Develop Bugs

[Q] Does the Desire hiss on low-impedance audiophile headphones?

Oh come on guys... I was pretty much dediced to dump my Galaxy S for the Desire because of need of a functional GPS... but I want the mobile device to have good audio quality with audiophile headphones (mostly low-impedance IEMs) and have heard some users say that the Desire has an audible hiss.
So no black, dark, flat silence and great sound? The Galaxy S has pretty amazing sound quality on the 3.5mm except if you use high impedance gear that really need and extra amp... but with more gentle stuff like Mylars, RE0 or Koss PortaPros it sings amazingly.
Can anyone confirm this?
I am now reduced to two options
1) Return my SGS and get a Desire + a good audio player
2) Keep my SGS and get a dedicated GPS unit
*sigh*

I find there is hiss on my desire when paired with low impedance IEMs (UE11). It's fine with higher impedance phones like RE2 and KSC75s, but bear in mind, I usually listen at low volumes.
If you're looking for a good audio player that works well with low impedance IEMs, I can recommend the Sansa Fuze and Sansa Clip from personal experience.
Hope that helps

sennheiser HD 518

Guys i am planing to buy sennheiser HD 518 and i have a confusion that these headphones will work great with our S3 or do i need an external amp for sound quality issues. thanks for ur help guys!!!

They should sound good. I have a pair of Audio Technica M50's and they sound great. Plenty of bass and the highs are just perfect. I also have the AC!D mod installed, and it makes a very big difference. The only two problems that I have is that at a low volume you can hear a hiss, but that's due to the amplifier in the phone. The second problem is that I have to download only high quality music. Anything besides high quality sounds like crap.

I just bought these last week and I'm no expert on head phones and such, but I can tell you straight they sound almost perfect to me, I don't think you'll be needing any external amplifier for it as they sound pretty great to me.

I have Sennheiser HD555 and I can say the sound quality is exceptional (very detailed and clear with 192kbps ogg). Don't worry the sensitivity because I only need to turn half way.

Help! my old M7 Sounds better than my new HTC 10, whats going on?

Hello I am new to the forums.
I am very obsessed with good audio quality, this was the main reason why I got this new phone, but so far I have been very disappointed by its audio capabilities while listening with Bose Sound True earphones.
The first thing I did on my 10 was to download poweramp, configured my equalizer to a standard warm sound signature, then set bass to medium and sparkle to a little pass medium. Basically the same sound equalization I have on my m7. Next, I configured the headphone profile; in this case I end it up with the volume at the the lowest for all frequencies, as I was able to faintly hear all of them from the low to the highs at the lowest volume. Afterwards, I set up the dobly headphone effects to HTC ear buds.
I was very disappointed by the outcome, the low frequencies have a small distortion and the highs sound washed off. I no longer hear all the instruments playing as the lows drown more subtle instruments and the highs have very little clarity to them, they just sound loud and obnoxious. My m7 with Beats on picked up all the subtleties in my music and the lows had this pleasant fullness to them. The 10 is louder but that's about it, it now even hurts my ears when I listen past medium volume. How is this possible? Isn't the DAC on the 10 way better than that of the m7? Could this be faulty hardware? or could it be a software related issue?
Please help me figure out whats going on, I can't believe that my old phone sounds better. I almost feel like asking for a refund at this point. I have also tried using a plain sound player such as google music that has no EQ on it, but I can still pick a slight distortion, the m7 doesn't sound as loud in this case but it just sounds much cleaner.
PS. Just for reference all my tracks are 320kbs and I listen to mostly Metal.
Thanks for your help!

