My experience with different Roms and headphone audio. - ZTE Axon 7 Guides, News, & Discussion

My experience with different Roms and headphone audio. - ZTE Axon 7 Guides, News, & Discussion

So I've been on pretty much every rom and so I will share my experience with each of them considering headphone audio quality, sound, and volume. I've used my HD 598 and Momentum in-ears on each Rom with no sound effect on.
Stock marshmallow G (And a room that was based on stock U): well I actually found that the sound on marshmallow is one of the best on both super and standard setting with a clean and flat signal but on the European (G model) the volume is very very low which is a big downside of marshmallow on G model.
TL;DR: Good clean sound, extremely low volume on G model.
Stock nougat, both G and U: here I found the sound on both G and U to be the same which is probably true since the "mixer_paths" were identical. IMO the sound was somewhat muffled with the super setting turned on along with it having a 10k+ boost which made for artificial highs in some music. Changing to standard solved the sound issues but then the sound was once again very low in volume output.
TL;DR: Super: Muddy bass, boosted top frequencys. Standard: Clean sound, low volume.
Lineage OS/Resurrection Remix: once again identical sound and identical "mixer_paths" files. On these Roms the sound is very strong and significantly louder than on any stock Rom. However, I found the sound to be very muffled with alot off boosted bass despite no sound effects being on or installed. I didn't like the like the sound on these Rims at all and couldn't really here any improvement over my old Nexus in sound quality since the boosted bass just took over and sort of layer on top of all the other frequencys.
TL;DR: Very loud signal with lack of quality due to very boosted bass.
Nucler Rom: Now we are talking. I feel like this Rom has the best of both Lineage and stock. The sound is just as loud as on Lineage/RR but the boosted bass is no more. I found this Rom to have just as a flat and clean signal as atleast stock nougat and probably as good as stock marshmallow on the U model but with a stronger and louder sound.
TL;DR: Loud volume output with a clean and flat signal.
If I were to recommend a Rom based on headphone audio qualty it would be either Stock marshmallow or Nuclear with Nuclear having a louder volume output and stock marshmallow having the option to use the super setting which I believe is just a tuning from ZTE to make the sound perceived as better with just boosted bass and treble and also a louder volume which is all classic tricks companies use to simulate high quality sound.

Hola
Very well put together write up. I am sure that this is especially useful for other audiophiles like yourself, particularly given that sound output from this device was a main selling point / feature for many.
That aside we must also give credit to the likes of people like Carl @Unjustified Dev, @DrakenFX, the mysterious anonymous dev (who was kind enough to fix the sound issue for third party ROMs) and a few others. Without their hard work and time we would still have piss poor audio on this relatively decent device.
"So what you want me to do 'bout that?"

Yeah, thanks for the write up!
Another tip for those of us who have been somewhat disappointed by the audio on this device (which after all is selling as a hifi-phone; the meizu pro 5 I had before was way way better...)
Try an audio mod called Ainur Pandora, here on xda. Its not an enhancement or equalizer thing, but rather an audiophile mod, changing audio libs or something (no idea how it works) to use the hardware better. For me it was a big improvement, at bit like changing the mixer paths file that you suggested earlier, but better. I'm starting to feel satisfied with the sound now, the weak point being the treble quality I think, but that is probably inherent in the hardware implementation.

cfbruck said:
Yeah, thanks for the write up!
Another tip for those of us who have been somewhat disappointed by the audio on this device (which after all is selling as a hifi-phone; the meizu pro 5 I had before was way way better...)
Try an audio mod called Ainur Pandora, here on xda. Its not an enhancement or equalizer thing, but rather an audiophile mod, changing audio libs or something (no idea how it works) to use the hardware better. For me it was a big improvement, at bit like changing the mixer paths file that you suggested earlier, but better. I'm starting to feel satisfied with the sound now, the weak point being the treble quality I think, but that is probably inherent in the hardware implementation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can Ainur Pandora be installed on Stock ROM or the ROM should definitely be LOS based?

Thanks

cfbruck said:
Yeah, thanks for the write up!
Another tip for those of us who have been somewhat disappointed by the audio on this device (which after all is selling as a hifi-phone; the meizu pro 5 I had before was way way better...)
Try an audio mod called Ainur Pandora, here on xda. Its not an enhancement or equalizer thing, but rather an audiophile mod, changing audio libs or something (no idea how it works) to use the hardware better. For me it was a big improvement, at bit like changing the mixer paths file that you suggested earlier, but better. I'm starting to feel satisfied with the sound now, the weak point being the treble quality I think, but that is probably inherent in the hardware implementation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will try thanks.

mcsti said:
Can Ainur Pandora be installed on Stock ROM or the ROM should definitely be LOS based?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried on both stock and LOS, clear difference on both so it seems to work with both. With the mod I actually preferred LOS.
The same developer also has another mod that is called Nero which is supposed to bypass a lot of stuff and send the audio signal directly to the dac. Sounds good in theory I think, but I couldn't tell any difference at all, not sure if it installed correctly. If anyone tries it gets it to work/notices any difference it would be interesting to hear.

Has any1 tried los vs stock with extremely high sensitivity iems?
I notice a rather high noise floor on stock, with both dacs
Gesendet von meinem ZTE A2017G mit Tapatalk

Your post touches on some of my bluetooth audio "issues" on LOS. The volume curve is not even at the lower registers and on low impedence headphones, can easily get to the point of causing clipping and hearing damage at just 50% volume. There's a huge jump in volume from a volume of 3-4 over bluetooth that I can't seem to figure out how to manage.
You can see my research in my post in the Lineage thread here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=71934393&postcount=2344
Do you have any thoughts on how i can modify LOS to account for this?
@MaxRink - LOS on stock with my low impedence IEMs (Shure SE 425) direct to the headphone port works great. The volume curve is well balanced with stock lineage OS, but you should be able to mess with audio_policy_volumes.xml to get the curve to your linking.

thats actually not my issue
my issue is, that i have a rather huge ammount of background noise which especially noticeable when listening to speech at lower volumes. iot might be an opamp issue tho

MaxRink said:
Has any1 tried los vs stock with extremely high sensitivity iems?
I notice a rather high noise floor on stock, with both dacs
Gesendet von meinem ZTE A2017G mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No hiss on any rom with my momentum in ears but they aren't really that sensitivity either.

eMadman said:
Your post touches on some of my bluetooth audio "issues" on LOS. The volume curve is not even at the lower registers and on low impedence headphones, can easily get to the point of causing clipping and hearing damage at just 50% volume. There's a huge jump in volume from a volume of 3-4 over bluetooth that I can't seem to figure out how to manage.
You can see my research in my post in the Lineage thread here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=71934393&postcount=2344
Do you have any thoughts on how i can modify LOS to account for this?
@MaxRink - LOS on stock with my low impedence IEMs (Shure SE 425) direct to the headphone port works great. The volume curve is well balanced with stock lineage OS, but you should be able to mess with audio_policy_volumes.xml to get the curve to your linking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed that the absolute Max volume on stock is the same volume as ~75% on LOS based Roms so I don't think that it all lies in the volume curve settings. I didn't push the volume above 75% on LOS because I didn't want to risk damaging my headphone although that's probably very unlikely.

I think that I've read in the german forum that the super was indeed a switch for the ak4490, while the ak4691 is used for everything else. If you are using bluetooth, the phone will use the ak4691 (the super switch doesn't work on bluetooth) same for dolby.

cfbruck said:
I tried on both stock and LOS, clear difference on both so it seems to work with both. With the mod I actually preferred LOS.
The same developer also has another mod that is called Nero which is supposed to bypass a lot of stuff and send the audio signal directly to the dac. Sounds good in theory I think, but I couldn't tell any difference at all, not sure if it installed correctly. If anyone tries it gets it to work/notices any difference it would be interesting to hear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, tried on RR and noticed a huge difference. Made it sound louder and clearer.
Edit: At least on the speakers, haven't tried headphones.

dyonoctis said:
I think that I've read in the german forum that the super was indeed a switch for the ak4490, while the ak4691 is used for everything else. If you are using bluetooth, the phone will use the ak4691 (the super switch doesn't work on bluetooth) same for dolby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Do you know which of the DAC/amps are in use in AOSP ROMs?

