We have been hearing a lot of people saying that they don’t believe in DACS or that they don’t make a difference. With the smartphone having firmly replaced the iPod as the portable music player of choice, audio playback is an increasingly important factor in today’s high end mobile. With increasingly bold claims of HiFi and even studio quality playback being touted on some smartphones.
FYI: High fidelity—or hi-fi or hifi—reproduction is a term used by home stereo listeners, audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound.
Vivo is considered to be pioneer of HiFi audio oriented smartphones. Vivo has put a lot of effort to make a revolutionary mark in the audio department, the often neglected part of a smartphone. Looking at the recently released V3 & V3Max that are HiFi oriented smartphones. These devices don’t deliver exceptional overall performance, gaming performance or camera performance. These devices are a pair of Android running smartphones at an extraordinary price point. The only thing these devices should excel is the audio department as these devices are equipped with AK4375 Hi-Fi audio chip. To test this we’ve thrown the Vivo V3 for Listening Test, to see how its “HiFi quality” DAC performs in a smartphone environment and how it stands up to the competition. No audio test would be complete without actually having a listen to the phones in the real world. So I stuck a couple of my favourite EDM tracks on board and had a good listen through some Sennheiser CX 180 Earphones, Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro and Skullcandy Ando Headphones. And for comparison we tested these earphones simultaneously on OnePlus One, Vivo V3, OnePlus 2, Coolpad Note 3 and HTC One X9 as we had these devices available with us at that time.
Taking the whole picture into account, Vivo which is known for its audio DACS do well in the upper price segment and they have tried to do the same with their mid-level offering as well. Vivo is using the most affordable HiFi audio alternative available aka AKM AK4375 with the lowest performance compared to Cirrus Logic or ESS which in-fact would shoot up price of the handset. It kind of qualifies for HiFi 1.0 architecture but overall if we talk about the audio chipset itself it is not that efficient. Overall Vivo’s AK4375 Hi-Fi audio chip ensures that audio output is loud as well as clear. So you can certainly do better if you’re looking for a top-notch audio experience of-course with more money but this is the one of the best we can get under 15k price range.
SENS, a new wearables company in India launched a handful of devices in the country.…
The true wireless earbuds market is growing rapidly in India. Truke, a German brand with…
Jabra has been one of the leading brands in audio peripherals since the company’s outset…
The entry-level price segment i.e the price bracket under Rs. 10k has not seen much…
Infinix is well known for launching a budget range of smartphones in India that offer…
Running a business requires more than just financial solid and customer relations. To successfully grow…
View Comments
If you want yo test "hi-fi" ness of the sound.. I suggest you to invest on a better quality head/ear/in-ear-phones.., not with that skullcandy.. even cx180 might not show you the real potential... there are good cheap ones nowadays..
Browse head-fi.org for clue...