Is it me or does Apple Music sound better on a macbook than iPhone?

[NiagaraPete]

$3,000 device

With all the same inputs and output you already have a refuse to use correctly. Good luck.

 

[Jimbob54]

Yep I can do that. But I prefer flexibility and usage of my iPhone sometimes. I have 2 weeks left to return the ex5. I will keep researching even if I end up with a $3,000 device.

Make your life easier. Tell us what connections and functions you want on this mythical device.

And yes, we know, you want to connect a pair of hd800 to it

 

[AmalfiMan]

Make your life easier. Tell us what connections and functions you want on this mythical device.

And yes, we know, you want to connect a pair of hd800 to it

Reqs:
Connect to appleTV4k without disrupting dolby vision and atmos for the TV. BT is fine for sound.
Connect to gaming PC.
Connect to macbook for lossless.
Connect to iPhone for lossless.

All with simple hookups and no hacks.

I think a receiver AVR is the solution. I will look into it.

 

[fieldcar]

just Bluetooth stream from your iphone, Macbook and any other source you have.

wise suggestion, considering most mortals can't hear beyond -50dB of SINAD.

Source: your ears after the klippel listening test. As a broken record, I state that I cant get anything better than -39dB.

Listening Test

www.klippel.de

Effective SINAD of bluetooth codecs are as follows.

 

[NiagaraPete]

Reqs:
Connect to appleTV4k without disrupting dolby vision and atmos for the TV. BT is fine for sound.
Connect to gaming PC.
Connect to macbook for lossless.
Connect to iPhone for lossless.

All with simple hookups and no hacks.

I think a receiver AVR is the solution. I will look into it.

Connect to appleTV4k without disrupting dolby vision and atmos for the TV. BT is fine for sound.

You don't have anyway to play Dolby Atmos. Unless you have a magical speaker system and Atmos decoder you haven't told us about.

Do you have something like this?

Connect to gaming PC. How about the toslink input in the EX5
Connect to the MacBook for lossless. Not ideal you should stream
Connect to iPhone for lossless. Best sound if you use the correct cable or adapter with the correct cables.

No hacks in any of the above.

Yup AVR, great choice. Buy a speaker system like the image. Make sure it supports Dolby Atmos.

 

[Katji]

God help.

Time for me to go smoke now.

 

[NiagaraPete]

Connect to appleTV4k without disrupting dolby vision and atmos for the TV. BT is fine for sound.

You don't have anyway to play Dolby Atmos. Unless you have a magical speaker system and Atmos decoder you haven't told us about.

Do you have something like this?
View attachment 212260
Connect to gaming PC. How about the toslink input in the EX5
Connect to the MacBook for lossless. Not ideal you should stream
Connect to iPhone for lossless. Best sound if you use the correct cable or adapter with the correct cables.

No hacks in any of the above.

Yup AVR, great choice. Buy a speaker system like the image. Make sure it supports Dolby Atmos.

Sorry I forgot you have the AirPod Max. They are the only thing that will.

 

[AmalfiMan]

wise suggestion, considering most mortals can't hear beyond -50dB of SINAD.

Source: your ears after the klippel listening test. As a broken record, I state that I cant get anything better than -39dB.

Listening Test

www.klippel.de

Effective SINAD of bluetooth codecs are as follows.

I just confirmed the apple music iPhone sounds better with the schiit amp. Than using the Lightning 3.5mm dac dongle.

Connect to appleTV4k without disrupting dolby vision and atmos for the TV. BT is fine for sound.

You don't have anyway to play Dolby Atmos. Unless you have a magical speaker system and Atmos decoder you haven't told us about.

Do you have something like this?
View attachment 212260
Connect to gaming PC. How about the toslink input in the EX5
Connect to the MacBook for lossless. Not ideal you should stream
Connect to iPhone for lossless. Best sound if you use the correct cable or adapter with the correct cables.

No hacks in any of the above.

Yup AVR, great choice. Buy a speaker system like the image. Make sure it supports Dolby Atmos.

ok will investigate this. For Dolby, I meant retain it for my external speakers via AppleTV. But for amazon prime which doesn’t have dolby, Using headphones is fine.

 

[Jimbob54]

I just confirmed the apple music iPhone sounds better with the schiit amp. Than using the Lightning 3.5mm dac dongle.

Presume you mean with the dongle feeding the Schiit amp- you are still using the (good) dac in the dongle - its just not powerful enough for those headphones as the only amp.

 

[AmalfiMan]

Presume you mean with the dongle feeding the Schiit amp- you are still using the (good) dac in the dongle - its just not powerful enough for those headphones as the only amp.

