[290752]

I got my momentum in mail today and it pairs really nicely with my iPhone 5. But I want more out of it. What portable dac/amp combo would you guys recommend me for $200-300 range?

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Quote:

I got my momentum in mail today and it pairs really nicely with my iPhone 5. But I want more out of it. What portable dac/amp combo would you guys recommend me for $200-300 range?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/620775/the-sub-200-portable-amps-shootout-11-8-amps-compared
 
$200+ ones are overkill... might as well spend that money on a desktop amp or another headphone. 

 

[290752]

Can I use ibasso T5 with my iphone 5? The key here is that I'm using my iphone 5. I looked at the list, but not all the $200 range amp/dac are listed. 

 

[s0lar]

Quote:

Can I use ibasso T5 with my iphone 5? The key here is that I'm using my iphone 5. I looked at the list, but not all the $200 range amp/dac are listed. 

Why not? If your (i)Device has a headphone out you can connect a mini-to-mini to the amp. A line-out is always better. For some iDevices you will need a LOD.

 

[MadDawg]

They killed analog line out on the iPhone5.  You can use the headphone jack, but the only way to bypass the amp is if you have one of the more expensive DAC's that are fully licensed by Apple (do a search on "CLAS" for an example of this).  Some of which also double as an amp, currently something like the fiio e17 can only function as an amp.  Before the iPhone 5, you could use a LOD connector to get a clean line-out analog signal to feed to a portable amp so that you did not have to deal with the added distortion from the headphone port.  There is no way to do that now, and you have to connect the e17 (or other portable amp) to the headphone out.  

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Quote:

They killed analog line out on the iPhone5.  You can use the headphone jack, but the only way to bypass the amp is if you have one of the more expensive DAC's that are fully licensed by Apple (do a search on "CLAS" for an example of this).  Some of which also double as an amp, currently something like the fiio e17 can only function as an amp.  Before the iPhone 5, you could use a LOD connector to get a clean line-out analog signal to feed to a portable amp so that you did not have to deal with the added distortion from the headphone port.  There is no way to do that now, and you have to connect the e17 (or other portable amp) to the headphone out.  

+1

 

[290752]

Quote:

+1

This is a plus for me. I know that the new lighting connectors are fully digital, meaning I can hook up higher-end DAC to AMP which should be better than using cirrus DAC + LOD + amp. I wanted know which portable DAC/Amp was compatible with all new only digital output from iphone 5. Sorry for not being clear.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

They killed analog line out on the iPhone5.  You can use the headphone jack, but the only way to bypass the amp is if you have one of the more expensive DAC's that are fully licensed by Apple (do a search on "CLAS" for an example of this).  Some of which also double as an amp, currently something like the fiio e17 can only function as an amp.  Before the iPhone 5, you could use a LOD connector to get a clean line-out analog signal to feed to a portable amp so that you did not have to deal with the added distortion from the headphone port.  There is no way to do that now, and you have to connect the e17 (or other portable amp) to the headphone out.  

 
The dock adaptor contains a DAC, so this is somewhat incorrect.

 

[MadDawg]

That is certainly true, I am just a little bitter about the phone getting longer coupled with the need to add additional length to a portable setup via that adapter.  For me I am just glad I have a 5.5 video, I probably will not use my phone for music any longer with anything except cheap IEMs for working out.  I am hopeful that usb audio out will turn out to be a better solution for future dac/amp combos like the e18/19 but for now I am very unhappy about needing to use an extra adapter that is going to make my setup very pocket-unfriendly.