Re:New iPhone SE
by dan-robertson on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @01:44PM
(#22880702)
This person finds the DAC to be extremely high quality: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu... . Perhaps it’s a placebo. Perhaps the performance has degraded. Or perhaps his measurements are wrong.
Re:New iPhone SE
by mumblemumble on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @02:05PM
(#22880962)
Or perhaps there's a manufacturing error or some cable damage in the one I listened to? Or, for that matter, I have no idea what the impedance was on the headphones I was using; it was a pair of cans that could well have been more than 100ohm.
In any case, thanks for sharing. These test results are definitely reassuring.
Re:New iPhone SE
by dan-robertson on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @05:40PM
(#22883415)
Well he tests at 35Ω and 200kΩ so probably not resistance, and the output impedance is very low.
It may be that you’re used to hearing certain artefacts from other sources (eg you get totally different harmonics near the upper limit of a valve amp compared to a solid state one), or that the headphones could not be driven at a sufficiently high voltage. But the dac in the dongle is either the same as or better than all the dacs in iPhones with 3.5mm jacks so having a headphone jack wouldn’t help there.
It's really frustrating. I use my phone to listen to music at work, and while I'm far from being an audiophile, things like a tinny high end are still annoying. Where Apple has spent so much time marketing to creatives, you'd think they would pay more attention to something like this. My impression, though, is that they're so caught up with the cash cow that is AirPods and wireless Beats headphones that they just don't care anymore.