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Review and Audio Measurement of LG G7 ThinQ Smartphone

audiobill

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Thats a paid link.

Its surely the most popular way. Just literally leave your house and stop trolling.
You will see it everywhere.... even with people driving on the highway or in traffic with headphones on (the dumbest thing ever).
And an extremely small percentage could know or care less about sound quality. They are listening to low bit rate files or streaming. People who want a phone with a headphone jack can purchase one.
 

audiobill

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Gordon Mah Ung is one of the most respected tech reviewers if not the most respected reviewer / writer on the planet. Hes been reviewing tech for 20+ years now.
Forgive me if I am not impressed. Just pure nonsense, nothing close to real use situations.

True there is not a clear standard, which had held manufactures back when compared to Apple when it come to certain products. For example Audeze cannot make a Cipher cable for android.
 

Soniclife

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Weird, it isn't for me.
It is for me now as well, they must have some sort of hit tracker threshold before it puts the wall up. It wasn't that interesting, people listen at home, cars, work, transport, working out, walking/running etc, about the amounts you would think by having your eyes open in big cities. It didn't detail how much they listen in each place.
 

έχω δίκιο

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And an extremely small percentage could know or care less about sound quality. They are listening to low bit rate files or streaming.
You're right. A shockingly high percentage of people, especially millennials, have embraced things like Spotify's 96kbps Ogg Vorbis "normal quality" mobile streaming and Pandora's 64 kbps AAC+ (or even lower depending on connection) mobile streaming. It's really disheartening to me as an audiophile; we've finally reached the point where nearly perfect audio* is affordable for the masses and the reaction is largely apathy and disinterest.

People who want a phone with a headphone jack can purchase one.
True, but you can't buy a new iPhone with a built-in headphone jack (barring old stock at some retailers). If you're invested in the Apple ecosystem of apps, that can be an annoyance. (Note: I'm not praising or insulting anyone based on their choice of phone. phone OS, or phone manufacturer. I hope we can avoid any more of that.)

* Let's not nitpick the term "nearly perfect audio." It makes the point without something the length of a doctoral thesis to explain the diminishing returns per dollar curve for modern audio gear.
 

Soniclife

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A shockingly high percentage of people, especially millennials, have embraced things like Spotify's 96kbps Ogg Vorbis "normal quality" mobile streaming and Pandora's 64 kbps AAC+ (or even lower depending on connection) mobile streaming.
What percentage use those low rates?

Bonus question, for those using those rates, are they enjoying higher quality than their parents likely enjoyed with vinyl and cassettes? Not what those formats were capable of, but what was delivered by midi systems and the like.
 

έχω δίκιο

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What percentage use those low rates?

As I wrote above, "a shockingly high percentage."

Bonus question, for those using those rates, are they enjoying higher quality than their parents likely enjoyed with vinyl and cassettes? Not what those formats were capable of, but what was delivered by midi systems and the like.

That's like saying "He could get a DVD or Blu-Ray player, but why? With his S-VHS VCR, he's enjoying better quality than his parents enjoyed with their standard VHS VCR."
 
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audiobill

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You're right. A shockingly high percentage of people, especially millennials, have embraced things like Spotify's 96kbps Ogg Vorbis "normal quality" mobile streaming and Pandora's 64 kbps AAC+ (or even lower depending on connection) mobile streaming. It's really disheartening to me as an audiophile; we've finally reached the point where nearly perfect audio* is affordable for the masses and the reaction is largely apathy and disinterest.


True, but you can't buy a new iPhone with a built-in headphone jack (barring old stock at some retailers). If you're invested in the Apple ecosystem of apps, that can be an annoyance. (Note: I'm not praising or insulting anyone based on their choice of phone. phone OS, or phone manufacturer. I hope we can avoid any more of that.)

* Let's not nitpick the term "nearly perfect audio." It makes the point without something the length of a doctoral thesis to explain the diminishing returns per dollar curve for modern audio gear.
True no iPhone, but there are a few new "audiophile" androids. Audeze has the lighting cipher cable and some good headphones available, and of course the apple dongle. I use a DAP and prefer that to using my phone for music.
 