It seems that the jack output on los is using the ak4490 all the time, and the ak4691 for the other stuff. The snapdragon dac isn't utilised at all according to what they said on the german forum.
you can find this in Los mixer file:
<!-- Hi-Fi Audio -->
<ctl name="AKM HIFI Switch Sel" value="ak4961" />
<ctl name="AKM HIFI Switch Mute" value="off" />
<ctl name="AKM HIFI PW" value="off" />
<ctl name="AK4490 BICK Frequency Select" value="48fs" />
<ctl name="AK4490 Lch Digital Volume" value="0" />
<ctl name="AK4490 Rch Digital Volume" value="0" />
I just wish that zte could have more polished their software when it comes to audio. compared to the Lg V20 or even some android chinese DAP it feels so basic...

dyonoctis said:
It seems that the jack output on los is using the ak4490 all the time, and the ak4691 for the other stuff. The snapdragon dac isn't utilised at all according to what they said on the german forum.
you can find this in Los mixer file:
<!-- Hi-Fi Audio -->
<ctl name="AKM HIFI Switch Sel" value="ak4961" />
<ctl name="AKM HIFI Switch Mute" value="off" />
<ctl name="AKM HIFI PW" value="off" />
<ctl name="AK4490 BICK Frequency Select" value="48fs" />
<ctl name="AK4490 Lch Digital Volume" value="0" />
<ctl name="AK4490 Rch Digital Volume" value="0" />
I just wish that zte could have more polished their software when it comes to audio. compared to the Lg V20 or even some android chinese DAP it feels so basic...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know why the value on the last two lines is at 0 if it's that DAC that's in use?

senny22 said:
Do you know why the value on the last two lines is at 0 if it's that DAC that's in use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I honestly don't know why. But the stock file show the same lines with the same value.

dyonoctis said:
I honestly don't know why. But the stock file show the same lines with the same value.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh ok thanks.

Tried some more - RR rom 7.1.2 with beast mode kernel and the Ainur Pandora gives me the best sound. (Better than nuclear I'd say).

Related

Headphone Volume Boost

here is a copy of my stock xml file that boosts audio volume. you can take it and adjust the volume to be higher or lower as you like. these are the 2 lines under headphones that you change the values for to change the volume:
<ctl name="RX1 Mix Digital Volume" value="87" />
<ctl name="RX2 Mix Digital Volume" value="87" />
i tried 89 but man was it loud. some of you may like it that loud. just copy my xml file to system/etc and either rename the one there with .bak extension or just overwrite the one there. make sure to change permission to 0644. then reboot.
enjoy.

Does this boost Bluetooth audio as well. Bluetooth seems to give me the poorest experience however it only seems to be call audio not media playback.

jruweaver said:
Does this boost Bluetooth audio as well. Bluetooth seems to give me the poorest experience however it only seems to be call audio not media playback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is headphones only.

freebee269 said:
here is a copy of my stock xml file that boosts audio volume. you can take it and adjust the volume to be higher or lower as you like. these are the 2 lines under headphones that you change the values for to change the volume:
<ctl name="RX1 Mix Digital Volume" value="87" />
<ctl name="RX2 Mix Digital Volume" value="87" />
i tried 89 but man was it loud. some of you may like it that loud. just copy my xml file to system/etc and either rename the one there with .bak extension or just overwrite the one there. make sure to change permission to 0644. then reboot.
enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! Thanks a lot! This works great!

Palaeologi said:
Awesome! Thanks a lot! This works great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any loss or deterioration of sound quality?

igotroot said:
Any loss or deterioration of sound quality?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try it yourself and find out. you can always take it back out if you dont like it.

freebee269 said:
try it yourself and find out. you can always take it back out if you dont like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed no loss or deterioration of sound quality. It's like a speed governor on a car. The car was always designed to go faster but a governor keeps it from doing so. If you remove the governor the car still performs as it should at faster speeds with no deterioration of performance.

Works with all variants?

I tried this on my T-Mobile g5 but it didn't do anything..

shame the 32bit/192 Hi Fi DAC module doesnt work on USA Models, its awesome and LOUD!

Hey whats the default value? I think i screwed it up a little because 87 is too high and my headphones messed up in one side..

PlagasX said:
Hey whats the default value? I think i screwed it up a little because 87 is too high and my headphones messed up in one side..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Default is "74"

freebee269 said:
here is a copy of my stock xml file that boosts audio volume. you can take it and adjust the volume to be higher or lower as you like. these are the 2 lines under headphones that you change the values for to change the volume:
<ctl name="RX1 Mix Digital Volume" value="87" />
<ctl name="RX2 Mix Digital Volume" value="87" />
i tried 89 but man was it loud. some of you may like it that loud. just copy my xml file to system/etc and either rename the one there with .bak extension or just overwrite the one there. make sure to change permission to 0644. then reboot.
enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have all the same lines EXCEPT headphones? Like literally everything is the same but I dont have a line for just headphones? Should I add it?

Palaeologi said:
I've noticed no loss or deterioration of sound quality. It's like a speed governor on a car. The car was always designed to go faster but a governor keeps it from doing so. If you remove the governor the car still performs as it should at faster speeds with no deterioration of performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry not to be nitpicky but this is a poorly explained analogy that does equate with audio rather well.
The faster a car goes the more the performance deteriorates, just as the louder you force the audio it will degrade as well.
A better answer is that the boost is not significant enough to degrade the audio yet

The only thing I've ever noticed when messing with the mixer paths xml file is more compression to achieve a volume increase effect. Try a track with serious bass drops.. any hip hop song with a good bass line or dubstep track.. and turn it up all the way. You'll notice the bass fade out right after it hits but the rest of the track is 'louder'. Viper4Android requires the mixer paths xml file to be renamed because in its settings does the same thing to achieve this effect. The only phones I know of that actually increase the gain (voltage out) of the headphone jack is the trick with the V10 and V20 that forces the headphone amp into high impedance mode. I came from a V10 and used this daily when traveling with my Westone 4r IEMs.
If I'm wrong about this, please let me know! I've been looking for a way to modify the actual headphone amp gain for a while now. I've seen people successfully change it with Kernel Adiutor - but that only works on certain kernels.
Also, can anyone confirm that the B&O DAC doesn't work on the US variants of the G5? I've read this a few times now and I'm blown away they wouldn't allow this. You can get them online for like $50.

joesee said:
The only thing I've ever noticed when messing with the mixer paths xml file is more compression to achieve a volume increase effect. Try a track with serious bass drops.. any hip hop song with a good bass line or dubstep track.. and turn it up all the way. You'll notice the bass fade out right after it hits but the rest of the track is 'louder'. Viper4Android requires the mixer paths xml file to be renamed because in its settings does the same thing to achieve this effect. The only phones I know of that actually increase the gain (voltage out) of the headphone jack is the trick with the V10 and V20 that forces the headphone amp into high impedance mode. I came from a V10 and used this daily when traveling with my Westone 4r IEMs.
If I'm wrong about this, please let me know! I've been looking for a way to modify the actual headphone amp gain for a while now. I've seen people successfully change it with Kernel Adiutor - but that only works on certain kernels.
Also, can anyone confirm that the B&O DAC doesn't work on the US variants of the G5? I've read this a few times now and I'm blown away they wouldn't allow this. You can get them online for like $50.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't waste your money, I preordered this phone just to get that module and the module will only work on the international model.

does it need root?
can you help me with the earpiece ? during phonecalls the sound is not loud

Does this work with headphones only or earpiece as well? And does it NOT work with Tmobile varient? Thanks!

increase LG V20 Hi-FI DAC quality

I don't take any credit for this I just discovered it here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lg-v20-sound-quality.816024/page-189 and since I've never seen it mentioned at XDA I figured I would share it.
So I was playing around with my build.prop file (VS995) and I came across this line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=false". After some googling I came across that page at head-fi.org and learned that if you set "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true" it enables the Hi-Fi DAC to handle 16-bit content natively. By default the V20 is set to do this with 24-bit content only.
I can't speak for all formats but with the lossless flac files that I listen to it made an amazing difference in sound quality.
Tested on my VS995 13A stock rooted rom and on WETA 5.0.7 US99610h rom that I have running with dual boot patcher. It worked on both so chances are this works on all variants.
UPDATE:
I started to get curious about this DAC tweak so I decided to play around with my old V10, VS990 rooted stock rom. The build.prop on my V10 does not have the line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable= (true or false)" so I added the line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true", rebooted and viola. My V10 now sounds even better than before.
So this works on the V10 as well as the V20. Probably the V30 too, assuming root has been achieved.

