[SeeSax]

  Today my Focal Elear headphones arrived, and after spending an hour listening to them through the new lightning-to-3.5mm adapter, I'm convinced it's definitely "good enough" for anything I'll ever need for day-to-day use (and I always have my DragonFly Black and Chord Mojo if I want better).
 
It's simply amazing a 3.2mm x 3.2mm DAC & amp tucked into such a tiny little adapter can sound so good.  Apple could have avoided all the bad press by highlighting the technology embedded in the tiny adapter and in 3rd-party headphones.
 
Really the only downside I see is the inconvenience of requiring an adapter. 

 
I agree, it sounds fantastic with the est IEMs I can throw at it. As for the inconvenience, this is slightly remedied by having 5 adapters on hand and keeping one in each of my IEM cases lol
 
Surprised no one has asked about burn-in on the adapter. LOL!
 
-Collin-

 

[bflat]

oh I can't help myself....
 
So I am using iAudiogate testing my iPhone 7. It will show where the output is going and what the sampling rate is. Here you go:
 
Speakers - 44/16 ALAC files shows 48 KHz output
Dongle - same track shows 44 Khz output
 
Thus no analog audio passthrough. There is a separate DAC in the dongle that is cable of matching the original sampling rate.

 

[exiton]

Saw iFixit ripped apart the iPhone 7, the headphone jack is a barometer now.  Would rather have a headphone jack, but the dongle seems to be ok with my listening tests.  Silver lining, maybe the lightning jack w/ audio adapter is more durable long term than the headphone jack?   Maybe we get even better third party dacs?!?

 

[Bombarde]

 
Really the only downside I see is the inconvenience of requiring an adapter. 

Still, IMO a pretty inelegant degradation of the older models that didn't require one.
 
That and not being able to charge and listen at the same time without yet another adapter.

 

[h-man]

Initial impressions of the adapter sound output - very good indeed, none of the electronic noise that blights my 6s plus headphone output when the screen is activated.
 
Will do in depth review when I have more time
 
H

 

[colonelkernel8]

.

 

[elfary]

The dongle has 0 ohms of output impedance and that is a huge advantage for balanced armature in ear monitors, a huge leap forward.

And it fixes the EMI noise of iPhone 6s headphone port making its audio great again

Very happy with Cirrus Logic/Apple.

Now waiting for Fiio and the likes. Very interesting times ahead.


If the tonality it's not right, then nothing else really matters.

 

[Double-A]

Has there been any other source besides that German magazine which has provided that <1 ohm output impedance figure? I want two different sources agreeing on that figure before I buy an adapter myself, even if the second source is the official specs and not another third party measurement. I apologize if the second source I desire has already been shared in this thread and I missed it.

 

[h-man]

Wow. Have just tested the adapter with my se535 iems which are super sensitive for hiss and em interference. Totally black noise floor (appreciated during first 30 secs of speak to me/breathe from pink floyd dark side of the moon). Extremely balanced sound, very happy!

 

[west0ne]

Not sure why this link hasn't been posted in this thread yet but it looks like Fiio are confirming that the adapter contains DAC/ADC/Amp. As Fiio are MFi certified and are advertising their own adapter it seems to be a legit source.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/820241/iphone-7-7-compact-external-dac-amp-thread#post_12866718

 

[SeeSax]

Got some more listening time with mine yesterday and this morning and my favorite IEMs through the iP7 are the Sony XBA-300 so far. Zero noise, great musicality and overall just extremely pleasant. They're pretty darn loud at halfway up on the volume as well. Count me as a happy customer. 
 
-Collin-

 

[rutgersftw]

I have been doing most of my iPhone listening wirelessly for a while through a few different Bluetooth headsets (mostly Sony XB 650 because if the sound is degraded and compressed it might as well be fun, too). I tested the included dongle with my new iPhone 7 and my Philips SHP9500... volume level seems slightly higher than 6S and cleaner/tighter to boot. Unexpected win for iPhone 7 and Apple.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

https://www.bluetooth.com/news/pressreleases/2016/06/16/-bluetooth5-quadruples-rangedoubles-speedincreases-data-broadcasting-capacity-by-800
 
Perhaps Apple was ripping the band-aid off a year early so as to goose companies into preparing bluetooth 5.0 accessories in preparation for the 10-year-anniversary iPhone. Sennheiser (PXC 550) and Bose (QC35) have both provided offerings for 2016, but with next generation bluetooth it seems like they might be able to do legitimate lossless data transfer. 

 

[325xia]

Coming from the iPhone 6s Plus and Shure SE-846's as my listening experience for the last year, I have found my iPhone 7Plus' Lighting Dongle and my SE-846's sound much better. Could be just me, but I really think this was a great move forward.

 

[west0ne]

Coming from the iPhone 6s Plus and Shure SE-846's as my listening experience for the last year, I have found my iPhone 7Plus' Lighting Dongle and my SE-846's sound much better. Could be just me, but I really think this was a great move forward.

If the measurements that we have seen are right the output impedance of the adapter is much lower than the headphone jack on the 6S so should work better with low impedance headphones so you're probably right in your assessment of the sound quality.