Which ROM has the best audio quality from the 3.5mm headphone jack? - Lenovo ZUK Z2 (Plus) Questions & Answers

I have been trying a lot of custom ROMs recently on my Z2 Plus and I noticed the audio quality from the 3.5mm headphone jack is not particularly good on any of them. When listening to a piece of music or a podcast with quiet sections, a crackling noise is audible that makes it hard to hear any detail in the audio. The problem is most notable at low volume levels of just a few notches. I tried disabling any audio enhancements like the 'AudioFX' app that comes with Lineage-based ROMs, but this did not make much difference.
I listened to the same MP3 files on my ZTE Axon 7 and the audio is crystal-clear with no crackling present in the slightest. I'm using a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50 monitor headphones.
I know the ZTE Axon 7 has a Hi-Fi audio DAC which might explain why it sounds so much clearer, but I didn't expect the difference to be this much... Is the bad audio quality just a limitation of the ZUK Z2's hardware, or is it something that the custom ROMs are not implementing correctly?
Which ROMs have the clearest audio quality from the headphone jack?

https://forum.xda-developers.com/lenovo-zuk-z2/themes/magisk-v17-x-zero-audio-patch-t3843893
Flash this mod and use neutron/ poweramp with 24 bit hifi audio enabled.
There is a noticable difference in audio quality

senthamizhan said:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/lenovo-zuk-z2/themes/magisk-v17-x-zero-audio-patch-t3843893
Flash this mod and use neutron/ poweramp with 24 bit hifi audio enabled.
There is a noticable difference in audio quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I actually tried both of these tips before making this thread but I wasn't overwhelmed by the difference in audio quality... When playing music I still hear the crackling/static kind of noise during the quiet parts. I think it's probably a limitation of the hardware more than anything else.
Do you guys think using a 3.5mm to Type-C adapter with a built-in DAC would solve this problem? Then I could play music through the Type-C port instead of using the headphone jack.

P650SE said:
Thanks, I actually tried both of these tips before making this thread but I wasn't overwhelmed by the difference in audio quality... When playing music I still hear the crackling/static kind of noise during the quiet parts. I think it's probably a limitation of the hardware more than anything else.
Do you guys think using a 3.5mm to Type-C adapter with a built-in DAC would solve this problem? Then I could play music through the Type-C port instead of using the headphone jack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can always use a external dac via usb c port. Someone from zukfans.eu said it is working. But external dacs are expensive. Type c to 3.5mm jack adapters wont do anything if it does not have any dac inbuilt

senthamizhan said:
You can always use a external dac via usb c port. Someone from zukfans.eu said it is working. But external dacs are expensive. Type c to 3.5mm jack adapters wont do anything if it does not have any dac inbuilt
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Click to collapse
Okay, thanks. The reason I mentioned the Type-C adapters is because I thought some of them were marketed as having an inbuilt DAC. But that could be wrong and the ZUK might not have compatibly to use it anyway.
Yeah, I don't like the thought of buying an external DAC since I don't intend on keeping this phone much longer anyway. I'm just having trouble choosing my next handset since the smartphone market is so stagnant at the moment. LG V30 would be good for audio quality but it uses PWM which hurts my eyes too much.

try paranoid rom nougat version, it was the only rom in which I felt the audio quality was better. ZUK 2 clearly have poor hardware, my old moto g3 sounds much better.

Related

Improved sound quality with fiio e6!

