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July 1, 2018 - 11:37pm
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How Much Better Can It Get? Enlighten Me Gurus
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You are basically working with three variables:
1. The quality of your streamed files
2. The quality of your DAC
3. The quality of your headphones
Lets start with quality of files - if you can't tell the difference between Tidal and Spotify or the difference seems small it is because it is relatively small. 320K files are pretty robust in sound quality. Lossless files always sound a little better but you aren't losing that much data with Spotify 320K. The higher quality the DAC and better headphones will make the deviation much more obvious the differences will be easier to spot. Try free Pandora vs. Tidal and the gap will get much bigger.
The quality of your DAC is next. Don't worry about chips or any of that stuff. This comes straight down to implementation. A well designed DAC is what you need. The Apple DACs are okay. The DAC in the Airpods vs. the Phone should sound very similar since they are made by the same company.
You can, at a reasonable price get a nicer DAC. Since you aren't looking at high res, finding a headphone amp that has Apple AirPlay built in or has a USB connection for iDevices would be ideal. Something like the Marantz HD-DAC1 is interesting and allows you to connect your phone via USB. Marantz makes an excellent DAC for the money and it will be a clear step up vs. the internal DACs of the phone and headphones.
Finally, headphones. These can be obscene in price and deliver wildly variable results. If you are listening to premium headphones and not hearing much of a difference or any improvement in quality it is because you are bumping up against the limitation of the DAC. The quality of sound in any system will be capped by the weakest link the in the system.
Personally, I am a big fan of the Thinksound on1s. For the money they are exceptional and provide very high resolution. That being said, if I use them with my iPhone they are average sounding and don't really outperform a cheap pair of $40 JBL earbuds. When connected to my main stereo system which has a spectacular DAC and a dedicated headphone amp, they sound quite a bit better. The cap in that case is the quality of the DAC in the phone.
Hope this helps and good luck to you
Thanks so much for the reply. So, from what you've said and from what I can gather with a bit more research - being that iPhone dacs are pretty good and the fact that I'm listening through Spotify mainly, just grabbing a pair of high end headphones shouldn't improve my listening experience much (it won't be a halo, transcendent experience I have dreamed of) and also getting an entry level dac would only bump up the quality to an almost imperceivable amount right?
Basically what I've gotta do is really ditch the portability of listening through an iPhone - or get something like an LG v30 or simply fork out for mid-high tier headphones and a mid-high tier dac and maybe amp too which will come from Tidal Hifi FLAC as well as hopefully some albums in Tidal master quality from my computer. Is that about right?
If I'm about to spend another couple hundred on an entry level dac, using it with my new Vmoda m100s and my iphone will not provide that much of a bump in sound quality?
EDIT: does higher impedance mean better quality? Alot of high end headphones exceed the 35 or so that iPhones are capable of
If you want to step up in portability look at a hi-res portable player. You will get a dramatically better DAC and it will justify a much higher end set of headphones as the DAC will no longer be a bottle neck for you. Consider Astell & Kern as they are great and stable though I am not really sure you can run streaming services off of it. Pono players are much cheaper but it looks like the store failed and I am not sure what will happen long term with the hardware.
For home, even a Cambridge DAC Magic will be a step up from the DAC in an iPhone. The issue is you have to have something to amplify the signal for the headphones and the DAC Magic won’t accept a signal directly from an iPhone. The Marantz unit I suggested is a pretty good value and accepts a wired signal from your phone which will allow you to even stream Tidal at full resolution.
Tidal FLAC will sound better than Spotify assuming your DAC is capable of delivering a differentiated sound. The iPhone alone may not do it. Streaming via a wired connection to a DAC will.
Finally, I can’t answer your question on headphone impedance. I leave that to people with explicitly more technical experience. Consider posting that question and this overall question the headphone section. There are a few people that know that segment of the market really well and are great at responding. They check here every now and then but are super conscientious in headphones.
Cheers for the reply, so, am I understanding the Cambridge magic dac right: essentially is need a headphone amp in conjunction with it for it to work my iPhone or will it just not work through iPhone and I’d have to use my laptop for instance? That said, why will the Marantz unit accept the signal from my iPhone - is it due to it having a built in amp? I’m not even sure, or just haven’t taken the time to process it technically, how the setup works.. if I’m using my iphone and a dac and amp what goes where and in what order haha
Digital source goes to DAC, DAC goes to headphone amp, headphones receive output from amp. Your phone is the digital source.
So, the Cambridge DAC Magic would accept a USB signal from a computer or other digital source like a CD player. The DAC would need to output the signal to something like a Creek OBH-11 headphone. There are DACs that accept signals directly from an iPhone but the Cambridge isn't one of them. The Cambridge is "entry level" which is why I cited it.
The Marantz unit has a USB input on the front that you plug a standard lightning cord into and attach your phone. It is explicitly designed for attaching an iPhone. You can also attach a computer via a standard USB cable in the back. It is a DAC and good quality headphone amp in one box.
The Marantz has software in it that explicitly allows it to read what is on an iPhone. The Cambridge DAC Magic is a simpler device and lacks that ability. It also doesn't have the USB connection to handle it.