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Audio Quality of the Note 3- SD800 vs EXY5420 - Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

We know that Samsung has signed a multi-year contract with Wolfson, and that past phones, such as the Note 2, have used Wolfson DAC's. Now, all we know about the audio on the Note 3 is that it will be "hi-def" being 24bit and 192khz. From what I've read, this spec is for both versions of the Note 3. Now, do you all think that both the Snapdragon 800 version and the Exynos 5420 version will have a Wolfson DAC? Or will the 800 have crappy integrated qualcomm audio as the S3 did?
I've tried contacting both Samsung and Wolfson, but to no avail. As soon as any information is available on the subject, I'll update this post.

wiimonkey9 said:
We know that Samsung has signed a multi-year contract with Wolfson, and that past phones, such as the Note 2, have used Wolfson DAC's. Now, all we know about the audio on the Note 3 is that it will be "hi-def" being 24bit and 192khz. From what I've read, this spec is for both versions of the Note 3. Now, do you all think that both the Snapdragon 800 version and the Exynos 5420 version will have a Wolfson DAC? Or will the 800 have crappy integrated qualcomm audio as the S3 did?
I've tried contacting both Samsung and Wolfson, but to no avail. As soon as any information is available on the subject, I'll update this post.
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S800 has a the Qualcomm DAC at least from my experience with the xperia z ultra, but I might be wrong .
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

hiya,
from what iv heard so far the s800 version will have the qualcom chip. I tried getting in contact with the editors from engadget who were at IFA 2013 to ask this very question &got zilch. iv tried tweeting Samsung & Sony about the audio DACs in the zperia z1 &the galaxy note 3 &u guessed it..... nothing. the person I have spoken to is a recognised Dev here at xda &he says that the sound for the note 3 will be as good as u can get, but probably for the exynos version.
I hope this helps

Guys, I have a question developed since the release of S800 devices i.e., Ultra, S4 LTE-A (and coming I9506), G2 etc which will have the audio solution that Qualcomm provides. GSMArena already praised S600 (S4 I9505) audio quality. And since the S800 is a faster and improved version of slapdragon devices I think slapdragon does not seat idle. I mean they also continue to improve their audio part. That said, should not be the difference between exynos 5 octa and a slapdragon s4/note 3 minimal?
I dont get any much response from LTE-A owners.
It is not like crappy yamaha DAC against Exynos powered Wolfson chips.

thekoRngear said:
Guys, I have a question developed since the release of S800 devices i.e., Ultra, S4 LTE-A (and coming I9506), G2 etc which will have the audio solution that Qualcomm provides. GSMArena already praised S600 (S4 I9505) audio quality. And since the S800 is a faster and improved version of slapdragon devices I think slapdragon does not seat idle. I mean they also continue to improve their audio part. That said, should not be the difference between exynos 5 octa and a slapdragon s4/note 3 minimal?
I dont get any much response from LTE-A owners.
It is not like crappy yamaha DAC against Exynos powered Wolfson chips.
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Well, it should still support that "hifi" audio, so it can't be that bad. Plus, at E3 Qualcomm was showing off the audio of the SD800 which sounded pretty damn impressive to me at the time. I don't doubt that the audio quality will be good, but I'm worried that I won't be able to use audio mods like voodoo or viper4android.

wiimonkey9 said:
We know that Samsung has signed a multi-year contract with Wolfson, and that past phones, such as the Note 2, have used Wolfson DAC's. Now, all we know about the audio on the Note 3 is that it will be "hi-def" being 24bit and 192khz. From what I've read, this spec is for both versions of the Note 3. Now, do you all think that both the Snapdragon 800 version and the Exynos 5420 version will have a Wolfson DAC? Or will the 800 have crappy integrated qualcomm audio as the S3 did?
I've tried contacting both Samsung and Wolfson, but to no avail. As soon as any information is available on the subject, I'll update this post.
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Click to collapse
Whatever... all that awesome audio quality will go to waste if the phone has a crappy speaker on the back, like old Note 2.
I'm so spoiled by my Nexus 10 front facing stereo speakers.

