iPhone 6s Sound Quality

[sstyle]

Who knows - is it possible to change volume softer (smaller steps)? Apple provide step = 1/16. It is too much. Sure I know that jailbreak fix this issue. But there is no JB on 9.2+ (((
 
p.s. Use a Tidal and onkyo HF player

 

[jcsivelli]

i've been using several of my discs in flac format and with my Sennheiser overhead's that have 112db sensibility and i dont notice a buzz

 

[sstyle]

  i've been using several of my discs in flac format and with my Sennheiser overhead's that have 112db sensibility and i dont notice a buzz

You need an amp. Like a Cayin C5.

 

[professor55]

You need an amp. Like a Cayin C5.

I just ordered a Cayin C5 to use with my iPhone SE straight out of the headphone jack to start. I mostly listen to Spotify at 320kbs. I'll be back here next week with some impressions.

 

[sstyle]

I just ordered a Cayin C5 to use with my iPhone SE straight out of the headphone jack to start. I mostly listen to Spotify at 320kbs. I'll be back here next week with some impressions.

I think you would be very happy )
 
and try tidal, it is really awesome!
 
--
Found two must-have cydia tweaks for audio listening:
1) EqualizerEverywhere - equalizer settings will affect to ALL apps. (tidal too)
2) CustomVolumeStep (bigboss repo) - You can change volume step from 1\16 to 1\128. After that 1 step ~1dB. It is not so good as on most DAPs, but significally better than stock step. (Sure you can also use a volume slider. It can change volume with 0.5dB step - it does not require a JB)

 

[Arcam-Voice]

More great words on the Arcam MusicBOOST from the independent press.
 
If you want to get better sound from your iPhone 6/6s? and longer b battery life the MusicBOOST is a no brainer 
 
I spent a lot of time listening to Rock, Jazz and Classical over the course of a few weeks using the Music Boost and I can say that it really did sound superior to the iPhone alone.
 
Through the Music Boost, music had better dimensionality, tighter bass and smoother treble. The soundstage in my head was noticeably wider and deeper. A-B comparisons demonstrated that the improvement in sound was not subtle either.
 
My wife and son auditioned it to and commented on how much better the sound was through the Music Boost.
 
Full review here http://hometheaterhifi.com/editorial/blogs/little-things-arcam-music-boost-iphone-6/
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/786776/arcam-musicboost-for-iphone-6/30#post_12663717

 

[Arcam-Voice]

Here's the word from APPLE WORLD USA on Arcam's MusicBOOST, the simplest way to upgrade your iPhone 6/6s sound.
So how does the MusicBOOST improve sound quality? Quite a bit. The audio from an iPhone is good, but the sound quality of most mobile devices (the iPad Pro being the exception) is compromised by build budget, battery life requirements, space constraints and interference from the radio and digital components of the phone. The Arcam peripheral extracts pure digital audio from the iPhone Lightning Port, feeding it via a Texas Instruments internal DAC, then amplifying it with a headphone amp.


The sound quality improvement is noticeable even when using the so-so earpods that come with the iPhone.

Plug in some higher end earphones or headphones, however, and you’ll really hear the difference. If an app can play audio, the MusicBOOST will upgrade it, including music from Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud YouTube, FLAC Player, and more. 

Both the lows and highs were enhanced, with bass frequencies having more impact and extension. There’s more richness and warmth to the overall sound. What’s more, the MusicBOOST delivers about 15% extra volume with no audible distortion at any level.

I think that says it pretty well - Thanks Apple World for listening

 

[Nirvana1000]

Is there any way of transferring FLAC files to iPhone 6S or do you have to convert it to ALAC ?
If so what's the best program to convert?

 

[corius]

Hi,
 
If you want to use the Apple Music app on Ios and organise your music within iTunes you need to convert to ALAC, but you will be restricted to 44.1kHz max sampling rate. 
 
A popular 3rd party IOS app is Onkyo HF Player. It is easy to download FLAC tracks to it using iTunes and it will output HiRes music to an external DAC, e.g. Mojo if that is what you want.
 
If you just want to use the iPhone, then converting to 16bit 44.1kHz ALAC is relatively easy, there are free and paid for solutions. I use dbPoweramp which is paid for, but VLC, I think, will also do the job and is free.

