[west0ne]

@elfary has mentioned a number of times that the adapter has an output of 1V, could someone (possibly @RugbyPlayer) answer a question for me.

We are used to seeing the output power of amplifiers as being stated in Watts (W) or mW into a certain headphone impedance. If we know the sensitivity of the headphone along with the impedance we can then work out how many W or mW of power we need from the amp to reach a certain SPL and thus will a specific headphone work with a specific amp. Do we know what the mW output of the Apple adapter is or how it is calculated from the info we do know.

 

[elfary]

@elfary has mentioned a number of times that the adapter has an output of 1V, could someone (possibly @RugbyPlayer) answer a question for me.

We are used to seeing the output power of amplifiers as being stated in Watts (W) or mW into a certain headphone impedance. If we know the sensitivity of the headphone along with the impedance we can then work out how many W or mW of power we need from the amp to reach a certain SPL and thus will a specific headphone work with a specific amp. Do we know what the mW output of the Apple adapter is or how it is calculated from the info we do know.

To be accurate is 1 volt with no load. (Unless your iPhone is European).
 
There are online calculators out there but since i always work on volt basis i can not recall the name.
 
Anyway to address your concerns i would say that the dongle should give you 24 mW when driving a dummy load of 32 ohms ( In a regular -non European- iPhone).

 

[325xia]

The dongle has inside a full blown Cirrus Logic codec (DAC-ADC-Amp) that's why chinese knock off dongles sound like crap and do not support mic functions. Plus the shielding and the part model number makes the matter quite clear.

The big problem is that it sounds so good and it's so tiny that people refuse to believe the truth: that this 9$ dongle is a electrical engineering masterpiece that puts to shame to many boutique brick markers.

Cirrus has made american engineering great again


If the tonality it's not right, then nothing else really matters.

+1. This $9 Apple Lightening Dongle sounds amazing on my 7 Plus with SE-846's. Pure Bliss.

 

[arftech]

+1. This $9 Apple Lightening Dongle sounds amazing on my 7 Plus with SE-846's. Pure Bliss.

I don't have the SE-846 but do have the Westone UM Pro50 and Oppo HA-2 which I like.  Have you used a portable DAC connected to your iPhone and if you have what is the sound comparison versus the included iPhone dongle?  This question is for anyone of you all.  
 
My 7 Plus on order and can't wait to see what synergy it brings to my IEMs directly connected to the phone minus the HA-2.

 

[colonelkernel8]

One thing I noticed on my iPhone 7 is that when using the lightning connector with one of my third party DAC/AMPs (either the PHA-1A or the Soundblaster E5), there are some serious problems. With the PHA-1A there is a clicking I can hear that occurs seemingly randomly (almost like a missed sample or something) with the E5, I get this horrible distorted sound that also occurs randomly. I'm assuming that samples are getting dropped and the PHA-1A and Soundblaster (which uses a DSP between the input and the DAC) simply handle them differently. This is an ENORMOUS issue for me, since the whole reason I was ok with dropping the headphone jack was because I used external conversion/amplification, but if that's not working properly, what's the point? I'm hoping this gets straightened out in an update, and soon.
 
Anyone else with similar MFi DAC's experiencing the same issue? Hopefully it's just my phone and I can go get it swapped.

 

[RugbyPlayer]

   
I beg my right to differ. In ten years in the portable audio business i have never ever seen something that tiny performing that good at such a low price tag.
 
Where could i purchase by 9$ a headphone driver that features
 
- Laughable footprint
 
- 0'3 Ohms of output impedance
 
- 1 volt of output power
 
- very low noise and distortion
 
If you know lots of products like this i would appreciate that you would share that with us
 
Closest that i have seen are full fledged usb size dongles much more expensive, that draw far more power and  that in many instances pump out a worse electrical signal.

 
Look at the DAC manufactures not full solutions. TI has at least 10 DAC/Amp combos in a similar footprint with similar output ratings as whats in the dongle
 
http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/audio-ic/audio-dac-product.page
 
sort the above page by package size and youll see multiple options that are below 30mm squared area size

 

[elfary]

   
Look at the DAC manufactures not full solutions. TI has at least 10 DAC/Amp combos in a similar footprint with similar output ratings as whats in the dongle

I am a consumer not a manufacturer so standalone components are not gonna cut it for my user experience.
 
I can just purchase what it's on the shelves.
 
And never ever did i saw on a shelf something quite like this for 9$.
 
This is Apple performance with an ebay knock off price tag.
 
Apple has had the courage to roll out a full solution. Just give them that mate!

 

[colonelkernel8]

   
Look at the DAC manufactures not full solutions. TI has at least 10 DAC/Amp combos in a similar footprint with similar output ratings as whats in the dongle
 
http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/audio-ic/audio-dac-product.page
 
sort the above page by package size and youll see multiple options that are below 30mm squared area size

Doesn't it need to be a DAC/ADC (sometimes referred to as a CODEC)? We still have the microphone to contend with.

 

[RugbyPlayer]

  I am a consumer not a manufacturer so standalone components are not gonna cut it for my user experience.
 
I can just purchase what it's on the shelves.
 
And never ever did i saw on a shelf something quite like this for 9$.
 
This is Apple performance with an ebay knock off price tag.
 
Apple has had the courage to roll out a full solution. Just give them that mate!

But there's never been a need has there? Apple forced the need for that solution themselves, the engineering behind it is nothing special

 

[Redcarmoose]

 

[Duncan]

I'm not going to go through 50 pages to see if anyone else has done this, so even if it ends up being a personal voyage if discovery so be it...

Anyhow, the only iDevice I have left is my iPad Pro, and today I bought this...



So, I'm going to compare the headphone out of the iPad versus this, knowing that it "should" sound identical to the iPhone 7... To see if Apple are crippling headphone out by putting it offboard...

A cheap experiment

 

[Artmuzz]

I bought the Lightning to Headphone jack adapter for my iPhone 6S Plus and I am liking the sound quality. IMO the sound has a wider soundstage through the adapter and a slight bit more bass.

 

[amaranthin3]

+1. This $9 Apple Lightening Dongle sounds amazing on my 7 Plus with SE-846's. Pure Bliss.

I'm rocking the Se846's also with the dongle sounds much better than my 5s.

 

[RugbyPlayer]

I bought the Lightning to Headphone jack adapter for my iPhone 6S Plus and I am liking the sound quality. IMO the sound has a wider soundstage through the adapter and a slight bit more bass.

 
That makes no sense with the measurements we have showing decreased dynamic range on the adapter. 

 

[h-man]

I'm not going to go through 50 pages to see if anyone else has done this, so even if it ends up being a personal voyage if discovery so be it...

Anyhow, the only iDevice I have left is my iPad Pro, and today I bought this...



So, I'm going to compare the headphone out of the iPad versus this, knowing that it "should" sound identical to the iPhone 7... To see if Apple are crippling headphone out by putting it offboard...

A cheap experiment

And the verdict is.......?