rodrigorajao said:
Whatever... all that awesome audio quality will go to waste if the phone has a crappy speaker on the back, like old Note 2.
I'm so spoiled by my Nexus 10 front facing stereo speakers.
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The speaker is on the bottom for the Note 3. But, ummm.... When people talk about audio quality, they are talking about it with headphones. Nobody expects speakers to sound like a 7.1 surround sound system on a phone.

rodrigorajao said:
Whatever... all that awesome audio quality will go to waste if the phone has a crappy speaker on the back, like old Note 2.
I'm so spoiled by my Nexus 10 front facing stereo speakers.
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LOL! Audio quality and phone/ tablet/laptop speakers! Ever heard quality stereo set up?

you know what guys.... I'm tired of all this audio chip crap, at IFA 2013 it was all about oooh display this &wow camera that, yet the bigwigs just don't bother with discussing audio. I don't know why they don't get that the reason why apple make millions on the iphone every year is because they do their audio quite well across the whole range. hell, I'd get an iPhone if it wasn't for wretched iTunes. its purely logical to assume that people will use the one item they have pretty much ALL the time as a music player rather than a video player (software permitting) isn't it? I mean who cares if you've got a 5 inch screen that can display 1080p? really? you'd have to have 21/20 vision to pick up all the tiny details anyway. but sound, that's different, different phones, even by the same company or even in the same product line seem to be miles apart in terms of audio quality. its ridiculous. &I, like a lame ass, have spent the last week trying to figure out what audio capabilities the note 3 has. more fool me. I might as well buy a decent USB DAC, connect it to my phone &let that handle all the audio. these companies are taking the mick.....

I have not listen to music on my phone since I've upgraded to the GN1.
I'm always paranoid that the power will run out on me before I get home since I listen to quite a lot of music when I'm out.
So I'm using a sansa + portable amp atm, and it's great!
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

seraphism said:
you know what guys.... I'm tired of all this audio chip crap, at IFA 2013 it was all about oooh display this &wow camera that, yet the bigwigs just don't bother with discussing audio. I don't know why they don't get that the reason why apple make millions on the iphone every year is because they do their audio quite well across the whole range. hell, I'd get an iPhone if it wasn't for wretched iTunes. its purely logical to assume that people will use the one item they have pretty much ALL the time as a music player rather than a video player (software permitting) isn't it? I mean who cares if you've got a 5 inch screen that can display 1080p? really? you'd have to have 21/20 vision to pick up all the tiny details anyway. but sound, that's different, different phones, even by the same company or even in the same product line seem to be miles apart in terms of audio quality. its ridiculous. &I, like a lame ass, have spent the last week trying to figure out what audio capabilities the note 3 has. more fool me. I might as well buy a decent USB DAC, connect it to my phone &let that handle all the audio. these companies are taking the mick.....
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If a phone is equipped with the Wolfson DAC and powered by voodoo sound and /or other tweaks, you will get one of the best sound quality, a PORTABLE device can have, including standalone portable music players .
That's what I got from my Galaxy S1 and Note 2 devices..
That could be a reason for a user to go for the exynos version of the Note3 instead of Snapdragon's...that's all
When I decide to finally purchase the Note 3, I will first take my headsets to a showroom and compare the Note 3's sound against my GNote2 among other things
Not being in a hurry to purchase yet another very expensive gadget, is a good thing ...
.