Update: fixed
I did this and now my viper4android is not processing anymore
---------- Post added at 06:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 AM ----------
dudeawsome said:
Update: fixed
I did this and now my viper4android is not processing anymore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay so it works but keep turning off and on

Using Viper4Android on the LG V20 undoes all the magic the ESS DAC performs.. It downsamples the audio to 16-bit/48kHz after the ESS DAC has upsampled everything to 32-bit/192kHz
Viper4Android increases the audio quality on most phones. However it is going to decrease the quality on any device running a dedicated DAC.

beavis5706 said:
Using Viper4Android on the LG V20 undoes all the magic the ESS DAC performs.. It downsamples the audio to 16-bit/48kHz after the ESS DAC has upsampled everything to 32-bit/192kHz
Viper4Android increases the audio quality on most phones. However it is going to decrease the quality on any device running a dedicated DAC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically yes but viper4android is still a thing you can't miss with this device, no other playerapp can provide this lossless analog timbre equalizer and much other soundimprovements it can provide.
Poweramp and neutron are way behind what viper4android can do or reach in soundquality terms
I compared the tweak with the default settings its a improvement by a small margin yes (not really magic). but as its not compatible with viper4android this is a no go for me personally and for many other people too i guess
I disagree with your statement that viper4android is decreasing soundquality with this DAC, its a huge improvement in contrary you should try it out yourself dac by default sounds dull and unoptimized
Small tip: use viper4android in combination with neutron player this is where the real magic is.

beavis5706 said:
Very interesting I'm thinking about what your saying how Viper4Android doesn't work with this mod and I think I know why.
When audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=false the audio stream is being handled by Android, using Android's src converter and digital volume control. This also allows for Viper4Android functionality. When audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true the audio stream is passed on to the ESS DAC directly, completely bypassing Android's audio processing. This is what I think is causing Viper4Android to lose functionality. Perhaps this is why LG chose to set audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=false in their rom. To increase functionality with other apps, albeit at the expense of audio quality.
Personally I like the way it sounds with audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true and I'm gonna keep it that way. I have tried Viper4Android before and I know by my own ears that it did sound as good. At least not as pure which is what I prefer. So to each his own I guess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay it does work with the mod but it cuts in and out

jody2k said:
Technically yes but viper4android is still a thing you can't miss with this device, no other playerapp can provide this lossless analog timbre equalizer and much other soundimprovements it can provide.
Poweramp and neutron are way behind what viper4android can do or reach in soundquality terms
I compared the tweak with the default settings its a improvement by a small margin yes (not really magic). but as its not compatible with viper4android this is a no go for me personally and for many other people too i guess
I disagree with your statement that viper4android is decreasing soundquality with this DAC, its a huge improvement in contrary you should try it out yourself dac by default sounds dull and unoptimized
Small tip: use viper4android in combination with neutron player this is where the real magic is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While you might disagree based on your opinion, the fact is Viper4Android does indeed downsample audio. Go back into that same headfi.org thread he mentions and there will be people who conducted tests that show that. You cannot get bit perfect audio quality out of V4A because the V4A driver downsamples (V4A doesn't support HiFi audio), the audio.
This is why I tend to stay away from V4A. Sure, it makes the audio "sound" better but you're running the audio through so much processing things will get lost. V4A is great for when you have devices without a dedicated DAC. But, if your phone has a dedicated DAC or you have a DAC connected via OTG, it's best to go without V4A
---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:32 PM ----------
beavis5706 said:
I don't take any credit for this I just discovered it here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lg-v20-sound-quality.816024/page-189 and since I've never seen it mentioned at XDA I figured I would share it.
So I was playing around with my build.prop file (VS995) and I came across this line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=false". After some googling I came across that page at head-fi.org and learned that if you set "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true" it enables the Hi-Fi DAC to handle 16-bit content natively. By default the V20 is set to do this with 24-bit content only.
I can't speak for all formats but with the lossless flac files that I listen to it made an amazing difference in sound quality.
Tested on my VS995 13A stock rooted rom and on WETA 5.0.7 US99610h rom that I have running with dual boot patcher. It worked on both so chances are this works on all variants.
UPDATE:
I started to get curious about this DAC tweak so I decided to play around with my old V10, VS990 rooted stock rom. The build.prop on my V10 does not have the line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable= (true or false)" so I added the line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true", rebooted and viola. My V10 now sounds even better than before.
So this works on the V10 as well as the V20. Probably the V30 too, assuming root has been achieved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have been using this tweak since the 990 got rooted. Works WONDERFULLY. Anything that can be done to et around the Android mixer is worth it to me. Bit perfect audio all the way around with this tweak.
---------- Post added at 01:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:38 PM ----------
beavis5706 said:
I don't take any credit for this I just discovered it here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lg-v20-sound-quality.816024/page-189 and since I've never seen it mentioned at XDA I figured I would share it.
So I was playing around with my build.prop file (VS995) and I came across this line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=false". After some googling I came across that page at head-fi.org and learned that if you set "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true" it enables the Hi-Fi DAC to handle 16-bit content natively. By default the V20 is set to do this with 24-bit content only.
I can't speak for all formats but with the lossless flac files that I listen to it made an amazing difference in sound quality.
Tested on my VS995 13A stock rooted rom and on WETA 5.0.7 US99610h rom that I have running with dual boot patcher. It worked on both so chances are this works on all variants.
UPDATE:
I started to get curious about this DAC tweak so I decided to play around with my old V10, VS990 rooted stock rom. The build.prop on my V10 does not have the line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable= (true or false)" so I added the line "audio.offload.pcm.16bit.enable=true", rebooted and viola. My V10 now sounds even better than before.
So this works on the V10 as well as the V20. Probably the V30 too, assuming root has been achieved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have been using this tweak since the 990 got rooted. Works WONDERFULLY. Anything that can be done to et around the Android mixer is worth it to me. Bit perfect audio all the way around with this tweak.

lyrical1278 said:
While you might disagree based on your opinion, the fact is Viper4Android does indeed downsample audio. Go back into that same headfi.org thread he mentions and there will be people who conducted tests that show that. You cannot get bit perfect audio quality out of V4A because the V4A driver will ALWAYS use the Android mixer which downsamples, or upsamples depending on the file's quality, the audio.
This is why I tend to stay away from V4A. Sure, it makes the audio "sound" better but you're running the audio through so much processing things will get lost. V4A is great for when you have devices without a dedicated DAC. But, if your phone has a dedicated DAC or you have a DAC connected via OTG, it's best to go without V4A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well we can have a eternal discussion about this,"adiophiles" vs audio equalizer enthosiastics" viper4android is the best thing we have if you're a heavy equalizer user
It doesn't get better than that for android devices atm => Well... maybe with a hardware equalizer directly controlled from the kernel and DAC chip, there were some mods of that in the past with the wolfson dac chip from old android devices
For my personal use I cannot miss viper4android, clean default DAC sound is sounding dull for my "audeze insine 20 inears" for example
Poweramp and neutron does not the job well enough, not by far compared to viper4android
Technical speaking 16bit vs 32 bit rate is an improvement, but only by a small margin for my ears it's not worth letting go V4A
What DID improve the DAC was forcing the dac in high gain mode (other mod on this forum), this was a significant improvement imo, also audible in MP3's not only flac

jody2k said:
Well we can have a eternal discussion about this,"adiophiles" vs audio equalizer enthosiastics" viper4android is the best thing we have if you're a heavy equalizer user
It doesn't get better than that for android devices atm => Well... maybe with a hardware equalizer directly controlled from the kernel and DAC chip, there were some mods of that in the past with the wolfson dac chip from old android devices
For my personal use I cannot miss viper4android, clean default DAC sound is sounding dull for my audeze insine 20 inears for example
Poweramp and neutron does not the job well enough
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the thing, you're speaking to opinion. I'm speaking to technical fact. When you use V4A, any audio you use is merely being amplified by the DAC and not being processed by it. Why do you think V4A doesn't work with the mod enabled? It's because Android is being set to run 16 bit audio through the DAC for processing and amplification. Thus, V4A isn't even touching the audio with this mod.
So, if V4A isn't touching 16-bit audio with this mod, then it's not even touching 24-bit audio by default. So it does the only thing it can do, it downsamples (since it downsamples any audio above 16/44 by default anyway, whereas Android's mixer upsamples to the max capability of the DAC). I cannot speak to what you feel is dull and such. That's your truth based on your musical ears.
All I am saying is this, V4A is nothing more but an EQ. A VERY GOOD one at that. If I didn't have the V20 or the Dragonfly Black, I would still be using V4A. But I don't because I have those tools at my disposal. Grab poweramp Alpha or Ainur and you will see the DAC come to life. V4A, and anything after this is my opinion, doesn't do anything close to what an app that lets the DAC do its job can do.
Installing V4A on this phone, again, my opinion is a waste of the full abilities of the DAC.. Using it just turns the DAC into an amplifier instead of allowing it to be the thing that processes audio IN ADDITION TO amplification.