I bought a fiio e6 on amazon and sound quality has improved tremendously. Even with my a2dp receiver in my car, the improvement was great. Any other experience?
What kind of headphones are you using? i suspect that makes much more of a difference than the amp
I'm planning to get an E6 by the end of this month. Together with AKG K240 MK II. I will need the amp anyway, but it'll be good to know what ear-/headphones you are using.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Just tried my E6 on my i9100. Absolutely no change at all. Tried 5 different IEM's and 2 different headphones, they all sounded the same.
Maybe your E6 is broken!
I use it with akg K317 and in my car with a beewi bba100.
I've ordered an e5, which I should receive tomorrow, from what I've read the bass boost on the e5 is better than that of the e6.
I'll report back on any change on the sound quality, although don't expect anything in-depth, I'm no audiophile
without a proper lineout from the phone, the sound will either be same or worst in most cases. Because what youre doing is amplifying an amplified signal. So, if the amplified signal from the phone is bad, i'm pretty sure your external amplifier cant fix that.
You would need the Samsung official car dock for true line-out audio. Either that or make your own cable like the one here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20710266&postcount=14
Maybe Bluetooth audio would also work, if you have a Bluetooth receiver with a decent DAC.
No matter what you use, it will not improve the overall sound of the device as it uses a cheap and crappy sound card. Any sort of amp including the Fiio E6 only brings EQ to the music, not to mention you actually lose sound quality because your using a jack to jack method unlike the iPod where they have special cables that connects directly into the DAC of the iPod because of the special provide cables which over-passes the direct headphone jack port. (Search up Fiio L9 Cable) Also when using the jack to jack cable that's provided with the Fiio E6 it lowers the loudness of the sound when connecting via phone to the amp.
Of course then there's the human ear, if you feel like it sounds great, good for you but in reality the sound is worse with EQ added to make you think it sounds great.
If your an audiophile you have to accept that the SGS2 isn't the best music device. Cowon for example or the SGP are good sounding music players. It's a waste of money to buy a Fiio E6 Amp unless your using an iPod to be honest cause it significantly improves the iPod devices.
That's my 2 cents, take it or leave it as you wish.
Blegh said:
without a proper lineout from the phone, the sound will either be same or worst in most cases. Because what youre doing is amplifying an amplified signal. So, if the amplified signal from the phone is bad, i'm pretty sure your external amplifier cant fix that.
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Yeah, I noticed no change in sound quality with my e5. However it can make it a LOT louder, so if that's something you need, you might still want to consider getting one of these
Intercrew said:
unlike the iPod where they have special cables that connects directly into the DAC of the iPod because of the special provide cables which over-passes the direct headphone jack port. (Search up Fiio L9 Cable)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The galaxy s 2 does also have line out which bypasses the headphone jack (for example the samsung car dock does line-out over the micro usb port) but there doesn't seem to be anything available to buy to do this without the dock. However as claimui said you can make your own cable too

