[Navii85]

Well my old cellphone with it's beautiful headphone jack finally bit the dust. I've put off upgrading because I really didn't want wireless headphones but I also didn't want to carry around a Dac and Amp wherever I went, some of the setups from back in the day (about 10 years ago) were truly wild - in the best ways, of course! My daily drivers were an old pair of Ath 900x that I had for ages ( which are also now gone). So now that I no longer have a jack on my cellphone my question is am I better of getting one of the newer slimmer portable DACs and using some of my higher end headphones (can the music patch even power them? The Fiio is still too large) or just sucking it up and getting the Grado wireless headphones?

 

[msing539]

I was able to drive an HD800S off the balanced output of my HiBy FC4. It got loud enough for me, but I only used it around the house.

It'll depend on which headphones you're looking to drive and which dongle.

 

[dunring]

The ones I've got or had and recommend:
Audio technical ath 1000x which is a great upgrade to the 900x and can power them on anything. For travel I use the Venture electronic VE Monk which are the best value for money in earbuds.
I have the Bower & Wilkins PX7 Carbon edition which are the best sounding wireless headphones out of the dozens I've had Sennheiser Momentum 2 or higher are also really great. Around the house the B&W are great, but when travelling I grab earbuds.

 

[Thomasr]

I also didn't want to carry around a Dac and Amp wherever I went, some of the setups from back in the day (about 10 years ago) were truly wild

A separate DAC might not be as outrageous as you fear/remember.

I bought the Fiio BTR7 fully expecting to use it as a dongle - physically connected to my phone - all the time. But the Bluetooth connectivity is so nice that I use it that way pretty much all the time.

Wired IEMs or headphones plugged into the DAC, which can then sit in a pocket somewhere and the use of my phone isn't impacted in any way.