The Quad DAC does most of the work for you. The biggest changes came from the tuning, until the LG V60 with its ES9219 Quad DAC. Additionally, the hardware has actually changed very little from the introduction of the first Quad DAC. Every model afterward came with a Quad DAC as well as an integrated amp. The LG V10 did not have a Quad DAC and it was the only model with a separate amp. V60 – ESS Sabre ES9219 Quad DAC (most likely tuned by LG).V50 and G8 (and G8x) – ESS Sabre ES9218P Quad DAC ( tuned by Meridian).V40 and G7 – ESS Sabre ES9218P Quad DAC ( tuned with Meridian).V30 and G6 (Asian market G6 only) – ESS Sabre ES9218P Quad DAC (tuned by B&O Play).V20 – ESS Sabre ES9218 Quad DAC (tuned by LG or B&O Play, depending on the market).V10 – ESS Sabre 9018 DAC, Sabre 9602 headphone amp.Finally, before we move on, here are the model numbers of every ESS Sabre DAC featured in an LG smartphone. You get almost none of those things from your usual headphone jack on a smartphone and that’s part of what makes LG phones special.
Automatically scales power for low impedance (8ohm to 50ohm) versus high impedance (up to 600ohm) based on the headphones you plug in.Support for DSD, MQA, ALAC, and many other audio file types.2Vrms output level (LG told us 1.934Vrms based on testing with the Sennheiser HD800).For reference, CD quality audio is 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. Support for audio files with up to 32-bit audio at 384 kHz sample rate.Here are the technical specs of the Quad DAC as of the LG V60: