[Whazzzup]

I notice that you use the iphone 14 as a transport. I read that it's better than the other phones. So it's not necessary to get a DAP, like SP3000 (I don't mind spending money)? Will I get the most out of my CIEM's (arriving this week), with my iphone, Foiis Q3 dac and Lossless Apple Music?

well i can only speak for a hugo owner that through CCK over rides the rockwell dac in the iPhone, for chords pulse array and fpga chip. But yes the advantage of all in one DAPS/DAC/Amplifiers is that its all in one. Because i use hugo I have used an iPhone 7, XS, and now 14 all the while. the irony is if one gets a Dap you still have two devices in an phone as well.

 

[earmonger]

With output from the Q3, you are just using the iPhone for storage and the player interface. The DAC/Amp is turning those (lossless) digits into sound and amplifying it for you. People get DAPs for the interface and for a quality DAC/amp (and to feel cool). Digits are digits, wherever they are stored; since you already have the DAC/Amp, a DAP would just be a very expensive bit of outboard memory.

It's not like the transport of a turntable or a tape deck, where you're depending on mechanical playback. It's just ouputting the digits through the processor, and you have a good one.

 

[Whazzzup]

And concerning Apple Lossless it’s fine, sure it’s compressed, it’s cheaper it takes less space. I don’t know foils dac but there’s a preference with ak products and their use of oversampling. It’s a really warm yet accurate feel. So imo, yes to a discerning ear and preference, with uncompressed source, could be more enjoyable experience, but either way you’ll enjoy your music.

 

[earmonger]

Lossless = uncompressed. By definition. Presumably those files are equivalent to CD quality.

People impressed by numbers can find files with even higher sampling rates than CD quality. The idea is to push (already extremely low) distortion into a frequency range that's not audible. Whether that has actual detectable consequences for most humans with hearing from 20-20000 Hz is open to interpretation.

The FiiO Q3, which I think is what the OP has, also supports hi-res decoding up to DSD. The iPhone 14 says it supports : "AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos." Whether the iPhone would downsample ultra-his-res files them before sending them to the DAC -- or whether it just sends the data to the DAC, which is capable of decoding hi-res files -- I dunno. Whether you'd hear any difference -- I dunno. Musicians aren't expecting you to have anything more hi-res than a CD-quality lossless file, even if you happen to have extraordinary ears.

 

[seanquanery]

With output from the Q3, you are just using the iPhone for storage and the player interface. The DAC/Amp is turning those (lossless) digits into sound and amplifying it for you. People get DAPs for the interface and for a quality DAC/amp (and to feel cool). Digits are digits, wherever they are stored; since you already have the DAC/Amp, a DAP would just be a very expensive bit of outboard memory.

It's not like the transport of a turntable or a tape deck, where you're depending on mechanical playback. It's just ouputting the digits through the processor, and you have a good one.

So you don't think I need to upgrade from the Q3, like to a Hugo? I won't notice a difference?

 

[earmonger]

I'd start with what you have and see how you like it. There will be a difference with anything you swap in, but you should alter just one variable at a time -- the 'phones, the source, the DAC/Amp -- before making further decisions. Otherwise you won't know what caused the difference.

 

[eriktous]

Lossless = uncompressed. By definition.

No. I'm not sure if you meant something else than you wrote, but Apple Lossless is both lossless and compressed (just like many other lossless compression schemes).

 

[earmonger]

No. I'm not sure if you meant something else than you wrote, but Apple Lossless is both lossless and compressed (just like many other lossless compression schemes).

True--you got me. Shouldn't have used an = sign. What I meant was that lossless has the same sound quality as uncompressed, so a higher, upsampled bitrate is unnecessary.