That said, the switch to USB-C could have indirect implications on how we consume higher-quality music on iPhones.Įver since Apple started offering hi-res streams on Apple Music, we have wondered why Apple hasn’t cashed in and launched its own DAC – one of a higher quality than its fundamentally crude Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter (which is essentially a DAC and low-power amplifier that arguably acts as more of an 'enabler' than an 'improver'). With rumours of iPhones switching from a Lightning port to USB-C refusing to go away, we have pondered whether this will change things or increase support to, say, 192kHz? Directly, it won't – a connection is a connection and it’ll come down to whether Apple allows the DACs inside its future iPhones and/or adaptors to passthrough higher than 48kHz sample rates uncompressed. Will that be the case forever? We hope not. Of course, we’ll be the first to admit that connecting external kit to your iPhone 13 isn’t the most elegant solution, but if you want to hear the full original resolution of your hi-res files through your iPhone above and beyond 24-bit/48kHz, using an external DAC with your iPhone really is the only way to go. Remember, a number of these DACs usually have ways of indicating what sample rate is being played, so you can make sure your headphones are being fed the best sound quality possible from your files. That might be a touch overkill and punishingly transparent for an iPhone, but these are hi-res files, after all. You could combine the Chord Hugo 2 DAC with a pair of Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) headphones for a more premium set-up. Don’t be afraid to build up to a more revealing system. This is just a starting point, of course. Next, you need a decent DAC such as the Audioquest DragonFly Cobalt, Cyrus soundKey or Chord Mojo 2 and a good pair of headphones, such as the Grado SR325x, Shure Aonic 3 or Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X. What do you need to play hi-res on your iPhone?įirst, you’ll need to invest in Apple’s Lightning-to-USB camera adapter which forms a link between your iPhone and a third-party DAC. Really, if you want to listen to anything at 24-bit/96kHz or higher, you need to connect your iPhone to an external DAC. We haven’t come across any that can handle above 24-bit/48kHz. Similarly, you could go down the Lightning headphones route and plug a pair straight into your iPhone, but these headphones are quite rare and you’ll also need to check what resolution their DAC can handle. If you try and play these files through the same adapter, the iPhone will just downsample them to 24-bit/48kHz. Technically, 24-bit/48kHz is classed as hi-res as it's above 'CD quality's 16-bit/44.1kHz, but some tracks from the aforementioned streaming services will be 24-bit/96kHz or even 24-bit/192kHz. To listen via a pair of wired headphones, you need to use Apple’s Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter which is limited to supporting 24-bit/48kHz. If you want to play hi-res music you are limited by the DACs inside Apple’s devices.
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