expected to hear a significant difference. To be honest, at this point, I tend to prefer the HTC 10 for listening. Maybe it's because I'm so accustomed to the HTC 10, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, the G8 is hands down better than my wife's Samsung. But when I A/B the two phones with the same tracks and headphones, the HTC 10 just sounds better to me.

Anyone else come from an HTC 10? I have played around with the settings on the G8 but just haven't found anything that puts it over the 10.

Just curious if anyone else has had this experience.

 

[younger996]

Have you enabled all the super, dooper audio gizmos in the settings??

 

[pootyash]

I came from HTC 10 (and also miss it terribly). Chose Galaxy S10 and now wish I'd gone with the G8.

 

[thunder18]

So, one thing is if you're not using somewhat high impedance headphones that would be hard for a lesser DAC to drive, you may not notice much difference because easy to drive low impedance headphones would be easy to drive and you wouldn't notice much difference.

 

[Mike Dee]

When it came time to replace my HTC 10, only because battery life had gotten to the point where I was charging up several times a day, I chose the G8 because of all the reviews of the sound quality from the DAC's, a 3.5 Jack and a memory card slot. I have to say I was rather excited to hear what all the hype about the quad DAC's was.

I've been an audiophile for years, and really enjoyed the HTC 10 with multiple headphones and earbuds. I especially enjoyed the custom tuning ability to set up a sound profile exclusive to each pair of headphones customized to my specific hearing ability.

I listen pretty much exclusively to flac files. I was excited to be able to have such a high quality audio player in my pocket with the G8.

I have to say though, I'm somewhat disappointed. I guess I expected to hear a significant difference. To be honest, at this point, I tend to prefer the HTC 10 for listening. Maybe it's because I'm so accustomed to the HTC 10, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, the G8 is hands down better than my wife's Samsung. But when I A/B the two phones with the same tracks and headphones, the HTC 10 just sounds better to me.

Anyone else come from an HTC 10? I have played around with the settings on the G8 but just haven't found anything that puts it over the 10.

Just curious if anyone else has had this experience.

The HTC has a decent DAC. One of the issues with LG is that unless you use hi impedance headphones it wont trigger full output.

 

[Mike Dee]

So, one thing is if you're not using somewhat high impedance headphones that would be hard for a lesser DAC to drive, you may not notice much difference because easy to drive low impedance headphones would be easy to drive and you wouldn't notice much difference.

No, it's because the LG DAC doesn't give full output with low impedance devices.

 

[plkyduk]

Do I just crank the volume up higher (which I had been doing) or is there another setting I should be using? I typically don't listen very loud, but it just seems like the actual body of the music doesn't seem as full or rich. My home equipment is pure class A triode amps and an external Theta D/A processor if that gives you a frame of reference.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Do I just crank the volume up higher (which I had been doing) or is there another setting I should be using? I typically don't listen very loud, but it just seems like the actual body of the music doesn't seem as full or rich. My home equipment is pure class A triode amps and an external Theta D/A processor if that gives you a frame of reference.

What headphones are you using? I had a V20 in the past, and the DAC drove my Sony MDR7506 great, but if I used cheap earbuds the sound wasn't so great.

 

[Morty2264]

What headphones are you using? I had a V20 in the past, and the DAC drove my Sony MDR7506 great, but if I used cheap earbuds the sound wasn't so great.

You have a big point here - the quality of your headphones makes a huge difference. I use Pixel buds and I prefer those to the Samsung ones that came with my S10.

 

[plkyduk]

I use the HTC hi-res or HTC pro earbuds or NAD VISO 50 headphones depending on what I'm doing or listening to. They all sound good, just not as good as on the HTC 10.

 

[Mike Dee]

I use the HTC hi-res or HTC pro earbuds or NAD VISO 50 headphones depending on what I'm doing or listening to. They all sound good, just not as good as on the HTC 10.

The basic problem is that LG decided to hobble the output unless you're using a hi impedance headset.

 

[younger996]

There are some fantastic deals on audiophile quality headphones on "Drop" at the moment.
Think I might spring for a set of Sennheiser 58X which are rated at 150ohm which should get the quality sound from the Quad Dac in the G8