Didn't know I could enjoy music on my phone without viper. All my mp3s/flac sound more lively. To my knowledge Power amp 3 still downsamples. Is the availability of the built-in equalizer a good trade off for the lost sample size?
Edit: Both viper and Dolby are broken with this mod

mookiexl said:
Didn't know I could enjoy music on my phone without viper. All my mp3s/flac sound more lively. To my knowledge Power amp 3 still downsamples. Is the availability of the built-in equalizer a good trade off for the lost sample size?
Edit: Both viper and Dolby are broken with this mod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try blackplayer... It doesn't downsample. I use that because it also has an EQ and when I use my VE Monks, I need to tune the bass down

lyrical1278 said:
You could try blackplayer... It doesn't downsample. I use that because it also has an EQ and when I use my VE Monks, I need to tune the bass down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently the equalizer attempts to downsample once activated and you get no sound with this tweak. Oh well I'm good knowing I'm actually getting the most out the DAC at all times.

mookiexl said:
Didn't know I could enjoy music on my phone without viper. All my mp3s/flac sound more lively. To my knowledge Power amp 3 still downsamples. Is the availability of the built-in equalizer a good trade off for the lost sample size?
Edit: Both viper and Dolby are broken with this mod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While this phone without viper sounds night and day better than any phone I've heard so far, viper still sounds the best with Poweramp imo

jody2k said:
What DID improve the DAC was forcing the dac in high gain mode (other mod on this forum), this was a significant improvement imo, also audible in MP3's not only flac
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forcing it into High impedance does nothing for music quality.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs

BROKEN1981 said:
Forcing it into High impedance does nothing for music quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends
Some headphones do like the extra power, headphones with low impedance who are still powerhungry for example. For my audeze isine 20 it made a difference
Some audiophile headphones like the extra voltage, fact they are low impedance doesn't always mean they are easy to drive

mookiexl said:
Apparently the equalizer attempts to downsample once activated and you get no sound with this tweak. Oh well I'm good knowing I'm actually getting the most out the DAC at all times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean V4A becomes broken? Because I am using BlackPlayer right now with the EQ activated (Blackplayer's built in EQ, not V4A) and I am having no issues plus there is no downsampling.
But yes, as I said in an earlier post, V4A will become broken (as will most audio mods) if you use this build.prop mod because the DAC will be handling 16-bit audio processing directly instead of it being bypassed and handled by the audio mods.
---------- Post added at 03:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:41 AM ----------
jody2k said:
It really depends
Some headphones do like the extra power, headphones with low impedance who are still powerhungry for example. For my audeze isine 20 it made a difference
Some audiophile headphones like the extra voltage, fact they are low impedance doesn't always mean they are easy to drive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
High Impedance doesn't affect quality, it affects loudness. Since the amp in the V20 is actually pushing the headphones, the headphones are able to play louder. The quality is affected by the DAC whether h.i. is on or not. The quality doesn't change (unless you're into letting your audio clip), its just able to be louder.

lyrical1278 said:
Do you mean V4A becomes broken? Because I am using BlackPlayer right now with the EQ activated (Blackplayer's built in EQ, not V4A) and I am having no issues plus there is no downsampling.
But yes, as I said in an earlier post, V4A will become broken (as will most audio mods) if you use this build.prop mod because the DAC will be handling 16-bit audio processing directly instead of it being bypassed and handled by the audio mods.
---------- Post added at 03:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:41 AM ----------
High Impedance doesn't affect quality, it affects loudness. Since the amp in the V20 is actually pushing the headphones, the headphones are able to play louder. The quality is affected by the DAC whether h.i. is on or not. The quality doesn't change (unless you're into letting your audio clip), its just able to be louder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not gona try to learn a donkey maths, i'm not talking about more volume it does more than just that. you clearly don't know what you're talking about and as in contrary you read on hi fi forums you don't know anything about soundquality or how it affects ears/headphones
You're an idiot yes that right I'm gona ignore you from now

jody2k said:
I'm not gona try to learn a donkey maths, i'm not talking about more volume it does more than just that. you clearly don't know what you're talking about and as in contrary you read on hi fi forums you don't know anything about soundquality or how it affects ears/headphones
You're an idiot yes that right I'm gona ignore you from now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It only makes it louder. Just people say it does more then that on HiFi fourms does not make it true.
Just Google ohms law. It has no effect on audio quality. If you think High impedance makes better audio quality, then you have no clue as to what you are talking about.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs

jody2k said:
Well we can have a eternal discussion about this,"adiophiles" vs audio equalizer enthosiastics" viper4android is the best thing we have if you're a heavy equalizer user
It doesn't get better than that for android devices atm => Well... maybe with a hardware equalizer directly controlled from the kernel and DAC chip, there were some mods of that in the past with the wolfson dac chip from old android devices
For my personal use I cannot miss viper4android, clean default DAC sound is sounding dull for my "audeze insine 20 inears" for example
Poweramp and neutron does not the job well enough, not by far compared to viper4android
Technical speaking 16bit vs 32 bit rate is an improvement, but only by a small margin for my ears it's not worth letting go V4A
What DID improve the DAC was forcing the dac in high gain mode (other mod on this forum), this was a significant improvement imo, also audible in MP3's not only flac
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dunno why you praise v4A that much, but here is what i tried. i used v4A on my v20 with Razer adaro DJ, KZ Z26, and puresound 260ohm earbuds. it sounds great until my brother in law bring his cord mojo and Fiio Q1 Mark II dac/amp. no matter setting that i use in V4A i always got "buzzing" on my headphone/iem/earbuds. the bass were enough but i lost the vocal and instrument quality. it get worse when i use fiio as a dac. restore my backup and testing without V4A. and guess what? every noise and buzz gone. fiio as amp really blowing every sound aspect from my v20. more soundstage, neutral sound, etc. so yeah, if you only use v20 and iem v4a might be best for you but once you use external amp or dac it became useless even downgrading sound performance.

alldine345 said:
i dunno why you praise v4A that much, but here is what i tried. i used v4A on my v20 with Razer adaro DJ, KZ Z26, and puresound 260ohm earbuds. it sounds great until my brother in law bring his cord mojo and Fiio Q1 Mark II dac/amp. no matter setting that i use in V4A i always got "buzzing" on my headphone/iem/earbuds. the bass were enough but i lost the vocal and instrument quality. it get worse when i use fiio as a dac. restore my backup and testing without V4A. and guess what? every noise and buzz gone. fiio as amp really blowing every sound aspect from my v20. more soundstage, neutral sound, etc. so yeah, if you only use v20 and iem v4a might be best for you but once you use external amp or dac it became useless even downgrading sound performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buzzing from your ear buds?? Maybe you did something wrong badly
And you lost vocal and instrument quality yes let me guess what you did: you boosted the bass options without boosting the low mids, mids and high's because you don't know how equalizing works because your that kind of audiophile who strives after pure neutral sound.
Ofcourse the chord mojo is on a other league here it's alot better yes I tried it too but no equalization options soo i was bit dissapointed afterwards, i loved the pure sound it was giving tho and maybe the only dac i could use without EQ but then again there is so much potential lost ... So sad
If the mojo could be paired with a decent EQ then this would be majestic sound i agree
Tried several DAP's from sony the nwzx2 was the one who came closest maybe even better yes but damn the price of that thing
I don't know why you guys try to dishonor v4a it's really good and all about the settings you use

Quad Dac issue or Issue with Heaphone jack

Ok I searched for Solution on google, it seems no body else is facing this issue. So here is my problem I migrated on to v30 from v20 and I noticed that whenever i play a song with quad dac on there is a very audible static noise in the background, like if the mic on or a better example would it feels like the song is being played on a radio.. where along with song there is a hint of crackle and white noise. My V20 never had this problem.
Is anyone else facing the issue, BTW I am on Philippine oreo KDZ, and will LG cover the warranty or should i wait and flash Indian Oreo to claim warranty??

did you try different audio sources, headphones, also try some speakers

taus90 said:
Ok I searched for Solution on google, it seems no body else is facing this issue. So here is my problem I migrated on to v30 from v20 and I noticed that whenever i play a song with quad dac on there is a very audible static noise in the background, like if the mic on or a better example would it feels like the song is being played on a radio.. where along with song there is a hint of crackle and white noise. My V20 never had this problem.
Is anyone else facing the issue, BTW I am on Philippine oreo KDZ, and will LG cover the warranty or should i wait and flash Indian Oreo to claim warranty??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look: you ever used the "high performance" mode of the WCD9xxx in-built DAC of any previous Android phone ?
This raises up the output but also comes with the cost of higher "white noise" / static, etc. - this in turn is able to drive headphones with a high impedance Ω
The same applies to the dedicated "quad dac" - it has high output by default and thus is to be experienced best with "high quality" (well, most high quality headphones have higher impedance than the very cheap headphones).
There's a noticable difference for me when switching between e.g. the EP630, Xiaomi Pistons and the provided B & O Headphones that came along with the V30.
So there is NO issue and there is not really a solution but to use it in the way that it was meant to be used
tl;dr
What @iRS_ wrote (other headphones with higher impedance)

iRS_ said:
did you try different audio sources, headphones, also try some speakers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did like, never had this problem on my Lg V20

taus90 said:
I did like, never had this problem on my Lg V20
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am asking if you tried all this on v30, NOT v20 ?

