LG V20 features ES9218 Hi-Fi 32-bit DAC from ESS, while LG G6 (selected regions) appears to use ES9218+ variant. The V20 comes with 3 AOP Mic while G6 only has 2 AOP. This means the G6 does not support directional mic, where I can adjust the mic to pick up either the front of the camera or behind the camera. To me, that’s not quite a major issue. In this article, I want to compare the difference in the Quad-DAC audio quality.
For my test, I used the Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro. You may ask: why not use an audiophile headphones? Because I am doing a relative comparison, and the earphones I chose is more than adequate for me to determine the difference.
Test Result
The test tracks I used are:
- Mozart Ave Verum by Chesky Records (FLAC 192KHz 24 bit)
- Daft Punk – Give Life Back to Music (DSD64 2.8MHz, FLAC 88.2HKz 24 bit)
With these tracks, I observe the following with Hi-Fi DAC enabled:
- V20 delivers stronger boomier bass. The mids is also slightly elevated to sound warmer overall.
- G6 produces slightly clearer highs, possibly due to the recessed bass. The airiness is more apparent compared to the V20.
- Sound staging and instrumental separation are similar.
Since I have the Huawei P10+ with me, I thought I might as well put it to the comparison. The P10 Plus supports 24-bit FLAC playback but not DSD. I felt that the Huawei smartphone delivers overall punchier sound but that is because it lacks the sound staging, hence the instruments are more forward. The audio balance is closer to G6, but G6 is more enjoyable musically.
LG V20 (top) and LG G6.
Speaker Test
I also compared the speaker quality among the 3. The G6 produces clearer audio compared to V20, though both speakers are heavily compressed to bring out the volume. Still, both are no match for the Huawei P10+ due to its Stereo+ feature where the main speaker plays the bass while the front-facing voice call speaker produces treble, achieving the much-desired audio balance.
Conclusion
Yes, there is audio difference between LG G6 and LG V20, but mostly on the bass reproduction. If you own the V20 now, you will need to adjust to the LG G6 DAC audio output. Personally, I favour treble clarity, so I prefer G6, as its bass is sufficient yet does not overpower the highs.
Do you prefer bass or treble? Leave your comments below to discuss.
3 comments
Can you suggest some good earphone with minimal price for g6 to trigger the quad dac?
Hey !
Thank’s for the article!
I have a question and if you could help it’ll be super~
This time i own the Samsung galaxy s5 and the V-Moda M-100 i found that i can maximize all the power the M-100 can give me by using headphone amp or the built it amp like the LG-V20/30/G6
I will be glad if you can tell me which one phone works best with M-100 or even random headphone i just dont want to buy on black friday and get disappointed..?
Hi. Most earphones up to 32ohm will be able to power with smartphones easily. Any higher, then you would need special smartphones with batter DAC amp like LG V-series. You might want to consider 1MORE earphones which I reviewed recently.