[Q] Behringer UCA202 DAC - sounds horrible compared to headphone jack/bluetooth

So I found a Behringer UCA202 DAC online for really cheap and thought why not try it just for fun. Everything I've read says having one can help a bit and I figured at the least it would sound the same, but I plugged it into my Nexus 5 via OTG then plugged the AUX cord to my Jeep into the DAC and all bass and pretty much any other level of detail is gone from my music whether it's from Pandora, YouTube HD, or FLAC audio files. Audio sound quality is equal to listening to music over old mono bluetooth, you hear it fine but any highs and lows are removed. Has anyone else used this DAC that could give some suggestions?
Otherwise it's just as I assumed, DACs are pointless on good quality phones and that's why I can't find any DAC threads with the Nexus 5 involved.
herqulees said:
So I found a Behringer UCA202 DAC online for really cheap and thought why not try it just for fun. Everything I've read says having one can help a bit and I figured at the least it would sound the same, but I plugged it into my Nexus 5 via OTG then plugged the AUX cord to my Jeep into the DAC and all bass and pretty much any other level of detail is gone from my music whether it's from Pandora, YouTube HD, or FLAC audio files. Audio sound quality is equal to listening to music over old mono bluetooth, you hear it fine but any highs and lows are removed. Has anyone else used this DAC that could give some suggestions?
Otherwise it's just as I assumed, DACs are pointless on good quality phones and that's why I can't find any DAC threads with the Nexus 5 involved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ummm, it's not a DAC. It's an interface.
theesotericone said:
Ummm, it's not a DAC. It's an interface.
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Click to collapse
Yes, with a DAC in it. You need a DAC to get audio output through USB, there is no analog audio output through USB/USB OTG...
herqulees said:
Yes, with a DAC in it. You need a DAC to get audio output through USB, there is no analog audio output through USB/USB OTG...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it has a DAC but it's not meant as a stand alone DAC. It's an interface or soundcard. Does your phone have enough juice to even operate the thing? Also for a device that sells for less than 30 bucks what exactly where you expecting? Get a real DAC. You will notice a huge difference. Until then do some more research on what you have and see if your meeting it's power requirements.
This is actually a pretty good review of the unit with lots of technical info.
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html
theesotericone said:
Yes it has a DAC but it's not meant as a stand alone DAC. It's an interface or soundcard. Does your phone have enough juice to even operate the thing? Also for a device that sells for less than 30 bucks what exactly where you expecting? Get a real DAC. You will notice a huge difference. Until then do some more research on what you have and see if your meeting it's power requirements.
This is actually a pretty good review of the unit with lots of technical info.
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html
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Click to collapse
While I can't see power being an issue I suppose I'll test with my Nexus 7 and laptop. I know it's a cheap DAC but I've read many reviews using this DAC with tablets and phones for car audio, along with the nwavguy in-depth review and testing showing how it's not a multi-hundred dollar unit but still does amazingly well. My issue is it doesn't even sound decent. It sounds like I'm playing rap/hip-hop through an old Nokia on speaker phone, you can hear it clearly but there's no depth.
So I tossed this DAC in a closet after I got bored of trying to make it work right and forgot about it for a year or so till earlier today when I found it while cleaning. My Nexus 5 has been retired and serves no purpose other than a security camera now. I now have a Samsung Galaxy S5 and an RCA Maven Pro tablet. The RCA Maven Pro is an 11.1inch 2-in-1 Android tablet with detachable keyboard for around $120. You'd assume it's horrible thanks to the brand and price but they managed to cut corners in all the right places it seems. Downsides are no GPS, 1GB of RAM, terrible cameras, and a horrible speaker. Other than that it has faithfully replaced my $1200 laptop with zero issues other than adjusting to ditching Windows.
Now back on track when I listen to music I'm either using an aux cord plugged into my work truck or bluetooth when using headphones or in my new car. When doing a side by side comparison bluetooth, to no surprise, shows no difference between my Maven and S5. However when using an aux cord the RCA doesn't put out as much bass and highs are... I guess not as clear? I think audiophiles are insane most of the time so it's hard for me to describe when I do notice a difference. Anyways I plugged the UCA202 into the RCA's USB port (no OTG here, it has a full size USB port) and plugged my Sony MDR-XB950BT headphones in to it with an aux cord (these headphones are 100% passive when wired, no bass boost or other enhancements) and sound quality is just as great as my S5, all bass and highs are restored. Just to further the test I plugged it into my S5 and did the same test with the same results. These are the same FLAC song files from the same network location that my Nexus 5 was playing a year ago.
The whole time the issue was something in my Nexus 5. What it was I don't know and sorry you guys I don't plan on investigating, I just wanted to inform everyone that the Behringer UCA202 is in fact a quality budget DAC since this thread is a top Google result for "Behringer UCA202 Android". If you have a cheap device that you want the audio to be on par with the high end phones this will do it, and for my original purpose of at the same time giving a bit of amplification for a weak head unit without distortion it does that decently too. To finish this off I am NOT an audiophile. Just a human with human hearing that likes songs with bass on car head units that weren't always designed for it (I glued a 80mm CPU fan to the back of the HU in my Jeep ) So take my finer details however you'd like.
the DAC works great for my Nexus 7 2013 model.
maybe otg cable is sh1tty
Sent from my D820 CAF using Tapatalk

Asus Zenfone 5Z audio DAC performance?

