LG G8X ThinQ
- a
- absolute
- YTd
- 11 Jun 2020
Cris, 07 Jun 2020This Lg G8x or Huawei p30 or galaxy S20 which is the good b... moreDude,,,Go for LG G8X. Best Battery life..I charge it in 2 days even after using a bit heavily. Overall Awesome beauty.
Camera and display all marvelous..
No doubt,, I had sold out my Note 10 plus to buy this beauty.
- e
- ethereal
- rKh
- 08 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 08 Jun 2020For both Android 9 & 10 in G8X, LG's default music app ... moreSounds great! Good luck for when you finally but this beauty! It's amazing.
Awaiting Android 10 on my baby now...
- RishiGuru
- Dkx
- 08 Jun 2020
ethereal, 07 Jun 2020Thanks. By the way heres that error you were talking about:... moreFor both Android 9 & 10 in G8X, LG's default music app is showing identical behavior for native DSD playback while using inbuilt QuadDAC:
1) DSD logo shown on default music app, proper file recognition is taking place.
2) On the default music app, we are able to change preset equalizers (Pop, Rock, Jazz) during playback, while hearing perceived sound signature differences with different equalizer presets.
3) During native DSD playback, we are unable to change pitch & speed of the song. It shows "Pitch and speed are unavailable for high resolution audio files"
The above behaviors are confirmed by two G8X users.
Conclusion:
1) I believe be it Android 9 or 10, native DSD playback runs just fine with no DSD to PCM conversion in the "LG default music app TO QuadDAC TO audio jack" audio chain.
2) Many audiophiles uses UAPP app in phones to listen to music. USB Audio Player (UAPP) as the name suggests is completely devoted to audio through USB port, mainly targeting use of external DACs & amps. This is where DoP comes into picture. UAPP on Android 10 is unable to send DSD as DoP over USB-C port, hence they are referring "DSD/DoP support is not present in Android 10"
I have Vivo NEX S running on Android 10 and have no issues with native DSD playback using default music player and the inbuilt DAC. So, enjoy buddy. This phone is in my upgrade list now.
- C
- Cris
- Nu6
- 07 Jun 2020
This Lg G8x or Huawei p30 or galaxy S20 which is the good buy, both in terms of price and specs. Battery is heavily considered.
- e
- ethereal
- U{Y
- 07 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 07 Jun 2020Enjoy buddy.
Native DSD playback support on G8X using LG... moreThanks. By the way heres that error you were talking about:
https://postimg.cc/WD1SsMbW
It gets thrown whenever I attenpt to change pitch or speed on a DSD playback. A little different error but possibly the same thing.
So its safe to add .1% to that 99.9% now.
- S
- Sandeep
- rKv
- 07 Jun 2020
I can't control volume rocker through earphone. Did anyone face this issue?
While watching amazon prime videos, I can't control volume / play n pause through earphones. Please help.
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 07 Jun 2020
ethereal, 07 Jun 2020Thanks buddy! I'll let you know when that happens. Currentl... moreEnjoy buddy.
Native DSD playback support on G8X using LG's Quad DAC:
Android 9: Confirmed. UAAP app is also showing native DSD support.
Android 10: Not confirmed.
- e
- ethereal
- U{Y
- 07 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 06 Jun 2020Great. Thanks again. Android10 for G8X is around the cor... moreThanks buddy! I'll let you know when that happens. Currently enjoying the 9 only.
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 06 Jun 2020
ethereal, 06 Jun 2020Sure. I tried that. Although, I do not get the error as "Au... moreGreat. Thanks again.
Android10 for G8X is around the corner and many who have received is already complaining of NO native dsd support as Android 10 have some issues. If you ever update to Android10 do let us know the native dsd playback situation after the update.
- e
- ethereal
- U@C
- 06 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 06 Jun 202099% confirmed LG G8X supports native DSD playback.
Just ... moreSure. I tried that. Although, I do not get the error as "Audio effects are unavailable for high resolution audio files" when I file with the equaliser while DSD is being played. However, I confirm that there's absolutely no effect on the audio being output no matter what preset or custom setting I choose for the equaliser. Whereas, the difference is clearly audible when I do same while playing any track on Spotify.
Also, what I noticed is there's small text written in the bottom of the "sound quality & effects page" which reads "some effects may not work depending on the type of audio". I'm sure it has to do something with what we are trying to figure out here. So, yes. DSD support is there on my G8x as it appears.
