Well it has beats audio! Some say they like, and some say they don't! I think it's a gimmick....could be wrong! I think it will have USB hosting

 

No idea on the DAC, we're hoping for either a schematic leak or a suitable teardown to know, pretty much the reason there's only been a little chatter about it - so far.

 

I'm interested in the recorded audio, specifically in loud settings. I know my Epic touch's recorded audio in loud settings is extremely distorted. If this isn't, I'm sold.

 

has any recent android phone come with USB host mode? serious question.

 

I only know of this -

 

If the One S is anything to go by the audio should be very nice, as they'll like have the same (at present unknown) DAC.

...or at least that's what GSMArena's RMAA tests suggest.

RE: USB Host - Yes, lots of Android's have it, although the implementation is a bit limited and does not extend to USB DACs (oh how I wish I could use my E17 with my Android phones!).

In relation to the USB DAC issue read this, and also vote the issue up at Google's Android issues chain here (star it to cast a vote).

It is definitely possible for this to work with Android devices, my Archos G9 Turbo works with my E17 because Archos added their own support for it, and the Nook is also able to support USB audio on custom kernels.

 

The only mobile device I know with the Beats Audio branding that received a tear-down is the maligned HP Touchpad. That one actually had a Wolfson codec, so from a hardware perspective, the audio was quite good. I have my doubts HTC phones will receive the same treatment, but I've been checking iFixit and ChipWorks every day waiting for a teardown and IC design wins analysis.

 

Beats Audio is quite independent of the DAC, so the teardown doesn't really help us at all here (apart from it's good to know about the HP thanks!).

 

I noticed they gave the GS3 a nice DAC so hopefully the industry follows along.

 

Not necessarily true... yet.

Promotional material regarding HP laptops with Beats Audio alluded to the fact that the Beats Audio branding carried both hardware (DAC) and software enhancements. There have been a few other HTC mobile devices with Beats Audio branding, but none have received tear downs so it's yet unclear whether there is merely a software component or both hardware/software.

The only other datapoint we have is the HP Touchpad, for which yes, there was enhanced hardware via the Wolfson DAC.

 

Interesting point. Based on the sound quality on my One X I don't think there is any enhancement at the hardware level, it's OK for a portable source but distinctly worse than devices with Wolfson's (tested the One X with and without Beats Vs Photon without Voodoo, and Transformer with Voodoo, worse than both on blind A/B listening, but OK when you're not A/B'ing it against devices with better sound quality).

 

They were able to add hardware to the Laptop and tablet because there is space to. In the phone there wouldn't be room to add any. That's why they Tab 7.7 has the Exynos processor and LTE, because there was space to add a separate radio for LTE.

 

I think you're a bit confused. The LTE modem has to be separate from the Exynos because there just isn't any Exynos SoC with an LTE modem baked in. So far, the only SoC with an intergrated LTE solution is the Qualcomm S4 Krait, which is why our LTEvo has it, the AT&T LTE HTC One X has it, the new Droid will have it, and the US/LTE version of the Galaxy S3 will have it.

The decision making process goes in the opposition direction of the way you indicated -- it's that an integrated solution reduces the space needed, is more power economical, is cheaper, and is easier to implement -- not that they need more space and then must go with an integrated solution.

At any rate, every mobile device has a DAC chip and OPAMPs on board -- they must if they produce any audio, as the DAC is what converts digital audio files into actual sound (digital to analog converter). The thing here is that what DAC and OPAMPs you choose will greatly influence the quality of the sound--some are better (and more expensive) than others (things like frequency range, sound/noise ratio, etc.). Wolfson Micro has one of the best reputations for DACs, and they have been featured in iPods, the Galaxy S2, and reports say the (thinner than LTEvo) Galaxy S3 will be sporting a Wolfson Micro DAC. The HP Touchpad with Beats Audio is also sporting such a DAC. These devices are known to have superior audio quality.

