yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] psawjack:
Howdy All,

For those who have had a LG V device in the past you'all know what's coming - how do we trick the quad DAC into high impedance mode (HIM) or AUX mode?

For those who don't know here's a little background. The previous LG V series phones have had a very nice DAC and AMP setup which can almost meet the standards of audiophile quality. The thing was that in the later phones (V20 and V30 AFAIR) the software was designed to "smart switch" which mode the AMP was in. HIM and AUX mode settings had the loudest volumes and was corresponding to the headphone impedance value. The normal setting had the lowest volume designed for low impedance IEMs. Note that the AMP setting doesn't really have a bearing on sound QUALITY, just sound VOLUME. I'm guessing but the reasoning for this is to prevent blown IEMs and blown eardrums. I'm going to find the link for the old V30 quad DAC thread and some stuff tried and what worked in order to activate AUX mode and/or HIM. BTW having ROOT on the phone allows for adjusting this setting as needed, which is why I went with the unlocked version this time around. My pair of MrSpeakers Aeon Flows have low impedance but need power in order to drive properly and the AMP in the V series phones would only trigger normal impedance mode.

https://xdaforums.com/lg-v30/help/modes-quad-dac-t3690567

So that brings us to the V40. Does it have a quad DAC? Yes it does. Does it have a smart switching AMP? So far my indications are yes it does. Do the old tricks from the V30 days work on the V40? I don't think that they do. I have multiple extension cables, which I use for triggering the AUX mode as well as an impedance adapter (50ohms I think). The old methods of using the extension cable, the adapter, and both don't seem to have an effect on the AMP setting. My Sony MDR-1As are much louder than my Aeon Flows...bummer for me.

UPDATE - Upon further testing with the help of this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apptrio.hi_fi_status I was able to trigger the AUX AMP mode and it kicked up the volume on my Sony's quite a bit! Unfortunately when I triggered HIM the volume of the sound did not change from the normal mode. Basically what I did was take a 2ft 3.5mm cable extension (male on one side female on the other) and plug it in WITHOUT THE HEADPHONE CABLE ATTACHED. Once the HIFI status app displayed AUX mode I then plugged in my HPs and BOOM, here comes the volume!

Anyways if you have anything to add or have any questions feel free to hit us up. When root is available I'll also make updates to this thread if need be.

Have a good one :highfive:
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Fabio0716:
Is that why the volume is stuck at 75?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] psawjack:
If you have your volume go up to 75 and it doesn't blow out your ears then it is due to the AMP being in normal mode.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
I just say one thing:

Neutron player!

Demands some fiddling before you reach your preferred settings, but for me it's the best DAC player out there!
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] treesap:
Have you tried the mobile version of foobar2000? As it's the preferred app for FLAC files and such on the PC, I imagine the mobile version is quite good as well. I wonder how it compares to Neutron Player. I definitely will give both a shot and compare.

On the note of music players, despite making fun of it (it's quite easy to do) and being certain it would fail, I recently converted to Tidal. The quality is really astounding, and the music library is almost as complete as Spotify/etc. Additionally, some albums are available as "masters" that are actually encoded with MQA!
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Evilmonstertruck:
Your right about Tidal. It sounds awesome. The price difference isn't worth it though.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Treesap! I'm comparing those players right now! I'm listening to metal (Tesseract), jazz (Yellowjackets), all flac, and so far I like both foobar2000 and Neutron. The built in player is not satisfying me yet, except for mp3 (I See Stars - Treehouse). Does anyone know if it's necessary to disable the built in effects to make other players work independently? That's what I did with v20. Just remember how different expectations and taste we all have in regards to music/sound :)

And maybe I should add that I'm just a regular user (with high demand on sound quality), who can't afford too fancy earbuds or extras right now. Any advice regarding good quality sound (budget price) earbuds would be very appreciated :)
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Went back to Poweramp (poweramp-alpha-build-705) and so far it's the best one for me.

For anyone who didn't know, if you payed for the full version, you can upgrade it to high res.

https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic...s-within-old-feature-complete-user-interface/
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
So after fiddling for a while, Poweramp alpha 705 is tuned (for my ears) to perfection :)

If it can help anyone, I'll happily share?!

BTW, some interesting reading that made me understand more about hi-res and DAC:

https://www.androidauthority.com/why-you-dont-want-that-32-bit-dac-667621/
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] wwyjoe:
Does Poweramp 705 perform better than LG's stock music app?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Well I'm sure there's some tech guys here who can give us the correct details, but for me the answer is yes! After tuning it up for my ears, the Poweramp does it in a perfect way. If I play mp3 or flac it's giving me perfect sound all over, compared to the lg app were I had to tune it up for individual files.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] VR32:
have any of you engaged the DAC for streaming, for Google music in particular?

there was mention by some last year that one DAC player and an add-on app could do that for Google music. i just don't keep much on my phone and streaming is my way, so I'm still looking at taking advantage where i can. I'm running V4A on a rooted V30 now and looking at the V40's development.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Poweramp improving and improving :)

(Poweramp-v3-build-805-uni)
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] ps3hacker3:
I realize there probably isn't much benefit from forcing high impedance but I do want to do some testing with it among other things so I'm curious has anyone figured out any tricks to forcing it with an extension cable or anything of the sorts. I'm still trying to find ways and it looks like similar ways done to the v30 isn't working the same way for our v40's
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Japultra:
What settings have you set your Poweramp to? The LG app is sounding better and much louder to me.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Hope the following can help, and also, please correct me anyone, if my way of thinking here is some way wrong or misleading.

A assume you've already taken part of the Poweramp forum?! It's the only way to get the hi-res add-ons. And you obviously have to log in to be able to download.

I'm not 100% sure about how poweramp and the built in eq interacts, but after fiddling for a bit, it seams like what I'm sharing here works best when it comes to volume and sound. Have in mind our individual reference of sound and of course, what kind of earphones/buds you have (this is based on flac files).

You can see I've put replay gain on max in Poweramp settings. You can easily change RG in the eq later to fit individual album.

If anyone else have suggestions, please don't be shy :)

https://forum.powerampapp.com/files/file/37-poweramp-v3-build-807-uniapk/
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Here's the rest:
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] psawjack:
I put details in the first post. Maybe you missed it?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] mtmdatlanta:
Speaking of the DAC, does anyone know if the V40 has support for MQA? The V30 has it, and they recently added support for it to the Essential PH-1, but no mention of it for the V40, just "high quality Quad DAC". I suspect that it does, because they probably used the same chip for the V40, but I see no mention of it anywhere, so far.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Ainz_Ooal_Gown:
I had the V30+ what's "MQA"?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] yamus08:
Since there are a few Poweramp fans here, has anyone had any luck with getting hi-res experimental working with headphones on the v40? When I turn it on, the sound output switches to the phone speaker, even with headphones plugged in.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nygmam:
Just curious, I found these a while ago, and just got round to trying them. They are 68ohm and sound great on the V40. I found them doing a search of reviews for high impedance headphones, on headphone review sites, and at $12 figured they were worth a shot. I am sure you can find them cheaper, but these are what I got. Has any one else tried these?

Venture Electronics VE MONK Plus earbud earphone E-v https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J0S4AAS/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_t1_cSG8Bb8W6JHQS
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Look at post 16 and 17 !

Be sure you upgraded to the latest hi-res add on! Nothing of this is possible if you don't have the paid version and logged in to the poweramp forum to get the hi-res add-on.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] ps3hacker3:
That's quite strange, mine does work with poweramp high experimental whole running headphones. Might have to explain that in a little more detail perhaps maybe in not understanding you quite right. High experimental shouldn't work at all on speaker mode. It doesn't for me without running through the jack.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] yamus08:
I'm a member of the Beta and am on v3 build 809 and using paid version. Are you saying there is an additional add-on that I need to download because I didnt see anything. I'll check again though.