Well it says that it supports Hi-Fi audio. But how Hi-Fi is it? What DAC is inside? In particular, I would like to know how the sound quality is from the 3.5mm audio jack compared to Hi-Fi mode of LG v30, my current phone. I simply cannot get a phone that downgrades my audio experience, you know?
Even I am interested in this. The specs talk about Hi-res audio. It has Dual 5-magnet speakers with dual NXP smart amplifiers and PMIC internal dual amplifier according to the specs. Does it really have a DAC or does it only have amplifiers. How is the sound quality. I would really like somebody to post their review.
DAC Performance
I don't have technical details on the DAC inside, and I have don't have v30 to compare, but I can tell you that the sound quality combined with DTS is amazing.
I am quite an audiofile and I was impressed with the sound quality. I don't like the bundled earphones unfortunately. I used my BT headset.
I have a P20 as well, which is a much more expensive phone with a DAC, and 5Z's sound quality is comparable. I love P20's headphones though.
The most important and the best thing about 5Z is that DAC/DTS works for bluetooth headphones as well. I have not seen any phone having this feature (may be S9, but I don't know). With phones such as OP, I had to root and use Viper4Android to make by BT headphones sound better. Now, with 5Z, I can keep my phone unrooted and enjoy the great audio experience.
Unfortunately, I don't like the UI and animations of 5Z, and I would use a custom rom when available. I am sure such roms will come for 5Z because with such high-end specs and aggressive pricing, many developers would buy this phone
Cheers
Andrew Lin said:
Well it says that it supports Hi-Fi audio. But how Hi-Fi is it? What DAC is inside? In particular, I would like to know how the sound quality is from the 3.5mm audio jack compared to Hi-Fi mode of LG v30, my current phone. I simply cannot get a phone that downgrades my audio experience, you know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sound is good but not on par with LG g6 for example. LG is way ahead in the sound part.
Sent from my ASUS_X00QD using XDA Labs
I have both LG g6 and g7 but the Zenfone 5Z's sound is the best!!
5z doesn’t have any dedicated DAC as per few video reviews beebom or igyaan audio quality and amplification via headphone jack is not that great. I have a v20 with root and high impedance mode always on. I don’t think this phone compares to any of the recent LG flagships in terms of audio quality.The only place where 5z beats LG would be in the loudspeaker setup where 5z has stereo setup.
gautam.malik said:
I don't have technical details on the DAC inside, and I have don't have v30 to compare, but I can tell you that the sound quality combined with DTS is amazing.
I am quite an audiofile and I was impressed with the sound quality. I don't like the bundled earphones unfortunately. I used my BT headset.
I have a P20 as well, which is a much more expensive phone with a DAC, and 5Z's sound quality is comparable. I love P20's headphones though.
The most important and the best thing about 5Z is that DAC/DTS works for bluetooth headphones as well. I have not seen any phone having this feature (may be S9, but I don't know). With phones such as OP, I had to root and use Viper4Android to make by BT headphones sound better. Now, with 5Z, I can keep my phone unrooted and enjoy the great audio experience.
Unfortunately, I don't like the UI and animations of 5Z, and I would use a custom rom when available. I am sure such roms will come for 5Z because with such high-end specs and aggressive pricing, many developers would buy this phone
Cheers
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Click to collapse
I sincerely hope you weren't serious when you said you are an audiophile!
First of all, you can't rate any phone's DAC or AMP performance by using BT headset. Bluetooth headphones have their own inbuilt DAC that they use to process sound when they receive audio in the form of digital signal via Bluetooth from the phone. Then by using their internal inbuilt DAC they convert that Digital signal to Analog signal.
Second of all, are you even serious when you rate Huawei P20/P20 pro sound as great ? Huawei/Honor phones have one of the weakest audio performance out there. Puny amp, okayish DAC, nothing more. Similar is the case with P20/pro.
"P20 is a phone with a DAC !" Which phone isn't the one with DAC? Every phone has one. Some use inbuilt one inside their processors, some employ custom ones for better sound fidelity.
"DAC/DTS works for headphones too!" DAC doesn't work for Bluetooth headphones, it's just that 5z allows to change sound settings of Bluetooth headphones from phone's stock settings. It by no way means that phone's DAC is being involved in Bluetooth headphones. It's simply not possible.
And DAC and DTS aren't the same things either that they can be written interchangeably.
I hope it helps. I by no way mean that 5z has bad audio quality but just corrected some of the things that weren't correct.
I frequently use aux in my car and this is the first device that doesn’t make distortion in sound during high volume. I love it. My car sound system is like concert place now.
The whole Hi-Res audio thing is mainly just marketing and playback support, less to do with the actual quality of the DAC and amp. Nowadays most smartphones can play 24-bit audio at high sample rates (eg. 192kHz). Sony marketed that for many years but their phones kept using on-board Qualcomm DACs with low output voltage (~0.35V from Z5 to XZ Premium). I have the Z5 and I think it's audio quality is good for IEMs but it can't drive some larger headphones very well.