zacharias.maladroit said:
Look: you ever used the "high performance" mode of the WCD9xxx in-built DAC of any previous Android phone ?
This raises up the output but also comes with the cost of higher "white noise" / static, etc. - this in turn is able to drive headphones with a high impedance Ω
The same applies to the dedicated "quad dac" - it has high output by default and thus is to be experienced best with "high quality" (well, most high quality headphones have higher impedance than the very cheap headphones).
There's a noticable difference for me when switching between e.g. the EP630, Xiaomi Pistons and the provided B & O Headphones that came along with the V30.
So there is NO issue and there is not really a solution but to use it in the way that it was meant to be used
tl;dr
What @iRS_ wrote (other headphones with higher impedance)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If a DAC has distortion and audible static interference then its not doing its job. In simple layman terms, Switching on DAC should improve sound stage and frequency response and it is noticeable on any even basic headphones. Like I mentioned in my post I have Lg V20 too, and the DAC on that phone doesn't have any of the issue which i mentioned about my V30, to which you say is not an issue. Also Headphone (Mi Piston) is not an issue.. coz the same headphones works perfectly on V20..

taus90 said:
If a DAC has distortion and audible static interference then its not doing its job. In simple layman terms, Switching on DAC should improve sound stage and frequency response and it is noticeable on any even basic headphones. Like I mentioned in my post I have Lg V20 too, and the DAC on that phone doesn't have any of the issue which i mentioned about my V30, to which you say is not an issue. Also Headphone (Mi Piston) is not an issue.. coz the same headphones works perfectly on V20..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, it could be due to how the driver & kernel is compiled (so it would be an out-of-the-box issue) - I've experienced this kind of increase in static noise on the Z5 once going from fstack-protector-regular to fstack-protector-strong (more functions protected or "tainted" in that case)
https://outflux.net/blog/archives/2014/01/27/fstack-protector-strong/
https://lwn.net/Articles/584225/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow_protection
Since the stock kernel is built that way by default the audio output quality could be somewhat worse compared to V20 (if there the kernel was compiled with fstack-protector-regular).
I can clearly hear how there's some distortion and audible static noise when the screen is off, quad dac enabled and changing volume (up or down) - the amp first is gone, the output is much more silent and there sound is less clear - more static can be heard
I've attributed this to the quality of the audio tracks I'm listening to - since with fully digitally created tracks this didn't seem to occur that much.
Also there's one particular issue I had forgotten:
Once connecting the Xiaomi Hybrid Pro and having Quad DAC disabled (so the stock WCD94xx used) either on left or right channel (every several seconds) there is solely (no other output) very loud static noise while playing music [similar to the static on old-ass TVs where only static is being shown and similar sound played],
when enabling quad dac/ES9028PRO it's gone. No matter what audio track is being played this was happening - I wasn't sure whether this was a software or hardware issue and since this was only happening with one particular type of headphones/IEMs I keep the phone so far.
Since you mention that the static noise appears along music output I doubt it's a similar issue you're observing.

taus90 said:
I did like, never had this problem on my Lg V20
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did.. And by v20 i mean i tried all Flac, same mp3 on both the devices, wired speakers, headphones, so it doesnt seem the problem is with any of the external devices, , tried different music player, same problem it has to be issue with V30's dac or the headphone jack its just when i start playing a song with Hifi option on, the static and light crackles starts and when the song finishes playing or I pause the song the noise stops after like 15 seconds or if i turn off the dac the noise stops immediately. But toggling hifi option on and off without any music playing the issue doesnt exist, its just when a song starts and DAC kicks the issue appears, so i doubt its even headphone jack

zacharias.maladroit said:
well, it could be due to how the driver & kernel is compiled (so it would be an out-of-the-box issue) - I've experienced this kind of increase in static noise on the Z5 once going from fstack-protector-regular to fstack-protector-strong (more functions protected or "tainted" in that case)
https://outflux.net/blog/archives/2014/01/27/fstack-protector-strong/
https://lwn.net/Articles/584225/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow_protection
Since the stock kernel is built that way by default the audio output quality could be somewhat worse compared to V20 (if there the kernel was compiled with fstack-protector-regular).
I can clearly hear how there's some distortion and audible static noise when the screen is off, quad dac enabled and changing volume (up or down) - the amp first is gone, the output is much more silent and there sound is less clear - more static can be heard
I've attributed this to the quality of the audio tracks I'm listening to - since with fully digitally created tracks this didn't seem to occur that much.
Also there's one particular issue I had forgotten:
Once connecting the Xiaomi Hybrid Pro and having Quad DAC disabled (so the stock WCD94xx used) either on left or right channel (every several seconds) there is solely (no other output) very loud static noise while playing music [similar to the static on old-ass TVs where only static is being shown and similar sound played],
when enabling quad dac/ES9028PRO it's gone. No matter what audio track is being played this was happening - I wasn't sure whether this was a software or hardware issue and since this was only happening with one particular type of headphones/IEMs I keep the phone so far.
Since you mention that the static noise appears along music output I doubt it's a similar issue you're observing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish i could have tested on indian nougat when i had it, to see if it is oreo related issue, now i have to wait for Indian Oreo to see if that rom has the solution. I think Ill probably send it to LG to fix it while its under warranty

Stock Nougat, just going to start the bootloader unlock process, but sonically it's been flawless, orgasmic actually, with Sennheiser 6xx's, Etymotic HF2's and ER4's as well as BT to a UE Boom. Only the occasional crackle because my HF2's cabling is getting old, so sadly I'd think you have a bad unit.

Even I am experiencing the exact same , I'm on Indian Oreo kdz. When I turn on high impedance mode with sennhieser hd 598 and then connect it to my ath e 40 , I get a continuous hiss throughout the song.. sometimes it's irritating really.. I want to ask if someone who has rooted and using whiskyomega mod having same issues ?
By the way I don't get it on hd 598 , it probably dampens it..

Bupreno said:
Even I am experiencing the exact same , I'm on Indian Oreo kdz. When I turn on high impedance mode with sennhieser hd 598 and then connect it to my ath e 40 , I get a continuous hiss throughout the song.. sometimes it's irritating really.. I want to ask if someone who has rooted and using whiskyomega mod having same issues ?
By the way I don't get it on hd 598 , it probably dampens it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HD598 is 50 ohms (more resistance) while the E40 is merely 12 ohms, with a dynamic driver, I am guessing fairly sensitive. I wouldn't use HIM with earphones like that in the first place. That said, V30 is known for having a very low noise floor, so I wouldn't expect hiss, even with HIM and sensitive earphones.
Which music player do you use and what is your music source? Unfortunately V30 will upsample 44.1Khz sources (i.e. all CDs and most streaming sources) to 48KHz before sending it to the DAC. This should not be audible in most cases, but a few people are able to hear it when using very sensitive IEMs (typically balanced armature drivers). It is described in the opening post of the thread linked below:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/music-apps-tips-and-tricks-for-the-lg-v30.868978/
The way around it is to use a music player that bypasses the standard Android audio path, such as UAPP or Neutron, both of which use their own audio driver that sends music directly to the ESS DAC.
Another possible explanation is if some EQ or other processing in your music player is messing with the data before it reaches the DAC. If you try playing with UAPP using Bit-perfect mode, that's a great way to determine if it is a hardware problem (which is possible) or something in the digital audio path. You can download a free trial using the link below:
http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/uapp-trial