As soon as I turn on hi-res, the sound starts coming through my speaker and headphones cease to work until I turn hi-res back off
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Pic nr 4 in post 16 (settings - audio- output)
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] mtmdatlanta:
MQA stands for Master Quality Authentication. It's an audio codec using lossy compression and a form of file fingerprinting used for high fidelity digital audio streaming and file downloads. It was launched in 2014, and is included in some very high quality and expensive hifi gear. It has been hailed as a significant advance by some of the industry's golden ear reviewers and editors, but some in the industry are against it, mostly due to royalties and licensing requirements. Tidal's "Hifi" streaming package uses the MQA codec, so the content sounds best when played back using equipment that supports MQA playback. I heard a demonstration of MQA at HIFI Buys in Atlanta, on some very high resolution equipment, and it sounded great, sounding more analog and much less digital than standard CD playback.

The LG V30 does have the MQA decoding software. That devise has been tested by various high end audio reviewers to much acclaim, and some of that was due to the inclusion of MQA. That's why I'm hoping it's also in the V40.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] jambaj0e:
I can tell you that the trick of using a short extension cable, a 75 Ohm adapter, then my own earphones (FLC 8N) works on my LG V40. I plug it in that order, wait for the High Impedance to kick in (There's an app that announces which mode you're on called "Hi-Fi Status (LG)). Then I take the 75 Ohm adapter and earphones off. The connected extension cable will retain the High Impedance Mode. I take off the adapter and plug my earphones straight into the extension cable and voila!
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] jambaj0e:
Here's a screenshot of the Hi-fi Status app
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] StephenMSmith:
A short exertion cable all by itself works perfectly on my v35 as well. Just plug it in first. Volume was tooow for all my wired devices until I used this trick to enable high impedance mode. Perfrt now.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Dalorn:
Found some hidden files in the v40, unlock by writing I ❤ LG In sequential corners in the touch assistant men has orc and fantasy and 2 recoveries and a debug
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] StephenMSmith:
Is there a quality improvement with HIM mode vs AUX mode? Triggering AUX mode gives me the volume I want but unclear if this disables hi fi mode, found in normal or HIM?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] psawjack:
Therenis no quality variance between the modes just power output AFAIK.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] gaurav_15:
How many volume steps it has?? 100 or like g7 limited to 75?? Is it louder than g7 or same output as g7??
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] killacam4207:
V40 is also 75 though I have a feeling it is capped at 75% volume

Does not get as loud as i expected. Sounds clear and clean but I cant seem to find a way to pump out decent decibels. My other devices have no issues outputting enough to power my (iSine 20 Audeze IEM'S)

Only with AUX. My BT is louder lol.

(Aptx hd Nuraphones by nura) it circumvents the stock equalizer to output custom sound profiles made by scanning your unique hearing range simular to a hearing test it resonates your silia in your ear and they resonate a frequency 1/1000 as faint as the frequency made by the drivers.... So it is an equilzer issue

My Soundquest Dragonfly Red USB DAC does not get loud enough either

Im convinced that It is sound locked at 75%

Until there is root or a firmware update fix we are going to have to use apps that use their own equilizers rather than the stock one.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Sony92:
Does the dac also ensure better quality in in ears? if I have the aux mode trigger then it is louder in any case? I am interested in whether the dac also uses for better sound quality and whether this is also sinful in ears. can there still be something to optimize for in ears with the dac? for example later with root tweaks?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] spjohnny23:
Help with Tidal Volume

Hi!

I am new in this forum but it is great to see that others have been challenging with the same issues.

After many years using iPhones with external DAC's and adapters I have moved to Android because the Tidal app now offers MQA (before was only available at their desktop app) and because LG phones come with a DAC that supports MQA. So I would have better sound quality and less hardware.