ASUS says there's smart amplifiers but those seem to be for the speakers rather than the headphone. PhoneArena did a review recently and measured the output voltage of the headphone jack to be only 0.252V! That's even lower than the Sony Xperia XZ Premium (0.36V). Of course it's not the end-all, but a higher output voltage would be better at driving higher impedance headphones.
Some users talk about EQ modes sounding better but these things can't improve the quality of the hardware's output (eg. distortion and stereo crosstalk). All they can do is alter the tuning to your preference.
The DAC on the 5Z is just ok ; not audiophile grade by any yard stick . It struggles with high impedance proper headphones like ATH
Which ATH do you have? I had MSR7 and the Xperia Z5 (0.35V) was good enough to drive it for most songs. Does it hiss with low impedance IEMs? Do you hear any distortion or stereo crosstalk? Hopefully someone does measurements...
How does it perform compared to Xperia Z5 to XZ Premium?
I am currently having Sound Magic e80c earphones which have impedance of 64 Ohms. Can one confirm whether it can work on 5z? Currently I am using it with Oneplus One and it works fine.
wGRV said:
I am currently having Sound Magic e80c earphones which have impedance of 64 Ohms. Can one confirm whether it can work on 5z? Currently I am using it with Oneplus One and it works fine.
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Click to collapse
You will be disappointed. As the output voltage is quite low, this phone isn't capable of driving high impedance headphones.
It's a shame that Asus is making fool of people in the name of "DTS headphone". I have e10C and I have to take the volume all the way upto 100% for movies.
FYL21 said:
Which ATH do you have? I had MSR7 and the Xperia Z5 (0.35V) was good enough to drive it for most songs. Does it hiss with low impedance IEMs? Do you hear any distortion or stereo crosstalk? Hopefully someone does measurements...
How does it perform compared to Xperia Z5 to XZ Premium?
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Click to collapse
M30x ..
Sent from my ASUS_Z01RD using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 PM ----------
Rahul 2007 said:
You will be disappointed. As the output voltage is quite low, this phone isn't capable of driving high impedance headphones.
It's a shame that Asus is making fool of people in the name of "DTS headphone". I have e10C and I have to take the volume all the way upto 100% for movies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the DTS headphone X is a gimmick ..
I think there is presently no phone in the market which will come near LG V20, G6, V30 and G7 headphone audio performance, particularly with respect to driving high impedance ear/head phones. Actually, I am searching for another brand other than LG which will give a similar high end audio performance. I have a V20 and partnering that with my Sony MDR 7506 headphones or Venture Electronics MonkPlus earbuds (both having impedance around 60 ohms), the sound quality is awesome which I never found in other smartphones.
Andrew Lin said:
Well it says that it supports Hi-Fi audio. But how Hi-Fi is it? What DAC is inside? In particular, I would like to know how the sound quality is from the 3.5mm audio jack compared to Hi-Fi mode of LG v30, my current phone. I simply cannot get a phone that downgrades my audio experience, you know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just sold my LG v30+ due to screen ghosting issues and bought the 5z.
The DAC is good for headphones.
I confirm my 5Z can drive my Sennheiser HD58X Jubilee(150 Ohms) when the volume is at 95%.
The sound is not as good as my LG V20's Quad-Dac though.
All these phones are nothing compared to a vibe p1 on resurrection remix
I have LG v20 and in the hopes of gettin listening to mind-blowing awesome sound, I bought FiiO music player and I couldn't get satisfied on anything. Poweramp on LG always destroys low end or certain frequencies (usually male voice) when pushed a little hard and when not pushed, there's no low end to talk about at all. FiiO has no low end frequency at all.
The only thing that came have a little satisfaction was my good old Lenovo Vibe p1 on resurrection remix. Seeing how you guys are rating LG v20 as great or the best, is there something I'm not doing to get the best out of it? I've tried it on earphones, Bluetooth etc but it just doesn't cut it.
XblackdemonX said:
I confirm my 5Z can drive my Sennheiser HD58X Jubilee(150 Ohms) when the volume is at 95%.
The sound is not as good as my LG V20's Quad-Dac though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May be it can drive .. but I find the audio fidelity not that great compared to even the A1 . Music just doesn't sound wholesome .
Sent from my ASUS_Z01RD using Tapatalk
i owned lg g6 and the 5z audio quality is not that bad by any means, it's quite OK by 2018 smartphone standard, with it's gimmicky features such as dtx, hi res audio support , etc.
the LG quad dac is the king in the smartphone audio for now, but again, the 5z audio quality is not bad, unless you are very picky about audio quality,
even lg g6 / v30 dac chip still can't compete with my iBasso dx150.
if you never use a true hi res audio player before, the 5z audio quality will be just fine for you.
even for me imho, it's good enough.