betoNL said:
If a phone is equipped with the Wolfson DAC and powered by voodoo sound and /or other tweaks, you will get one of the best sound quality, a PORTABLE device can have, including standalone portable music players .
That's what I got from my Galaxy S1 and Note 2 devices..
That could be a reason for a user to go for the exynos version of the Note3 instead of Snapdragon's...that's all
When I decide to finally purchase the Note 3, I will first take my headsets to a showroom and compare the Note 3's sound against my GNote2 among other things
Not being in a hurry to purchase yet another very expensive gadget, is a good thing ...
.
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agreed Mr beto. I was on a serious rant that day lol. iv decided to bide my time. any phone company would be all too happy to sign me to yet another contract for another 2 years. I think I might just wait until my good old nexus one completely gives up before I use another phone. the isn't actually too bad with viper4audio lol. I don't actually think the exynos one will be available on any carrier on my country, as its only 3g enabled as far as I'm aware? the snapdragon one is lte enabled which is what the great communication gods of the united kingdom are deciding to push as hard as they can. I don't think I could afford to buy it outright. ~£700 is alot of money.... thank you for your advise anyway.

No bad choice.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_i9500_vs_i9505-review-930p5.php

This what what GSMArena said in their latest preview of the Note 2, with their audio testing as well:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_3_preview-review-986p5.php
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 showed exceptionally clean audio output in our audio quality test. The phablet posted some of the best scores we have seen in both parts of the test and garnished them with decent volume levels. It's not the loudest we have seen, but it's loud enough for 99% of the occasions.
Impressively, there's virtually no distortion when you plug in a pair of headphones. Except for the minor bump in stereo crosstalk the output is barely affected.
And here go the results so you can see for yourselves.
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Hard to believe the DAC of the Snapdragon model can match the Wolfson one
I prefer to wait and see what Supercurio will say about it and then I will be doing my own comparisons at the showrooms.
I hope it will get close...
Here is Holland it will be much easier to get the S800.
If I decide to go for the Exynos, I will probably need to make a short trip to Germany...
,

wow, if what gsmarena say is correct then Mr Barry is indeed correct..... well that means audio in all upcoming Snapdragon phones should be about on par with wolfson audio chips?..... I.e the audio in snapdragon socs should in theory get.even better? jeez, snapdragon is really pulling out all the stops..... huzzah! its about f****** time!

However.....
There is a chance the S800 will carry the Wolfson
Just found this info:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/678952/samsung-galaxy-note-3-24-bit-192khz/30#post_9816900

it looks like there may be hope yet. I'm sorry for asking but who is supercurio? I tried looking for info but I'm finding only voodoo stuff. is he like doomlord of the xperias? anyhoo, if anyone is interested I went to my local three store today to ask about the note 3. the advisor there said it should be available on three in the uk from 25th September. on a 2 year "the one plan" contract it would be £37 per month with £100 up front, I'm guessing that's for the 32gb note 3. time to raid the ol' piggy bank guys!

I hate to break it to you guys, but just having a Wolfson does nothing whatsoever to ensure high quality sound. Stated differently: having a Wolfson DAC rather than the Qualcomm DAC does not in and of itself mean one variant of the Note 3 will sound better than the other.
Because of the original Galaxy S and Voodoo Sound, Wolfson have a totally irrational following amongst Android users. Don't get me wrong, Wolfson make great DACs, but the DAC in a device is only part of the equation - how it is implemented is also really important. Case in point is the LG 2x Vs the Galaxy S. Both have the same DAC, only even with Voodoo Sound the Galaxy S has incomparably better sound quality (as measured and heard by Supercurio). Why? Implementation. There are lots of elements that go into implementing a DAC well - RF shielding from other components (the 2x has horrible CPU noise that intrudes all over the sound), how the power supply to the DAC is governed, the output impedance of the device (which is determined by more than the DAC alone, output impedance was the main problem with the Yamaha DAC'd S2 - it was 10ohm which meant unless your headphones/earphones had an input impedance of at least 80ohms the mismatch caused wonky frequency responses, big problem given virtually all IEMs have an input impedance in the 16-50 range), and what the software layer does with sound (the Wolfson-packing S4 Octa upsamples everything to 48KHz, which negatively impacts fidelity). There are probably lots of other things I'm not aware of that have a bearing that are external to a devices DAC.

