Alternatives to iPhone Lightning-to-3.5mm audio adapter
Mar 2, 2024 at 2:48 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 9
imrazor

imrazor

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I have half a dozen or so old school analog headphones I’d like to be able to use with my new (to me) iPhone 14 Pro Max. Apple does sell a cheap Lightning to 3.5 mm adapter but it’s…well, cheap. The dongle has an on board DAC (as per Apple’s product description) that’s pretty craptastic. Is there an alternative to this adapter other than Bluetooth? I’ve tried Bluetooth headphones over the years and audio quality and user experience has always been pretty crappy. It’s gotten incrementally better over the years, but still subpar compared to wired options.
 
Mar 2, 2024 at 3:10 PM Post #3 of 9
imrazor said:
I have half a dozen or so old school analog headphones I’d like to be able to use with my new (to me) iPhone 14 Pro Max. Apple does sell a cheap Lightning to 3.5 mm adapter but it’s…well, cheap. The dongle has an on board DAC (as per Apple’s product description) that’s pretty craptastic. Is there an alternative to this adapter other than Bluetooth? I’ve tried Bluetooth headphones over the years and audio quality and user experience has always been pretty crappy. It’s gotten incrementally better over the years, but still subpar compared to wired options.
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There are any number of dongle DAC/amps available at all manner of price points, most would come with a lightning to USB-C cable for iPhone use.

However, you seem to be convinced that the Apple dongle is rubbish and there is no point even trying one. I think that is incorrect.

I might not have audiophile golden ears but I have compared an Apple dongle against some pretty decent portable equipment that cost between 10 and over 100 times the retail price of an Apple dongle. I was using several pretty decent IEM, some that needed a decent amount of power to get appropriate volume.

I wanted my fancy gear to wipe the floor with the Apple dongle but that was not the case. If there were any differences in my casual listening comparisons they were a very long way from obvious.

The Apple dongle gets a lot of criticism mainly from folks that buy into the nonsense that surrounds this hobby. Why wouldn’t Apple be able to make a good little dongle at a cost effective price ? They have massive R and D resources and a budget that is probably bigger than all the audio brands combined.

If you want to try others that is entirely understandable. I can’t recommend any specifically because there a dozens of options and I only have a couple.

I would, however, definitely recommend starting with an Apple dongle or, if you want to spend a bit more money, a ddhifi TC35i simply because of the convenience of not having a cable to bother about.
 
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Mar 2, 2024 at 3:26 PM Post #5 of 9
Yes, I tried one with my old iPhone and it sounded bad. Not unlistenable, sure, but not something I want to listen to every day. I mostly listen with desktop gear (Focusrite Scarlett Solo + fairly cheap Sterling headphone amp.) Comparatively speaking, the Apple dongle sounds…flat and lifeless is the best way to put it. There could be some placebo effect in play, but I really don’t think so.

Edit: as an aside, I once had an iPhone with both a 3.5mm jack and lightning port. (iPhone 5s maybe?) Compared to the built in analog jack, headphones connected via the dongle sounded worse.
 
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Mar 2, 2024 at 3:54 PM Post #6 of 9
The Apple dongle is just a DAC, not an amplifier. As a DAC it has very good specs -- not at all "craptastic" -- but if your headphones are power hungry it won't be enough.

There are plenty of DAC/Amp dongles to choose from, and you don't have to break the bank.

Here's one ranking, with the ratings displayed behind him:


You can also look at his 2022 video around 9:00 -- some of those models should be bargains now. Once you get enough amp power, the differences are not going to be huge (or necessarily even audible).

 
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Mar 2, 2024 at 10:19 PM Post #7 of 9
So to test what I'm hearing in this thread I ran a little experiment. I dug my old iPhone 5s out of the rubbish pile and plugged in the much-maligned Apple Lightning dongle. Then I ran two 3.5 mm analog audio cables from the 5s' internal headphone jack -AND- the Lightning-to-3.5mm dongle to my multi-port headphone amp. I also dug out two headphones with very different impedances. One was a pair of ATH-M40x's (35 ohms) and a pair of ancient TDK ST-800's (200 ohms).

Both headphones sounded great when hooked up to the amp, regardless if the audio was sourced from the iPhone's analog jack or the dongle. There did seem to be a small difference in audio quality, but overall it was pretty negligible. When connected to the iPhone (instead of the amp) things changed noticeably. When the TDK cans were connected directly to the iPhone, the audio quality was noticeably flatter (not as in sound signature, but just ... less rich.) This applied to both the internal headphone jack and jack on the dongle. That said the internal port seemed able to provide more power, because there was also a noticeable difference between it and the dongle. This wasn't really noticeable with the less demanding M40x cans.

Interesting test, and seems to bear out what I've heard here. And I had forgotten how decent these old TDK cans sound. They've got a good bit more separation and definition than the M40x's, as well as a less harsh and more natural sound. The M40x's are still quite good though, and far better suited to mobile usage.
 
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