dug this up from an old dead thread:
I know a number of audio nuts (I count myself among them). Unlike me, they use iPhones, connect the iPhone to a small, portable external unit that includes a USB DAC and headphone amp. Their headphones are then plugged into the external unit.
I currently use an external unit (USB DAC/headphone amp) with my laptop: Laptop USB out --> external USB DAC/headphone amp --> headphones. This bypasses the DAC built into the sound card of the laptop and dramtically improves sound quality.
Question: can I use an external USB DAC/headphone amp with the Windows Phone 7 using the micro USB out on the bottom of the phone to a mini USB in of my external unit? I am assuming using the 1/8" jack at the bottom of the phone next to the micro USB out would not bypass the internal. Thanks.
To close this thread if anyone cares, HTC indicated that the micro USB out does not support digital out to an external DAC.
Did a bunch of research on DACs and phones. Windows phones cannot bypass its dac with microUSB.
However, I have a windows 7 phone, HTC Surround (with some added features like SRS and Dolby Surround)
Other phones like this I believe are the HTC HD7. Maybe HTC Arrive also.
I couldn't find any info on what DAC they have, but I found this on the nvidia.com forums:
"Dolby headphone is slick, but it's no match for the DAC on my Wife's HTC Surround which natively supports high
impedance headphones. It's got better speakers than 90% of laptops to boot."
I would definitely have to agree with the HTC Surround phone sounding VERY GOOD. (using TF10 and DT880 (250ohm)) The sound is cleaner and louder than my android phone (Huawei Mercury/Honor/Glory). The speakers sound awesome as well, and while I don't use these features--the Dolby and SRS options are high quality and will appeal to some.
I wonder what DAC it has...
Plus these phones come with built-in 16GB. (not expandable however).
ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: ZUNE SOFTWARE IS THE BIGGEST POS SOFTWARE I'VE EVER BEEN UNLUCKY ENOUGH TO USE. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING INTUITIVE ABOUT IT. I would 1000x prefer using iTunes even. Look up comments and there are tons of complaints from even a couple years back and as far as I can tell, it hasn't improved. If only I could install a different media player that has normal syncing functionality.
