LG Steps Up High-Quality Audio Commitment on Next-Gen Smartphone

As rumors swirl about the next-release iPhone ushering in the age of the headphone jack-free smartphone, LG doubled-down on sound quality in its latest phone due for release Sept. 6. The LG V20, the first smartphone to hit market with Android’s Nougat operating system out of the box, also will be first with the ESS 32-bit hi-fi Quad DAC (digital-to-analog converter), said an LG announcement Thursday. The Quad DAC up-samples music that’s saved on the phone or streamed -- along with video soundtracks -- for playback through “compatible wired headphones,” said LG. The DAC, an upgraded version of the 32-bit hi-fi DAC used in LG’s V10 smartphone, can reduce ambient noise levels by up to 50 percent, said LG. Higher quality audio is “the natural evolution of the smartphone, as the industry moves toward a more holistic multimedia consumption experience,” said Juno Cho, president of LG Electronics and Mobile Communications.