Just to understand, what the hack actually does:
The component removed supplies the audio engine with constant 5V, regardless of the multi cell battery setup and actual voltage during discharge.
Something like a single chip step down regulator? I am aware that the current regulators used usually can't bring the 3.7V from battery unto these 5V, so the reduced quality comes from "under driving" the audio engine, right?
But would there be theoretically some step up regulator that could substitute this removed part? Or would this require lots of more work (special satellite board e.g.) so it would be inefficient in context of the almost unnoticeable trade off on audio quality?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just stumbled on the "step up/down" thing when learning about Vf and current regulation and I'm always quick on adapting new vocabulary :)).