Headphone Sound Quality ?

Hi guys,
I've been reading contradicting opinions on sound quality from headphones output for this device (adapter actually). How would you rate it in terms of loudness and overall sound quality? Also, do you find it inconvenient to use in any way?
Thanks,
g
gimche said:
Hi guys,
I've been reading contradicting opinions on sound quality from headphones output for this device (adapter actually). How would you rate it in terms of loudness and overall sound quality? Also, do you find it inconvenient to use in any way?
Thanks,
g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont believe thats contradicting opinions... i tested 3 or 4 handsfree (xiaomi noise cancellation usb-c, sony mdr nc-31 em and other cheapest) and i did a comparation with xperia (z3 and z5) and sound is more natural on xiaomi; loud is it enough (if u dont like ,u can root and increase manual the volume until u can damage ur ears)...is a very good phone about sound
Thanks 7tky. What I meant by contradicting, is that some reviewers claim that sound from wired headphones is awesome, and some claim it's crap. That's why I wanted to hear opinions from people that actually own and use this phone.
gimche said:
Thanks 7tky. What I meant by contradicting, is that some reviewers claim that sound from wired headphones is awesome, and some claim it's crap. That's why I wanted to hear opinions from people that actually own and use this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say sound from this phone is pretty damn good, and GSMarena's tests confirm that. The phone can power pretty big headphones too. It powers Sennheiser HD6XX's pretty well and those are 300ohm cans. Obviously not close to as clear as a dedicated DAP/Amp combo but still impressive that it can power such headphones to near uncomfortable volume. Also according to a review that I can't seem to find anymore, the phone outputs analag signal from the USB-C port so the dongle doesn't have a DAC and Amp in it. All it is doing is turning the USB-C port into a 3.5mm jack which probably explains the capability to power my Sennheiser's.
Yup, I looked into this myself. I had a DAC and AMP combo for my old Moto Nexus 6 (I wasn't happy with the sound quality of the jack). This phone is surprisingly nice. I ended up buying a few extra USB C headphone adapters straight from Google (the official ones for the the Pixels were $9 when I got them). I haven't needed my DAC and AMP since switching.
And from what I've seen the DAC is internal on this phone (as opposed to the Pixel 2 which needs the DAC to be in the dongle). Idk if that allows the port to send more power straight to the headphones or not. But I'm happy.
I thought I would get annoyed by the dongle, but I ended up just ordering a few of the Google ones and keeping them on my headphones.
Plus, Viper4Android works fine for me for some additional tuning of audio (I'm using AOSP ROMs though, not MIUI, not sure if it works in MIUI).
Keep in mind I just use some Klipsch earbuds (R6, X11, and AS-5i), nothing that requires a crazy amount of power to run.
Hope this helps.
Ok, I bought the phone and tested it for a while now, so thought I might share my experience here...
With global rom phone came with (unfortunately, I don't know the version), sound quality was great, but volume was low. Further, it had a weird bug - when I was listening to music and notification cut trough, volume would jump much higher. I could easily recreate the bug by playing music, then going to sound settings and touching slider for ringtone/notification volume, then back to music. Volume would jump higher every time. Some googling reviled that lots of people experienced similar volume jumping bugs.
OTA update (again, I don't know to which miui version) fixed this, but volume was still relatively low. When I say this, I'm comparing it to my previous devices. I'm not trying to fry my ears, though it's always nice to have the option as some music is simply mastered to much lower volume, especially older stuff.
Now I'm on lineage and volume bust is just what miui was missing - few notches higher. I listen modern pumped-up stuff 2 or 3 steps below max, and crank it up to max for very low volume old stuff. Perfect balance for me.
I guess tweaking the correct config file would adjust volume limit on miui. If anyone knows how to do that, please share, it would be much appreciated.
If someone's curious about it, I'm using zero audio carbo tenore earphones.
My audioquest Dragonfly usb DAC stopped working after a MIUI upgrade on my mix 2 since the summer. That is, the phone recognises the DAC but the sound quality light stays red (instead of say, indigo) to indicate no signal.. Updating to MIUI 10 made no difference. I've confirmed it works with the 2S running Android 8 opr 1.70623.032 - My Mix 2 has opr 1.70623.027 and he meeting if that's a difference or if anyone has similar issues of a USB digital audio converter not working on their Mix 2?
paul_mcbride said:
if anyone has similar issues of a USB digital audio converter not working on their Mix 2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm interested in answer to this question too. Have you tried messing with developer options? Is the problem miui related ; did someone test on linage / aosp based roms?
...anyone tried this thing?
bleached45 said:
Yup, I looked into this myself. I had a DAC and AMP combo for my old Moto Nexus 6 (I wasn't happy with the sound quality of the jack). This phone is surprisingly nice. I ended up buying a few extra USB C headphone adapters straight from Google (the official ones for the the Pixels were $9 when I got them). I haven't needed my DAC and AMP since switching.
And from what I've seen the DAC is internal on this phone (as opposed to the Pixel 2 which needs the DAC to be in the dongle). Idk if that allows the port to send more power straight to the headphones or not. But I'm happy.
I thought I would get annoyed by the dongle, but I ended up just ordering a few of the Google ones and keeping them on my headphones.
Plus, Viper4Android works fine for me for some additional tuning of audio (I'm using AOSP ROMs though, not MIUI, not sure if it works in MIUI).
Keep in mind I just use some Klipsch earbuds (R6, X11, and AS-5i), nothing that requires a crazy amount of power to run.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the google dongle more sturdy? i have a Brainwavz HM5 which have a thick cable and the flimsy cable in the dongle supplied with the mi mix 2s feels like it will break any second from the weight of the cable on my HM5.
i skipped the original adapter and buy a new adapter(it's a dac hidizs sonata hd )
and use with my earphones is 1more triple driver.
no comment for that, oh i just forgot that, 1 word - perfect :v

