Android phone and headphone recommendations for commuter rail

[CT Man]

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.

 

[staticV3]

No TWS IEM can match the ER4SR's noise isolation at high frequencies.
But there are TWS IEMs that offer better isolation from low frequency rumble noise, than what the ER4SR can do.

The best noise isolation currently available on TWS IEMs comes from the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II.
You can compare its isolation to the ER4SR here.

Edit: Actually, I checked again and there are TWS IEMS that isolate as well as the ER4SR at high frequencies: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools/table/111437

The trade-off then is worse LF isolation.

 

[CT Man]

Thanks for your reply. I'm skeptical that Android transmitting to TWS IEMs with only SBC and AAC codecs can handle orchestral music without mangling the sound. I'd need to test that with something affordable first, maybe with my Soundcore Q45 by changing the Bluetooth priority setting on my phone.

Also, I'm not convinced that the comparison charts for LF isolation is right. Subjectively, Etymotic LF attenuation seems pretty darn good me. I wonder if the tests were done with three-flange silicone tips or with the memory foam tips that I use, which I prefer because of their much greater isolation.

 

[someguyontheinternet]

Sony and Asus are still producing Android phones with headphone jacks as far as I'm aware. I haven't had issues with sound quality on my Sony Xperia, but the phone has other quirks which prevent me from recommending it. I have no experience with the Asus phones and am not aware of any publicly available measurements.

The Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter has good enough performance, if I remember correctly. So that could be a solution.
Another solution could be a external bluetooth adapter like the Qudelix 5k or one of the Fiio BTR devices. They are much more expensive compared to the simple USB-C adapters though.

 

[CT Man]

Thanks for your help. For $9 I'll try the Apple adapter on my LG G7 to test sound quality. People have been reporting problems with overly aggressive volume limiting on Android. If it's good on my LG G7, it still seems like a leap of faith as to whether it'll work well enough on a new phone.

Having been orphaned by LG I think I prefer to stick with the Android big dogs, Samsung or Google, for longer-term support and more extensive ecosystems. Does that make sense?

 

[staticV3]

Thanks for your help. For $9 I'll try the Apple adapter on my LG G7 to test sound quality. People have been reporting problems with overly aggressive volume limiting on Android.

Two notes there:

-the Apple dongle is flimsy and will break much more easily than a right-angle headphone cable, plugged straight into a phone's built-in headphone jack would.

-here's how you get full volume out of the Apple dongle on Android:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...luetooth-dac-headphone-amp.17386/post-1302123