So ultimately, it's not a space question because all phones have a DAC, it's just a matter of what DAC you're putting in: a cheap one, or a nice one.

 

My point on the LTE 7.7 was because of space they were able to utilize the Exynos and a LTE chip, which is why it is the only device with the Exynos and LTE. They even pointed about that because of it being a tablet they had the ability to use an LTE chip with the Exynos, because of SPACE. That's why all the other Samsung LTE models had different processors.

I understand that every mobile device has a DAC. From what I was reading it seemed like you were saying there was something extra, which is why I said what I said. Also, the GSII had a yamaha DAC, not Wolfson.

 

Beats audio is a pure marketing trick. I'm much more interested in the speaker on the phone, and that doesn't use the stupid Beats processing either.

 

Here is a review of call quality and speaker phone and reception from Good&Evo.

Waldo: What's the standard call audio quality like (i.e. no HD voice)? Speakerphone quality? Cell reception?
John: Call quality is impressive, even though I haven't been able to test out the HD voice feature myself. The EVO 4G LTE has two microphones: one that picks up your voice, and the other that picks up all the background noise. It then filters out the background noise, so even if you aren't in an HD calling area yet, or the person you're talking to doesn't have an HD compatible phone, you'll still sound much better. When talking to my mom, she commented that I sounded so clear it was like I was talking on a really high-quality landline - even though I was taking a walk at the time, and kids were being loud in a nearby playground.
The speaker phone is surprisingly loud, much louder than the EVO 3D, and didn't really have the characteristic tinny sound that plague many speakerphones. Calls remained clear while using the speakerphone.
Cell reception also seems on par with the EVO 3D, or maybe slightly better. I either get the same amount of bars, or a few more on the EVO 4G LTE, when the phones are side-by-side. One thing I have noticed, however, is that the EVO 4G LTE performs better with fewer bars than the EVO 3D (i.e. no dropped calls where my EVO 3D drops them, and consistently clear call quality).


Your questions about the HTC EVO 4G LTE answered: Part 2

 

That is great to hear.

 

Have we determined if audio recording is better the the orig evo? Audio is basicially not useable I loud environments on the evo. I am wondering if they fixed this issue. If not, I am going to lean towards getting an iPhone 5 as every iPhone I have used has had great audio in loud environments. Anyone now anything?

 

Do you mean the audio recording in a video?

Yes, the OG Evo used a terrible and dated audio codec, AMR 8Khz (if my 2 year old memory serves correct), which was pretty sad at the time when my year earlier Palm Pre was doing 16-bit AAC.

That said, the Evo 3D stepped up the audio codec to AAC 16-bit stereo, so the sound quality is quite good. The Evo LTE continues with the AAC tradition and also uses the noise cancellation mic for stereo sound. See below:

 

thanks for the info but in a loud environment such as a concert or nightclub, will the sound recorded be distorted. The orig evo and evo shift both distort where you can take an iPhone in the same environment and have crystal clear sound.

 

It's hard to say without having the device in hand, but you do have to realize that the data rate/bandwidth of the encoding codec has everything to do with the audio cutoffs. In other words, with a limited amount of frequency recording, all frequencies beyond those limits will result in clipping. There's a good chance that whatever you're experiencing is related to that.

 

Pyro posted this in the teardown thread, but it bears repeating here: TechRepublic did a bit more of a thorough teardown, though not a comprehensive silicon sourcing analysis that ChipWorks usually does. HTC One X teardown reveals an internal design that isn’t DIY repair friendly | TechRepublic


Here are their findings:

In my view, the stuff already identified are definitely not audio DACs (though that doesn't preclude some integrated DAC), and I've highlighted the unknown ICs that could be a DAC. Any guesses?

 

Just what the title say. I've been looking all over and can't figure out what Digital to Analog Converter the Ltevo has. Just wondering if anyone knows.

One thing I don't like about the Ltevo is that the name is HTC EVO 4g LTE which makes it very difficult to search for information about it.