V30 Audio Frequency Response Only To 18kHZ ? - LG V30 Questions & Answers

This includes frequency response plot that shows the V30 rolling off at about 17kHz, down to -3 dB by about 18kHz:
https://m.gsmarena.com/lg_v30-review-1657p7.php#aq
That's nearly the same as the gsmarena frequency response plot for my current phone, the Moto X Pure/Style.
Not a "hi-fi" output.
Anybody have any relevant info to offer? (Besides nitpicking this posting itself.)
TIA...

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I don't know what the source audio of his tests were, but I was able to output music with energy above 32khz correctly. I used a Sony PCM-D100 connected directly to the headphone out jack of the V30 to digitize the output of a song recorded at 96khz. The Harmon mute of a trumpet produced the energy at 32khz.

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Good point. I'm thinking that maybe, either the special "test track" itself rolled off at 17-18 kHz, or, perhaps the plain vanilla (non-hifi) V30 DAC output was used for the frequency response measurement and plot.
I can't believe frequency response would roll off at 17-18 kHz with an ESS hi-fi DAC.
On the plain vanilla DAC Does anybody know why in the world the V30 has both a plain non-hi-fi DAC and a better hi-fi ESS DAC?

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Tinkerer_ said:
Good point. I'm thinking that maybe, either the special "test track" itself rolled off at 17-18 kHz, or, perhaps the plain vanilla (non-hifi) V30 DAC output was used for the frequency response measurement and plot.
I can't believe frequency response would roll off at 17-18 kHz with an ESS hi-fi DAC.
On the plain vanilla DAC Does anybody know why in the world the V30 has both a plain non-hi-fi DAC and a better hi-fi ESS DAC?
Click to expand...
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The Qualcomm processor itself has a DAC. Most Android phones use that one. It is kind of analogous in the PC desktop world to Intel chips that have a graphics section vs adding on a discrete graphics card.

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I don't believe anyone buy my dog would be able to hear that....

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Sheldor1967 said:
I don't believe anyone buy my dog would be able to hear that....
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LoL, very true. The point is that if something is captured in the room and in the recording process, you want the ability to play it back whether or not you can hear it. Someone always has better hearing than you and studies have shown that we are able to perceive higher frequencies than once thought. This perception is supposed to help with timing and spacial interpretation. The subjects said that it "just sounds better."

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The audio in the test was probably​ routed through the native Qualcomm dac. Gotta use the LG music app or USB AUDIO Player Pro.

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Amd4life said:
The audio in the test was probably​ routed through the native Qualcomm dac. Gotta use the LG music app or USB AUDIO Player Pro.
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USB Audio Player Pro will not output via the Internal ESS9218P DAC. As you can see in the screenshot, the source file is PCM 192khz but Android will only output at 48khz using USB Audio Player Pro
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Amd4life said:
The audio in the test was probably​ routed through the native Qualcomm dac. Gotta use the LG music app or USB AUDIO Player Pro.
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Are you sure about that? I can't remember which review I read, but it stated the Hi-Fi DAC is available to ALL music players when enabled.

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The AMP is available for all apps, and that is what your hearing is the increase in power. The DAC is only available if the app developers have codes the audio stream routing correctly. Which most have not.

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Amd4life said:
The AMP is available for all apps, and that is what your hearing is the increase in power. The DAC is only available if the app developers have codes the audio stream routing correctly. Which most have not.
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I didn't see that one coming.
Need to find more info on the built-in LG music player, before buying a V30. I guess a trip to local carrier with a display model may be necessary to really check it out.
I have a preferred music player app (JetAudio with AM3D plugin) that streams FLACs over WiFi from NAS using SMB, at home.* Two big plusses to give up (NAS, AM3D), if the LG app is the only way to use the V30 hi-fi DAC, assuming the LG app does not have those features (most music player apps don't).
May just get a Dragonfly Red and use Velcro to piggyback it on a different phone, if this is a V30 limitation. Audio would be the main reason I would even consider buying a V30.
(* Note: This is a compelling reason to use Wi-Fi at home, even if one has an unlimited wireless carrier data plan with great service. Getting back to the "ready-fire-aim" snark of the Krack thread.)
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Tinkerer_ said:
I guess a trip to local carrier with a display model may be necessary to really check it out.
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Or maybe not. Sounds like the different carrier versions have different SW / UI:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/help/modes-quad-dac-t3690567/page3

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Amd4life said:
The AMP is available for all apps, and that is what your hearing is the increase in power. The DAC is only available if the app developers have codes the audio stream routing correctly. Which most have not.
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Too bad LG's stock music player sucks so badly...
Now I have a new research project: which apps can take advantage for the Quad DAC?

