my audio adventures with the Poco F1 and other stuff continues - POCO F1 - Xiaomi Community

I had purchased a mobile DAC/AMP (the ifi iDSD micro black label) to use with my Poco F1 but i found that it was way overkill for my usage and also it was large and bulky to carry and my favorite android music playback app did not work with this DAC/AMP ..... so i sold it and lost only around $60 in the process so i mostly got my money back

i then decided that i would buy more mobile equipment whcih used headphones as a base to use with my phone - and i remembered thaqt somebody in the old MIUI forum asked me about KZ earphones .... well at that time i had never heard of KZ earphones and i decided to try them out because i then found and read some reviews that raved about the KZ ZSN and KZ ZST earphones - so the first thing i purchased was a set of KZ ZSN pro earphones to use direct from the headphone jack .... these are IEM models which stands for In Ear Monitors which i was not totally a fan of since i dont like stuffing things into my ear canals however after i heard the sound quality of these things whcih only cost like $25 (US) i was quickly converted into using IEMs

so soon after i ordered them this is what arrived at my door

so opening this box revealed these

these also had some extra tips and a decent cable but this cable does not have a speaker or a volume level control - but you can buy a separate cable with those for around $7 on Amazon so in my next Amazon order i will get those

so i listened to these directly from the headphone jack and i also tried them with my Stouchi type-C DAC/AMP adapter and with both methods these things sounded pretty good and way better than i expected for the price .... in fact they sound so good that i really want to try out some higher end IEMs now

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2019-06-02 22:10:35

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Master Bunny

naughty001 Author |

#1

continued from previous post

So now i still had a fair amount of money left over after i sold that ifi DAC and i wanted to try some other Audiophile type headphones ..... so in another local South African Audio/Video Forum i found a person selling a set of Massdrop Hifiman HE4xx headphones which are basically Planar Magnetic headphones so i landed up buying this set from him ..... and i got these at a very cheap price compared to the $180 (US) that these cost from Massdrop whcih with shipping plus taxes and duties as well as handling charges would have landed me around R4000 (ZA Rands) but i got it for R2300 (ZA Rands) shipped to my door so close to half the price for a 6 month old set in very good condition (less than 20 hours usage)

this is the box those came in

opening the box revealed this here

and this is what the headphones look like unpacked

heres a size comparison with one of my other audiophile style headphones (Sennheiser HD555 with a HD595 mod)

So i tried these with the phone but the phone just did not have enough power to drive these headphones to even a decent listening level - even though these have a low impedance ie 35 ohms they have a very low sensitivity so they need a decent amp to drive them - trying them with my Stouchi type-C adapter improved things

type-C adapter DAC/AMP

BUT

it still wasn't good enough to drive the headphones to a satisfactory listening level - and the sad bit is that i had sold the DAC/AMP that was capable of driving it to good levels .... so i needed something that was capable of gving me increased amounts of power but i decided not to get another ifi since its fairly expensive and i just sold one away so i wanted to try something new

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2019-06-02 22:25:28

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Master Bunny

naughty001 Author |

#2

continued from previous post

So now i decided to try a Fiio K3 DAC/AMP since it was cheap - i had already had a Nuprime uDSD and also the ifi iDSD Micro BL so it was time to try a new brand - so i ordered the Fiio K3 because it allowed for single ended headphone usage as well as balanced headphone drive usage which allows the power output from the amp section to increase and at the same time i ordered a Fiio BTR3 bluetooth amplifier (more about that later)

so these arrived soon after ordering them

this is what the K3 looked like with the Hifiman headphones

and to connect it to the phone i used a type C OTG adapter as well as a type-C cable (this is more flexible for a variety of configurations and phones as well as DACs instead of just using a Tpe-C to type-C cable

and this is what the Bluetooth amp looks like - its pretty small and is just around slightly bigger than a typical flash drive - its got the KZ ZSN pro's connected to it in this picture

so initially i tried the Hifiman with the K3 DAC/AMP and i was disappointed because that did not drive it a whole lot better than my Stouchi DAC/AMP adapter but this was in single ended mode with the normal 3.5mm jack connection - so i ordered a cable that would allow me to use the TRRS 2.5mm balanced drive connection whcih would draw a little more power from the amp section .... this improved the results a fair bit but the cable was around half the price of what the actual headphones cost me

i also borrowed my old Nuprime uDSD DAC and this was able to run those headphones from the phone much better but it was pointless going back to a uDSD so for now i'm just going to use the Fiio as a temporary solution and wait till i can afford another ifi iDSD and just get one of those .... the main reason being that the Fiio only provides 300mw in balanced mode but the ifi iDSD Micro BL provides 4000mw in single ended mode which is an incredible 4 watts just to drive headphones - so in circumstances where i can carry a large DAC/AMP ie on trains or planes or in my car (to use when i stop driving) at my destination i can actually live with carrying the extra weight of the iDSD though i may just keep the Fiio as a secondary DAC or sell it to buy a better set of IEMs when i get another iDSD

