Is it really worth upgrading your cheap Apple dongle DAC?

2 reasons you might want to consider upgrading your dongle DAC (and whoa mama it might have nothing to do with sound!)

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[earthoid]

At only $10 the Apple DAC would seem to be the deal of the century. How did it ever make it to market at that price considering that Apple likes to overprice everything?

[Meerlu]

I used an apple dongle as a DAC for quite a while. No headphones. ITX PC>Dongle>Amp>Speakers. It is surprisingly good for $9 CAD.

[UNSC-owbh]

Cirrus Logic DAC chip inside the Apple dongle...Very respectable for $10 and caps out at 24/48 which again for $10 is fantastic!

[hugorojas]

Good job. It is really important to categorize the chips.
Example:
*Low cost 5-20uss
PCM5102 ES9023 (Sabre)
*Medium cost 40-70uss
ES9038Q2M CS43131
*More expensive 80-120uss
ES9038PRO AK4499EX

So it is important to understand.
*What type of headphones and what impedance will be used. I see it as necessary if you have a specific headset. A dongle/amplifier/dac starts to be necessary from 32ohm for a phone. In any case, the dac that Qualcom integrates is not bad either, it is very good with 15ohm headphones between 20ohm you can enjoy it quite a bit.
*Beyond what a chip with 24bits 192kHz can process, it is already sufficient, it cannot be perceived beyond that. But there is the issue mentioned in the video (sound signature) that some think is related to the amount of information. But many times keep in mind that with a cheap dongle together with a good EQ you can get the same signature as something twice the price, 20 to 40uss for example.
even with just a dedicated amplifier it was enough on a sony xperia (qualcom chip)

[paulkent]

Same experience for me. I have a number of portable dacs, including the dragonfly cobalt and chord mojo. My ears don’t distinguish much sound quality difference, maybe different sound flavours though. However, the volume they can achieve with hard to drive headphones is essential. But with my Shure SE535 in ears, the Apple dongle is plenty good enough. Thanks for the video.

[Spractral]

Those sennheisser headphones kickass.. Ive had mine for a couple years.. Got my mom a pair. They're incredible.

[kikiwonwon]

DAC or AMP is basically a gadget which provides power to drive headphones, iem, earbud. Depending on material of driver structures as ceramic, berylium, planar, ...etc, & impedance & sensitivity, you'll need search information about output on 3.5mm or 4.4mm dac/amp. You can see specifications like:
70mw at 16(Ohm)
140mw at 32(Ohm)
1.6vrms 2vrms
More Ohm needs more power to drive and less distortion when you push more volume. You can see some earbud or headphone have 300(Ohm), 150(Ohm). The higher sensitivity the more noise you get. Higher sensitivity (above 105db) will make your headphone sounds grainy in the background, its like analog sounding lol.
There are two types of Dac/Amp
First one is neutral, it just basically drive headphone to perform the correct tune of a brand.
Second is coloured, it will buff some certain frequency such as: boost sub-mid (male vocal), volume of bass more quantity or make bass tighter, less muddy, boost high mid(female vocal) more sparkle. About staging, width, height, depth, its all about ability of hardware driver. Dac/amp doesn't affect much on staging.
In conclusion, if you are using an easy- to-drive headphone, iem, earbud, just buy a cheap dac/amp dongle, that is enough. Don't fall into rabbit hole guys.

[glasseffect]

All modern DACs are the same except the ones in the early times of internet telephony. Those are usually noisy with limited frequency response.
Ultimately, it's all about if a DAC can handle your gear. On Android, Apple dongle drops down to half the power, and can barely drive the earpods at max volume. To enjoy your music, this seems to be a good starting point:
1. Good gear
2. Lossless audio source
3. Budget DAC.

[Drakken]

If I can make a suggestion, the fiio ka13, the qudelix 5k, are both under 100 dollars and they provide a stark difference in sound from each other and from the apple dac.

[Blackbirddc]

I got a HiBy D1 and I was actually surprised at how much better it sounded. It's only $30 and definitely worth it.

[smileynoreally]

I'm a performing artist and I want to run backing tracks to live PA systems at festivals, I usually run my tracks off of Ableton but I want to simplify my set up and just run my performance tracks off of a phone or iPad. Would it make sense to invest in one of these more expensive DACs, specifically one with the balanced output? I imagine an iPad paired with a DAC and that DAC being connected to the festival mixing console.

[davestevens]

Qudelix 5K. DAC/amp with built in EQ. $105. Works great.

[VladMX]

All DAC’s do sound the same. Do a frequency sweep, all modern dac’s have a flat 20hz-20khz. Where is the difference? If the output is flat, it cannot sound significantly different

[extrabutter]

You just need to worry about USB C on the end of your dongle wearing out. They're not as hardy as the 3.5mm jack

[bifff]

The Apple dongle DAC kills at it's price. Sure, you're right, it does not drive my Sennheiser 660S2 well but it is perfect when paired with my Beyer DT770 Pro 32 ohm headphones and my Moondrop Starfield IEMs.

[ming]

What a great track. I heard the screeching over bluetooth on youtube music with the high bitrate enabled. Whislt testing out my Soundpeat Engine4. This is through my pc using Nahmic Custom EQ.

[marcparsons]

Got the IFI Go Blu and I like the versality and realistic bass boost. Any gripes with any of them is volume limits. All acceptable these days!

[heloiamerk]

Love using the Apple dongle for my IEMs, I find that even when I forget to set it to full volume on UAPP, it still drives most of my IEMs at about ~80% volume on my Samsung phone. I do however also carry a Fiio BTR15 for a more portable setup, and a Fiio KA13 when I need a bit of power. I forgot to bring my KA13 to a headphone store and missed out on being able to properly demo some headphones as the Apple dongle didn't cut it in terms of power. I haven't tried to sit down and properly compare all my sources (including a Meizu Hifi Pro and a Fiio K7), but there's no obvious difference that'd make me do a double take between any of them when I switch between DAC/AMPs.

[jackieblank]

Hi Bob. I have that If I go link hooked to my tablet. Sounds amazing. I use a douk line level booster to get a little more gain and control of the volume on the tablet.

[AticGoo]

OK so i have every equipment now like dac, iem, etc . but i dont know how to play those files hi res quality files in my laptop or mobile i actually use downloaded hi res files but when i play them directly from any music player i am not getting that of a good quality<<< so how can i listen to true hi res audio in mobile(android 14) and laptop (windows u reply soon i m really excited to play hi
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