this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Headphones

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Portable DAC recommendations? (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by Lysergsaur@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community
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I’ve recently switched from Spotify to Tidal, and I really can hear the difference between Spotify AAC and Tidal CD quality (at least when streaming from MacBook).

However, I want more. I want to hear HD. My primary devices are iPhone as input and B&W PX7 S2 headphones as output. My current understanding is that I need a DAC for my phone to transfer anything better than AAC. My headphones support aptX HD, which I think would be enough, at 24bit 48kHz. Does something like a BT DAC that would transfer iPhone signal to aptX HD exist, or should I buy a standard DAC to connect with wire and sacrifice the comfort?

Also, am I really hearing the max quality at least when connected straight to MacBook Pro? They say that the headphone jack supports 24bit/96kHz, but isn’t there more into it?

Thanks for any opinions, I’m new in this and really want to learn how does it all work.

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[–] szakee@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

In rule 2

[–] c0ng0pr0@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Qudelix 5K is probably your best option for versatility and function for now.

[–] razvanciuy@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

AptxHD is not CD quality. Max is 500 or so bit rate, close but not enough for lossless. Your cans have aptx adaptive which is a bit better but not much and is backwards compatible with older aptX bt codecs. Just not enough bandwidth. You need a better codec headphone+Dac for pure CD, only one being Ldac Sony cans+android or Dac, or straight up cable. For HiFi forget about it over bluetooth.

[–] Regular-Cheetah-8095@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Qudelix and humans are not capable of differentiating any resolutions above 16 bit 44.1khz. No human. Ever. On any gear. You can’t even hear half of 44.1khz. High res has no purpose whatsoever for playback.