Try lossless flac, you'll probably find the DAC up converting 320mp3's hightlights the defects
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

Turn off BoomSound/beats if you're really obsessed with audio. They absolutely destroy the balance to the point of it sounding like I'm listening with a beats headphone.
The 10 drives my cans better than any phone or tablet that I have/had. I listen to EVERYTHING and it handles every genre perfectly.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

richii0207 said:
Turn off BoomSound/beats if you're really obsessed with audio. They absolutely destroy the balance to the point of it sounding like I'm listening with beats headphone.
The 10 drives my cans better than any phone or tablet that I have/had.
What are you using to listen?
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
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Eh, I know many say that it is better to leave the EQ alone, but that is hard to do for me because 1) I most have 320 mp3s and very flew Flacs, some are even at 192k and 128k but thats because I have a very old and extensive library. 2) I do love warm sound signatures XD.
By the way, I am listening right now to Talos principle - Sanctuary in flac and at 0:25 when there are all those low frecuencies it just sound a little distorted, I would say it sounds abnormally loud on my 10, and it sounds clear on my m7. Check out The Talos Principle OST - Sanctuary on youtube for reference, I am prevented from posting outside links due to my newb status.
I use Bose true sound earphones, they are just mid-range phones nothing too special, but they do sound better with my old phone. Could it be this earphones can't handle the 10's frequencies?

Sugetsu1 said:
By the way, I am listening right now to Talos principle - Sanctuary in flac and at 0:25 when there are all those low frecuencies it just sound a little distorted, I would say it sounds abnormally loud on my 10, and it sounds clear on my m7. Check out The Talos Principle OST - Sanctuary on youtube for reference, I am prevented from posting outside links due to my newb status.
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Just had a listen to Sanctuary on Spotify and it sounds very impressive to me.
I'm using Shure 535 and everything sounds crystal clear to me.

There are two settings when headphones are plugged in under the boomsound setting. One is the Dolby headphone effects setting, the other is the custom profile you set up with your headphones. Try turning off the Dolby headphones effects. My HTC 10 can drive headphones like no other HTC product I have owned in the past, and it sounds better to me with the Dolby effects turned off.

Dunno man.... mine sounds freaking amazing.
using a custom EQ (set up with the frequency thing) and I'm just using a cheap set of Skull Candy headphones I use mostly for gaming

@isnoc I think that did away with the distortion! disabling the dobly effects has a positive impact on sound reproduction, the music doesn't sound as loud. However, the m7s bass sounds a little cleaner. It could be matter of sound signatures at this point. Where I really hear the difference is in the song Machine Gunn Eddie by Nitro. The m7 seems to sound slightly better due to the cleaner bass. I was expecting a night and day difference between these 2 phones =_(

Out of curiosity what mods are you running on the m7? When I had mine (still looking for where I left it...) I had zeroinfinity's and some extra buildprop changes and a kernel that supported the audio changes lol. I don't them side by side to test, but in my car and my porta-pro's from the sound I remember the 10 sounds a lot better to me.

Sugetsu1 said:
@isnoc I think that did away with the distortion! disabling the dobly effects has a positive impact on sound reproduction, the music doesn't sound as loud. However, the m7s bass sounds a little cleaner. It could be matter of sound signatures at this point. Where I really hear the difference is in the song Machine Gunn Eddie by Nitro. The m7 seems to sound slightly better due to the cleaner bass. I was expecting a night and day difference between these 2 phones =_(
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You mentioned using beats on your M7. The beats eq exaggerates the bass which is probably what you're hearing. Have you tried turning it off and hearing the difference?
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

Ok I just noticed that my phone distorts at higher volumes, namely anything on medium high or above, no matter the bit rate of the song. This is where bass and highs start to suffer. My m7 plays music beautifully with 0 distortion at all levels. Does anyone else here suffer from distortion problems with the 10? Do I have a faulty phone?
@joeyrushlow I never bothered rooting or isntalling a custom rom on my m7, never saw the need for it. All I use for sound is the included beats audio dsp and poweramp and plays everything beautifully with distortion of any kind.
@richii0207 The m7 without beats audio does sound very flat, it is true that the main characteristic of Beats is enhancing the bass, but it also increase the volume across the spectrum in a more subtle way, in any case I get no distortion and everything sounds crystal clear.