So i bought a V40 for 900€ and I am overall very happy with the change, except for the main reason I moved to Android: Tidal MQA files are way too low at 75 to fill any good headphones.

I have seen some of you solved it with an external cable and others with apps. Can anyone tell me what cable I have to buy to force the phone to High Impedance and if you know any app that can work in parallel with Tidal? (I have already downloaded Hi-Fi Status (LG) app).

Thank you very much from Spain!

Best,

Javier
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] StephenMSmith:
You want this for $6. Works perfectly to put all my wired headphones in AUX mode, which resolves volume. In regular mode, 75 way too soft. In AUX mode, 70 just right.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01552UGSS/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] ps3hacker3:
I understand the risks involved with it but is there a cable to force full high impedance?
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] StephenMSmith:
That I don't know. This one does all I need.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] g35mt:
I have a 600ohm beyerdynamic dt990 and it still wont allow me to inceease more than 75. I assume since my headphone is high impedance it would work. Oh well. It aound pretty good but very low volume. I will try out hifiman he560 but need adapter.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] StephenMSmith:
75 is max volume. There is nothing higher. Confusing that they chose 75 instead of 100 as the max volume number but rest assured, 75 is maximum volume output.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] demonknight:
Tried it with my v20 years back but then i realized forcing it into high impedance mode did not affect the quality of the music so i chucked it out.

Get one of these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-5...lug-for-HiFi-Player-Earphone/32810903635.html

From what i remember, plug the 75ohm adapter into the aux extension cable first, then plug the cable into the phone with the impedance adapter attached. Phone will trigger high imp mode.

Remove only the imp adapter and connect your earphone/headphone cable into the extension cable which is plugged in the phone.

Not really sure if LG prevented it from happening in later models. Saved the trouble and just bought a high impedance headphone :) Less of a hassle.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] Sarthak8266:
Lg stock music player has best pre audio tunnings ever no competition with poweramp etc etc
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] markdcouto:
But it doesn't recognize cue files
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] nyttliv7:
Don't agree at all

Poweramp has improved impressively...

It's always a matter of individual ears and taste, but poweramp is defenitely better when it comes to personal "tuning up"...
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] TheDannemand:
For audiophiles looking for the most faithful reproduction of the recorded sound (as opposed to the "best tuned" sound) both LG Music and PowerAmp come up short, since neither of them are able to bypass up-sampling to 48Khz when playing Redbook 16/44 tracks (anything CD quality).

LG Music does a great job indeed, and faithfully plays any HiRes tracks (or anything 24-bit) using the Direct path to the Quad DAC. It also plays MQA files correctly.

But when playing 16/44 tracks, it uses the Mixer path, causing them to be up-sampled to 48Khz before being sent to the DAC. In most cases, this up-sampling isn't horrible, and in fact many people would never notice it. But to the trained ear, and with sensitive IEMs (such as ones using Balanced Armature drivers) it can cause a noticeable hiss and other artifacts. And even knowing that it occurs is offensive to audiophiles, who use the V30 for the otherwise excellent performance of its ESS Sabre 9218P DAC.

Almost all music apps do the same, simply because LGs implementation of the DAC (or its driver) doesn't accept 16/44 directly. You can check this for a given app by inspecting a dumpsys of audio_flinger captured during playback.

The only apps confirmed to bypass the Android Mixer when playing 16/44 (again, anything CD quality) are UAPP and Neutron. They have dedicated support for V30, and convert 16/44 to 24/44 on the fly (a harmless conversion that just adds zero-bits) in order to bypass the Mixer.

They are also excellent player apps in almost every other way. I personally do not like Neutron's UI, but I love UAPP, which also supports streaming from Qobuz and Tidal (with full hardware MQA decoding and rendering on V30/V35/G7/V40).

Read more about this in the head-fi thread linked below:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/music-apps-tips-and-tricks-for-the-lg-v30.868978/

As for tuning... well, you select headphones or IEMs that have the sound signature you like, which of course will depend on your type of music and your personal preference.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] ctheanh:
As I know, without rooting and modifying the system, the direct PCM mode will only play 16 /48 output even in audio policy show it can play 44,1.