TheDannemand said:
The HD598 is 50 ohms (more resistance) while the E40 is merely 12 ohms, with a dynamic driver, I am guessing fairly sensitive. I wouldn't use HIM with earphones like that in the first place. That said, V30 is known for having a very low noise floor, so I wouldn't expect hiss, even with HIM and sensitive earphones.
Which music player do you use and what is your music source? Unfortunately V30 will upsample 44.1Khz sources (i.e. all CDs and most streaming sources) to 48KHz before sending it to the DAC. This should not be audible in most cases, but a few people are able to hear it when using very sensitive IEMs (typically balanced armature drivers). It is described in the opening post of the thread linked below:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/music-apps-tips-and-tricks-for-the-lg-v30.868978/
The way around it is to use a music player that bypasses the standard Android audio path, such as UAPP or Neutron, both of which use their own audio driver that sends music directly to the ESS DAC.
Another possible explanation is if some EQ or other processing in your music player is messing with the data before it reaches the DAC. If you try playing with UAPP using Bit-perfect mode, that's a great way to determine if it is a hardware problem (which is possible) or something in the digital audio path. You can download a free trial using the link below:
http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/uapp-trial
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will try those apps out.. i always use the in built music app. And ath e 40 sound just amazing with the DAC, that kinda quality just gives me a high , so I can't let it go.. I never imagined those earphones could be so good !!

taus90 said:
Ok I searched for Solution on google, it seems no body else is facing this issue. So here is my problem I migrated on to v30 from v20 and I noticed that whenever i play a song with quad dac on there is a very audible static noise in the background, like if the mic on or a better example would it feels like the song is being played on a radio.. where along with song there is a hint of crackle and white noise. My V20 never had this problem.
Is anyone else facing the issue, BTW I am on Philippine oreo KDZ, and will LG cover the warranty or should i wait and flash Indian Oreo to claim warranty??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds similar to what I experienced with my V30S using Beyerdynamic iDX200 headphones with the extension cable design*.
At first I thought I had received a defective V30S. Then I found the problem was limited to those particular headphones with their included extension cable. With the extension cable removed, and with any other headphones, the V30S audio quality problem disappeared. And the iDX200 sound fine on my other phone, as long as the extension cable connection is clean (it is prone to signal degradation by contamination).
My guess is that the V30 system that measures load impedance on the 3.5mm jack has some kind of anomaly related to imdedance/VSWR imposed by the connection of the iDX200 extension cable, even if that connection is clean.
Try different headphones.
(* The iDX200 cable is too short by itself, it has to be used with a short extension, either the included one or another.)
...

taus90 said:
Ok I searched for Solution on google, it seems no body else is facing this issue. So here is my problem I migrated on to v30 from v20 and I noticed that whenever i play a song with quad dac on there is a very audible static noise in the background, like if the mic on or a better example would it feels like the song is being played on a radio.. where along with song there is a hint of crackle and white noise. My V20 never had this problem.
Is anyone else facing the issue, BTW I am on Philippine oreo KDZ, and will LG cover the warranty or should i wait and flash Indian Oreo to claim warranty??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have found a solution!!
Go to hifi settings in balance section, reduce the volume from left and right to as low as possible, I've kept it zero and just raise the volume to your liking..
In my case the hiss has reduced drastically to the point I can ignore it ! Hope this works for you!

TheDannemand said:
The HD598 is 50 ohms (more resistance) while the E40 is merely 12 ohms, with a dynamic driver, I am guessing fairly sensitive. I wouldn't use HIM with earphones like that in the first place. That said, V30 is known for having a very low noise floor, so I wouldn't expect hiss, even with HIM and sensitive earphones.
Which music player do you use and what is your music source? Unfortunately V30 will upsample 44.1Khz sources (i.e. all CDs and most streaming sources) to 48KHz before sending it to the DAC. This should not be audible in most cases, but a few people are able to hear it when using very sensitive IEMs (typically balanced armature drivers). It is described in the opening post of the thread linked below:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/music-apps-tips-and-tricks-for-the-lg-v30.868978/
The way around it is to use a music player that bypasses the standard Android audio path, such as UAPP or Neutron, both of which use their own audio driver that sends music directly to the ESS DAC.
Another possible explanation is if some EQ or other processing in your music player is messing with the data before it reaches the DAC. If you try playing with UAPP using Bit-perfect mode, that's a great way to determine if it is a hardware problem (which is possible) or something in the digital audio path. You can download a free trial using the link below:
http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/uapp-trial
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANKS A TON!! uapp works like a charm , zero noise and never before heard sound quality !!! I'm Loveñ it !! I couldn't configure neutron though

Bupreno said:
THANKS A TON!! uapp works like a charm , zero noise and never before heard sound quality !!! I'm Loveñ it !! I couldn't configure neutron though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! I'm glad you like it.
And interesting that it solved the noise problem too. That most likely means it was the artifacts caused by upsampling 44.1KHz to 48KHz (performed by Android's standard audio path) that you were able to hear.
UAPP is my favorite too, both for its features, its ability to play redbook (44.1KHz/16bit) without upsampling, and for its user interface. Neutron can do that too, but I could never understand its user interface.
In UAPP, under HiRes Driver flags, make sure to select the MQA flag if you play MQA files or streams. This will ensure that the ESS Sabre DAC is fully utilitized for MQA playback.

Correction- high impedance mode when switched on, even this app makes the noise , I had tried without the high impedance mode..?
but still ,otherwise quality seems better than the stock ! ?

Bupreno said:
Correction- high impedance mode when switched on, even this app makes the noise , I had tried without the high impedance mode..?
but still ,otherwise quality seems better than the stock ! ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something is wrong, that just doesn't make sense. If anything, there should be less noise (if the theory of HIM activating more DAC units is true). And in any case is the V30 known for having very little noise, in any of its modes.
How do you trigger HIM? If you plug your headphones/earphones in directly (no adapters of extension cables) is volume loud enough?
If you play music through an impedance adapter, then I suggest you don't. Unplug the adapter once you've achieved HIM, then plug your headphones/earphones into the extension cable (or TRS adapter).
And if you don't need HIM to drive your headphones/earphones loud enough, I suggest you don't need it for maximum sound quality. The V30 was designed to adapt its output mode to the connected headphones/earphones. While it fails to do that correctly with planar magnetic ones, it does it correctly on most others.
Still, unless you are playing through an impedance adapter (which will change the frequency response of your headphones/earphones) or through a poor quality extension cable or TRS adapter, I cannot see a good reason why HIM should have more noise.

Ath e40- when i connect without adapter, loud enough, okayish sound.. Just like any other device..
There was this one time the high impedance mode got activated by mistake, mustve been a glitch! but my god the sound !! - more punch, more soundstage , even minute details audible , more dynamic!! way more louder! Then i searched around and found a way to trigger it everytime by using ath cable extention and sennhieser hd 598 , then unplug senn without unplugging the cable And then connecting e40.
This time i could hear the hiss.. Whenever i plug the earphones only, theres no hiss, and quality is okay.. even though the hifi option is on. i guess it just uses the snapdragon dac or whatever.
to summarize-
if i connect the cable first and then e 40 - sound is louder and okay.
only e 40- sound is okay.
senn and then e40 (to enter high impedance mode,probably uses the quad dac for real this time)- sound is amazing!!!! but with hiss...
I've only used the stock music player uptil now.
now i use uapp- it still gives me the hiss when high impedance is on. otherwise the sound is a bit better than stock music player.

What do I need to install to improve the speaker quality?

I don't like the built-in speaker quality and volume. Can I improve the quality with applications like Viper4android or ARISE?

karizma4yazar said:
I don't like the built-in speaker quality and volume. Can I improve the quality with applications like Viper4android or ARISE?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can get a little more volume, but not without the cost of increased distortion. However, you can enable stereo mod, and you will get more bass, because the top speaker has a deeper low end, and of course the total loudness will be increased.

adsubzero said:
You can get a little more volume, but not without the cost of increased distortion. However, you can enable stereo mod, and you will get more bass, because the top speaker has a deeper low end, and of course the total loudness will be increased.
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Is there a way to install dolby atmos? Like the Galaxy s9.

karizma4yazar said:
Is there a way to install dolby atmos? Like the Galaxy s9.
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Not sure, there probably is, but it's nothing magical that you can't do with v4a.

karizma4yazar said:
Is there a way to install dolby atmos? Like the Galaxy s9.
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There are a host of audio "improvements" if you're rooted with Magisk. Check out the app or the threads here on XDA

karizma4yazar said:
I don't like the built-in speaker quality and volume. Can I improve the quality with applications like Viper4android or ARISE?
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Arise is bloated junk. The stuff the Arise team added never worked. UltraM8 proved this himself. The V4A will disable the quad dac.
karizma4yazar said:
Is there a way to install dolby atmos? Like the s9.
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Most Dolby Atmos ports don't actually work. There was 1 guy who used to be able to port it. Only 1 guy. Also that port did not work 100% either.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs

BROKEN1981 said:
The V4A will disable the quad dac.
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I believe this is untrue, and nevertheless, he wants to use it to tweak the loudspeaker, so it's unrelated to the quad dac.

adsubzero said:
I believe this is untrue, and nevertheless, he wants to use it to tweak the loudspeaker, so it's unrelated to the quad dac.
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Don't believe it, that's your choice. Many threads on XDA that backs this statement up. UltraM8 for instance backs this up. His mod is also not 100% working with the quad dac. He SAID this when I questioned him on this. It's also in his first post.
"he wants to use it to tweak the loudspeaker, so it's unrelated to the quad dac"
This IS related to the quad dac since you can enable it for headphones.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs

BROKEN1981 said:
This IS related to the quad dac since you can enable it for headphones.
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He did not mention using it for headphones, he wants to tweak the loudspeaker...