I wonder, other than the EQ setup on the 10, and the potential of the quality of the DAC, there might not actually be a significant difference between DACs. Subtle definitely. Discernable for sure. But a significant difference that the 10 has over past phones is the amplifier driving the headphones. Could you be overdriving your headphones on the 10, and not on the M7? There are many things to consider that I do not have the skill to properly discuss like impedance for example. Or it could be a slight difference in your EQ settings.
I can say this, comparing my M9 to my 10. The sound is very very similar to my ears (disappointing I know right?) with two exceptions. One, the 10's sound is more expansive, or I should say there is more separation, so I know that with better recordings the 10 will sound better than my M9. Two, the 10 has more power at volume. I don't want to say louder, but it is louder, but clearer as well, as the volume goes up. It has more juice than my M9 does. I could dig out my M7, but I expect a similar experience. I like my 10. Perhaps you could listen to one in a store, a live demo one, to see if your phone has an issue.

Headphones that get best use of the V20 audio

Title says it all. Post your suggestions and experiences with headphones that maximize the audio potential of this phone.
That quad DAC when wired and APTx when on BT.

CHH2 said:
Title says it all. Post your suggestions and experiences with headphones that maximize the audio potential of this phone.
That quad DAC when wired and APTx when on BT.
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I'm listening to my Sennheiser HD 598's right now using the quad DAC (high impedence). It is definitely driving them very well, I get my Audioquest Dragonfly black in tomorrow so I can try A&B comparisons with that vs the internal audio. I've also enjoyed using it with my Backbeat Pros but those do not have aptx.

I'm using my Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohm headphones, it's amazing. It's a step up from the V10, including the volume department (especially with high impedance headphones).

I'm currently listening music with the AKG K712s. No doubt an improvement from the V10. The best phone yet that truly brings out the detail in
WAV and FLAC formats. I swear this quad DAC reincarnated my cans

Should be getting my V20 some time today, I hope. I don't have anything truly God-tier, but I'm going to try to do a few comparisons if I can. I've got Shure SE215s on one hand (triple-flange tips) and Samsung earbuds for a baseline, compared to whatever LG's included in the box. In a few weeks, I can add the H3s to that list, but not until they arrive, and they won't arrive until I sign up for them on the 28th, so...
In the world of full-size cans, I don't have a solid baseline, and I'm not looking forward to the idea of spending $20 so I can have a pair of cheap cans I will never listen to again. So instead, all I've got are my Koss ProDJ100s and my V-Moda M100s.
But I'll try to give my thoughts when I can. (Also, posting so I make sure I remember that this thread exists.)
---
I didn't get to really sit down and do heavy listening. Phone arrived pretty late and my fiancee was a little sad so I didn't want to have my headphones blasting for an hour or two straight without being able to hear a word.
Noticing that there is a little more clarity (at least) between the on-off settings. Might be some EQ going on as well, though, which is not what I want. EQ is an easy way to make something sound more "clear" without actually making it clearer. My last car literally had a setting that I used that I considered the "clear" setting, and for everything other than podcasts. The bass was deeper, and yet more articulated, and the highs had sparkle. Every other setting was muddy.
So EQing to a muddy sound, and then having a "hi-fi" EQ that clears up the mud isn't good. Still, like I said, I don't actually know that to be what's going on. It's just a possibility I'm keeping my ears open for.

Audio technica ATH-M50x Have to say, I can't hear a difference at all toggling on and off using Poweramp/Spotify/USB Audio Player Pro or Car with Bose speakers setup. What can be the reason? I was thinking it would sound better (or as good) as V4A. Not close for me. Maybe my phone's defective?

vibrantliker said:
Audio technica ATH-M50x Have to say, I can't hear a difference at all toggling on and off using Poweramp/Spotify/USB Audio Player Pro or Car with Bose speakers setup. What can be the reason? I was thinking it would sound better (or as good) as V4A. Not close for me. Maybe my phone's defective?
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Not sure if they fix the issue were the DAC was only able to be used by the stock music player. On the PlayStore there's an app that allows the DAC to work with all music players. I think it's called lgv10fix something like that. You can tell when you turn the DAC when your music skips or mutes for a second.

j0a0a7 said:
Not sure if they fix the issue were the DAC was only able to be used by the stock music player. On the PlayStore there's an app that allows the DAC to work with all music players. I think it's called lgv10fix something like that. You can tell when you turn the DAC when your music skips or mutes for a second.
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Thanks. I found that and installed it but it's the same.

