Smart phone with good sound quality

[kingfisher]

Planning to buy smartphone which supports good sound quality and good performance. came across this one: which supports 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res audio. I have Sennheiser PX 100 which I was using with my Cowon S9. Budget is upto 15 K.

 

[rwnano]

LG smartphones have a quad DAC. eBay USA please

 

[VRavichandar]

LG is a great choice - I still have my 8X-ThinQ with 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC tuned by Meridian Audio.
Unfortunately they have closed their smart phone business. You may only get older models. Older versions of android may not be compatible with newer apps

 

[kingfisher]

LG is a great choice - I still have my 8X-ThinQ with 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC tuned by Meridian Audio.
Unfortunately they have closed their smart phone business. You may only get older models. Older versions of android may not be compatible with newer apps

thanks for the reply. What about iphones sound quality compared to others?

 

[jr83]

I think the Zenfone 10 was the last one with a 3.5mm output with a quality built-in DAC.
I still have mine, and am thinking of converting it to a pure media player.

 

[ajuvignesh]

thanks for the reply. What about iphones sound quality compared to others?

Iphone is good. Its dongle dac measured well. Would be a no nonsense device. Additionally, you can add a small dac to it for portability.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

The alternative - using USB dongle DAC with any smartphone of your choice has the following advantages:

1. You can get better sounding dongle DAC for under Rs 5000 than most phones’s inbuilt DAC. If you have IEMs above say Rs 5000, you are likely to hear the difference.

2. You can select a phone that meets your other needs better

3. When you upgrade the phone, the DAC can still be used with the new phone.

If this is NOT going to be your main phone and are just looking to use it as a media player, then go for dedicated DAPs (digital audio players) instead. Your get excellent options from Hiby, Shanling, FiiO etc for your budget. Some of them are android based, so you also get to stream music from app servers.

thanks for the reply. What about iphones sound quality compared to others?

I have iPhone 16 Pro. While the sound is good, but not comparable to the options mentioned above. For audiophile listening I doubt the phones of today are good enough.

Also, the cheapest iPhone is three times costlier than the Rs 15k budget you mentioned (unless you buy an older version, pre-owned).

If you go with an iPhone eventually, then remember that the Apple USB dongle (Europe version which sells here) is not a patch on the famed lightning dongle used with older IPhone models in the past. It is underpowered for decent IEMs.

How are you planning to listen? With IEM, Headphone, TWS or BT Speaker? Because in the latter two cases, it won’t matter which phone you use as long as it supports latest BT codecs. But if you want to do lossless audiophile listening, then IEMs or Headphones (wired) are a must. IEMs can be driven by the dongles mentioned in the earlier part of this reply. For headphones you need a desktop DAC/Amp or at least a powered portable DAC/Amp. And those cost more (upwards of Rs 10000, and sky is the limit).