[Shinsengumi]

My question: Will a quality DAP perform better than my iPhone with wireless headphones?

Some background: I have a pair of Beyerdynamic Amiron wireless which I use with my iPhone XS and MacBook Pro.

Will the audio quality increase with a DAP using Amiron thru Bluetooth connection? I guess that I still will be using Amirons DAC? Will high-res audio files sound better or will the bluetooth connection be the bottleneck? Will aptx-HD (on a DAP) be better than AAC (on my iPhone and computer) soundwise?

I am aware of the possibility to use the wired connection but I am curious about wireless performance.

 

[MarkSubsonik]

I'm pretty sure that Bluetooth is Bluetooth in that, regardless of whether you're using a better DAC or not, you will have the same result. I may be wrong but that's what I've come to understand. I had this question several years ago and that's what was explained to me.

 

[Zambu]

One thing is the codec support, another thing is that modern smartphones are "class 1" bluetooth whereas some modern DAPs are class 2 (=worse range, worse power apparently?):
See here for "class": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

So if you get a DAP (probably for other reasons than just bluetooth) then you should check with that DAPs headfi-thread how good the bluetooth is (codecs, class, reliability, ... )

 

[mashuto]

The short answer here is No. Using a DAP with wireless headphones wont give you better quality than using your phone. The longer answer is maybe...

The main reason most of us go for DAPs over simply using our phones, besides often having SD card support, is that DAPs very often have significantly better DACs and AMPs than phones do. Thats where the quality increase comes from. However, wireless headphones bypass that whole thing and have their own DAC and AMP hardware.

The difference though, as has already been said, will be reliability of connection (which your phone might actually be better) and then codec support. Obviously better codecs will perform better. Especially if you are listening to already encoded music. Because then you will essentially often have to re-encode it to send over bluetooth. So having better codec support here can make a noticeable difference.

 

[Knightsfan11]

My question: Will a quality DAP perform better than my iPhone with wireless headphones?

Some background: I have a pair of Beyerdynamic Amiron wireless which I use with my iPhone XS and MacBook Pro.

Will the audio quality increase with a DAP using Amiron thru Bluetooth connection? I guess that I still will be using Amirons DAC? Will high-res audio files sound better or will the bluetooth connection be the bottleneck? Will aptx-HD (on a DAP) be better than AAC (on my iPhone and computer) soundwise?

I am aware of the possibility to use the wired connection but I am curious about wireless performance.

In theory, it comes down to the BT codec support on both headphones & device. Providing the DAP supports aptx-HD, it should sound better than if using AAC through your phone. Obviously, your music needs to be of higher quality as well, no point using an mp3 file, as that will be the bottleneck.

Could get a DAP which supports aptx-HD & obviously use it in wired mode as well if your headphones provide that. Alternatively if you'd like to use one device, get an LG phone which will support aptx-HD & you take advantage of it's great internal DAC while wired.