[vwong99]

Honestly perhaps because I listen only with the smartphone and with the 1 more triple drivers, but the difference between spotify and tidal is little ...

Have you subscribe to Tidal HiFi? If you do, you can try out some Master track and do a comparison between them.
I would assume there's some SQ differences.

 

[Gioacchino]

Have you subscribe to Tidal HiFi? If you do, you can try out some Master track and do a comparison between them.
I would assume there's some SQ differences.

I'm already a subscriber, but maybe because I only listen with an honor 10 smartphone and in ear 1 more triple drivers, the difference between spotify and tidal is very very little, spotify is obviously much more comfortable at least for me .. I'm sure with hip -dac you will feel the difference (I hope), but I wanted to know if there is a lot of difference in listening to spotify with hip dac, and spotify only with the smartphone .. On Monday I get the XBA-N3 sony and I am afraid that I am " wasted "if I only use them via smartphone

 

[vwong99]

@Gioacchino It looks like you have an Android phone. So you would use the included OTG cable to connect your phone to the iFi hip dac. Single-ended is usually a regular 3.5mm stereo jack, which I imagine is what your headphones have. The iFi hip dac has a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone output (this is known as single-ended) and a 4.4mm balanced output in which more connectors are used.

Hello Taz.

I have 2 Android devices (Sony NW-A105 Walkman and Samsung Tab A 8'' 2019) and tried to transmits digital signals to an USB DAC via OTG cable from Tidal app, but it was never a success in sending bit-perfect signals. It will only playback the max bitrate of the USB DAC.

And I have no issue with IOS devices. Just plugged in the CCK and bingo!

Do you mind elaborate on how I can send digital signals to USB DAC without UAPP? Have been scratching head to crack this piece.

Thanks in advance!

 

[vwong99]

I'm already a subscriber, but maybe because I only listen with an honor 10 smartphone and in ear 1 more triple drivers, the difference between spotify and tidal is very very little, spotify is obviously much more comfortable at least for me .. I'm sure with hip -dac you will feel the difference (I hope), but I wanted to know if there is a lot of difference in listening to spotify with hip dac, and spotify only with the smartphone .. On Monday I get the XBA-N3 sony and I am afraid that I am " wasted "if I only use them via smartphone

My Hip DAC will only arrive in another 10 o 12 days. So I can't comment much on this.

But I do own a Mojo-Poly combo and 2 USB DAC dongles.

For my ears, and my few years experience in this hobby (trust me, there isn't anything as END-GAME thingy existed!), I do believed the SQ is always better from an external DAC compare to playback from phones, except for those LG phones where they have top-notch DAC in their board.

Also, having a good set of IEM/headphones may add value to the sound from an external DAC. That's my view.

Believed other experienced HeadFi-ers around here can help in explaining in some ways how you can max the SQ from a phone or from a DAC.

 

[mochill]

 

[foto16]

My Hip DAC will only arrive in another 10 o 12 days. So I can't comment much on this.

But I do own a Mojo-Poly combo and 2 USB DAC dongles.

For my ears, and my few years experience in this hobby (trust me, there isn't anything as END-GAME thingy existed!), I do believed the SQ is always better from an external DAC compare to playback from phones, except for those LG phones where they have top-notch DAC in their board.

Also, having a good set of IEM/headphones may add value to the sound from an external DAC. That's my view.

Believed other experienced HeadFi-ers around here can help in explaining in some ways how you can max the SQ from a phone or from a DAC.

Just curious about which factors prompted you to add the Hip Dac given that you own a Mojo which is supposed to sound better. Thanks.

 

[iFi audio]

Just curious about which factors prompted you to add the Hip Dac given that you own a Mojo which is supposed to sound better.

That's a good question!

 

[iFi audio]

I was dead set on getting the hip-dac for my DT 770 80, but since I'm never ever going to carry it in my pocket is there any point in getting it over the Zen? I understand that Zen should be fine running of my phone, without external AC power.

If you're after a desktop product for your heradphones, I'd suggest our ZEN DAC. hip-dac is a portable product in the first place. As for sound quality they're tiered similarly and their price reflects that as well.

 

[vwong99]

Just curious about which factors prompted you to add the Hip Dac given that you own a Mojo which is supposed to sound better. Thanks.

Hello foto16

Below are the factors which prompted me to get the Hip Dac:

MQA - I’ve just switched to Tidal lately and would like to hear by myself how Master tracks sound like when it’s decodrd fully. I may be wrong, but there’s limited choice of good MQA decoder in the market right now, except for AQ DF series and iFi products.

Mobility - Compared to Mojo Poly setup, Hip DAC is easier to bring around since I have to travel on and off.

Can’t advise on the SQ between Mojo and Hip DAC as this is my 1st time procuring an iFi product.

 

[EATdeadcat]

Honestly perhaps because I listen only with the smartphone and with the 1 more triple drivers, but the difference between spotify and tidal is little ...

As I use 1more quad-driver and Meze 99 classics, the differences between FLAC (not pop songs) and Spotify are quite obvious via hip dac, so I presume Tidal does give difference too.
Yet, if you intend to just use Amazon HD for lossless music, I suggest you to give it up, as Amazon HD sucks somehow...