in the meantime the reason why i got the BTR3 is that it is a bluetooth reciever but it allows me to use my various wired headphones and it also features LDAC which is a fair bit better than AptX transmission and also a new thing called LHDC which i intend to use with another FIIO product that i intend to purchase in the long run ie a new M11 Fiio DAP (Digital Audio Player) which can also be controlled by my phone using an app called Fiio Link so i can use the phone as well as the DAP for mobile music which is basically a Hi-Fi in your pocket .... to that end the DAP and the BTR3 make use of a uncompressed wireless connection called LHDC which is a new thing ie transmission rates will allow for uncompressed playback of Hi-Res music files and the DAP also has a better built in DAC than the K3 (two AKM 4493 DAC chipsets in dual differential mode and allows for more amplification than the k3 so i can still use this instead of carrying the ifi iDSD around if i don't want to)

more info about LHDC https://www.hwa-lhdc.org/how-it-works

when i finish buying all the stuff i want i think i'm going to have a lot of equipment that i can use to play music with my phone (and also without the phone too but that is a topic for a different forum) but a small mention has to be made here that i do make use of my phone as a Wi-Fi remote control to use my PC via Foobar2000 with a USB DAC as a source for my main Hi-Fi setup too

and i really have to say that i'm thoroughly enjoying my audio adventures and trying out all this equipment - and having a good phone to allow me to use all of this equipment to it's best ability ..... though i am very curious about the K20 pro and how it adds hi res playback capability but later phones may add even better capability so i i'll still wait a while for those

2019-06-02 23:03:55

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Master Bunny

naughty001 Author |

#3

here are some pictures of that blanced cable for the Hifiman headphones

the connector plugs are all 2.5mm ie smaller than normal and the ones with the thinner cable fit into the headphone cups - the one with the additional cable is the 2.5mm TRRS cable that fits into the amp side and it has three connection points (black rings) instead of two like you usually get

then this is the actual cable - i'm not a real big fan of the cable being white because it stands out too much if you carry it around but the main thing is that it makes the sound a fair amount louder because of the additional power and it does sound pretty good

now my next step will be to get the Fiio M11 DAP but while that has been launched in China it only launched at the end of May in the US so it is a lot more difficult for me to import from China since most airlines do not carry devices with Lithium batteries so it means very slow shipping which is very risky and also i want to avoid using the South African Post Office which is notoriously terrible and most things that have value get stolen - so i want to rather use a method that uses couriers so i have to wait till it is easily available from the US or until the local distributors get stock of the device here

heres link to the details of the DAP

https://www.fiio.com/m11

i dont want to replace the phone with this but i want to use it together with the phone as a complete mobile Hi-Fidelity device and basically this device will connect to the headphones and be hidden and then the phone will remotely control this device using the Fiio Link software like the image pictured below

so the device can be hidden in a rucksack or briefcase or even in your traveling hand luggage but as long as its controlled by the phone it will play - and i can recieve the music signal with wired headphones and have it run by the built in DAC and amplifier on the device OR i can transmit via bluetooth to the BTR3 and still get a good sounding high quality signal to any wired headphones or transmit directly to any bluetooth headphones that i have so once again its going to give me a really great mobile audio solution based around using the phone as well as additional devices to improve it

I have to also mention at this point that the M11 DAP is going to be more for long trips and instances when i can carry lots of stuff around ..... when just doing short trips or even for exercise purposes the phone is still going to remain my primary music playback device on its own because it still does a stellar job of playing music or basically acting as a more basic DAP with a pair of headphones/earphones .... to me the phone on its own is still definitely more than good enough for basic music playback .... and it can become awesome with the addition of all these external auxiliary devices

2019-06-04 19:40:10

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Rookie Bunny

6206541345 |

#4

Very interesting all your audio adventures with the Poco F1 !
Do you know if the internal DAC of Pocophone supports 24 bit music files ? 24-bit/192kHz ?
I'm using Neutron and Poweramp as music players, and Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones (great noise cancelling !).
If Poco F1 by itself does not support 24-bit/192kHz music files I'm considering the low budget Sonata HD DAC Cable II for train travelling.

