[jocar37]

I joined HF to learn about a headphone amp for my home system.  I was surprised to see so much space devoted to phone related devices.  Never realized that there are audiophile options for phones.  I'm new to all this, so I hope you'll bear with me if this seems like a dumb question. 
 
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 with several hundred songs on an sd card.  I was about to pull the trigger on a thumb drive sized usb dac when it occurred to me- how can it really improve the sound of my S3?  Will I have to reload my sd card with higher resolution files, which will leave me with a fraction of my S3 library?

 

[cel4145]

First, you need to research and make certain that the DAC/headphone usb device you are ordering does, indeed work with the S3. Not all USB devices are OTG usb audio compatible, and not all that are may work with your phone.

And yes. If you are not listening to high bit rate MP3s (or better), a new DAC may not make much difference.

What kind of headphones do you have? Perhaps a portable headphone amp is all you need to get the most SQ bang for your buck.