 

[EATdeadcat]

Spotify playback high-quality lossy files and you won't get the best of the Hip DAC for the setup.
You will get the best of the DAC if you let it process Hi-Res files (FLAC,WAV,DSD, Tidal Master etc) its own.

Hope the above clarification helps.

I don't own Tidal, so I suggest you to download or generate FLAC files from CDs. That can boost the real power of hip dac. Spotify via Win 10 is OK, but Spotify via Android 10 undermines the efficiency of the dac, honestly speaking. If you really stick with your phone as output source, an alternative solution is to buy a permanent license of Noteburner (not expensive: costs around 40 euros), and generate 320kps files from Spotify via Win10, then transfer them to the phone , and open them via Neutrons or USB Audio Player Pro. Frankly, Android driver sucks with the dac.......

 

[Gioacchino]

I don't own Tidal, so I suggest you to download or generate FLAC files from CDs. That can boost the real power of hip dac. Spotify via Win 10 is OK, but Spotify via Android 10 undermines the efficiency of the dac, honestly speaking. If you really stick with your phone as output source, an alternative solution is to buy a permanent license of Noteburner (not expensive: costs around 40 euros), and generate 320kps files from Spotify via Win10, then transfer them to the phone , and open them via Neutrons or USB Audio Player Pro. Frankly, Android driver sucks with the dac.......

Thanks, I did not know noteburner and it seems an excellent solution, the problem however is that I listen via smartphone so I should convert and download the songs and then put them in the phone, therefore not having a phone with expandable memory I wanted to ask you on average how many megabytes is a song a 320kbps

 

[Gioacchino]

Thanks, I did not know noteburner and it seems an excellent solution, the problem however is that I listen via smartphone so I should convert and download the songs and then put them in the phone, therefore not having a phone with expandable memory I wanted to ask you on average how many megabytes is a song a 320kbps

Wait, does that mean the song weighs 320 kb for every second of the song?

 

[EATdeadcat]

Thanks, I did not know noteburner and it seems an excellent solution, the problem however is that I listen via smartphone so I should convert and download the songs and then put them in the phone, therefore not having a phone with expandable memory I wanted to ask you on average how many megabytes is a song a 320kbps

Noteburner is a good software for European users. It's stable and easy to use. The free trial version is very limited, so I suggest you to buy the licence. The USA version requires subscription which is expensive, but the EU version is a one-off licence, which costs around 30 to 40 euros, depending on the discount. I bought it during discount period, so it cost me around 30 euros.

For every file output, it depends on which format you choose. If you output your spotify files into normal music files, they take a few mb for each song. But I assume that you have spotify premium, which provides you the 320kps mp3, it's logical to output the 320kps mp3 then, as 320kps version is the best mp3 version so far.
For every song's 320kps file, it takes around 10 to 15 mb depending on the length of song.

Noteburner also provides an option to convert your Spotify premium's 320kps songs directly to FLAC. I tried this function, but it's not super ideal:
1. There is some bug from time to time for conversion from spotify premium to Flac, making the songs having no intro-music or album photo. You have to check files every time after output to ensure the quality.
2. As spotify premium provides only 320kps as maximum, converting to Flac only makes your files bigger instead of enhancing music quality (theoretically speaking). I tried to compare those Flac output with the 320kps output many times, and barely find much difference.

Thus, if you want real Flac, I suggest you to browse some lossless music forums to download the flac files, or buy the CDs to convert them into Flac directly.

I have some Flac albums, and fyr, every real Flac song file weighs around 20 to 40 mb, depending on length of song. But honestly, real Flac files are really much better than 320kps files, via which you can hear the music layers and details, if you have a good dac and earphones.

P.S. regarding you question over memory, what is the maximum SD card memory you can put into your phone???

 

[EATdeadcat]

My Hip DAC will only arrive in another 10 o 12 days. So I can't comment much on this.

But I do own a Mojo-Poly combo and 2 USB DAC dongles.

For my ears, and my few years experience in this hobby (trust me, there isn't anything as END-GAME thingy existed!), I do believed the SQ is always better from an external DAC compare to playback from phones, except for those LG phones where they have top-notch DAC in their board.

Also, having a good set of IEM/headphones may add value to the sound from an external DAC. That's my view.

Believed other experienced HeadFi-ers around here can help in explaining in some ways how you can max the SQ from a phone or from a DAC.

I gave up LG years ago, as they are not that enduring. Normally, after 1 year, the LG phone will automatically go dead.
Frankly, I used once my Sony dongle on Xperia5, and it's a scrap. The bluetooth emission via LDAC is excellent while that type-C output..... sssssssso shittty. So, a hip dac will save us from hell. (Though I am still figuring out solutions of incompatibility between sony phones and hip dac currently)
I tested Samsung TabS4 with 3.5 mm jack and hip dac too, and obviously, hip dac wins a lot.

For the labtop, I wrote previously that my motherboard card is not that bad, but after warming up the hip dac, differences become much more obvious. With my Meze 99 classics, maybe due to its powerful analyzing competence, Meze 99 can still maintain quite okay sound quality with the onboard card. Of course, using hip dac will help much further.

But when I use my 1more quad-driver, sound output is very distinctive!!!!! Using onboard card is obviously much worse than using hip dac. Some bass layers are obviously gone without hip dac via the 1more quad...