Review and Audio Measurement of LG G7 ThinQ Smartphone

[amirm]

Hey @amirm, I just got an LG V30 myself. I was wondering: could you test some other music apps on the G7 (Google Play Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc.) to see if they also bypass the Android audio stack the way the UAPP and the LG Music app are capable of?

Not right now since the phone belongs to my son who won't be here for another 10 days or so.

 

[maxxevv]

Hey @amirm, I just got an LG V30 myself. I was wondering: could you test some other music apps on the G7 (Google Play Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc.) to see if they also bypass the Android audio stack the way the UAPP and the LG Music app are capable of?

If you're asking about USB output to an external DAC in "bit perfect" mode without Android upsampling/ dithering, then Onkyo Player and Hiby does that too.

The default LG player on my LG G6 doesn't do that and music streamed via USB just sounds "off" . UAPP from what I understand does bit perfect ouput too.

 

[Kameu]

Hi i was wondering can I use extra headphone plug which add a higher impedance in order to help or add more performance to lower impedance headphones as I know most portable headphones there should be 32 ohms as their standard so i was thinking that what if I use a headphone plug which add 75 or 150 ohms impedance headphone plug so I can add up thoe impedance to around as listen like a 100 ohms headphones (75 headphone plug+32ohms headphone itself) as a result . I have two 32 ohms headphones Audio Technica MSR7SE (32ohms), Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro 32 ohms version and HD 650. The only chart I understand is the one who said it excels is the most in 100 ohms and 32 ohms the worst, so I curious about the headphone plug which add some high impedance may help and I have another question about the EQ presets, I wonder could you use the EQ prosets such as rock vocal hallway and playing mix and match with digital filters to play the Tidal master streaming , the major reason why I have interest on this phone is because they have the tidal apps which can play the master version streaming » I wonder could you use the EQ process such as rock vocal hallway and play mix and match with digital filters to play Tidal, this phone have quad dac which can play high quality music plus it’s a phone so if the dac is outdated I can still use this as a phone oh yeah I want to play some retro games those apps are more better in android system, and I found out there’s a good way to learn a foreign language with two phones in nowadays google translation apps.
have a nice day

 

[maxxevv]

What's the "External Device" mode ?
Ok... found the answer here : https://www.head-fi.org/threads/music-apps-tips-and-tricks-for-the-lg-v30.868978/

Kameu, there is NO need for an extra impedance adaptor. Jean-Francois had the same question, and he found the answer above.

 

[Kameu]

Kameu, there is NO need for an extra impedance adaptor. Jean-Francois had the same question, and he found the answer above.

Thanks for your information, what if i add my own headphone amplifier (XD-05) and use LG G7 as sources via usb? Would the phone still process those data(MHQ,internal music files, or others sound like Youtube) first from it’s quad dac then transfer those filtered data to my amp? Would it help to play more better quality of sound and by-pass the (auto-switch to what Impedance device headphone jack, because the “low impedance mode” of the LG phone it requires at least a 50 ohms headphone in order for the phone to perform a better quality ).
Have a nice day

 

[maxxevv]

1. No. It will just function as a USB streamer, that's all.

2. No. As it will be bleeding the electrical energy from the phone into the impedance device as heat.
Increased output impedance can alter the sound signature of earphones / headphones. Especially when it comes to dynamic and balanced
armature drives. As for planars, I'm not so sure about them. So it will not improve quality in general.

 

[Kameu]

1. No. It will just function as a USB streamer, that's all.

2. No. As it will be bleeding the electrical energy from the phone into the impedance device as heat.
Increased output impedance can alter the sound signature of earphones / headphones. Especially when it comes to dynamic and balanced
armature drives. As for planars, I'm not so sure about them. So it will not improve quality in general.

So which that’s not much i can do, but the ohms requirement REALLY doesn’t make any sense, it’s a phone so we automatically assume it’s a portable device which means 32ohms is the best fit for the most portable device but not this super-bargain/quality device, and i wanna add i love my MSR7RE a lot when it comes in vocal, and I specially assigned it as my primary vocal/portable headphone,And this super bargain Smartphone excel it’s best in 100 ohms so which means I need to buy something around that impedance in order experience it’s best performance. To summarize in one question or a thought, how could you expect a person to buy or own a 100 ohms headphone for portable use? Even at 50 ohms headphone for portable use is ridiculous , And I don’t think it would perform it’s best on my three hundred ohms HD 650... 1) it requires 50 ohms which means most earphones won’t be a ideal equipment for this phone 2)In common sense, 32 ohms is like a universal reference index for portable headphone use.... This is probably the best bargain in the market for a TIDAL users to listen master version streaming and yet it asking for a 50 ohms for listening equipment this is a very unambitious choice from my perspective

 

[Kameu]

1. No. It will just function as a USB streamer, that's all.

2. No. As it will be bleeding the electrical energy from the phone into the impedance device as heat.
Increased output impedance can alter the sound signature of earphones / headphones. Especially when it comes to dynamic and balanced
armature drives. As for planars, I'm not so sure about them. So it will not improve quality in general.

Do you think the headphone jack power is powerful enough to act as a aux output? So I plug a aux cable into my headphone tube amplifier. The tube amplifier specification didn’t say much about it is requirements, it only said that from 30 to 100 ohms will excel is best

 

[zandm7]

If you're asking about USB output to an external DAC in "bit perfect" mode without Android upsampling/ dithering, then Onkyo Player and Hiby does that too.

The default LG player on my LG G6 doesn't do that and music streamed via USB just sounds "off" . UAPP from what I understand does bit perfect ouput too.

