[Koolpep]

@krismusic  @elfary 
 
Yes. After having spend a few thousands dollars on DAPs and hearing all kind of amazing improvements and things - then finally volume matching them and putting them onto an input switcher.... I was devastated. The differences were tiny.
 
My current favorites are: Hifiman 901 with balanced card, Hidizs AP100 and the AK100 with The Predator. 
 
But I use them with hard to drive IEMs and with over ear headphones - the 901 in balanced mode with the PM-3 sounds amazing and it can even drive LCD-2 very well. 
 
Why I still use DAPs in general is just that my phone pings and plops, reminds and disturbs me endlessly while I am trying to enjoy my music. Better with a DAP - you can kick back, relax and just leave you phone out of reach (I know I could change my settings etc. but I don't want to do that).....
 
Anyhow, the iPhone 6 and 6S are very capable. The biggest issues people might have with them are probably based on bad synergy (impedance mismatch) or under-driven headphones. Otherwise the iPhone sounds amazing....

 

[krismusic]

@krismusic
  @elfary
 

Yes. After having spend a few thousands dollars on DAPs and hearing all kind of amazing improvements and things - then finally volume matching them and putting them onto an input switcher.... I was devastated. The differences were tiny

Otherwise the iPhone sounds amazing....

That must have been painful. Knowledge hard gained.
The only time I have had problems with the 6S is when I tried an amp with it!

 

[Const4nt1n3]

A bit off topic regarding current discussion, but is there a way to EQ apps like MixCloud or SoundCloud?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Const4nt1n3]

@krismusic
  @elfary
 

Yes. After having spend a few thousands dollars on DAPs and hearing all kind of amazing improvements and things - then finally volume matching them and putting them onto an input switcher.... I was devastated. The differences were tiny

Otherwise the iPhone sounds amazing....

That must have been painful. Knowledge hard gained.
The only time I have had problems with the 6S is when I tried an amp with it!

What happened specifically?

I'm looking myself into AMPing an iPhone. As many pointed out DAC is excellent, but the phone may not supply enough juice for demanding gear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[krismusic]

What happened specifically?

I'm looking myself into AMPing an iPhone. As many pointed out DAC is excellent, but the phone may not supply enough juice for demanding gear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My problems are with the 6S mainly. Random cicks and pops when connected to the HA200. Even in Airplane mode.
No problem with the 5S in Airplane. I'll check tomorrow if it picks anything up when its online.
This all with a portable amp. Stacked. BTW.

 

[Const4nt1n3]

A bit off topic regarding current discussion, but is there a way to EQ apps like MixCloud or SoundCloud?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Or EQing any other music streaming app?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[obbiie]

Has anyone compared the 6S Plus to an LG V10? I'm using either IE80's or Momentum 2.0 Wireless (wired) and wondering if the V10 is really a big step up?

 

[SupaFuzz]

My problems are with the 6S mainly. Random cicks and pops when connected to the HA200. Even in Airplane mode.
No problem with the 5S in Airplane. I'll check tomorrow if it picks anything up when its online.
This all with a portable amp. Stacked. BTW.

I have spent many hours with the 6S-Mojo-LCD-X combination and it works brilliantly!  I have also fed the 6S to Mojo to Burson to my LCD-3 and again remarkable results.

 

[AustinValentine]

  Has anyone compared the 6S Plus to an LG V10? I'm using either IE80's or Momentum 2.0 Wireless (wired) and wondering if the V10 is really a big step up?

 
I actually moved from my LG V10 to the 6S Plus. Why is that?
 
1. The amp on the LG V10 has variable output power based on headphone impedance. There's no way to control it directly, but you can trick it into "Aux" (full power) output by plugging in your headphone cable into the phone first. (This is after you install the DAC FIX app from the Google Play Store so that the internal DAC & amp will work with other players). 
 
2. Even once you have the amp set to the power level appropriate for your headphone, then you have to pray to Lakshmi that it plays well with your Android music player of choice. Google Play Music and the stock music player both do fine, but stuff like the volume slider on Neutron's control panel fights for control and doesn't always display the current volume properly until the next time it's adjusted. You can guess what can happen with that. 
 