Jimster480

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You're right. A shockingly high percentage of people, especially millennials, have embraced things like Spotify's 96kbps Ogg Vorbis "normal quality" mobile streaming and Pandora's 64 kbps AAC+ (or even lower depending on connection) mobile streaming. It's really disheartening to me as an audiophile; we've finally reached the point where nearly perfect audio* is affordable for the masses and the reaction is largely apathy and disinterest.


True, but you can't buy a new iPhone with a built-in headphone jack (barring old stock at some retailers). If you're invested in the Apple ecosystem of apps, that can be an annoyance. (Note: I'm not praising or insulting anyone based on their choice of phone. phone OS, or phone manufacturer. I hope we can avoid any more of that.)

* Let's not nitpick the term "nearly perfect audio." It makes the point without something the length of a doctoral thesis to explain the diminishing returns per dollar curve for modern audio gear.
I don't know if its actually "disinterest" I think that most people don't even think about these things.
Especially millennials.
They just simply open Spotify or Pandora and hit "play".
Outside of this they don't think about it. And considering that Spotify "high quality" is only available for paid subscribers (atleast on the phone) most people will never touch that setting since the majority of Spotify users are free users.

It is for me now as well, they must have some sort of hit tracker threshold before it puts the wall up. It wasn't that interesting, people listen at home, cars, work, transport, working out, walking/running etc, about the amounts you would think by having your eyes open in big cities. It didn't detail how much they listen in each place.

Probably does have some threshold of traffic, if you manage to get into the link again please screenshot it for here.
I do know that people listen to music everywhere, but its an astonishingly high amount of people listening with just phones and headphones regardless of where they are.
My babysitter here (19) even sits in my family room and listens to music from her iPhone despite having 2x Denon Heos there and a set of Klipsch R-15PM's on my TV that has Chromecast w/ Android TV.

As I wrote above, "a shockingly high percentage."



That's like saying "He could get a DVD or Blu-Ray player, but why? With his S-VHS VCR, he's enjoying better quality than his parents enjoyed with their standard VHS VCR."

I think what he means is that the quality is "good enough" where the average person doesn't think about higher quality (its something that I cannot really fathom, but it is true) and with basic $10 or under earbuds (what the majority of people use) it can be hard to tell the difference between 96kbps OGG VBR and 320kbps OGG VBR... or even 64kbps AAC vs 128kbps AAC.

I mean i grew up listening to 64kbps MP3 because storage was so scarse.... I could tell the difference between 56 and 64 and 128 at those times, but I also imagine that the encoders themselves weren't anywhere near as good as modern encoders.
 

Jimster480

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Cannot or won't? I see no technical reason for them not being able to.
There is no technical reason that they wouldn't be able to.
Its not different than another DAC plugged in via USB-C that has worked on most Androids natively for years now... With USB-C every phone would work with a Cipher cable since they have a DAC in there.
 

Jimster480

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I believe that do not want to because of the lack of universality, not that they could not do it.
It would work on every single Android phone with a USB-C, which is every modern Android phone.

I think the reason they "don't want to" is that the number of Androids without headphone jacks is actually quite limited compared to the market of total Android phones.
Basically any budget tier phone still has a headphone jack, and many of the flagships have headphone jacks and some other flagships that had removed it have now added it back.
Leaving the total number of phones without headphone jacks to be somewhere under 20 (across multiple generations) and as such the "mass market" appeal is quite a bit lower vs Apple which is already on their now 3rd generation of not having a headphone jack.
 

έχω δίκιο

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I don't know if its actually "disinterest" I think that most people don't even think about these things. Especially millennials. They just simply open Spotify or Pandora and hit "play".

To me, that would be like watching movies and television in SD because I was too lazy or disinterested to change to the HD channels.
 

Thomas savage

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Thats a paid link.