Sony MDR-EX800ST with Tape Mod via External (AUX) Audio Mode with adapter.

vibrantliker said:
Audio technica ATH-M50x Have to say, I can't hear a difference at all toggling on and off using Poweramp/Spotify/USB Audio Player Pro or Car with Bose speakers setup. What can be the reason? I was thinking it would sound better (or as good) as V4A. Not close for me. Maybe my phone's defective?
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There's probably nothing wrong with it.
Sound is an incredibly subjective topic.

?
Andrew025 said:
There's probably nothing wrong with it.
Sound is an incredibly subjective topic.
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So used to V4A nothing comes close.

I prefer PowerAmp Alpha...
Especially with my Sony MDR-100AAP in External Mode.

dragion said:
I prefer PowerAmp Alpha...
Especially with my Sony MDR-100AAP in External Mode.
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What's external mode, something on your headphones?

All Hi Res iem or headphones will do the job, but it's up to your ears to know what is best, as all headphones/iem all have their own sound stage, for me I use the Sony list in my sig.

I was actually considering getting a pair of the A-T 50x's but those Senn's look nice too. (I'm a big fan of over the ear.)

vibrantliker said:
What's external mode, something on your headphones?
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By plugging in the detachable headphone cable into the LG V20's headphone jack first before connecting the cable to the headphones, causes the Hi-Fi DAC to go into "An External Audio Device Is Connected" mode which produces a higher output compared to "Normal" mode.

dragion said:
By plugging in the detachable headphone cable into the LG V20's headphone jack first before connecting the cable to the headphones, causes the Hi-Fi DAC to go into "An External Audio Device Is Connected" mode which produces a higher output compared to "Normal" mode.
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I did not know that and will try it.

So excited to use my Custom Art Harmony 8 Pro, custom headphones with these. The V10 did a good job, I bet the v20 will be better!

