ChristianT
100+ Head-Fier
I just bought a huawei p9 and this looks like a perfect match for it. Just have to wait for this and then decide what portable phones to buy
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/shanling-up-portable-dac-amp?mode=guest_open
Any reviews/impressions yet?
Ya I agreed the Hibby app seems is to unleash the full potential, but just want to confirm it really can work with other app like Sportify, because that's the point of using it with smart phone instead of stand alone DAC
Are you referring to Android or iOS?
If this is a similar implementation to most other DACs (no reason to think it is not, although the "dual mode" feature might signify they are using additional drivers) as far as I know:
- iOS: should work normally with any app
- Android: it will work with any app, but to use it to the fullest, you will need an app with its own USB drivers, such as Hiby, Neutron, Poweramp Alpha, UAPP. The reason is that by default Android will process the audio stream and resample it even if it is sending it out via USB OTG. As such, your DAC will receive an already sampled signal and resample it again, thereby negating some of the benefits of the DAC itself. To clarify, this is necessary with any and all DACs if you're using Android. It is an OS "feature" until Google decides to correctly implement USB audio out. There might be some particular smartphone brands that have a correct implementation but I'm not aware of any atm.
Thanks for your info! I always thought that once there is sound from android OTG cable then it's fine, I didn't know it may be processed already, hmm.... then it's really not easy to use android phone as source....