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liteon163 said:
Too bad LG's stock music player sucks so badly...
Now I have a new research project: which apps can take advantage for the Quad DAC?
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Have a look into NEUTRON MUSIC PLAYER
Features
32/64-bit audio processing (high quality HD audio).
OS independent decoding and audio processing.
Hi-Res Audio support (Android 4.4+, >= 24-bit, up to 768 kHz):
devices with on-board Hi-Res Audio DACs;
DAPs: iBasso DX200, Fiio X5-X7.
Bit-perfect playback.
Audio formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, OGG (Vorbis), FLAC, WMA, WMA Lossless (16-bit), AC3, AAC, M4A, M4B, M4R, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, MOV, ALAC, APE (Monkey's Audio), WV (WavPack), MPC (MusePack), WAV, AU, AIFF, MPG/MPEG (audio), AVI (audio), iTunes/Windows Media (non DRM), OPUS.
DSD decoding (requires fast CPU, minimally DSD64).
DOP (DSD over PCM), DXD.
Module music formats: MOD, IM, XM, S3M.
Voice audio format: SPEEX.
Playlists: CUE, M3U, PLS, ASX, RAM, XSPF, WPL.
Lyrics (.LRC files, metadata).
Streaming audio (plays Internet radio streams).
Supports large media libraries.
Network music sources:
SMB/CIFS network device (NAS or PC, Samba shares);
UPnP/DLNA media server;
FTP server;
WebDAV server.
Output to Chromecast (up to 24-bit, 192 kHz).
Output to UPnP/DLNA Media Renderer (up to 24-bit, 768 kHz).
Direct output to USB DAC (via USB OTG adapter, up to 32-bit, 768 kHz).
32-bit output (IEEE 754, optional).
UPnP/DLNA Media Renderer server (gapless, DSP effects).
Device local music library management via internal FTP server.
DSP effects:
Parametric Equalizer (4-30 band, fully configurable: type, frequency, Q, gain);
Graphic EQ mode with 21 common presets;
Surround Sound (Ambiophonic R.A.C.E.);
Crossfeed (better stereo sound perception in headphones);
Compressor / Limiter (compression of dynamic range);
Time Delay (loudspeaker time alignment);
Dithering (minimize quantization);
Pitch, Tempo (playback speed and pitch correction).
Speaker overload protecting filters: Subsonic, Ultrasonic.
Normalization by Peak, RMS (Preamp gain calculation after DSP effects).
Replay Gain from metadata.
Gapless playback.
Hardware and Preamp volume controls.
Crossfade.
Phase inversion.
High quality real-time optional resampling (Quality and Audiophile modes).
Real-time Spectrum and RMS analyzers.
Balance.
Mono mode.
Playback modes: shuffle, looped, single track, queue.
Playlist management.
Media library grouping by: album, artist, composer, genre, year, rating, folder.
Artist grouping by 'Album Artist' category.
Folder mode.
Clock mode.
Timers: sleep, wake.
UI appearance customizable through the settings.
Platforms: Android 2.1+ (Google Play), iOS 6.0+ (Apple's App Store), BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0.1+, BlackBerry 10 (BB World), Windows 10 Mobile (Windows Store).
Optimized for hardware: ARMv7 VFP/NEON, ARMv8 NEON (ARM64), x86 SSE2.
Hi-Res Audio for Android based DAPs
Dedicated Hi-Res Audio support for selected DAPs (>= 24-bit, <= 384 kHz):
iBasso:
DX200 (24 - 32-bit, <= 384 kHz [official firmware], 24 - 32-bit, <= 384 kHz [custom firmware])
Fiio:
X5 (32-bit, <= 384 kHz)
X7 (32-bit, <= 384 kHz)

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Neutron would be OK I guess, if it has support for the V30 DAC added. Especially if you want to do High Res audio.
I still prefer JetAudio for a couple reasons (AM3D and different handling of NAS), and virtually all of my FLACs are 16/44.1 so I'm not concerned about the High Res support.
But this illuminates something: People who value good audio quality want to select their own system components, at the higher level. A system that only works with the built-in player and a couple others misses this entirely. It would be like a system that only works with a few headphones, including the mediocre set that comes in the box.
Another LG miss with the V30 Quad DAC is the way the V30 limits output power automatically depending on detected load impedance on the 3.5mm Jack. WTF? I can adjust my own headphone volume to a safe level without the childproofing, thank you. Are they concerned about lawsuits by parents whose spoiled children damage their own hearing with $800 toys?
If there is no way to disable the LG audio output limiting for lower impedance headphones, that too could be a V30 deal-breaker. Maybe it will appear when (if) the V30 gets rooted...
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That's just a bummer. In the end though it's still better than not having a dac. If root is going to change anything.
Does anybody know how that looks like when using music streaming services like gpm. What's the high quality setting there anyways? Is it even possible for streamed music to utilize a DAC?
Sent from my SM-T815 using Tapatalk

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donky kong 017 said:
That's just a bummer. In the end though it's still better than not having a dac. If root is going to change anything.
Does anybody know how that looks like when using music streaming services like gpm. What's the high quality setting there anyways? Is it even possible for streamed music to utilize a DAC?
Sent from my SM-T815 using Tapatalk
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You could go to the LG V20 forums and see what their rooted phones are doing with their DAC.

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Hi-fi doesn't mean high frequency. It means high fidelity.

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ChazzMatt said:
You could go to the LG V20 forums and see what their rooted phones are doing with their DAC.
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Thanks. That's a good recommendation. Will do that
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
edit: seems like there is an app for v10 that enabled dac for whenever headphones were connected to the jack and apparently it also works for v20 so the chances look good...
Edit 2: from further reading there were reports that LG enabled the V20 DAC for all players from Marshmallow on. i guess that that should be the same with the v30...

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BraggingBob said:
Hi-fi doesn't mean high frequency. It means high fidelity.
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High fidelity audio includes a number of aspects. Including covering the full range of audible frequencies (with additional extension for hypersonic frequencies that impose harmonics on audible frequencies). The 20 to 20kHz range is the minimum audible frequency range for high fidelity, good audio should reproduce this with no more than 3dB deviation across the range. Many can hear above 20 kHz.
Forgive me for stating common knowledge information, I mean no offense.
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