For the audiophiles...will a better phone DAC with higher resolution give me more bass?

[DavidC]

I have a Limited with the HarmonKardan audio. Most music streaming is 44.1 kHz/16-bit. I subscribe to the Tidal music streaming service which uses MQA loss-less audio quality, 96 kHz/24-bit . Some phones have a digital to analog converter (DAC) that support this higher resolution and some phones don't. I know it's subjective, but does anyone know if I'll be able to tell the difference if I get a phone that will support this? I want more bass without having to put in a new bass speaker. Phones I'm considering are the Galaxy S8 and the LG V30. Any advice would be helpful, I'm a novice at this.

 

[MATT0404]

Are you streaming Tidal through Bluetooth?

 

[DavidC]

No, through the Lightening/USB via my iPhone6.

 

[Sgt Darkness]

No, through the Lightening/USB via my iPhone6.

44khz, 92khz, 128khz doesn’t really matter because those are only recording sampling rates, has nothing to do with hearing or making music sound better to us. Psychoacoustics (human hearing) is only at 18khz so that’s a mute point. The limit of the perfect reconstruction is 20 kHz at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, and 22 kHz at a sampling rate of 48 kHz. Both values are higher than the top of the human hearing range (18 kHz). And the rule mentioned before applies not only to sine waves, but also to all kind of audio signals. If you want deeper bass you have to use an equalizer or what adjustments we have in the Expy's. I have an iPhone and after making adjustments the sound is still better than what I can actually hear.....hope this helps.

 

[shane_th_ee]

I have and iPhone 6s and a galaxy S8. If you can provide a sample in each codec, I’d be happy to run a comparison. (Sgt Darkness is making too many assumptions based on math theory and overlooking implementation...)

 

[Tom T]

@Sgt Darkness what you say was told in the 80s when the CD came out: Ear can't hear it and still, there are HUGE differences in DAC sounds (not just the analog side but also on the digital side). The proof is, that the LP was NOT replaced but actually had a revival. Hence also the reaction of the music industry to do Hi-res audio.

As much as I can read, MQA is NOT an improvement but rather a marketing thing. Also, a 24bit/192kHz file does NOT have to sound better than standard 16bit/44khz. But it clearly has more headroom in case the recording was done in the right way and postmaster did not mess it up.

For the original question, I really wonder if any phone has a better DAC than a car, kind of all the same cheap stuff, not serious audiophile chips and parts. But there are decent external DACs for phone for already a couple of hundred dollars. But then again, you have to feed that signal into an analog input (does the Expy have one??, can the USB accept analog? ) to defeat the internal DAC.

Bottom line for me at least: ITs a B&O and its in a car....you will never have real good sound, no matter what. Wanting lots of bass? (which is not the same as good sound ...lol)...buy a sub

just my 2 cents

 

[Plati]

Don't know why the OP thinks sampling rate or bit depth would give "more bass". Those just contribute to a more accurate representation of the original sound. As long as the rate is double the frequency of the highest sound (Nyquist rate) it will reproduce ok. If you are old like me you can only hear the bass anyway. LOL Too many concerts as a yute, ears shot.

 

[G213]

As much as I can read, MQA is NOT an improvement but rather a marketing thing.

Correct. MQA is an encoding process created by Meridian audio as an attempt to make pseudo high-res audio into a streamable/portable file size. If true high-res audio is your goal, FLAC is your friend.

I subscribed to Tidal for the 30 day trial. Many of the albums they offer aren't even "MQA"; rather just CD quality rips. (In order to properly produce MQA files, Tidal needs access to the original studio masters. Since Tidal is a division of Project Panther Bidco, a subsidiary of Roc Nation, owned by Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z, not every label is willing to provide access to their studio masters to competing labels)

I honestly found Apple Music to be the best overall selection with "useable" sound space. Plus a good portion of their library is "Mastered for iTunes". (I work in the industry for an Apple Preferred Plus Content Aggregator and Apple has incredibly strict QA of any incoming content for distribution. Mastered for iTunes assets are indeed direct 16bit 256kbps/44.1kHz AAC encodings from studio master copies)

For what it's worth, I did conduct an unscientific experiment in this realm. I have an iPod Touch loaded with log file certified 24bit 96kHz .ALAC rips and my iPhone with Apple Music. (Example track) When comparing the same tracks under both formats on my 2016 Expy Sony system (using USB connectivity into CarPlay), the difference is negligible at most. To notice a difference, I'd have to use my studio cans with an external USB DAC. Fun fact, the maximum rate any iOS device will push out of a wired connection is 24bit @ 48kHz.

I know some people really like Tidal and by no means is it a bad service. But at the end of the day, that extra sound space mentioned above isn't going to produce more sound in one spectrum for you in the truck.

However, if bass is what you're after and do not want to go down the aftermarket path, look into sound deadening. I've done all four doors on my Expy, both outer and inner walls with Noico 80mm...it made a HUGE difference. Bonus is a much quieter ride.

 

[DavidC]

Thanks for the replies. There are just too many unknown variables for me, i.e. the capability of the DACs on the phones (some are better than others), any loss via the phone-to-USB connection, the format being used by the streaming service. Someone said if you want more bass get a better/bigger bass speaker, and that might be the best and most sure-fire option...along with the door deadening that was mentioned at the end of the previous post.