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 06 Jun 2020
ethereal, 06 Jun 2020Sure. Both DSD 64 & 128 play well in the default music ... more99% confirmed LG G8X supports native DSD playback.
Just for the last 1%, please check and confirm during DSD playback through default music player, if you try to enable equalizer it shows something like:
"Audio effects are unavailable for high resolution audio files"
If audio effects are disabled then 100% native DSD playback support, else not.
- e
- ethereal
- rJQ
- 06 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 06 Jun 2020Try to play DSD test tracks from here: http://www.2l.no/hir... moreI confirm both those DSD 64 & 128 play well inside the default music player with the DSD badge in the top-left. No problems there.
- e
- ethereal
- rJQ
- 06 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 06 Jun 2020Try to play DSD test tracks from here: http://www.2l.no/hir... moreSure. Both DSD 64 & 128 play well in the default music player. There's a DSD logo in the top-right showing the same. See for yourself:
https://postimg.cc/cgD9JZk2
https://postimg.cc/w18pzcmJ
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 06 Jun 2020
ethereal, 05 Jun 2020EDIT:
For some weird reason for some tracks I was able t... moreTry to play DSD test tracks from here: http://www.2l.no/hires/
Try this album: Bellezza Crudel - VIVALDI (2L-056 SACD)
This a SACD album, so you can download and try DSD64 & DSD128 files in you LG G8X. See if the default music player is recognizing the track with DSD logo in the playlist & also while playback.
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 06 Jun 2020
ethereal, 05 Jun 2020I really appreciate your deep knowledge on the subject. Tha... moreDSD (Direct Stream Digital) is the encoding mode of SACD (Super Audio CD). Using 1-bit bit-stream with a sampling rate of 2.8224 Mhz (64 times higher than that of CD 44.1 kHz, thus the name DSD64), it transforms the analog music signal wave-forms directly into digital signals in the form of pulses. With the space nearly four times larger than that of CD, it presents a fantastic audio feast for those who care about audio quality. To me anything higher than DSD64 like DSD128 or DSD256 takes you to the realm of diminishing returns as a DSD256 encoded song can take up 400 MB of your space. Thus the most common standard of SACD is DSD64.
So when we have music in DSF of DFF format representing a SACD in your internal memory, any flagship phone now-a-days will SOFTWARE DECODE the DSD to PCM and start playback. This conversion results in some loss in audio fidelity. So the owner will feel his/ her phone supports DSD, which is true but not natively.
In audio centric smartphones, whose big chuck of owners are music lovers and are very critical is preserving the SACD quality, the smartphone manufacturers provide native DSD playback support. In LG V30+ or the Vivo NEX S, LG/ Vivo have dug a software audio tunnel from default music player to the hardware DAC. So when a DSD file is played by the default music player on these phones, there is no software decoding from DSD to PCM, rather the raw DSD passes through this audio tunnel straight to the DAC, for HARDWARE DECODING inside the DAC and subsequent generation of analog audio signals which we humans can perceive. In professional native DSD playback mode, this audio path between the music player to the DAC is in pure direct mode thus preserving SACD audio quality and maximum audio resolution. Audiophile dreams.
I believe your LG G8X supports native DSD playback just like my LG V30+ because the audio hardware is identical. In V30+, when default music player detects a DSD file it shows DSD in the playlist. When it plays a DSD, it shows like:
DSD DSF64 2.8Mhz
DSD DSF128 5.6Mhz
Same is shown in your G8X, which should indicate DSD file recognition by the default music player and subsequent native DSD playback.
What G8X does not support is DoP (DSD over PCM), which is completely different from native DSD playback support. My V30+ supports DoP. What this means is V30+ is able to transport DSD over its USB-C port to an external DAC. To transmit DSD data on a USB port using DoP is to package the DSD data in PCM form. To be clear, this is NOT a data conversion from DSD to PCM. The data are unchanged. The DAC on the other side of V30's USB port must also be DoP compliant in order to reassemble the DoP PCM bits into a continuous DSD stream. Now with DoP gone for G8X, LG Music app in G8X will perform software conversion of DSD to 88200Hz PCM while transporting through USB-C to the external DAC resulting is some loss in quality.
