How to access sound options

[Robynsnest]

I have yet to be able to access some of the advanced sound options on this phone such as Hi Fi Quad DAC and digital filter. The DTS:X 3D Surround works with my bluetooth headphones but the other options are grayed out. Why is that?

 

[SpookDroid]

DAC options don't work unless you have something plugged into the headphone jack. BT doesn't use the high-def DAC because it's all a digital signal transfer. Wired headphones, on the other hand, do receive an analog signal for audio.

 

[Laura Knotek]

To add to what SpookDroid said, you will only notice a difference when using high impedance wired headphones. Low impedance headphones won't sound noticeably better.

 

[natehartey12]

To add to what SpookDroid said, you will only notice a difference when using high impedance wired headphones. Low impedance headphones won't sound noticeably better.

I have a question to add on to this. What about connecting to a car via aux?

 

[B0WIE]

To add to what SpookDroid said, you will only notice a difference when using high impedance wired headphones. Low impedance headphones won't sound noticeably better.

How is that? Are they not passing through a digital to analog converter? The difference with low impedance headphones is that they don't trigger the amplifier, but they don't need to, due to their nature.

All audio passing through the headphone jack is graced by the awesome DAC and it's truly something special in terms of quality. I say that as a professional audio engineer.

 

[B0WIE]

I have a question to add on to this. What about connecting to a car via aux?

This can vary. Some cars will have a processor that converts the aux signal to digital form in order to apply EQ and such. This may or may not be a low quality one but it usually defeats the benefit of using the G7's DAC. If the head unit in the car maintains a pure analog path from phone to speaker, you're golden. If not, bluetooth may or may not sound better. You'll have to try it yourself to find out. You hear it in the high and low frequencies, and in the quickness of the response (if things sound lively vs smashed).

 

[Robynsnest]

Well dang. So these features are largely useless to me. I use bluetooth in my car and my headphones. I did notice that the surround works on my headphones and really does make a nice immersive experience though.

 

[SpookDroid]

Yup, the surround effect is a digitally-processed one, so that can work over BT. Just careful if your BT headphones also have some sort of processing (extra Bass, Surround simulation, etc.) as having both turned on might end up on a very muffled result or with a better-sounding output if one is turned off.