[DISCUSSION] Headphone Jack performance

I wanted to start a thread discussing the performance of the headphone jack. I'm a bit disappointed considering Sony's audiophile history with their walkmans and LDAC codec.
Yes, I'm nit picking about a $13XX dollar phone but for this price, I was expecting a bit more that just average performance.
For comparison I do have a LG V40 with it's quad dac and it powers my audio technicas perfectly fine with High-Impedance mode.
On the MK ii, I don't get the full sound with out an external dac coming into play.
I'd like to ask other MK ii owners if having just a headphone jack is enough to power your earbuds/iems/headphones.
Going to do a bit more in detail research within a couple of days but I think Sony just wanted to slap a headphone jack just to say it has one.
Ps- I'm no audiophile but having a full sound for the headphones I have is a must.
Thank you! This thread is very interesting.
I have reduced hearing and I badly need a smartphone with high-output. My LG V30 with it's QUAD-DAC has no problem giving me enough volume even on my favourite pair Hifiman HE-4xx.
I was hoping that Sony 1 mk2 was an alternative, but maybe not................ ?
R800x_user said:
I wanted to start a thread discussing the performance of the headphone jack. I'm a bit disappointed considering Sony's audiophile history with their walkmans and LDAC codec.
Yes, I'm nit picking about a $13XX dollar phone but for this price, I was expecting a bit more that just average performance.
For comparison I do have a LG V40 with it's quad dac and it powers my audio technicas perfectly fine with High-Impedance mode.
On the MK ii, I don't get the full sound with out an external dac coming into play.
I'd like to ask other MK ii owners if having just a headphone jack is enough to power your earbuds/iems/headphones.
Going to do a bit more in detail research within a couple of days but I think Sony just wanted to slap a headphone jack just to say it has one.
Ps- I'm no audiophile but having a full sound for the headphones I have is a must.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may want to make the distinction between headphone jacks that can and cannot drive high impedance headphones as a headphone jack that can't can still be good as in clear, little to no distortion with good response and sound reproduction.
In this case its more like LG's has gone out of their way to include a dac that can power high impedance headphones (which is rare in the first place, in addition to the jack being rare) so if high impedance headphones usage is a top priority, then sticking to LG would be recommended.
I have a Meizu Pro usb dac which has a good reputation. The volume of the Meizu is a bit higher, but the audio quality of the Sony is equal. You just have to increase the volume 2 or 3 notches. The Sony uses the Qualcom dac and excellent Cirrus amplifier chips. I use my Beoplay H6 over the ear headphones for listening. The volume being a bit lower is no problem for me, I still can get serious hearing damage if I want to.
The audio is detailed, excellent channel separation, noise is undetectable.
jwalesh96 said:
You may want to make the distinction between headphone jacks that can and cannot drive high impedance headphones as a headphone jack that can't can still be good as in clear, little to no distortion with good response and sound reproduction.
In this case its more like LG's has gone out of their way to include a dac that can power high impedance headphones (which is rare in the first place, in addition to the jack being rare) so if high impedance headphones usage is a top priority, then sticking to LG would be recommended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sho-Bud said:
I have a Meizu Pro usb dac which has a good reputation. The volume of the Meizu is a bit higher, but the audio quality of the Sony is equal. You just have to increase the volume 2 or 3 notches. The Sony uses the Qualcom dac and excellent Cirrus amplifier chips. I use my Beoplay H4 over the ear headphones for listening. The volume being a bit lower is no problem for me, I still can get serious hearing damage if I want to.
The audio is detailed, excellent channel separation, noise is undetectable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah LG has done the headphone jack justice, but I was expecting a bit more out of the mark 2 for it's price point.
Like hi-res audio. I get it's mainly a photography oriented product. I mean I guess I got used to only using half of the volume steps provided by the LG phones.
I just had high expectations out of Sony in the audio department. Great camera. As for the dac mentioned above, i have a couple so I'm not too worried about getting any more of them. I have a couple of headphone I can try out besides my audio technicas.