Currently, I am using LG V35 with android 9 and UAPP seems not work in Direct Mode.

With Poweramp and Neutron it show output correctly for Hi-res and 16/44,1 (I assume that is on offload mode).

I am not sure how these app can play bypass audioflinger. Anyone knows what API they are using? It must be not base on ALSA because it does not need root access.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] ctheanh:
I understand now. You can see here in the file audio_io_policy.conf and know why they can oly play 16/48 .

About Poweramp, yes, it will convert to 24/44,1 to play 16/44,1 source also (in Hi-res output option)

I have no root access for V35 now so I did not test on it. But I used alsaplayer before for V10, Vibe X3 and it can play 16/44,1 well without touching audioflinger. You can check it here: https://xdaforums.com/general/general/hi-fi-playback-android-developers-t3011925
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] TheDannemand:
Thank you for confirming about Poweramp. Were you able to verify it by inspecting audio_flinger dumps (not just trusting settings menus in the app)?

No doubt policy is what forces 16/48. But I know others with rooted V30 spent considerable time experimenting with audio_io_policy.conf modifications without being able to make it play 16/44 Direct/offloadable. Personally I think because the codec driver doesn't implement it.

When you mentioned other solutions on rooted phones, I was hoping you meant system-wide solutions, not just another app. We've already had UAPP and Neutron for ~1.5 years supporting it through 24/44. And now possibly Poweramp too, if confirmed. So we're covered there.

A common issue for audiophile V30/V35/V40/G7 users is upsampling in Tidal: The Tidal app is perfect when playing Master tracks (MQA/HiRes) which are 4x unfolded and rendered beautifully in hardware on V30. But most of Tidal's catalog is non-Master 16/44 tracks, which are upsampled when played in the Tidal app. You can avoid that by streaming Tidal with UAPP, but not Tidal offline -- for that you have to use their app.

Others want to use Spotify or Google Play Music or some other service, although audiophiles are more focused on Tidal and Qobuz because of the higher sound quality.

So if you have suggestions for how to address this system-wide on rooted phones, I am very interested. So far my conclusion is we need a modified audio_flinger which converts 16/44 to 24/44 on the fly instead of passing it through the Mixer for upsampling. But I hope I am wrong, that it can be done with policy tweaks after all.
[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] ctheanh:
I 've just came back to V35 for 3 days without rooting access so not enough time to research many things.

My experience with Vibe X3, LG V10 before with Poweramp (from their alpha version) with checking the mixer path, dumping file, alsa output status... and I can confirm that Poweramp show correctly what they did. With LG V35, sometime it turn off HIFI Mode(don't know why, you can check it by switching On/Off to here the interuption) and Poweramp will show that it will play at 16/48 output.

Changing *.conf file never give the result, because the parameter is setup in source code file. I have to use ALSA or tinyalsa to check because with Vibe X3, I can check the kernel source code and it 's not the problem in kernel level. We only can do it if anyone can rebuild the audioflinger, so we need the whole system source code. I don't think LG will public it.

I checked this on G6 file.

direct_pcm_16 {

flags AUDIO_OUTPUT_FLAG_DIRECT

formats AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_16_BIT|AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_24_BIT_PACKED|AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_8_24_BIT|AUDIO_FORMAT_PCM_32_BIT

sampling_rates 44100|48000|88200|96000|176400|192000

bit_width 16

app_type 69936

}

Can you check it build.prog if this option is disable?

I have no idea with Tidal for 16/44,1 file or we can ask Tidal to convert it to 24 bits for us.

Mixer path is a good solution when we want to route the signal to Hi-res path, but this is not for everyone. It will not work for commercial app like Neutron,UAPP and that's why I tested it with ALSA Player.

About ALSA player,no..it's not a real player..it's just for researching.