That's another reason I would never pre-order an expensive device, besides trying avoiding those abusive pre-order prices :
I like to take my time and do my own comparison tests before buying anything, disregard all that technical mambo-jambo and expert reviews.
All those sellers of the showrooms I visit, are already used with me, bringing my headsets and playing hours with different devices and comparing them.
It's fun anyway, and in the meantime, the amazing sound of my Wolfson/Voodoo/MegaBass Beats powered GNote2 will do just fine....
.

Related

Do you think that since the 10 uses a exynos soc will there be a wolfson dac like there is in the galaxy line?

raytraceme said:
Do you think that since the 10 uses a exynos soc will there be a wolfson dac like there is in the galaxy line?
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https://twitter.com/supercurio/status/263315920477360128

Hm, so changes of high-quality audio for audiophile headphones are good.
I own the SGS2 and still miss the great audio quality of my old SGS1.
Too bad the Nexus 10 won't have microSD to store all those nice .flacs tho.

I wonder if someone made ​​some test with the Galaxy S4 using the auxiliary input of a sound with the 3.5 plug male.
I ask this because the Galaxy S3 has a reduction in sound quality when connected to an external device that it's horrible.
Compared to any other phone, the Galaxy S3 loses by this reduction of sound, requiring the installation of applications to improve a bit.
Does anybody know if the Galaxy S3 to S4 are equal in this regard?

maurobonder said:
I wonder if someone made ​​some test with the Galaxy S4 using the auxiliary input of a sound with the 3.5 plug male.
I ask this because the Galaxy S3 has a reduction in sound quality when connected to an external device that it's horrible.
Compared to any other phone, the Galaxy S3 loses by this reduction of sound, requiring the installation of applications to improve a bit.
Does anybody know if the Galaxy S3 to S4 are equal in this regard?
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I have seen videos of everything but this kind of comparison but I can tell you this, the Galaxy S4 puts out much better sounds then the S3 and has a better chipset, odds are this will not be an issue but I can't say for sure, just my take on it.

I have my doubts because I had iphone 2G, 3G, 3GS and when I bought the Galaxy S3, the audio in car sound particularly disappointed me a lot.
And I buy the Galaxy S4, need to know if it has improved or not.
If anyone knows, I appreciate the help.

i found a article that show a few informations about this subject.
in S3 when something was connected to the output quality was reduced to 3.5 (from -92.6 to -53.1) and now in tests in S4 reduction is small (from -96.4 to -95.5) which makes me think it was resolved.
Right?

Ops. I found more information regarding these graphs is that the 9500 model has a new audio chip (Wolfson), but does not support LTE.
The i9505 that supports LTE is the same audio chip S3, so if you care about sound, it is better to opt for GS4 9500

galaxy s 4 good sound

androidlebell said:
galaxy s 4 good sound
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Did you test using external ?
It´s good ? are Sure ?

maurobonder said:
Ops
The i9505 that supports LTE is the same audio chip S3, so if you care about sound, it is better to opt for GS4 9500
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The I9505 that supports LTE does not have the same audio chip that S3 has. S3's is Wolfson WM 1811 whilst the i9505 has built-in qualcomm based Snapdragon S4's audio chip.
And I assume you mentioned the S3's I9300 variant.

thekoRngear said:
The I9505 that supports LTE does not have the same audio chip that S3 has. S3's is Wolfson WM 1811 whilst the i9505 has built-in qualcomm based Snapdragon S4's audio chip.
And I assume you mentioned the S3's I9300 variant.
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Maybe I did mess. In short, what chip is best? Wolfson or qualcomm?
What s4 chip and each uses? i9500 and i9505?

the stock sound is alright, it's loud, that's for sure, but having come from Boffela sound on the s3, I must be spoiled because I'm left wanting more. I tried Adapt Sound, and some other sound gimmicky apps in the market, but have yet to really find anything good. ideally a 5 band hardware equalizer would be nice, but as that's not gonna happen anytime soon, anyone else have any sound tuning methods in the mean time?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

The international version of GSIII has a wolfson audio chip, the US version has a qualcomm chip. Hence the quality difference.