********
Ok so got it all to work. The EX5 usb b port is used to connect to macbook via usb c non dac dongle. I plan to get a usb hub to split it to go to the pc.

1. Why does schiit heresy have a IN and OUT RCA port? EX5 only has OUT.

2. When on the macbook, EX5 sounds awful with mac’s EQ enabled when playing some apple music tracks.
When switching to the Schiit Heresy, it sounds great with EQ.
when EX5 does sound good, with EQ on, with some songs and radio internet stations on apple music, it does have a slight richer sound than Schiit.

 

[Jimbob54]

********
Ok so got it all to work. The EX5 usb b port is used to connect to macbook via usb c non dac dongle. I plan to get a usb hub to split it to go to the pc.

1. Why does schiit heresy have a IN and OUT RCA port? EX5 only has OUT.

2. When on the macbook, EX5 sounds awful with mac’s EQ enabled when playing some apple music tracks.
When switching to the Schiit Heresy, it sounds great with EQ.
when EX5 does sound good, with EQ on, with some songs and radio internet stations on apple music, it does have a slight richer sound than Schiit.

1. The schiit is an analog only headphone amp and pre amp. You need the inputs for a dac (or CD or whatever) that already does the digital to analog conversion . The topping is a dac and headphone amp. It can be used as a one box device. It receives digital signals, converts to analog and outputs those.

2 very different devices.

2. I'm going nowhere near this part as there are far too many factors in play and I have no idea how macs work, with or without EQ. But an obvious starting point would be to ensure that in both cases, the outputs from the schiit and the topping are the same level.

 

[NiagaraPete]

********
Ok so got it all to work. The EX5 usb b port is used to connect to macbook via usb c non dac dongle. I plan to get a usb hub to split it to go to the pc.

1. Why does schiit heresy have a IN and OUT RCA port? EX5 only has OUT.

2. When on the macbook, EX5 sounds awful with mac’s EQ enabled when playing some apple music tracks.
When switching to the Schiit Heresy, it sounds great with EQ.
when EX5 does sound good, with EQ on, with some songs and radio internet stations on apple music, it does have a slight richer sound than Schiit.

Gads I thought I was going to get a day off from you but here goes.

1. The Schit is a head phone amp only. It needs a DAC RCA in to feed it signal. The RCA outs are to a amp. The EX5 is a DAC & headphone amp. It's inputs are digital "USB, Coaxial, Toslink".

2a. What sort of DAC are you using between the Macbook and Schit and what cables?

2b. Sounds like you're not connecting it correctly.

 

[AmalfiMan]

Gads I thought I was going to get a day off from you but here goes.

1. The Schit is a head phone amp only. It needs a DAC RCA in to feed it signal. The RCA outs are to a amp. The EX5 is a DAC & headphone amp. It's inputs are digital "USB, Coaxial, Toslink".

2a. What sort of DAC are you using between the Macbook and Schit and what cables?

2b. Sounds like you're not connecting it correctly.

we are getting close, thanks to you man. seriously, thank you.
2a. I run the EX5 supplied USB B cable to this usb c apple multi port (usb a, hdmi, usb c) dongle. (see pic).
With the Schiit, I ran a RCA cable with a 3.5mm direct into the 3.5mm stereo in the macbook.

 

[AmalfiMan]

Gads I thought I was going to get a day off from you but here goes.

1. The Schit is a head phone amp only. It needs a DAC RCA in to feed it signal. The RCA outs are to a amp. The EX5 is a DAC & headphone amp. It's inputs are digital "USB, Coaxial, Toslink".

2a. What sort of DAC are you using between the Macbook and Schit and what cables?

2b. Sounds like you're not connecting it correctly.

******************************************
This article recently came out, and this guy claims the new Fiio K9 Pro ESS just sounds better then the Topping DX5:

"My New Go-To Device" - FiiO K9 Pro ESS Review

Hey, folks, welcome to another Passion for Sound audio review. Today we’re taking a look at the K9 Pro ESS from FiiO. This is basically their flagship all-in-one device, and whilst not always being a fan of all-in-ones, I was keen to see how the K9 performed after being quite impressed with the...

apos.audio

Good:
Bluetooth 5.1 - amps supports AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX LL/aptX HD/LDAC/aptX adaptive lossless
Uses 2 separate DAC chips for left and right vs one chip
Phone App to control it's own EQ
Has IN RCA, and USB ports

Bad:
No Remote - but that's fine as I can reach the volume now.

