V20 = King of audio?

[flyingkytez]

What other phones out there has a better audio playback than the V20/V30? Guess no one cares about music and sound quality?? Especially since they're taking it away on nearly all phones now.

 

[LuvMusic]

I was always impressed with Sony's SQ in the days when I was running a Z1, Z2 and Z3. Sony's support in the US is worse than LG's so when the V10 came out I switched. That is a long time ago but I remember thinking the SQ on the V10 was better than my Z3 and the Z3 was good.

 

[tickerguy]

In this world of "streaming" (read: highly-compressed garbage) few people CARE about actual audio quality and thus it no longer is worth the extra few bucks (and it really is only a few bucks) to include the higher-quality DAC.

The V20 may be the last of these sorts of devices in the mobile environment, for that reason. I happen to carry mine around with a metric crap-ton of FLAC files on an SD card, however, and I can DEFINITELY hear the difference with any decent set of cans or in-ear phones between it and ANY of my other portable devices.

 

[Laura Knotek]

@tickerguy I agree. On any other devices I had to carry along a standalone DAC and a USB OTG adapter to get sound as good as the V20 with FLAC or WAV files.

 

[krazyatom]

V20, g6 plus, v30 all have high dac but only v20 has removable battery.

 

[flyingkytez]

In this world of "streaming" (read: highly-compressed garbage) few people CARE about actual audio quality and thus it no longer is worth the extra few bucks (and it really is only a few bucks) to include the higher-quality DAC.

The V20 may be the last of these sorts of devices in the mobile environment, for that reason. I happen to carry mine around with a metric crap-ton of FLAC files on an SD card, however, and I can DEFINITELY hear the difference with any decent set of cans or in-ear phones between it and ANY of my other portable devices.

I hear a huge difference; hi hats, percussions, backup vocals all can be heard compared to before I never really noticed them. It really makes me appreciate good music now. Removing headphone jack was a step backwards, the DAC is an incredible technically, not needing to charge the headphone is extremely useful. The V20 is dirt cheap now (around the $200-300 range). Price is not a problem, it's marketing wireless products.

 

[jmssarno]

The V20's DAC is the main reason I chose the device over the Pixel XL in the first place. There's always a trade off when choosing devices (headphone jack, quick updates, camera, etc) The Pixel lost me when it removed the headphone jack. Coming from a Nexus 6 and then a 6P, I was looking for a device with better audio quality. The V20 has the best sounding audio of any phone and tablet I've ever used.

I've had my device since launch. When it's time for me to upgrade or change phones, I'll be looking at getting a V30+ simply because I've grown accustomed to the quality of the audio on the V20, essentially disqualifying any other devices. It would be nice if Google upped their audio game on the Pixel, but I guess the lack of a headphone jack is "trendy" and "cool"

 

[flyingkytez]

The V20's DAC is the main reason I chose the device over the Pixel XL in the first place. There's always a trade off when choosing devices (headphone jack, quick updates, camera, etc) The Pixel lost me when it removed the headphone jack. Coming from a Nexus 6 and then a 6P, I was looking for a device with better audio quality. The V20 has the best sounding audio of any phone and tablet I've ever used.

I've had my device since launch. When it's time for me to upgrade or change phones, I'll be looking at getting a V30+ simply because I've grown accustomed to the quality of the audio on the V20, essentially disqualifying any other devices. It would be nice if Google upped their audio game on the Pixel, but I guess the lack of a headphone jack is "trendy" and "cool"

Google = no micro SD, no headphone jack, no extra features. If you look at all of Google's products, they only offer good quality, but very borderline basic devices, that's part of their brand image: bland but good quality and expensive (at least for the Pixel line).

 

[Mike Dee]

I hear a huge difference; hi hats, percussions, backup vocals all can be heard compared to before I never really noticed them. It really makes me appreciate good music now. Removing headphone jack was a step backwards, the DAC is an incredible technically, not needing to charge the headphone is extremely useful. The V20 is dirt cheap now (around the $200-300 range). Price is not a problem, it's marketing wireless products.

Removing a headphone jack does not make audio worse. In fact the Pixel 2 series has better audio than most phones with a headphone jack...so does the HTC U11. In both the Pixel and HTC the DAC is in the dongle. Granted that they aren't as good as the V20 or V30 especially if you are using full output with a high impedance device, but at low output the Pixel comes close. If it didn't I would not have bought one. The beauty of using the dongle is that you can try different ones to see which you like better. For example, some are using the HTC dongle on the Pixels because it has a different sound. There are also after market dongles that offer more options. By the way what I'm saying about the dongle is not true on Moto devices because their dongle is just an adapter and the DAC is in the phone.

 

[Mike Dee]

The V20's DAC is the main reason I chose the device over the Pixel XL in the first place. There's always a trade off when choosing devices (headphone jack, quick updates, camera, etc) The Pixel lost me when it removed the headphone jack. Coming from a Nexus 6 and then a 6P, I was looking for a device with better audio quality. The V20 has the best sounding audio of any phone and tablet I've ever used.

I've had my device since launch. When it's time for me to upgrade or change phones, I'll be looking at getting a V30+ simply because I've grown accustomed to the quality of the audio on the V20, essentially disqualifying any other devices. It would be nice if Google upped their audio game on the Pixel, but I guess the lack of a headphone jack is "trendy" and "cool"

I have the V20 and I had the V30 for three weeks. Great audio especially if you can get it to output full volume. I am currently using a Pixel 2XL and based on my experience it is pretty damn good. At normal output it's very close to to the V20 and with the right headphones and lossless files I'm pretty damn satisfied. I still have the V20 and was planning on using it as a music player but the Pixel has been so good that I haven't made the effort.

 

[flyingkytez]

Removing a headphone jack does not make audio worse. In fact the Pixel 2 series has better audio than most phones with a headphone jack...so does the HTC U11. In both the Pixel and HTC the DAC is in the dongle. Granted that they aren't as good as the V20 or V30 especially if you are using full output with a high impedance device, but at low output the Pixel comes close. If it didn't I would not have bought one. The beauty of using the dongle is that you can try different ones to see which you like better. For example, some are using the HTC dongle on the Pixels because it has a different sound. There are also after market dongles that offer more options. By the way what I'm saying about the dongle is not true on Moto devices because their dongle is just an adapter and the DAC is in the phone.

HTC > Removed Headphone Jack > Huge Loss In Sales > Sold Part Of It To Google > Google Steals Patent And Resells It

And HTC wonders why it's doing so bad, spending a lot of bribe money to reviewers to help boost sales (MKBD). The headphone jack removal I honestly think was the cause for the profit loss.

 

[flyingkytez]

I have the V20 and I had the V30 for three weeks. Great audio especially if you can get it to output full volume. I am currently using a Pixel 2XL and based on my experience it is pretty damn good. At normal output it's very close to to the V20 and with the right headphones and lossless files I'm pretty damn satisfied. I still have the V20 and was planning on using it as a music player but the Pixel has been so good that I haven't made the effort.

That dongle though... just another thing you gotta carry around. Plus can't charge phone and listen to music at same time (sometimes I do that when I'm low on battery). Wireless headphones you gotta charge every single night, forget to charge it and you don't have headphones to use. I'd rather have a generic sound card with a headphone jack.

 

[bovcrx]

I had the Sony Z5P, Axon 7, and now V20. I like the V20 because it sounds clearer. The Axon 7 was louder, but had distortion. The Sony was good, but since it was my first go at HiFi I didn't have much knowledge of it. Right now I think you can get a Sony xperia x performance for 250 as well as a V20. Axon was still 400 last I saw.