3. At the end of the day, the V10 had far more output power...but a little more harshness in the general sound sig. I was hoping that the 9018C2M in the V10 would sound like the 9018AQ2M chip found in the Geek Out V2/V2+/Infinity models. It doesn't - it's closer to a traditional 9018 sound. 
 
4. Whoever decided that putting the volume buttons - which are clacky, somewhat loose plastic - right below the camera lens should be actually forced to use them. They're crap. The location itself isn't inherently bad, but their volume keys are just...awful. 
 
The combination of usability issues and slightly harsh tone caused me to jump ship. PM-3 + iPhone 6S Plus sounds great and works pretty damn well. 

 

[obbiie]

   
I actually moved from my LG V10 to the 6S Plus. Why is that?
 
1. The amp on the LG V10 has variable output power based on headphone impedance. There's no way to control it directly, but you can trick it into "Aux" (full power) output by plugging in your headphone cable into the phone first. (This is after you install the DAC FIX app from the Google Play Store so that the internal DAC & amp will work with other players). 
 
2. Even once you have the amp set to the power level appropriate for your headphone, then you have to pray to Lakshmi that it plays well with your Android music player of choice. Google Play Music and the stock music player both do fine, but stuff like the volume slider on Neutron's control panel fights for control and doesn't always display the current volume properly until the next time it's adjusted. You can guess what can happen with that. 
 
3. At the end of the day, the V10 had far more output power...but a little more harshness in the general sound sig. I was hoping that the 9018C2M in the V10 would sound like the 9018AQ2M chip found in the Geek Out V2/V2+/Infinity models. It doesn't - it's closer to a traditional 9018 sound. 
 
4. Whoever decided that putting the volume buttons - which are clacky, somewhat loose plastic - right below the camera lens should be actually forced to use them. They're crap. The location itself isn't inherently bad, but their volume keys are just...awful. 
 
The combination of usability issues and slightly harsh tone caused me to jump ship. PM-3 + iPhone 6S Plus sounds great and works pretty damn well. 

Thanks so much for the details!
 
I have the V10 now and am considering the switch, a lot of it is that I just prefer the build quality & software with Apple (and have all my other equipment in the eco system) I do find the build quality of the V10 to be lacking. I did want a single device with no amping/external DAC though so with having to get an EU iPhone I need to see if it will drive the Momentum 2's well enough for me.

 

[Golden Ears]

I have an iPhone 6 + , and a CEntrance HiFi SKYN. Would someone try to determine if this noise is being created in the digital domain by hooking up a SKYN to an iPhone and then seeing if it makes noise? Thus would effectively remove the IPhone amplifier and DAC from the chain.

then disconnecting the two and stacking them as per normal and seeing if the noise radiates out the SKYN amp. This would prove radiated noise if the levels decrease as they are separated.

 

[kylezo]

I wanted to report in on the buzzing/static issue. I thought this was a problem with some other components, never even had the inkling that it was my phone, how naive. It is LOUD. I got my phone on 12/30/15, and it came with iOS 9.1, so this isn't a "batch" hardware issue, its clearly a design/power throughput/shielding issue. I'll make a video recording tomorrow, possibly, but this is how I recreate it: using an FM transmitter from the aux out jack on the device and turning up my car stereo, even to 50% volume and 50% phone volume, the crackling and buzzing is sometimes louder than the music I'm listening to. The noise is louder when charging than when not. The issue basically completely goes away when I lock the device (but sometimes background tasks will cause some noise). Having said that, plugging in a pair of HD595s straight into the device, pulling up app switching, binging up siri with her own brighness slider and idling, AND the cc center toggle tray and sliding brightness around produces no noise. Using the transmitter, it's deafening.
 
Verdict: definitely an issue, very dependent on components to reproduce.

 

[VeXun]

My 6s+ is silent I might hear a click or pop once every hour or so when the music is off but in ear headphones are still in. I love using my iPhone 6s+ with my etymotic research ER4S the bass is light but equalizer works great.

Best iems to use with the iPhone IMO are the FIIO EX1 they both work together harmoniously.

 

[krismusic]

The only time I have a problem is if I connect an external amp/DAC. Otherwise it is absolutely fine with my K10's.

 

[kylezo]

I would like to add to my accounting that I don't detect the issue at all outside of the FM transmitter setup. I suspect 100% of iPhones would reproduce the issue using that setup.