Questions about iPhone to dac or windows

[micah323]

Hey guys. Just picked up Ananda cans with a lyr3 and bf2 dac

Have a couple questions

Would there be any benefits of one chain vs the other for sound quality

Windows computer Amazon unlimited to bf2 to lyr3

Or

iPhone 12 or 13 Amazon unlimited app to bf2 to lyr3

I am using the apple camera lightning adapter with the phone to the dac


Also, are there any basic setting on either setup I need to go in to change to take advantage of the hd and ultra hd songs?

Thanks sun advance

 

[pbui44]

With your Schiit stack, there probably would not be any noticeable differences in sound quality, at least with the Basic settings. Technically, the bit rates may vary with the Ultra HD Amazon streams, from 44k to 192k bit rates.

 

[micah323]

The me for the response.

Since it’s at my desk, the computer always being connected would def be the easier option

I thought I read in another thread either on this forum or another that someone was recommends to use the iPhone over the windows computer. Maybe something about sound card? I don’t remember the reasoning. Just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be missing out on something with the computer being the source

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Short answer: Between the two, normally iPhone will sound better (I think, don't own one).
Why?: Since OS in iPhone is lighter (few processes in play). It's battery operated (cleaner power), simpler device (depending how it is made, but generally complex device will have complex problems/issues).

Long answer: The source is a system consist of different parts. Depending on how you set it up (source), the hardware you use and the software it runs, will affect sound quality. The hardware: what kind of computer parts/cables used (quality/characterisitcs), its power source (cleaner power, blacker background). The software: OS used, the leaner it gets (less program/processes runing - lower latency), the better it sounds. Media player use (each mediaplayer sounds different). It is more complex than you might think: source components and power supply, storage used, networking, media player etc. comes into play.

So even if I say iPhone will sound better BUT if your PC has a stripped/leaner Windows version, and/or has an LPS as a power source, and/or has better clocked (femto) output devices, better cables etc. THEN the outcome will be different.

 

[Mark200]

Short answer: Between the two, normally iPhone will sound better (I think, don't own one).
Why?: Since OS in iPhone is lighter (few processes in play). It's battery operated (cleaner power), simpler device (depending how it is made, but generally complex device will have complex problems/issues).

Long answer: The source is a system consist of different parts. Depending on how you set it up (source), the hardware you use and the software it runs, will affect sound quality. The hardware: what kind of computer parts/cables used (quality/characterisitcs), its power source (cleaner power, blacker background). The software: OS used, the leaner it gets (less program/processes runing - lower latency), the better it sounds. Media player use (each mediaplayer sounds different). It is more complex than you might think: source components and power supply, storage used, networking, media player etc. comes into play.

So even if I say iPhone will sound better BUT if your PC has a stripped/leaner Windows version, and/or has an LPS as a power source, and/or has better clocked (femto) output devices, better cables etc. THEN the outcome will be different.

My opinion (having worked with and assembled PC's for over 25 years, and also having owned a couple of iPhones), is that the complexity of the software and hardware has no measurable or audible impact on the sound quality. If one is concerned about electrical inference from a PC digital output, one can use toslink output on some soundcards, which being optical (like fiber optics) will have no electrical inference. But I personally wouldn't worry about using USB or Coax for digital output, as long as the cable has minimal shielding.

The iPhone is small device with limited space for sound processing circuitry, and I am not sure what the maximum audio bit rate and sampling frequency it supports. Back when Apple eliminated the headphone jack on iPhones, and started pushing Bluetooth audio, that pretty much reveals what they think about high fidelity audio.

The sound cards built into most PC motherboards are not that great, but probably at least as good as an iPhone. But one can usually add a better sound card into an empty PCI slot in a PC if one needs better than CD quality recordings (assuming your music source has access to those high resolution recordings). But desk tops and even laptops can have external USB sound "cards" added. If one is adding an internal PCI slot sound card to a PC, obviously there has to be an empty PCI slot and one should go into the bios setup and disable the motherboard soundcard. Even the low-end Creative and Asus sound cards costing about $60 are quite good for 2-channel audio that can be output in digital format and hooked up to an external DAC.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Sorry Bro. Not completely true. Jitter passes thru. It is true that EMI/RFI will not travel on an optical link. But timing of electrical pulses affected by interferences/noises on the source equipment will. Might have missed it. And for sometime now smartphone can do (at least as source) DSD512 or PCM768. For I've been playing DSD512 w/ my mobile setup for 4 yrs now.

 

[Mark200]

Sorry Bro. Not completely true. Jitter passes thru. It is true that EMI/RFI will not travel on an optical link. But timing of electrical pulses affected by interferences/noises on the source equipment will. Might have missed it. And for sometime now smartphone can do (at least as source) DSD512 or PCM768. For I've been playing DSD512 w/ my mobile setup for 4 yrs now.

Since you said that you don't use an iPhone, I assume you use and Android smartphone which does have better Hi-Res support than iPhone. But a decent quality PC audio card with S/PDIF (Toslink optical or shielded Coax) output would sound just as good and probably better. In this particular case, since micah323 is sitting as his desk next to a PC (and presumably a large monitor to help select what he wants to play), he can get just as good of results, if not better IMO.

There was jitter on CD players back in 1984 (when I first bought one), but that is pretty much gone or at least completely inaudible now.

Personally, I use iFi Zen Stream (Ethernet connection to Internet) with an external DAC connected via USB. I do use my iPhone Tidal App to select Tidal streaming on the Zen Stream, but I don't particularly like how small the iPhone screen is, but I don't listen at my desk so can't use the PC Tidal App. So if $400 for Zen Stream (or something similar) is option, that would be better.

 

[oknenir]

Would there be any benefits of one chain vs the other for sound quality

You've got everything you need to listen and decide, don't you? That will give you the most accurate answer you can get. If you don't hear any difference, then there isn't any. For you, anyway.

 

[micah323]

You've got everything you need to listen and decide, don't you? That will give you the most accurate answer you can get. If you don't hear any difference, then there isn't any. For you, anyway.

After a brief comparison the iPhone sounded better. Could be a setting issue though, because the iPhone was producing considerably louder music at same volume levels on the amp. Almost as much as switching from low gain to high gain.

 

[oknenir]

Yeah, that could be due to loads of reasons.

the iPhone sounded better

If so, you're in trouble )) having to have the iPhone connected to a DAC while enjoying music... eek

Well, in Windows there's a few thing you can try to improve SQ. Like the software, output device setting etc. What is your Windows setup?

 

[jimbop54]

https://www.audioreviews.org/apple-audio-adapter-review/