2019-06-13 17:33:27

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Master Bunny

naughty001 Author |

#5

6206541345 replied at 2019-06-13 23:33:27
Very interesting all your audio adventures with the Poco F1 !
Do you know if the internal DAC of Pocophone supports 24 bit music files ? 24-bit/192kHz ?
I'm using Neutron and Poweramp as music players, and Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones (great noise cancelling !).

i think that the snapdragon 845 chipset does have the capability because Qualcomm claim up to 32bit/384khz support plus native DSD and also DOP capability for the 845 chipset, and i'm not sure of Xiaomi restricts that in the Poco F1 but i think that it might just need only the correct software to fully utilize that capability - and both Poweramp and Neutron are great bits of software .... I also have both of those - but my favorite is still UAPP (USB Audio Player Pro)

that Hidizs Sonata is pretty okay if you do decide to get one of those - a friend of mine has one of those and it works pretty well with his Huawei mate 20 pro

the Sony WH-1000XM3 are great headphones too - i was considering getting a set until i decided to rather buy the Fiio BTR3 for the Bluetooth connectivity and rather use my wired headphones with that .... though with my method i don't get the noise cancelling and all my audiophile headphones are open back so they will leak sound out and disturb people around me .... i do have one set of closed back headphones (AKG Y50-BT) which i can use with AptX or wired - and the KZ IEM's do not leak much sound out - so i think that my next set of headphones is going to be a set of Massdrop Sennheiser HD6xx

2019-06-14 11:09:36

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Rookie Bunny

6206541345 |

#6

i think that the snapdragon 845 chipset does have the capability because Qualcomm claim up to 32bit/384khz support plus native DSD and also DOP capability for the 845 chipset, and i'm not sure of Xiaomi restricts that in the Poco F1 but i think that it might just need only the correct software to fully utilize that capability - and both Poweramp and Neutron are great bits of software .... I also have both of those -

Good choice ! I’ve got the Sennheiser HD 650 for home music listening.

I’m using the Poco F1 mainly on train travelling, so the noise cancelling feature of the SonyWH-1000XM3 is highly appreciated under those noisy circumstances. I want to travel as light as possible, so if I can manage with only the Poco F1 and Sony headphones I’m very pleased. Only if necessary for better sound will I include the little Hidizs Sonata.

I’ve tried a DSD file with Neutron on only Poco F1: no luck, Neutron, with all the right settings, converts the DSD to 24 bit/48 khz. I’m afraid Qualcomm’s claim of native DSD support does not apply to Poco F1. But then again, the mentioned PCM output on Neutron does not say anything really about the Poco F! output.

I’m wondering if the software Neutron or Poweramp can bypass the Poco F1 audio system’s hardware. Or are these music players still always dependant on the built-in DAC of Poco F1 (in case not using an external USB DAC) ?

2019-06-14 16:06:05

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Master Bunny

naughty001 Author |

#7

try the USB Audio Player pro (UAPP) trial version to see if it plays the DSD file in native DSD format - it might also convert into DOP ie DSD over PCM - if it does this then you may have to get an external device ie a DAC/AMP capable of playing those formats and send the digital signal to that device via the USB

i'm not sure if the Hidizs Sonata is actually DSD compatible but it will definitely do 24/192 at least

also have you checked in the Neutron settings whether its been set to actually downsample the bit rate and bit depth - Neutron is a very complicated app to run and has millions of little settings which is why i prefer UAPP - it does all the same things but is far simpler to operate - the settings menu has lot of settings too but in a far more user friendly interface

2019-06-15 00:47:07

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Rookie Bunny

6206541345 |

#8

Right, I will try UAPP. I first thought this app was mostly made for USB DACs. That’s why I’m using Neutron, but indeed Neutron is not user friendly nor transparent at all.

I don’t have many DSD files though. I use these files mainly to test the functionality of software/hardware.
For me the most important part is the 24 bit So the Hidizs Sonata dongle is probably sufficient enough for me during train travelling with Sony WH-1000XM3.
A pity I still cannot find out anywhere hard facts on the ability of the built-in DAC of Poco F1 to support 24/192 … Many say it can, but then they mostly talk about the music players software capabilities (Poweramp, Neutron, UAPP), not the actual audio hardware of Poco F1 ...

2019-06-15 12:09:03

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Master Bunny

naughty001 Author |

#9

6206541345 replied at 2019-06-15 18:09:03
Right, I will try UAPP. I first thought this app was mostly made for USB DACs. That’s why I’m using Neutron, but indeed Neutron is not user friendly nor transparent at all.

I don’t have many DSD files though. I use these files mainly to test the functionality of software/hardware.

sorry i cannot help much there - because i dont know much about how the developers are restricting the snapdragon 845 capabilities - and yes i mainly use a lot of external devices so i generally bypass making the phone do the decoding work and rely on external DACs for that most of the time

the snapdragon 845 is supposed to be using aqstic audio - heres the webpage of devices compatible with using aqstic audio

and heres what the specifications of the SD845 chipset itself says

and yes UAPP is definitely more for external DACs though i actually used it to force a few non OTG compatible phones to add the drivers for external devices and it actually forced external DACs to work through the USB port of those devices .... so it will probably allow a lot more than the standard Mi Music Player that came with phone even when used without any external devices

so as i said above .... sorry i'm not of much help in this regard .... all i know about it is whatever i have read on the internet so not sure whether Xiaomi retains and utilizes all of the chipsets actual functionalty

2019-06-15 17:45:28

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