No, I was wondering if LG's entirely bypassed the Android audio stack or if it's only specific apps that can do so. It matters slightly to me as I use Google Play Music to store my local collection in the cloud, and having to use it through UAPP is less convenient than the official app (UAPP's Google Music integration is OK but lacks a lot of features and is very clunky).

The reason I want to use Google Music is because "syncing" my phone's local storage with my collection on my PC is pretty annoying, but if I'm forced to use UAPP I'll probably go back to doing that lol.

 

[THEChuckTucker]

Hey @amirm, I just got an LG V30 myself. I was wondering: could you test some other music apps on the G7 (Google Play Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc.) to see if they also bypass the Android audio stack the way the UAPP and the LG Music app are capable of?

Congrats zandm7! I purchased the V35 and have spent the morning setting everything up. It was great to hear my 24/192 files in my car! But I'm looking for something other than the LG player too. I can verify that it plays DSD64 & DSD128.

 

[THEChuckTucker]

If the amp system on the G7 is the same or similar to the G6, it will drive most moderate sensitivity headphones quite well.

It drives my HD6XX to levels louder than I'm comfortable with, without obvious clipping (if any). On the HE4XX which is pretty low sensitivity, it will drive it quite well in "External Device" mode.

maxxevv, how do you engage the external device mode in the LG player? I'm not able to find the option. Both my headphones and IEMs are below 50 Ohms.

 

[maxxevv]

Do you think the headphone jack power is powerful enough to act as a aux output? So I plug a aux cable into my headphone tube amplifier. The tube amplifier specification didn’t say much about it is requirements, it only said that from 30 to 100 ohms will excel is best

Depends on the amp you use. It will nominally give about 1V on Aux output. On some amps, that's good enough. On some amps, it might not be. Depends on your luck.

 

[maxxevv]

No, I was wondering if LG's entirely bypassed the Android audio stack or if it's only specific apps that can do so. It matters slightly to me as I use Google Play Music to store my local collection in the cloud, and having to use it through UAPP is less convenient than the official app (UAPP's Google Music integration is OK but lacks a lot of features and is very clunky).

The reason I want to use Google Music is because "syncing" my phone's local storage with my collection on my PC is pretty annoying, but if I'm forced to use UAPP I'll probably go back to doing that lol.

As above mentioned in my previous reply, the default player doesn't bypass the Android audio layer on USB output. But playing out from it directly is perfectly fine in terms of sound quality. So if you're using it as a player to output to the headphone jack, its perfectly alright. Not so if its to stream out to an external DAC via USB or Bluetooth in my experience.

 

[maxxevv]

maxxevv, how do you engage the external device mode in the LG player? I'm not able to find the option. Both my headphones and IEMs are below 50 Ohms.

I have already answered that more than once on this thread.

Please read.

 

[zandm7]

Do you think the headphone jack power is powerful enough to act as a aux output? So I plug a aux cable into my headphone tube amplifier. The tube amplifier specification didn’t say much about it is requirements, it only said that from 30 to 100 ohms will excel is best

Amir reported that he was able to get up to 2 Vrms output out of the G7, so I would assume that if you can get it to give that much power when hooked up to an amp it should be fine? From what I remember, around 2 Vrms is about the standard output power you want from a DAC to be able to power an amp sufficiently.

 

[phrosty]

I have to say, with everyone ditching the audio jack, I *love* that LG decided doubling down on theirs was a way to differentiate themselves. I also love voting with my wallet, so it was an easy selling point for me.

I liked my V30 prior to reading this one, and now I like it even more . When I got the phone a year ago, it took me a couple weeks to realize I wasn't using my desktop dac/amp at work anymore -- and actually removed it. I've had plenty of phones that sounded good, but this was the first that could power various audiophile headphones.

 

[Pipps]

Will I still get the benefit of the quad DAC if I listen using a Westone Bluetooth cable? Or will the cable then be doing the digital-analogue conversion?

 

[Sythrix]

Will I still get the benefit of the quad DAC if I listen using a Westone Bluetooth cable? Or will the cable then be doing the digital-analogue conversion?View attachment 17962

The cable (which has its own DAC and amp) will decode the Bluetooth signal. The quad DAC means nothing in this instance. The only thing you'll have control over, is what format you send the signal over Bluetooth (which means you need to know what formats the cable can handle, those such as SBC, AAC, apt-X, apt-X HD, LDAC, etc).

EDIT: Since I see now that it supports apt-X, I would just go ahead and use that.

 

[Rod]

Work around. 1. root phone. 2. Plug a 3.5mm M-F extension cable of your choice into the phone, plug in a 75ohm or greater impedance adapter into the phone, start music app, unplug adapter and plug in your headphones. Will stay in high mode as long as extension is plugged in.

I have a V20. All I had to do was buy a 3.5mm m-f adapter. An adapter shows infinite ohms while plugged in to the jack without headphones so I can start the quad dac then plug in my headphones. As long as the adapter is plugged in the quad dac stays on. I am wondering, why the 75 ohm adapter? Also I use USB Audio Player Pro so I get bit perfect output with Tidal.

 

[Rod]

If the amp system on the G7 is the same or similar to the G6, it will drive most moderate sensitivity headphones quite well.

It drives my HD6XX to levels louder than I'm comfortable with, without obvious clipping (if any). On the HE4XX which is pretty low sensitivity, it will drive it quite well in "External Device" mode.

So unless you are talking about really hard to drive stuff like some of the LCD's and maybe the HE560 and some of those planars out there, it can function quite well without an extra amp.

I had the Topping portable amp. Got a little louder but didn't need it, your getting into ear damage territory in xtra loudness and it will never sound like a good home setup. So why bother?. 80 ohm DT-770's sound fine with it and a user doesn't need to use an adapter or carry around an amp.