Smartphone DAC recommentdations

What I mean is, when I use the Dragonfly for YT and some other internet streams it reports a 96khz bit rate for what is clearly being sent across the web at 44.1khz.

 

There are still plenty of smartphones with headphone jacks. Look into chinese brands, I'm currently very happy with my Redmi Note 5 bought 8 months ago for under 200 EUR. No complaints so far.

Phone Finder - search for a phone by feature - GSMArena.com

 

That will be fun. Just be aware you're going to need to get a special balanced 2.5mm TRRS (tip ring ring sleeve) cable for headphone/earphone you want to use with it. You cannot plug in a regular unbalanced headphone into a 2.5mm adapter and use it with a true balanced headphone amp. You need to use a true balanced headphone cable that is wired for proper balanced wiring from end to end.

If you plug in an unbalanced headphone you'll fry the amp. The amp may or may not fry itself instantly. But plugging in an unbalanced headphone will damage the amp. Either slowly or instantly.

2.5mm TRRS balanced headphone cables are available for different headphone brands/models on eBay and Amazon and from custom headphone cable makers. Some headphone manufacturers also sell balanced cables for their headphones/earphones.

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Even looking into that Shure model too.

 

I keep a separate dedicated DAP to play my music. It's the same size as some DAC/AMP suggested here and won't empty out your phone battery.

 

I don't want to carry around two devices so I have an LGV40. Before that I had an LGV20. The V series and the G series from LG are worth checking out if you haven't already made a decision on your phone.

At my desk I use a small USB DAC that's the size of a pack of Orbit gum.

 

You won't be disappointed with the 846's if you can find them in the 350-400 range. The replaceable filters change the sound just enough to matter - I can't believe that I used to love my Bose IE2's. Shows that I'm still a rookie.

 

Android runs audio in shared mode. Which requires that everything be resampled. So yes, the standard audio driver in Android will resample. It picks a common sample rate, not necessarily the highest rate that the DAC will support.

If you want to avoid the resampling you need to use a player app that has its own audio driver and bypasses the native Android driver. USB Audio Player Pro is one of the more popular player apps that can do that. USB Audio Player Pro has its own USB audio driver and puts the DAC audio into exclusive mode.

USB Audio Player Pro has an option to allow you to use the native Android audio instead. You can switch between the special USB audio driver and the native Android audio driver which will let you hear the sound quality difference between the two audio paths. The difference is very noticeable when playing through a USB DAC.

Most audio player apps on Android are using the native Android audio path. USB Audio Player Pro is one of the few that can bypass the native Android audio path and do good audio.

 

I just purchased the Chord Mojo after my DragonFly Red failed and I don't think that I'm going back to the DragonFly. Its definitely difficult to carry around but it is has a better sound across the board.
I usually use the HDTracks version of "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac as my reference. Both the Red and Mojo sound amazing but I'm sticking with the Chord Mojo.

DragonFly has a very good RMA process and is repairing my Red without any questions asked. I recommend the Red for someone with a smaller budget and for its portability. I look forward to having both operational so I can perform better A/B tests.

iPhone Xs Max / Apple Camera adapter - Chord Mojo - Shure 846 - Onyko HF Player - FLAC

 

OK, my iBasso DC01 arrived but now I'm just waiting on my TRRS balanced cable to arrive in the mail. Clearly, you cannot fit a 3.5mm jack inside but I do have a little attachment where you can fit your 3.5 into a 2.5mm converter but I'll just wait on the actual TRRS cable first. Can't wait!

 

DO NOT USE A CONVERTER TO UNBALNCED HEADPHONES WITH THAT AMP!!!!!!
You'll fry it.
It's like connecting the left and right speaker wires on a speaker amp. With some amps you can do that and be OK. On other amps you'll fry lots of things inside. With most balance headphone amps you'll fry things inside. Some will fry immediately. Some will fry after hours of use. Very few will be happy.

 

What Ham said above is correct. If you connect balanced power amp outputs to headphones with a common ground, you are very likely to release the smoke from your amp in very short order...

 

I suspected as much, lol. Thanks for the warning...

 

The existence of adapters that can connect an unbalanced headphone to a balanced amp is frightening. Especially if you bring a balanced headphone amp to a headphone meet. Some people actually have those types of adapters. If they brought an adapter like that to a meet my reaction would be in all caps. It would be easy to fry someones $2000+ amp with an adapter like that. Yikes!

Those adapters can have a proper place and use in special situations. But I wish you needed to submit an essay explaining their proper use before owning one. They are truly frightening if you own balanced gear that will fry if an adapter like that is plugged in.

 

Well, just by looking at the cable that came with my Sennheiser PXC-550 headphones, it does appear to be a TRRS cable (3 black rings right?). Still waiting on my 2.5mm duals to arrive in the mail though...

 

A 3.5 mm TRRS cable is to support a microphone. That's the way 3.5 mm jacks in laptops and phones are wired. It's not a balanced connection. It's a regular unbalanced connection with the 4th connector being for a microphone.

Tip: left
Ring: right
Ring: ground
Sleeve: microphone

 

+1 for the LG V30 or newer V40. Excellent in built DAC so no need for dongles and additional dac.

 

I'm not sure if your particular headphone amps are hybrid, or if they are tube-only. However, shorting the negative outputs is really only likely to be damaging in the case of balanced SS output stages. A transformer-coupled tube output stage can drive a shorted secondary all day long and not come to permanent harm.

 

None of my balanced amps have a transformer-coupled output. They'd all be unhappy getting shorted.

An example of people not understanding balanced headphone output:

Back when the PonoPlayer was first released people discovered the balanced output had twice the power and sounds better. So a few enterprising folks on eBay made adapter cables to connect regular unbalanced headphones to the balanced outputs of the PonoPlayer. The Pono didn't immediately fry or have immediate obvious damage so those people assumed the adapter was OK and was fine to use and sell. Unfortunately that type of adapter does slowly fry the PonoPlayer. It's not immediate. So it took a while for those adapters to get taken off eBay and owners of PonoPlayers warned that you'll damage the PonoPlayer if you do that.

 

Well, my balanced cable finally arrived and I'm having a blast with this new setup. Thanks to everybody for all your input. I do find that you can't exactly turn it up too loud which is okay really. Music's still sounding fabulous at a fairly low volume (I'm using Neutron Player, btw).

 

I use the Sonata HD dac though you should flash it with the "pure music" firmware hidiz has for download on their site. It removes the ability to use it for calls but the music sounds better.

I recently got the fiio btr3 but I'm sending it back, was disappointed with the sound quality, much prefer my Sonata HD. I'll still be on the hunt for something better but I won't be going for bluetooth this time

 

I've found this thread super helpful as I'm currently in the market for a new USB-C/DAC dongle. I have a Pixel 3XL and had been using a Sonata HD until it broke on me last week. I tried the $9 Apple dongle based on research on other forums, but it didn't have enough power on Android - and I'm using basic earbuds (1More Triple Driver). I am an urban commuter, so portability is key. I'd like to stay below $100.

I have been trying to get my hands on a Meizu Hifi Pro, as I had read that the iBasso DC02 had low power similar to the Apple dongle (although those reviews may have been skewed toward higher-end . But I've been unable to find a reliable retailer to sell/ship the Meizu to the States. I guess my main question is: will the iBasso will be strong enough to drive budget earbuds (better than the Apple dongle, which was unusable on Android)? Are there any sub-$100 recommendations?

 

An issue with Android is that it doesn't maximize the volume. It lowers the maximum volume to have headroom for mixing audio sources and other audio processing and possibly for other reasons.

Try plugging the dongle into a Mac or PC and listen to it to find out if the Mac or PC is able to get it to play louder. If the PC or Mac is able to get the dongle to play louder and loud enough with your earphones then you know the issue is with Android limiting the volume.

One way to get more volume with Android is to use the USB Audio Player PRO app. That app can take exclusive control of the USB dongle DAC and maximize the volume. It also is able to adjust the hardware volume if the dongle DAC has a hardware volume control (the iBasso DC02 does, Apple dongle does not).

I have an iBasso DC02. The iBasso also has an app that is able to access and control the hardware volume on the DC02. Use the iBasso app to maximize the hardware volume when listening to YouTube and other apps. I use USB Audio Player PRO for listening to music files saved on the phone and have UAPP maximize the hardware volume. The DC02 is "only" 25mW or so. But with hardware volume maxed it is able to drive my Oppo PM2 headphones loud enough and with enough oomph. The trick is to max the hardware volume then use the software volume to turn it down a bit and adjust the listening volume.

 

Off-topic perhaps, but I recently retired my ancient iPhone 5S and replaced it a slightly less ancient iPhone 6S. Maybe it's because the 6S had been refurbished and the OS and software has just been freshly installed, but the audio is sounding noticeably cleaner and tighter. Anyone know if Apple updated the DAC on that model?

 

Thank you for this - very helpful. I use UAPP for music, but also Google Podcasts and Spotify - so the Apple issue will be an ongoing concern. With the DC02, do you have to do the hardware volume setting each time you plug it in? Or is it a one-time "set and forget?"