My primary use for music and podcast listening with headphones is riding for 2 hours on commuter rail. I listen mostly to classical, opera and jazz. It’s important for me to hear the details of quiet orchestral passages without peak sections playing at a level that damages my hearing. I'm not very technical, so I value simplicity in my setup.
I’ve been quite pleased with my LG G7 combined with Etymotic ER4SR IEMs. The noise isolation of the foam ear tips is superb. The sounds of the train whistle, PA announcements, beeping door-closing alarms, etc. are pushed far into the background. I don’t have much basis for comparison, but the sound quality seems quite good to me, which is no easy feat for the subtleties of my musical sources. I can hear details of the full dynamic range at a moderate volume. The only downside is the hassle of insertion and removal using foam ear tips and the wire tangle.
However, the LG G7 is now an orphan. It’s running Android 9 and there have been no security patches since February 2020. For Android, it looks like my best choices are either Samsung or Google phones. Manufacturers have abandoned the idea of high-quality sound from 3.5mm jacks. I don't care much about camera quality and all the bells and whistles of flagship phones, but I do value a phone with a long lifespan and regular system updates.
It would be nice to use LDAC and free myself from the tangle of wires. I tried the Anker Soundcore Q45 to see whether the combination of some passive noise isolation from over-ear headphones with active noise reduction would be satisfactory. It was not. All the sporadic commuter trains sounds obliterated the music and I had to turn the volume up much louder than with the ER4SR. The sound quality isn't as good as the ER4SR.
What are recommendations for a new phone, DAC and headphone combination for commuter rail? I dislike the idea of needing to keep yet another device charged, but that might be necessary. I don’t want to have a DAC that quickly drains my phone battery and reduces it’s useful life. Are there Bluetooth headphones that will work for my use case? Or is the ER4SR still the best solution and I need to complicate my setup with a USB DAC or LDAC Bluetooth receiver? I want good sound quality, but I don’t think I need to squeeze out the last 5% of potential performance.
I’ve been quite pleased with my LG G7 combined with Etymotic ER4SR IEMs. The noise isolation of the foam ear tips is superb. The sounds of the train whistle, PA announcements, beeping door-closing alarms, etc. are pushed far into the background. I don’t have much basis for comparison, but the sound quality seems quite good to me, which is no easy feat for the subtleties of my musical sources. I can hear details of the full dynamic range at a moderate volume. The only downside is the hassle of insertion and removal using foam ear tips and the wire tangle.
However, the LG G7 is now an orphan. It’s running Android 9 and there have been no security patches since February 2020. For Android, it looks like my best choices are either Samsung or Google phones. Manufacturers have abandoned the idea of high-quality sound from 3.5mm jacks. I don't care much about camera quality and all the bells and whistles of flagship phones, but I do value a phone with a long lifespan and regular system updates.
It would be nice to use LDAC and free myself from the tangle of wires. I tried the Anker Soundcore Q45 to see whether the combination of some passive noise isolation from over-ear headphones with active noise reduction would be satisfactory. It was not. All the sporadic commuter trains sounds obliterated the music and I had to turn the volume up much louder than with the ER4SR. The sound quality isn't as good as the ER4SR.
What are recommendations for a new phone, DAC and headphone combination for commuter rail? I dislike the idea of needing to keep yet another device charged, but that might be necessary. I don’t want to have a DAC that quickly drains my phone battery and reduces it’s useful life. Are there Bluetooth headphones that will work for my use case? Or is the ER4SR still the best solution and I need to complicate my setup with a USB DAC or LDAC Bluetooth receiver? I want good sound quality, but I don’t think I need to squeeze out the last 5% of potential performance.