- e
- ethereal
- rJQ
- 05 Jun 2020
RishiGuru, 05 Jun 2020DSD or Direct Stream Digital is a one bit recording format.... moreI really appreciate your deep knowledge on the subject. Thanks a lot for sharing all those details.
As for the DSD to PCM conversation, I can not say for sure until we have some way to figure that out. On my Fiio, there's a small green light that lights on detecting a DSD file. I hope there's some such way to know on my G8x as well.
- RishiGuru
- utg
- 05 Jun 2020
ethereal, 05 Jun 2020EDIT:
For some weird reason for some tracks I was able t... moreDSD or Direct Stream Digital is a one bit recording format. DSF is a kind of audio file that are delivered as downloads or read by a software for playback. DSD is a term that include DSF files. PCM for example can be WAV, FLAC or mp3. Similarly DSF is DSD. My LG V30+ (V30 with more internal memory) supports DSD64, DSD128 & MQA in PCM format.
V30+ in reality have two DACs:
1) HiFi QuadDAC Enabled: ESS ES9218P SABRE: Support for DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
2) HiFi QuadDAC Disabled: Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9341: Support for DSD64, DSD128
ES9218P is the QuadDAC, while WCD9341 is the flagship audio chip from Qualcomm. The most probable reason I can think of dropping DSD256 support, is the lack of playback support by WCD9341. So if an user is playing a DSD256 with HiFi QuadDAC Enabled and suddenly opts to disable the HiFi mode, the DSD audio stream will be redirected to WCD9341 which is unable to handle DSD256. All of this is applicable when using the default music player, as other third party music players will convert any DSD to PCM and play easily.
There are more restrictive DSD playback approaches followed by other smartphone manufacturers. Take for example my Vivo NEX (Vivo NEX S in China). Like V30+, the NEX also have two DACs:
1) HiFi Enabled: Cirrus Logic CS43199: Support for DSD64
2) HiFi Disabled: Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9340: No support for DSD playback
In NEX there is a dedicated DSD enable switch in sound settings. If that switch is disabled and I play DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 files, all files will be converted to PCM by the default music player and get played. I can even toggle between HiFi enable/ disable modes now as both DACs supports PCM playback upto 384kHz. But if I enable the DSD switch, and then play DSD using default music player:
DSD64: DSD logo shows up on notification bar, and bit perfect DSD64 is fed straight to CS43199. As WCD9340 does not support DSD, HiFi enable/ disable toggle gets disabled.
DSD128: HiFi logo is shown instead, DSD to PCM converted by the player and send to the DAC. CS43199 has no support for DSD128.
DSD256: HiFi logo is shown instead, DSD to PCM converted by the player and send to the DAC. CS43199 has no support for DSD256.
Your LG G8X audio hardware setup should be near identical to V30+, the question remains, is G8X converting DSD to PCM, or is it directly streaming DSD to the DAC?
- e
- ethereal
- rKh
- 05 Jun 2020
ethereal, 04 Jun 2020Sure. Here are my findings:
Formats natively supported ... moreEDIT:
For some weird reason for some tracks I was able to play DSD upto DSD 128 in the default music player natively. It never worked for the DSD 256 though. When it works I can see a special badge in the top left of the track being played such as [DSD] DSF 128 5.6Mhz.
- e
- ethereal
- rKh
- 04 Jun 2020
Sure. Here are my findings:
Formats natively supported by the default music player:
Stereo 24BIT/352.8kHz
Stereo 24BIT/192kHz
Stereo 24BIT/96kHz
MQA stereo original resolution
Original CD 16BIT/44kHz
5.1 Surround 24BIT/96kHz
Formats NOT supported natively by the default music player:
Stereo DSD 256 11.2896Mbit/s
Stereo DSD 128 5.6448Mbit/s GPM
Stereo DSD 64 2.8224Mbit/s GPM
5.1 Surround DSD 64 2.8224Mbit/s GPM
GPM - Supported by Google Play Music, however. Not sure if it decodes properly though.
- C
- Calbff
- 6yu
- 02 Jun 2020
This really is a great phone. It's not the beast that the s20 is, but it's half the price, is still very fast, has plenty of RAM and storage, and the the second screen isn't just a gimmick, it's awesome. I'm simply not going to use a $1500 phone, that's insane, and this performs just as well. No quad HD? Never used it once on my s8. I'm a semi-power user and haven't missed a single thing on my g8x. Great work LG.