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Good portable DAC/headphone amp to use with Iphone

RichShortland

RichShortland

pfm Member
Hi all, I'm looking for a good portable DAC/headphone amp to use with an Iphone XS with the latest version of iOs. Any recoemmendations, ideally something that doesn't need the Apple CCK to work..?
Was thinking Fiio? Oppo? Anything else?
Headphones mix of IEMs and some Denon AH-D6000
Thanks
 
For more options you could buy a lavricable with a built in "cck" chip -- they're not cheap @ c.$100 iirc. dragonfly like most of them require a cck, the red is good for iem and relatively sensitive headphones.

Onkyo music app is good.
 
@mikechadwick the Oppo is a definite possibility - can't buy new anymore but should make a good used buy if I can find a nice SE

@Kirk the iFi has a good write-up... only drawback is the connectivity to iphone using a female - lightning connenctor. Not sure about the Dragonflys... there's something about paying that much for what appears to be a slightly overgrown USB stick...

@Pedro83 I hadn't come across those cables before. They're lovely, especially the headphone cables. Might be a treat in there sometime. I'll check out the Onkyo app too.
 
RichShortland said:
@mikechadwick the Oppo is a definite possibility - can't buy new anymore but should make a good used buy if I can find a nice SE

@Kirk the iFi has a good write-up... only drawback is the connectivity to iphone using a female - lightning connenctor. Not sure about the Dragonflys... there's something about paying that much for what appears to be a slightly overgrown USB stick...

@Pedro83 I hadn't come across those cables before. They're lovely, especially the headphone cables. Might be a treat in there sometime. I'll check out the Onkyo app too.
Click to expand...

My brother has the Dragonfly Red and swears by it; goes between his iPhone 11 Pro and some Grado's

He had the Black and moved onto the Red; I've listened to them both and they do make a marked difference. It is small, but it's whats inside that counts and they wouldn't have the reviews they do if they didn't do as good as job as they do! ;)
 
RichShortland said:
@mikechadwick the Oppo is a definite possibility - can't buy new anymore but should make a good used buy if I can find a nice SE

@Kirk the iFi has a good write-up... only drawback is the connectivity to iphone using a female - lightning connenctor. Not sure about the Dragonflys... there's something about paying that much for what appears to be a slightly overgrown USB stick...

@Pedro83 I hadn't come across those cables before. They're lovely, especially the headphone cables. Might be a treat in there sometime. I'll check out the Onkyo app too.
Click to expand...

I demo'd the Cobalt against the Mojo - not a lot in it. The DF was a little bouncier and a tad brighter; the Mojo more organic.

Spectra is another option.
 
hifilover1979 said:
My brother has the Dragonfly Red and swears by it; goes between his iPhone 11 Pro and some Grado's

He had the Black and moved onto the Red; I've listened to them both and they do make a marked difference. It is small, but it's whats inside that counts and they wouldn't have the reviews they do if they didn't do as good as job as they do! ;)
Click to expand...

I owned both DFRed and Mojo at the same time for over a year paired with Noble IEMs and Beyer 1770 pro. vfm is with the Red imo. Slightly more lean, mojo has more juice and neutral. I sold the Mojo first as it wasn't getting the use. I'd like to try the Cobalt one day (haven't tried the black variant).
 
Browsing through Audio Science Review it seems there are now many cheaper and better measuring alternatives to the Dragonfly. The technology seems to be developing at a very rapid pace.

I have a DF Black and find it a nice improvement over MacBook and iphone, but if I were looking now I’d probably wait for this, after ASR raved about the balanced version:

https://e1dashz.wixsite.com/index/9038d
 
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