For reference, here's the playlist I used to compare. I didn't want to spend all day doing tests, so this is mostly stuff I can listen to while I work, but trying to hit as many different sound signatures as I could. I don't have any classical in my collection, though probably I could have used some. I listened to most of the playlist (skipped around a little getting details) on my laptop for a little while before picking up the phone. Probably going to do some listening with the S4 mini I've got on loan from my wife, too. Would have been nice to compare the Note7, but it's already back in T-Mobile's hot little hands. Played using the
Acoustic Guitar
Leo Kottke (FLAC)
Vaseline Machine Gun
Watermelon
The Fisherman
Earl Klugh (MP3 320)
Alice in Wonderland
Moon River
Autumn Leaves (VBR V0)
Country/Folk
The New Lost City Ramblers (MP3 320)
Talking Hard Luck
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
Old Fish Song
Charlie Daniels Band (MP3 320)
The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Uneasy Rider
Anais Mitchell (M4A VBR)
Epic, Part I
Hey, Little Songbird
Epic, Part II
Pop
The Killers (MP3 VBR, not V0)
Mr. Brightside
When You Were Young
Sia (FLAC)
Chandelier
Eye Of The Needle
Elastic Heart
Electronic
Super Eurobeat Presents: Initial D Special Stage Non-Stop Mega Mix (FLAC)
Killing My Love
Running In The 90s
Grand Prix
Kavinsky (MP3 320)
Night Call
Night Runner (OGG VBR)
After Hours
Nuclear Countdown
Hip-Hop/Trip-Hop
KA (MP3 320)
Just
Wax Tailor (FLAC)
Exordium
From the Dark
As for my thoughts:
First, I was surprised that as far as I can tell, LG hasn't included any headphones. That seems weird. I'm glad now that I have a million bajillion of the things lying around because if I just bought this off the shelf, it would be a long wait for LG to send me my "only" wired headset option. At least a few weeks. Disappointing, but not a deal-breaker by any means.
Started with the Samsung headset, Hi-Fi DAC off. It's not super comfortable, not at all isolating. I'm still listening to the last couple tracks and I can easily hear myself typing with the volume at around... well, in the Hi-Fi volume it would be 45. I should note that it goes much higher (I believe the highest is 65 or 75) but 45 is where I would typically listen to music. Louder than that started to strain my ears a little. Louder is generally better for detecting little things in a song, but I don't want to suffer, and I certainly don't want to suffer for the time it takes to listen to a 90 minute playlist 4 times at painful volume.
(Incidentally, someone above complained that it wasn't as good as V4A--I haven't listened to V4A in a long time, but my recollection was that it does 2 things: EQ and boost. All their stuff comes down to highly advanced adaptive EQ and a volume boost. Essentially an Instagram filter for your audio. That's all you really can do with a software solution, so I don't blame V4A's team, but what we're looking for with a hi-fi hardware DAC is closer to putting your glasses on if you're near-sighted: increased clarity without changing or coloring the sound any more than necessary, including volume changes. That's what your choice of headphones and your EQ settings are for, not your DAC.)
Moved to the Shures next. The SE215 has a slightly bassy sound, IMO, much better for dance music than e.g. the Koss cans. Not quite basshead cans. I was impressed by performance, and volume. I felt "comfortable" for the first half of the playlist before checking the volume and discovering it wasn't at 45, where I'd wanted it--I had it at 30! Turned it up to 45, and I was at a point where it wasn't quite uncomfortably loud. Which is to say, these things can push power to a pair of headphones no problem.
Equally surprised that the Koss cans didn't have an equivalent bump in volume from what I'm used to (which is maxed out on the Note7, and remember that I'm nowhere near maxed out on the V20). Oh, sure, I could have turned them up, but I didn't. Clarity was as-expected. Much better, I think, than the SE215s.
What I'm looking for here is silence and separation. On the country tunes, in particular, you end up with a mandolin, banjo, and guitar all fighting for 'space' on the recording, so I was listening to make sure I could make out guitar chords from banjo rolls from mandolin... whatever mandolin players do. I'm sure they're very important musicians. The other part I listened to carefully was the intro to Chandelier; There's an etremely isolated snare in the beginning, and it should fade to nothing, not fade to sort-of-nothing. I didn't get that with the Shures as much as I wanted, but I did get it with the Koss headphones.
V-Modas don't do much to change my opinion. The bass is defined, clear, not boomy. I'd say the V20 seems to have a fairly balanced sound signature, which makes sense because that more-or-less matches what I've heard about the B&O sound signature. If the V20 DAC was developed with their input, that would make a lot of sense.
So in the end, I'd agree with kms108:
kms108 said:
All Hi Res iem or headphones will do the job, but it's up to your ears to know what is best, as all headphones/iem all have their own sound stage, for me I use the Sony list in my sig.
Click to expand...
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TheJesus said:
I'm using my Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohm headphones, it's amazing. It's a step up from the V10, including the volume department (especially with high impedance headphones).
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Can't wait to try my beyer's. Have exact same ones and custom one pros. Cop's are a more fun sounding headphone and a burning can push it. The 770's and cop's can put out mind rattling bass, and by that I mean rattle your chest, with the right content and amp. Can't wait to hear the sound signature of the 9218 with my assorted cabled gear.

Does the headphone jack makes hissing/ static noise?

Coming from Lenovo p2 which has similar designs ( both are from lemoto and the headphone jack and antenna seems to be in similar position). Lenovo p2 has this annoying static noise while using in-ear headphone, yes I say in-ear headphone because it won't happen on earbuds, only iems. I guess that's because earbuds have higher impedance? It's extremely audible when playing music at low volume. Anyway back to my original question, does such issue exists on moto z play? I did some Google there seems to be people complaining about this but I want confirmation from you guys. Try listening to some music at low volume using IEM and tell me if there is any hissing noise please. Thanks in advance

Yes it does - more so if you enable the stock equalizer. It is quite obvious if you listen to audio book or speeches in low volume.
Nougat update does have minimized it. Listening to music in low volume is cleaner.
However - the sound signature thro' audio jack is excellent - deep n solid feel to it

No static on any of my IEMs at volume steps 0,1 and 2 playing through Apple Music and PowerAmp.

