LG Hi-fi Plus With B&O Play 32 bit Portable DAC & Amplifier

Since I already had the LG B&O Play earphones here, I guess it is not complete without adding the DAC from the same company as well. This LG DAC is special because it is still on collaboration with famous audio manufacture B&O. This is the LG Hi-fi Plus, the 32 bit DAC B&O Play launching on 2016. Actually this DAC is the additional accessories for LG G5 smartphone to improve the internal smartphone sound quality. But the good news is this DAC can be pair not only with the intended LG G5 smartphone, but it can be attach to any external device as a stand alone DAC & headphones amplifier with USB-C connector. Nice! I bought it about US$50, not cheap for outdated product, but I get it in brand new condition, so why not to spent.

As usual, for the box check, it is still in factory sealed. Overall box size is quite small and look simple.

On the back side there is lot information about this product. Especially for the 32 bit DAC is still today standard for playing hi-res audio files, but this LG B&O Play DAC already a discontinued product, so I don't expected this product can be firmware update to enable playing DSD or even MQA files in direct mode without internally converted to PCM.

From previous review of the LG B&O Play earphones, I don't get the feeling of premium product from it yet, but for this DAC, it is completely different. I really can feel this DAC is a fine product. Very B&O style.

The product it self is quite small. The plastic surface is rubber finish just like the Audioquest Dragonfly Black. The weight of this device is quite heavy for it's size but feels right. Overall it is very premium and far from cheap product feels.

I get this product for Indonesian market and this sticker is very ugly. Need to remove immediately.

You can see the DAC is having a cross line gap in the center. It is look just like a sandwich. This cross line gap purpose is actually to separate the device into two pieces. The bottom unit with the B&O logo is where the DAC chip and the amplifier circuit in it. It is intended to attach with the LG G5 smartphone for the audio upgrade. The top unit is actually the DAC receiver from the USB-C input on the top (not shown) and makes this DAC as a stand-alone device like I will do it right now.

Look how thin this unit is. You can see the bottom side is just like common smartphone, but for stand alone DAC unit we only using the 3.5 mm headphones out on the far right side. I wondering the LG G5 smartphone should also this wide and thin as well, for sure it is small for today smartphone.

So here are the rest accessories inside the box.

I test this DAC by connecting to my Android phone using USB-C to USB-C cable. My smartphone running USB Audio Player Pro and my first impression the sound is not very special at all. Too bad? I hope not.

As usual, for brand new product, they need to burn in the components inside by keep operate for few hours. This is very common in audio world to obtain the true audio performance from the brand new device.

I will let this device stay on and mostly accompany me during zoom meeting on my laptop by attaching the USB input directly to the laptop USB. My laptop automatically identify this device as SPDIF audio device. I will keep update the sound quality on my next post after the burn-in process done for at least 100 hours.

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