The quad DAC in the V30 only gets called into action when there's an output device (headphones/earbuds/IEM/line-out cable/etc) attached to the headphone jack. It's possible using a USB adapter to get the quad DAC output pushed through the USB-C connector as well (from my understanding of it), but the internal speaker(s) in the V30 don't ever get output from that quad DAC.
The internal speaker(s) are powered off the Qualcomm DAC in the 835 SoC so there is going to be a limitation on what you'll be able to do, probably the best anyone can hope for it dropping the mid-range and highs a bit and adding a bit more bass but we're not talking about frequencies lower than about 80 Hz 'cause those little drivers just can't do it.
The internal speaker(s) are what they area, and nothing is really going to improve upon that. I will say my V20 had substantially louder output overall (I don't muck with the audio levels like I used to with edits to the mixer_paths.xml file) and it had a lot more low end aka bass response as well. I have no idea why the V30 is worse in that respect, but for me I use headphones or my Monoprice 9927 IEMs for listening anyway about 98% of the time. Sure I do have my phone on sometimes at home and listen to things but I have a pretty awesome little Omaker Bluetooth speaker I can feed the audio to and get the bass if I want it.

Is there any way to process 24bit or 32bit audio with Viper4Android?

Poweramp can give 24bit output, but when Viper is activated then it's always 16bit. I have tried 24/32bit .irs files too, but no luck.

DooMLoRD77 said:
Poweramp can give 24bit output, but when Viper is activated then it's always 16bit. I have tried 24/32bit .irs files too, but no luck.
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Why would you use V4A with LG? Makes no sense. It's 16bit due to the fact you aren't using the quad dac. The drivers for V4A are closed source. While the app may get updated, the drivers never will.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs

BROKEN1981 said:
Why would you use V4A with LG? Makes no sense. It's 16bit due to the fact you aren't using the quad dac. The drivers for V4A are closed source. While the app may get updated, the drivers never will.
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Right.
With Viper you're making the onboard Snapdragon 835 DAC sound differently, not the already excellent V30 Quad DAC.

BROKEN1981 said:
Why would you use V4A with LG? Makes no sense. It's 16bit due to the fact you aren't using the quad dac. The drivers for V4A are closed source. While the app may get updated, the drivers never will.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs
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I would use convolver in Viper which makes my earphones sound more natural. Although It uses the quad dac the same way as Poweramp and it's 16bit because it is the preferred sample rate by Viper. So it's not possible to increase it . Anyway, thank you!

ChazzMatt said:
Right.
With Viper you're making the onboard Snapdragon 835 DAC sound differently, not the already excellent V30 Quad DAC.
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It actually sounds exactly the same when Viper is active. The specific EQ (convolver) is the only reason I would use it.

DooMLoRD77 said:
Although It uses the quad dac the same way as Poweramp and it's 16bit because it is the preferred sample rate by Viper. So it's not possible to increase it . Anyway, thank you!
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This is not true. V4A DOESN'T use the quad dac. 16bit is NOT the preferred rate. The driver is 16bit and that will never change. The dev of V4A left before any other bit rate became a thing on Android. The dev never responded to request for the code.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs

BROKEN1981 said:
This is not true. V4A DOESN'T use the quad dac. 16bit is NOT the preferred rate. The driver is 16bit and that will never change. The dev of V4A left before any other bit rate became a thing on Android. The dev never responded to request for the code.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs
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I can't notice any difference with Viper, but OK I get it. So it's bypassing the LG quad dac function. I won't use Viper, I want 24bit to avoid losses from digital volume controlling. Thanks the help!

DooMLoRD77 said:
I can't notice any difference with Viper, but OK I get it. So it's bypassing the LG quad dac function. I won't use Viper, I want 24bit to avoid losses from digital volume controlling. Thanks the help!
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https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/themes/magisk-bring-24-bit-output-aosp-pie-t3900863

Our ES9218p (Quad DAC) has an integrated amplifier (so-called OpAmp) using Analog Volume Control (AVC). You're not losing any resolution due to digital volume control, as long as you use a player app that knows how to play bit-perfect: Such apps will send all bits straight to the DAC (essentially keeping digital volume at max) and leave volume control to the DAC. When you turn volume up/down with the volume keys (or the Hi-Fi Quad DAC settings page) you're controlling that analog amp.
The moment you add EQ or DTS or other digital processing you already lose bit perfect. But as long as the app doesn't use digital volume control (keeps it at max) at least you will still have the full resolution during and after that processing.
You should be more concerned about the upsamling done by the Android Mixer when playing 16/44 music (anything CD quality, whether compressed or not). See this for details.
All player apps (including LG Music) will suffer this up-sampling unless they specifically work around it. UAPP and Neutron work around it by converting 16/44 to 24/44 on the fly. PowerAmp CAN work around it if you configure it to re-sample 16/44 to 24/44 -- but you then have to change that setting when playing HiRes music (anything 24-bit or higher than 44.1KHz) so it isn't down-sampled to 24/44.
HiRes music generally plays correctly from most apps (not re-sampled) unless they specifically mess it up (which is the case with Qobuz last I heard) or they deliberately re-sample it (like Amazon HD Music which re-samples everything to 48KHz on Android devices).
I never used Viper4Android. I don't see how it can cause audio to bypass the Quad DAC (when Quad DAC is enabled) but I'm not ruling it out. And certainly there is no way Viper4Android can understand or take advantage of the Quad DAC given how old it is.

TheDannemand said:
The moment you add EQ or DTS or other digital processing you already lose bit perfect. But as long as the app doesn't use digital volume control (keeps it at max) at least you will still have the full resolution during and after that processing.
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DTS no longer works in pie for PowerAmp. I don't know why. When I need to unwind, I would sip on vodka straight on the rocks. Put on PowerAmp, turn on DTS wide setting and listen to Pink Floyd.
TheDannemand said:
I never used Viper4Android. I don't see how it can cause audio to bypass the Quad DAC (when Quad DAC is enabled) but I'm not ruling it out. And certainly there is no way Viper4Android can understand or take advantage of the Quad DAC given how old it is.
Click to expand...
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Few devs who did audio mods said this back in the V20 days.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs
Edit, I'm sure @ChazzMatt can find it. He can find anything. LMFAO

BROKEN1981 said:
DTS no longer works in pie for PowerAmp. I don't know why. When I need to unwind, I would sip on vodka straight on the rocks. Put on PowerAmp, turn on DTS wide setting and listen to Pink Floyd.
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LOL thank you for that image :laugh:
BROKEN1981 said:
Few devs who did audio mods said this back in the V20 days.
Edit, I'm sure @ChazzMatt can find it. He can find anything. LMFAO
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No need, I believe you. I just don't know how it is possible to avoid the Quad DAC when it's enabled. As in *I* don't know how, not that it isn't possible :cyclops:

TheDannemand said:
Our ES9218p (Quad DAC) has an integrated amplifier (so-called OpAmp) using Analog Volume Control (AVC). You're not losing any resolution due to digital volume control, as long as you use a player app that knows how to play bit-perfect: Such apps will send all bits straight to the DAC (essentially keeping digital volume at max) and leave volume control to the DAC. When you turn volume up/down with the volume keys (or the Hi-Fi Quad DAC settings page) you're controlling that analog amp.
The moment you add EQ or DTS or other digital processing you already lose bit perfect. But as long as the app doesn't use digital volume control (keeps it at max) at least you will still have the full resolution during and after that processing.
You should be more concerned about the upsamling done by the Android Mixer when playing 16/44 music (anything CD quality, whether compressed or not). See this for details.
All player apps (including LG Music) will suffer this up-sampling unless they specifically work around it. UAPP and Neutron work around it by converting 16/44 to 24/44 on the fly. PowerAmp CAN work around it if you configure it to re-sample 16/44 to 24/44 -- but you then have to change that setting when playing HiRes music (anything 24-bit or higher than 44.1KHz) so it isn't down-sampled to 24/44.
HiRes music generally plays correctly from most apps (not re-sampled) unless they specifically mess it up (which is the case with Qobuz last I heard) or they deliberately re-sample it (like Amazon HD Music which re-samples everything to 48KHz on Android devices).
I never used Viper4Android. I don't see how it can cause audio to bypass the Quad DAC (when Quad DAC is enabled) but I'm not ruling it out. And certainly there is no way Viper4Android can understand or take advantage of the Quad DAC given how old it is.
Click to expand...
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That's interesting. When I set to 16bit in poweramp then I hear noise at the end of some tracks when the volume slowly decreases in the song. That's happens also with LG music app. But when I choose 24bit in poweramp then the noise disappears and I hear more details. This noise can be noticed at enough low volume. So is this means that poweramp and LG music uses DVC and not letting the DAC to do the job?
As for the interpolation I don't care, I don't have high sensitivity device and poweramp gives fix 24/44.1.