How do the speakers compare to those of the Note 2? I'm discussing in terms of both loudness and audio quality. Are there distortions at maximum volume? Is the quality comparable to the top HTC phones?
The Note 3 had some pretty lackluster speakers, and they were a downgrade compared to those of the Note 2.
On that note, will the DAC for the Qualcomm version be their integrated sound solution and the Wolfson DAC again for the Exynos versions?

Of course you know not a single one of these has been sold yet, so how can you ask a question like this?

If it's like S5 it will be louder than my z2. Let's wait and see.

I hope it's at least as good as the Note 2. I felt like the Note 3 speaker was a downgrade in the loudness department.

In that Russian review they stated the Note 4 speaker was louder then the Note 3 one.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

mardukeme said:
In that Russian review they stated the Note 4 speaker was louder then the Note 3 one.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
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thats a huge achievement LOL

sauron0101 said:
How do the speakers compare to those of the Note 2? I'm discussing in terms of both loudness and audio quality. Are there distortions at maximum volume? Is the quality comparable to the top HTC phones?
The Note 3 had some pretty lackluster speakers, and they were a downgrade compared to those of the Note 2.
On that note, will the DAC for the Qualcomm version be their integrated sound solution and the Wolfson DAC again for the Exynos versions?
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I just checked out the Note 4 at a local Best Buy and I'm happy with everything, but the speaker.
It is indeed louder than the Note 3's, but not by much. It has great highs, but the midrange is tinny sounding and nowhere as full or as loud as my LG G3's speaker. I rely heavily on the speakerphone so this was a disappointment, but I'll buy the phone anyways.

It's wishful thinking on my part, but I'd like to not have to use an external DAC for my JH16's custom IEM's and instead just use the headphone out of my next phone.
Any early impressions on the SQ of the Note 4's headphone out? At least in comparison to other galaxy note/s lines or any of the iphones?

I am also very interested. I use now an LG g3 for flac files, I hope note 4 will be better.

I have used the Samsung S2, S3, S4, S5, Note, Note II, and Note 3 and the headphone output has been the same on each phone. It's not that great. IT could go way louder. I am sure the Note 4 will be untouched in this department.

I believe historically the Exynos versions have better sound quality due to the wolfson DAC.

S1 and s3 international had Wolfson Dacs. Good,very good audio. S2 was yamaha- a disappointment. Aafter that all comes with snapdragon integrated Dacs but...while sound was very clean there was better implementation on others for the same SOC. Take a look at htc one m8 sound, htc mini 2 (the best sound of any smartphone) LG G3 AND...LG PAD 7.0. All of them give better audio quality despite the fact that are using the same SOC.
---------- Post added at 05:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:52 AM ----------
From my point of view is not that important the loudness of a headphone out but the stereo crosstalk and the noise that comes with decoding/amplification of the sound. For the power you can always add an external headphone amplifier or an external dac/amplifier. But it's much easier to have a good output from the phone itself than using external solution ( USB otg+external Dacs or external amplifier with one more cable).

calinormy said:
S1 and s3 international had Wolfson Dacs. Good,very good audio. S2 was yamaha- a disappointment. Aafter that all comes with snapdragon integrated Dacs but...while sound was very clean there was better implementation on others for the same SOC. Take a look at htc one m8 sound, htc mini 2 (the best sound of any smartphone) LG G3 AND...LG PAD 7.0. All of them give better audio quality despite the fact that are using the same SOC.
---------- Post added at 05:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:52 AM ----------
From my point of view is not that important the loudness of a headphone out but the stereo crosstalk and the noise that comes with decoding/amplification of the sound. For the power you can always add an external headphone amplifier or an external dac/amplifier. But it's much easier to have a good output from the phone itself than using external solution ( USB otg+external Dacs or external amplifier with one more cable).
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Yes - However the Exynos S4, Note 3 and S5 have Wolfson DACs. This is because the exynos doesn't have built in DAC like the snapdragon, so therefore they have to use a external wolfson DAC.

