[Orestes1984]

Of course it is, or are you saying that Fiio don't market the X3II? Or are you saying that you, unlike other human beings, are somehow immune to marketing?

The iPhone is flat/linear within the limits of audibility. For the X3 to actually produce some audible difference in sound (regardless of whether that difference is subjectively better or worse), it must therefore NOT be flat/linear within the limits of audibility. In which case the X3 is not better, it's worse!! Although of course some audiophiles actually have a preference for "worse" (audible distortion) and therefore might confuse their personal subjective preference for "better". As previously, there's the caveat of what is being driven by the dap, which might mean it's more suitable (rather that intrinsically "better") for your particular cans. There's also the potential caveat of some functionality difference (rather than a performance difference), which could make it more (or less) suitable in certain circumstances (say a music collection in some rare/esoteric format unsupported by the iPhone).

G

This, some people like some kind of distortion, actually the frequency response curve on an iphone is ruler flat. We don't really need to go round in circles deliberating this.

 

[bigshot]

It's a lot better to add coloration with an equalizer, rather than having a response imbalance hard wired into a player. You can adjust an equalizer to the way you want it. But a colored player is stuck at that coloration. Ruler flat is what people should want their players to be. Then they can add salt and pepper to taste.

 

[Orestes1984]

Of course, but we should keep in mind at the same time that the equaliser should have some kind of spectrum analyser so that we can see what the changes we are doing are actually doing and learn from it at the same time and actually see when we're getting clipping you might not even be hearing.

 

[bigshot]

Or just use your ears and experience to know what effect your EQ will make on the music.

 

[Orestes1984]

Either way is fine by me if you want to do it like that.

 

[Sound Eq]

can i ask which is the best dac/amp adapter cable for iphone xs, anything great in a cable like form factor

 

[bfreedma]

can i ask which is the best dac/amp adapter cable for iphone xs, anything great in a cable like form factor

Is the goal to connect to an external amp, or are you looking to use an external DAC and not the DAC in the phone?

 

[Sound Eq]

Is the goal to connect to an external amp, or are you looking to use an external DAC and not the DAC in the phone?

no just something low profile like the fiio i1 but shorter, or something that is just small profile, or max the size of a fiio btr1k

 

[bfreedma]

no just something low profile like the fiio i1 but shorter, or something that is just small profile, or max the size of a fiio btr1k

Can you be more specific? Do you want to use the device as an amp while using the phone’s internal DAC, or do you want to use the device as a DAC and not have the phone DAC performing the digital to analog conversion?

Edit - I think I understand - you want a DAC/AMP in the form of a cable. Is that correct?

 

[Sound Eq]

Can you be more specific? Do you want to use the device as an amp while using the phone’s internal DAC, or do you want to use the device as a DAC and not have the phone DAC performing the digital to analog conversion?

Edit - I think I understand - you want a DAC/AMP in the form of a cable. Is that correct?

cable in dac/amp format but shorter than fiio i1

 

[krismusic]

cable in dac/amp format but shorter than fiio i1

Be warned that the difference that an external dac/amp can make are small and subtle.

 

[bigshot]

Or most likely non existent

 

[Sterling2]

When the iPhone is wired to anything it kind of precludes mobility. I instead use Airport Express for wireless enjoyment of music on my iPhone. The Airport Express is wired to prepro via S/PDIF connection so my prepro's DAC does the heavy lifting.

 

[krismusic]

I asked this in a new thread but did not receive any replies. This might be a good place to ask. Apple dropped the HO jack socket and made it necessary to use dongle to run third party headphones. As the dongle contains a DAC, does that mean that there is no difference in sound between models after the 7?

 

[SparkOnShore]

I asked this in a new thread but did not receive any replies. This might be a good place to ask. Apple dropped the HO jack socket and made it necessary to use dongle to run third party headphones. As the dongle contains a DAC, does that mean that there is no difference in sound between models after the 7?

Logically yes, there is no difference anymore in sound between models if you use the Apple dongle as headphone out.