 

[Nirvana1000]

Hi,

If you want to use the Apple Music app on Ios and organise your music within iTunes you need to convert to ALAC, but you will be restricted to 44.1kHz max sampling rate. 

A popular 3rd party IOS app is Onkyo HF Player. It is easy to download FLAC tracks to it using iTunes and it will output HiRes music to an external DAC, e.g. Mojo if that is what you want.

If you just want to use the iPhone, then converting to 16bit 44.1kHz ALAC is relatively easy, there are free and paid for solutions. I use dbPoweramp which is paid for, but VLC, I think, will also do the job and is free.

Thanks

 

[Arcam-Voice]

Arcam MusicBOOST 6/6S
 
Hi all FYI I just got figs below, about 3.5 times the power of an iPhone across impedances.
 
Such an easy way too upgrade iPhone 6/6s sound - http://www.arcam.co.uk/range/rseries/musicboost.htm
 

Load	Stereo
16R	44mW	0.008%	44mW *	0.014%		12mW	0.007%	12mW	0.007%
32R	22mW	0.007%	22mW	0.007%		7mW	0.004%	7mW	0.004%
64R	11.5mW	0.007%	11mW	0.007%		3.5mW	0.004%	3.5mW	0.004%
300R	2.5mW	0.007%	2.5mW	0.007%		0.9mW	0.004%	0.9mW	0.004%

[td=colspan:3]Input 1kHz @ 0dBFS[/td] [td=colspan:5]MusicBoost[/td] [td=colspan:4]iPhone 6[/td] [td=colspan:4] [/td] [td=colspan:2]Single channel[/td] [td=colspan:2]Single channel[/td] [td=colspan:2]Stereo[/td] [td=colspan:2] [/td] [td=colspan:2] [/td] [td=colspan:5] [/td]

 

[Michael Rize]

  Hi,
 
If you want to use the Apple Music app on Ios and organise your music within iTunes you need to convert to ALAC, but you will be restricted to 44.1kHz max sampling rate. 
 
A popular 3rd party IOS app is Onkyo HF Player. It is easy to download FLAC tracks to it using iTunes and it will output HiRes music to an external DAC, e.g. Mojo if that is what you want.
 
If you just want to use the iPhone, then converting to 16bit 44.1kHz ALAC is relatively easy, there are free and paid for solutions. I use dbPoweramp which is paid for, but VLC, I think, will also do the job and is free.

I use XLD .. it is free and allows you to batch convert an entire folder of Flac and convert it to alac or aac.   It works great, I love it..

 

[tylerchris]

  I use XLD .. it is free and allows you to batch convert an entire folder of Flac and convert it to alac or aac.   It works great, I love it..

 
If you have a PC, foobar2000 is a great free program both to play and to convert files. Does FLAC to ALAC no problem. I use my iPhone 6S (along with Centrance Hifi-Skyn) and my JH Angie's for on-the-go listening. Most of my music is either 16/44.1 redbook FLAC, or high-res 24-96 or 24-192, and I use foobar2000 (with SoX Resampler) to resample all my high-res to 24bit 48khz ALAC, so I can use iTunes to upload to my iPhone and play through my Music app (rather than get separate high-res apps like Onkyo to play the high-res FLAC directly - I just prefer using the Music app, and I'm ok with 24-48).
 
Also, to that point, just to clarify @corius' post above, you can actually go to 48khz (and 24-bit) and still playback fine through Music app.
 
Someone earlier in this thread (or the Hifi-Skyn thread, don't recall now) noted that even though the iPhone can technically play 24-bit files, it's actually only playing at 16-bit. I don't know that for sure, but he said he had a special file that was 24-bit (and there are certain things in that file you can hear if a device is outputting in true 24-bit that you won't hear if it's outputting 16-bit), and that he verified iPhone will only play 16-bit. I just keep all my high-res ALAC to 24-48 regardless.

 

[Artmuzz]

I was going to buy the Arcam Music Boost but it isn't available for the iPhone 6S Plus.

 

[Arcam-Voice]

I was going to buy the Arcam Music Boost but it isn't available for the iPhone 6S Plus.

Sorry about that, we decide that a. the Plus had great battery life already and that b. the package would be too large