I know that, I owned every one of the galaxy and note phones. It was too long to post all that. After all even the S3 has 2 editions ( exynox and snapdragon) note 3, gs5. I just hope that samsung will pay more attention to the sound quality. It could be done because htc and lg did it alredy.

It seems that we have to wait for gsmarena review to see how it is. Hope to have good news...

I remember that there was an app for rooted deviced that reconfigured the Wolfson allowing for example turning on headphones pre-amp. I used it on some tablet (Asus Transformer I think, the first one) and it was quite useful.

The Note 4 that I have is the Exynos version, and it had the Wolfson WM5110 chip in it.
Comparing it to the Note 3 Exynos, the Note 4 is noticeably better than the Note 3, had much more detail in it.
and comparing it to my friend's S5, the bass on the Note 4 is not as punchy as the S5 and S5 had a slightly warmer tone to the music but I liked the Note 4 more.

Any word if the audio chip is improved on snapdragon version??
Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

The GSMarena review was somewhat disappointing as far as audio goes, the results were no where near as good as the G3 or IPhone 6+.
I have both the G3 and the 6+ and in terms of music playback quality the IPhone is a bit better.

Note 3 didn't have Wolfson DAC. It was Yamaha. Galaxy S used WA, S II used Yamaha, S III used WA, S IV used SD, Yamaha, Octa Core being the only variant with WA. Note 2 was WA. Note 3 was Yamaha. Note 4 still needs confirmation, with so many models and configurations (LTE CAT 4, LTE CAT 6, HSPDA+) it's hard to know. My best guess is LTE CAT 4 model (Ericsson Modem) might get WA. All the others will be SD and Yamaha.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

bnbasarir said:
Note 3 didn't have Wolfson DAC. It was Yamaha. Galaxy S used WA, S II used Yamaha, S III used WA, S IV used SD, Yamaha, Octa Core being the only variant with WA. Note 2 was WA. Note 3 was Yamaha. Note 4 still needs confirmation, with so many models and configurations (LTE CAT 4, LTE CAT 6, HSPDA+) it's hard to know. My best guess is LTE CAT 4 model (Ericsson Modem) might get WA. All the others will be SD and Yamaha.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
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The CAT 6 version is also Exynos (in Korea at least). AFAIK it uses a Intel LTE modem

I was using the headsets that came with my phone yesterday and they sound pretty amazing compared to the ones that came with my Note 2. I was also surprised to see that if you record a video with the headsets plugged in, it will use the mic on the headset, which is amazing for vlogging. I didn't notice that at all on my Note 2, so I'm not sure if it's a new feature or what.
I've got the Exynos version, so I'm not sure if the headphones are the same as what you'd get in North America.

Exynos variants have WM5110. Confirmed! So yeah, good audio will be definitely there once we have a custom kernel to support the DAC AMP parameter modifications.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

Audio codec in the note 4 snapdragon 805 is the WCD 9330, S5 has the WCD 9320.

​
klownem said:
Audio codec in the note 4 snapdragon 805 is the WCD 9330, S5 has the WCD 9320.
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Was listening to the external audio on a snapdragon version earlier ,, audio sounds louder and a bit clearer than my Note 3, not much better tho,, in fairness I was trying it in store, hardly scientific..

Apparently Note 4 doesn't have much power 0.41 volts, guess I will have to use a DAC/AMP or just double amp with my Fiio E6.

People on the internet claim Samsung uses top notch Wolfson DAC's in it's Exynos variants. How true is it for this device?

Late answer is better than none:
Never heard about anything special with the DAC. But the weakest link in the chain should be the tiny headset jack, often had problems with these like noise or fading volume on one channel.