Sam_kaks said:
Yes it does - more so if you enable the stock equalizer. It is quite obvious if you listen to audio book or speeches in low volume.
Nougat update does have minimized it. Listening to music in low volume is cleaner.
However - the sound signature thro' audio jack is excellent - deep n solid feel to it
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They really need to fix this stupid design flaw. Doesn't this bother you? I think I need to invest in a Bluetooth headphone

Mine dose this too really annoying

Yes good decision. I almost always use my jaybird X3 to do away with that irritant.

No it doesn't. I have never experienced any hissing/static with my earphone. soundmagic e50.

vietkao said:
No it doesn't. I have never experienced any hissing/static with my earphone. soundmagic e50.
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Yea e50 has high impedance that's why, try an earphone with lower impedance

linkzex said:
Yea e50 has high impedance that's why, try an earphone with lower impedance
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How low?

uberano26 said:
How low?
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It happens to my 16ohm IEM, 16ohm belongs to the majority of IEM you should be able to find one with 16ohm easily

linkzex said:
It happens to my 16ohm IEM, 16ohm belongs to the majority of IEM you should be able to find one with 16ohm easily
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Again no static on any of my IEMs with an Impedance range from of 16 to 32Ω. The only little static i get is when i initially plug them in.

Yes you may get hiss with low ohm headphones, use better headphones.

Sam_kaks said:
Yes it does - more so if you enable the stock equalizer. It is quite obvious if you listen to audio book or speeches in low volume.
Nougat update does have minimized it. Listening to music in low volume is cleaner.
However - the sound signature thro' audio jack is excellent - deep n solid feel to it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey I have a favor to ask you can you try using over ear headphone and see if there is hiss? Tell me the headphone nameif you do so

linkzex said:
Hey I have a favor to ask you can you try using over ear headphone and see if there is hiss? Tell me the headphone nameif you do so
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These are my work arounds:
1. Installed Poweramp app
2. I use Poweramp in-built equalizer
3. I don't use default equalizer while using headphones.
My headphones:
1. audio technica ath-m50x (headphones)
2. shure se 215 (in ear type)
3. jaybird X3 ( blue tooth)
If you root it (I have not rooted this moto) Arise viper4A is an excellent option.
Please note the sound signature and audio output via headphone jack is excellent. It can even drive audio technica ath-m50x, which has heavy drivers with ease. If you don't use the system equalizer, post nougat update the hiss is almost not there.
This phone is an excellent value for money. I am using it for more than 6 month. It has a heft to it but feels solid in-hand. Buttery smooth, insane battery and zero heating (except while charging). I am very happy!

Jimi Mack said:
Yes you may get hiss with low ohm headphones, use better headphones.
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Sam_kaks said:
These are my work arounds:
1. Installed Poweramp app
2. I use Poweramp in-built equalizer
3. I don't use default equalizer while using headphones.
My headphones:
1. audio technica ath-m50x (headphones)
2. shure se 215 (in ear type)
3. jaybird X3 ( blue tooth)
If you root it (I have not rooted this moto) Arise viper4A is an excellent option.
Please note the sound signature and audio output via headphone jack is excellent. It can even drive audio technica ath-m50x, which has heavy drivers with ease. If you don't use the system equalizer, post nougat update the hiss is almost not there.
This phone is an excellent value for money. I am using it for more than 6 month. It has a heft to it but feels solid in-hand. Buttery smooth, insane battery and zero heating (except while charging). I am very happy!
Click to expand...
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Huh why does equalizer matters... are you saying with ath m50 there is still hiss?

Jimi Mack said:
Yes you may get hiss with low ohm headphones, use better headphones.
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How about with 18 ohm impedance...sennheiser urbanite on ear