The audio capability of the phone is lacking
Bluetooth volume is pretty poor even though it's decent quality
The 3.5mm Jack absolutely doesn't have that much power to drive much more than basic iem 8 to 16 ohm level. Can't push my 150ohm cans at all
Definitely louder than the previous phones. I'm just happy that the jack is back. I did notice a difference with bluetooth vs wired on WH1000XM4. Volume was definitely louder on bluetooth, but can really notice the difference in quality despite LDAC. But that's just me.
R800x_user said:
Yeah LG has done the headphone jack justice, but I was expecting a bit more out of the mark 2 for it's price point.
Like hi-res audio. I get it's mainly a photography oriented product. I mean I guess I got used to only using half of the volume steps provided by the LG phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it does have Hi-Res audio. Volume is a bit lower, but is also the curve of the volume control. With the LG the volume control is linear, with the Sony starts to increase real slow, until over half of the volume.
Sho-Bud said:
But it does have Hi-Res audio. Volume is a bit lower, but is also the curve of the volume control. With the LG the volume control is linear, with the Sony starts to increase real slow, until over half of the volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah volume has to be over half way to start making decent sound. Regular buds are fine though. I have some kz iems and it's fine with those. Just higher impedance isn't for this phone.
My Beoplay H6 headphones have an impedance of 30 Ohms. They work great with the Sony. I can't compare, these are the only wired headphones I have.
The audio quality is perfect with my XBA-N3AP or WH1000XM3
niaboc79 said:
The audio quality is perfect with my XBA-N3AP or WH1000XM3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh snap, how are the XBAs?
Currently, I'm using AKG N700nc2( using them wired )
R800x_user said:
Oh snap, how are the XBAs?
Currently, I'm using AKG N700nc2( using them wired )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
XBA are amazing, well balanced and no extra bass like many earphones.
With an upgraded cable it's even better [emoji106]
Envoyé de mon XQ-AT51 en utilisant Tapatalk
niaboc79 said:
The audio quality is perfect with my XBA-N3AP or WH1000XM3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think using its headphone jack to push N3AP do not working perfect, the human voice is low, the sound ‘s analysis goes bad, compare to use usb-3.5 dac line. I use IE60.
highlightshadow said:
The audio capability of the phone is lacking
Bluetooth volume is pretty poor even though it's decent quality
The 3.5mm Jack absolutely doesn't have that much power to drive much more than basic iem 8 to 16 ohm level. Can't push my 150ohm cans at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Poor volume, I can still get hearing damage by the levels of volume here.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Monster_Dawn said:
I think using its headphone jack to push N3AP do not working perfect, the human voice is low, the sound ‘s analysis goes bad, compare to use usb-3.5 dac line. I use IE60.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried with a dac, I will try to compare with my XA50ES
Envoyé de mon XQ-AT51 en utilisant Tapatalk
For everyone who isn't satisfied with the performance of the headphone jack:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/xnext-walkman-v1-0-xperia-1ii-5-ii-t4192117
Require a rooted device
[email protected] said:
For everyone who isn't satisfied with the performance of the headphone jack:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/xnext-walkman-v1-0-xperia-1ii-5-ii-t4192117
Require a rooted device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apologies for replying to an old threat, but what became of this? The link is now dead unfortunately. Was it an actual improvement or deleted because it was non-functional? Thanks.
Coleh said:
Apologies for replying to an old threat, but what became of this? The link is now dead unfortunately. Was it an actual improvement or deleted because it was non-functional? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to dm peter. I didn't have a chance to save this.
Sony Xperia 1 II most probably uses a Qualcomm audio codec. Can be their flagship Aqstic WCD9341, a dedicated audio chip. Only a proper tear-down will reveal the details. As I found out this audio chip contains a very good DAC section and can produce nearly 1 Vrms at headphone out when implemented in high performance mode.

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