Its surely the most popular way. Just literally leave your house and stop trolling.
You will see it everywhere.... even with people driving on the highway or in traffic with headphones on (the dumbest thing ever).
@Jimster480 this guy is agreeing with you, please don’t keep up this aggressive behaviour.

We don’t need a guys constantly writing in capitals ( shouting) , swearing at folk and telling them they are trolls and other general insults.

You need to find a better way of expressing yourself when folks don’t agree with you.
 

Soniclife

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As I wrote above, "a shockingly high percentage."



That's like saying "He could get a DVD or Blu-Ray player, but why? With his S-VHS VCR, he's enjoying better quality than his parents enjoyed with their standard VHS VCR."
I've never met anyone that uses those super low bitrates, and I'm the sort of weirdo that asks people this, so can you point me at a survey or some other evidence.

The vast majority of people have never cared about sound quality, and are probably never going to, but a phone with spotify premium on wifi will give them transparent sound, ignoring what the phone sends that to. Modern phones are probably better than the super cheap CD players that used to be used by most people, but it's what comes after the source that has always been the real problem.
 

έχω δίκιο

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I've never met anyone that uses those super low bitrates, and I'm the sort of weirdo that asks people this, so can you point me at a survey or some other evidence.

Here's what Grace Digital said about Pandora (at https://support.gracedigital.com/hc...ora-One-only-stream-in-128K-?mobile_site=true):

Grace Digital said:
What is Pandora high quality bitrate?
Pandora on the Web plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192kbps for Pandora One subscribers.
All in-home devices play 128kbps audio, and mobile devices receive a variety of different rates depending on the capability of the device and the network they are on, but never more than 64k AAC+.

So, according to that, mobile users don't have a choice to go above 64kbps.

Spotify's own pages say this about their rates on iPhones and iPads (at https://support.spotify.com/us/using_spotify/system_settings/high-quality-streaming/):

Spotify said:
You can choose from the following audio quality settings, all in the Ogg Vorbis format:
  • Low – Equivalent to approximately 24kbit/s.
  • Normal – Equivalent to approximately 96kbit/s.
  • High – Equivalent to approximately 160kbit/s.
  • Very high – Equivalent to approximately 320kbit/s.
  • Automatic - Dependent on your network connection.
Interestingly, under Android, the "Low" bitrate is specified as being in HE-AACv2: "Low - Equivalent to approximately 24 kbit/s (HE-AACv2 format)." All other bitrates for Android and iPhone/iPad are the same and in Ogg Vorbis.

I don't have statistics on what percentage of Spotify users configure their Spotify apps to stream music at some bitrate other than what Spotify considers "Normal," but judging by the name alone, and the existence of an even lower bitrate, I have to think that it's very commonly used. I realize that's a bit of an assumption, but I think it fair given the information I have.

The vast majority of people have never cared about sound quality, and are probably never going to...

That's why I believe it should be legal to beat them. :)

but it's what comes after the source that has always been the real problem.

If one chooses carefully, even at a modest budget, that's no longer the case . There are inexpensive USB DACs and headphone amps of fine quality that can be paired with good, but affordable, headphones like Sennheiser HD600s. That audio gear can quickly reveal deficiencies in much of the commercial source material played through it. That's what frustrates me: For such a small investment, people can have fantastic sound that prior generations could only dream of.

I think things have changed -- for the worse -- when it comes to consumers and audio. I'm going to date myself here (and at my age, no one else is going to date me), but I graduated high school in 1980 and worked a summer job at Lafayette Radio and Electronics in a shopping mall. People would routinely come into Lafayette and drop several hundred dollars on mid-fi Japanese consumer stereo components. So let's say they spent $300 on a Pioneer/Technics/Kenwood receiver. Adjusted for inflation, that's over $900 now -- and they still needed speakers and/or headphones to hear anything. The average buyer probably invested over $3,000 in today's dollars by the time they assembled a full system (receiver, speakers, turntable, cassette deck). Today's consumer, when presented the opportunity to spend a third that much for sound quality that is orders of magnitude better, scoffs and stuffs a pair of free-with-phone earbuds into his or her ears and moves on.
 
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