DooMLoRD77 said:
That's interesting. When I set to 16bit in poweramp then I hear noise at the end of some tracks when the volume slowly decreases in the song. That's happens also with LG music app. But when I choose 24bit in poweramp then the noise disappears and I hear more details. This noise can be noticed at enough low volume. So is this means that poweramp and LG music uses DVC and not letting the DAC to do the job?
As for the interpolation I don't care, I don't have high sensitivity device and poweramp gives fix 24/44.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LG Music doesn't use DVC. From what I can tell, it plays everything correctly, including HiRes, so long as you keep effects and EQ disabled. Its only problem is that it doesn't bypass the Mixer on 16/44.
And I can almost guarantee that you DO care about the interpolation: That noise you hear at low amplitude (volume) levels is typical of the upsampling performed by the Android Mixer. Once you configure PowerAmp to output as 24-bit, AudioFlinger will use the DIRECT path instead of the MIXER path, which will bypass the Mixer and send music straight to the DAC, without upsampling. That's why the noise goes away when you select 24-bit, not because of DVC bit-loss at 16-bit.

DooMLoRD77 said:
snip.
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lol no need to quote the entire post
TheDannemand said:
snip.
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This is aimed at you and the op.
From the V20 to the V30 on 7, 8 and now 9.0, people have complained about hissing. I always thought it was audio mods but I'm sure DooM isn't using any.
I don't see how, but maybe a dirty connection? Or possibly the headphones? Damaged speaker?
I've used the stock app with DTS. No hissing. Tho kinda sounds bad. Something really changed with 9.0.
Even with DTS off, no hissing and the music sounds good.
PowerAmp, no hissing, can't use DTS. UAPP, no hissing.
@DooMLoRD77, do you have a different pair of headphones?
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs

TheDannemand said:
quote
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I wasn't actually hearing the interpolation noise, however It was because of dithering was turned off by default. When I apply any kind of dithering then noise disappears on 16bit. 24 bit doesn't require dithering as I hear. So I found the solution and it's good to learn new stuffs, thanks. Although I don't get it why it happens. The dithering should add noise to reduce distorsion as I think.
BROKEN1981 said:
quote
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Good I just learned how to reply.
I tested it with my budget MH1C and the hissing was just a very small amount apparently due to turned off dithering as I wrote above. It now sounds fine Plus that DTS seems also bad to me, it's kinda aggressive.

....

DooMLoRD77 said:
I wasn't actually hearing the interpolation noise, however It was because of dithering was turned off by default. When I apply any kind of dithering then noise disappears on 16bit. 24 bit doesn't require dithering as I hear. So I found the solution and it's good to learn new stuffs, thanks. Although I don't get it why it happens. The dithering should add noise to reduce distorsion as I think.
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How do you know it isn't the upsampling that's causing the noise? Your description fits exactly the symptoms of it. Particularly if it goes away when you switch to 24-bit output.
It doesn't make sense that you need to turn on dithering or otherwise process the audio source in order to avoid noise: The ESS DAC has incredibly low noise levels, and as long as the source is left unprocessed and played through the DIRECT path, you should be hearing nothing but black background. Of course assuming a clean recording. (Some of my best recordings are old analog ones, but of course they have noise.)
I apologize for being pushy about this, but I keep seeing myths surrounding this Quad DAC, and users focusing on things that aren't problems while overlooking the real problems that actually exist.
I'll leave you to it
@BROKEN1981: I want to make sure I understand you correctly: Are you saying you experienced hissing on both V20 and V30, but once you got Pie, it went away?
That's interesting (if I understand you correctly). I wonder if LG fixed the re-sampling in their later Pie releases after all: Long before Pie came out on any LG phones I had a bet with csglinux (over on head-fi) where I optimistically/naively said I had a feeling they might address it in Pie, and he thought they wouldn't. Of course when Pie finally came (to his V40 at first) the problems had turned even worse, now with both up-sampling and down-sampling, and a bunch of other issues too. Took much work by Davy to fix UAPP, and I understand the same with Neutron.
I am now tempted to upgrade my H932 after all just to test this. But first I need confirmation that lafsploit isn't broken when rolling back from Pie (I think you saw this over in the H932 root thread.)
But like you mentioned, most of the reports of hissing in the past seemed to traceable back to audio mods or EQ or other processing by player apps. With a good DAC like ours and decent IEMs, it doesn't take much messing around with a 16/44 stream before you can hear it.
Edit: Have you done an audio_flinger dump during 16/44 playback since updating to Pie?
You really got me thinking, but I have so much work to do, gotta get this out of my head for now :silly:

@TheDannemand
I got confused with this much testing. I believe what you say and I'm already happy with this thing. Sorry for this unimportant problem I don't know about the real issues. :laugh:

DooMLoRD77 said:
@TheDannemand
I got confused with this much testing. I believe what you say and I'm already happy with this thing. Sorry for this unimportant problem I don't know about the real issues. :laugh:
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Fair enough LOL
I didn't mean to be tactless, but I can see how that came across. Actually I DO consider your problem important. Otherwise I wouldn't keep responding to it. And besides, it's your thread!
What I meant was myths such as "you must use 50ohm headphones to activate the DAC", or "music gets better and better as more of the Quad DAC cores are activated", or "up-sampling music to 352KHz in PowerAmp will improve its quality". Just to mention a few.
Truths are (1) the ES9218P is a genuine audiophile DAC which performs the best when NOTHING is done to the source. (2) It CAN drive planars and other hard-to-drive headphones, but sounds blissful too on highly sensitive balanced armatures. (3) It uses multiple DAC units to increase amplification, not to "improve" the music. (4) HIM is NOT required for it to perform optimally.
The "real problem" is the upsampling of 16/44 music, which isn't inherent to the DAC itself, but is a massive oversight in LG's implementation, diminishing sound quality for the vast majority of music played on a phone. While not everybody can hear it (depending on hearing, earphones/headphones used, and the music source) many people CAN, particularly on sensitive IEMs -- including many moderately priced and popular earphones. And since many users don't realize that the hiss/noise they're hearing is re-sampling artifacts, they pursue fixes that further process the music stream, which sometimes may drown out the noise, but also further diminishes sound quality.
This upsampling is by far the biggest problem with LG's Quad DAC from an audiophile perspective.
(I should add that configuring PowerAmp to re-sample to 352KHz actually isn't the worst choice, since it does this without the artifacts of the Android Mixer's 44 > 48KHz upsampling, and it will play the result through the DIRECT path. Of course "re-sampling" 16/44 to 24/44 (just adding the zero bits) is even better, but requires changing every time HiRes music is played to avoid down-sampling it.)

TheDannemand said:
@BROKEN1981: I want to make sure I understand you correctly: Are you saying you experienced hissing on both V20 and V30, but once you got Pie, it went away?
:
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Not me, I'm just saying I've seen people having issues with hissing going all the way back to the V20. Though I don't know what they were doing. I can count on 1 hand of how many times I've seen it posted.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs
---------- Post added at 02:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:23 AM ----------
DooMLoRD77;80574395 [user=832590 said:
@TheDannemand[/user]
I got confused with this much testing. I believe what you say and I'm already happy with this thing. Sorry for this unimportant problem I don't know about the real issues. :laugh:
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Trust me, you aren't bothering anyone man! @TheDannemand is happy to shed some light on the dac. There is a lot of misinformation on it and I partly blame LG.
When the V20 came out, LG said at 50 ohms or more, the sound gets better.
While this may be correct, it's very misleading. If using something more than 50 ohms, you are probably using cans designed for audiophiles.
There aren't many earphones that hit 50 ohms. I bought a pair of audio-technica's that are 50 ohms earphones. Over $100 as well.
I went to Ali Express, bought CCA C10 earphones that are 30 ohms that blow my audio-technica's out of the water.
Do they hold up to cans? NO! Cans will give the best sound experience while being more than 50 ohms.
Sent from my LG-H932 using XDA Labs

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