Hello from West Wales (UK). I've got my mid-range Android phone hooked up to a Fiio KA1 (entry level) DAC streaming Tidal into a Cambridge Audio A1 (£40 eBay) with some old Wharfedale speakers and I'm blown away with the sound I've got for less than four hundred of your dollars. No way can I afford (or want to afford) the eye watering sums hi-fi gear goes for ( though I've appreciated friends' systems, amazing) , but for a sixty year old with slight tinnitus this set up is doing it for me. I'd rather save my money and buy a vintage cd player to my 'system'.
LG put a really good DAC in their phones and designed the operating system and the internal circuitry to optimise sound quality. Unforetunatly there was not enough interest in high quality audio from a mobile device. LG has now stopped making phones :(
I bought a Motorola phone that I don't have service on just to use the LDAC with my Ifi Zen Blue. It's convenient as hell playing Amazon Music and it sounds way better than it should.
Phone is the best streaming device in my experience. And you can control it with a smart watch from a coutsch and that’s it. Throw a great sounding DAC in the mix, like the Chord Mojo or Hugo, set the output level of the DAC to a line-out standard level, and you’ll leave most music streamer devices in the dust. I compared it A to B many times.
USB-C or Lightning into a DAC USB in, should work fine. You could even power it at the same time with a USB splitter, but that would probably affect sound quality. How well it works will be dependent on your phone and USB implementation in the DAC.
Bluetooth 5.3 is a gamechanger.Streaming LDAC and AptxHD at over 100feet wirelessly from the daily phone is the simplest ways to enjoy music. No more finnicky remotes and unintuitive app integrations.
I have a number of iFi desktop & portable DACs which I use with both my phone and my PC, and I have never been anything short of amazed with their performance.
Another great video Paul! I'm glad that you're somehow aware of those chi-fi/mid-fi brands which I think enables us newbies or who wants to start this hobby, a bit more financially-possible. Please continue making these great videos and products. Hoping to visit PS Audio soon. Cheers!
Just recently, Polish company Sisound and Extraudio from Netherlands presented the new R2R Dac 2 on Audio Video Show in Warsaw. It had an innovatiove bluetooth streaming option directly to i2s to dac and it sounded marvelous - from phone! It crushed me, as well as other listeners.
Nice video by Paul being honest about this topic. Awesome. I also have a FiiO DAC for my iPhone and it’s quite amazing what audio fidelity you can pull out of a modern phone with streaming.
Hey Paul, love the videos. The dragonfly actually works with iPhone. No problem whatsoever. My travel rig is basically an Qobuz, iPhone 13 mini, dragonfly cobalt and a pair of Grado sr250e. And it sounds freaking awesome
Hello Paul! I'm very glad that I found your channel, I'm always watching talk about Hi Resolution Audio, DSD's, FLAC and all that. I really appreciate what your doing here. I'm brazilian and here in Brasil, no much people are audiophiles like me. I learned alot from you and I hope you continue to do what you do best: teaching us about audio fidelity. Salutations!
There are many great mobile DACs I’ve used fiio for some years now, firstly connected to my iPod classic, Nano, then onto iPhone or iPad , more recently as the cost of mobile hi res is far closer to my financial pocket, I currently rotate via my iPad Pro using the Dragon fly Cobalt, The Chord Mojo,and the Oppo HA-2 . Wire these up to an ever growing number of headphone collections and there you have some of the best in house music streaming via Tidal or Spotify even tho Spotify doesn’t do above 320Kbps
Hello from West Wales (UK). I've got my mid-range Android phone hooked up to a Fiio KA1 (entry level) DAC streaming Tidal into a Cambridge Audio A1 (£40 eBay) with some old Wharfedale speakers and I'm blown away with the sound I've got for less than four hundred of your dollars. No way can I afford (or want to afford) the eye watering sums hi-fi gear goes for ( though I've appreciated friends' systems, amazing) , but for a sixty year old with slight tinnitus this set up is doing it for me. I'd rather save my money and buy a vintage cd player to my 'system'.
LG put a really good DAC in their phones and designed the operating system and the internal circuitry to optimise sound quality. Unforetunatly there was not enough interest in high quality audio from a mobile device. LG has now stopped making phones :(
I bought a Motorola phone that I don't have service on just to use the LDAC with my Ifi Zen Blue. It's convenient as hell playing Amazon Music and it sounds way better than it should.
These low-fi consumers not only listen to poor electronics, but also through earbuds. They could save more by just buying a used 8-transistor radio.
iFi Hip DAC if you want a portable DAC you can use with your phone, not as convenient as the Dragonfly but it’s more versatile in my opinion.
Phone is the best streaming device in my experience. And you can control it with a smart watch from a coutsch and that’s it. Throw a great sounding DAC in the mix, like the Chord Mojo or Hugo, set the output level of the DAC to a line-out standard level, and you’ll leave most music streamer devices in the dust. I compared it A to B many times.
You can use Dragonflys with phones using an adopter. I use their top line (blue) with my android planar pmagnetic 🎧
USB-C or Lightning into a DAC USB in, should work fine. You could even power it at the same time with a USB splitter, but that would probably affect sound quality. How well it works will be dependent on your phone and USB implementation in the DAC.
Fiio is a new one? Wtf
Bluetooth 5.3 is a gamechanger.Streaming LDAC and AptxHD at over 100feet wirelessly from the daily phone is the simplest ways to enjoy music. No more finnicky remotes and unintuitive app integrations.
I have a number of iFi desktop & portable DACs which I use with both my phone and my PC, and I have never been anything short of amazed with their performance.
Another great video Paul! I'm glad that you're somehow aware of those chi-fi/mid-fi brands which I think enables us newbies or who wants to start this hobby, a bit more financially-possible. Please continue making these great videos and products. Hoping to visit PS Audio soon. Cheers!
Paul really is a kind and gentle man
Just recently, Polish company Sisound and Extraudio from Netherlands presented the new R2R Dac 2 on Audio Video Show in Warsaw. It had an innovatiove bluetooth streaming option directly to i2s to dac and it sounded marvelous - from phone! It crushed me, as well as other listeners.
Fiio finally gets recognition from an audiophile, huh :) Better late than never, Paul! They make musical DACs!
Nice video by Paul being honest about this topic. Awesome. I also have a FiiO DAC for my iPhone and it’s quite amazing what audio fidelity you can pull out of a modern phone with streaming.
Hey Paul, love the videos. The dragonfly actually works with iPhone. No problem whatsoever. My travel rig is basically an Qobuz, iPhone 13 mini, dragonfly cobalt and a pair of Grado sr250e. And it sounds freaking awesome
Hello Paul! I'm very glad that I found your channel, I'm always watching talk about Hi Resolution Audio, DSD's, FLAC and all that. I really appreciate what your doing here. I'm brazilian and here in Brasil, no much people are audiophiles like me. I learned alot from you and I hope you continue to do what you do best: teaching us about audio fidelity. Salutations!
There are many great mobile DACs I’ve used fiio for some years now, firstly connected to my iPod classic, Nano, then onto iPhone or iPad , more recently as the cost of mobile hi res is far closer to my financial pocket, I currently rotate via my iPad Pro using the Dragon fly Cobalt, The Chord Mojo,and the Oppo HA-2 . Wire these up to an ever growing number of headphone collections and there you have some of the best in house music streaming via Tidal or Spotify even tho Spotify doesn’t do above 320Kbps
Hi Paul, I have the FiiO K5 Pro ESS conected in my laptop. The sound is great and I listen DSD music! FiiO accessible DACs to people!