Overall, this K9 seems to have best of both worlds of Schiit Heresy and EX5, for an extra $500 in one box........and maybe the sound is richer? lol

Link to Amazon: Fiio K9 Pro ESS
******************************************

 

[Jimbob54]

******************************************
This article recently came out, and this guy claims the new Fiio K9 Pro ESS just sounds better then the Topping DX5:

"My New Go-To Device" - FiiO K9 Pro ESS Review

Hey, folks, welcome to another Passion for Sound audio review. Today we’re taking a look at the K9 Pro ESS from FiiO. This is basically their flagship all-in-one device, and whilst not always being a fan of all-in-ones, I was keen to see how the K9 performed after being quite impressed with the...

apos.audio

Good:
Bluetooth 5.1 - amps supports AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX LL/aptX HD/LDAC/aptX adaptive lossless
Uses 2 separate DAC chips for left and right vs one chip
Phone App to control it's own EQ
Has IN RCA, and USB ports

Bad:
No Remote - but that's fine as I can reach the volume now.

Overall, this K9 seems to have best of both worlds of Schiit Heresy and EX5, for an extra $500 in one box........and maybe the sound is richer? lol

Link to Amazon: Fiio K9 Pro ESS
******************************************

Yes, you posted a whole thread on it. The relevance to this thread being...?

 

[Katji]

It's all relevant to Cadburys.

 

[AmalfiMan]

Gads I thought I was going to get a day off from you but here goes.

1. The Schit is a head phone amp only. It needs a DAC RCA in to feed it signal. The RCA outs are to a amp. The EX5 is a DAC & headphone amp. It's inputs are digital "USB, Coaxial, Toslink".

2a. What sort of DAC are you using between the Macbook and Schit and what cables?

2b. Sounds like you're not connecting it correctly.

******************************************
This article recently came out, and this guy claims the new Fiio K9 Pro ESS just sounds better then the Topping DX5:

"My New Go-To Device" - FiiO K9 Pro ESS Review

Hey, folks, welcome to another Passion for Sound audio review. Today we’re taking a look at the K9 Pro ESS from FiiO. This is basically their flagship all-in-one device, and whilst not always being a fan of all-in-ones, I was keen to see how the K9 performed after being quite impressed with the...

apos.audio

Good:
Bluetooth 5.1 - amps supports AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX LL/aptX HD/LDAC/aptX adaptive lossless
Uses 2 separate DAC chips for left and right vs one chip
Phone App to control it's own EQ
Has IN RCA, and USB ports

Bad:
No Remote - but that's fine as I can reach the volume now.

Overall, this K9 seems to have best of both worlds of Schiit Heresy and EX5, for an extra $500 in one box........and maybe the sound is richer? lol

Link to Amazon: Fiio K9 Pro ESS
******************************************

1. The schiit is an analog only headphone amp and pre amp. You need the inputs for a dac (or CD or whatever) that already does the digital to analog conversion . The topping is a dac and headphone amp. It can be used as a one box device. It receives digital signals, converts to analog and outputs those.

2 very different devices.

2. I'm going nowhere near this part as there are far too many factors in play and I have no idea how macs work, with or without EQ. But an obvious starting point would be to ensure that in both cases, the outputs from the schiit and the topping are the same level.

ok thanks.
My HD800s out of the box had the 6.35mm cable already connected so I been using it that way......direct plug in to the EX5 with the 6.35. I noticed there is another cable with a 4.4mm. Which should I use? (unblanced vs balanced)

 

[Jimbob54]

******************************************
This article recently came out, and this guy claims the new Fiio K9 Pro ESS just sounds better then the Topping DX5:

"My New Go-To Device" - FiiO K9 Pro ESS Review

Hey, folks, welcome to another Passion for Sound audio review. Today we’re taking a look at the K9 Pro ESS from FiiO. This is basically their flagship all-in-one device, and whilst not always being a fan of all-in-ones, I was keen to see how the K9 performed after being quite impressed with the...

apos.audio

Good:
Bluetooth 5.1 - amps supports AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX LL/aptX HD/LDAC/aptX adaptive lossless
Uses 2 separate DAC chips for left and right vs one chip
Phone App to control it's own EQ
Has IN RCA, and USB ports

Bad:
No Remote - but that's fine as I can reach the volume now.

Overall, this K9 seems to have best of both worlds of Schiit Heresy and EX5, for an extra $500 in one box........and maybe the sound is richer? lol

Link to Amazon: Fiio K9 Pro ESS
******************************************

ok thanks.
My HD800s out of the box had the 6.35mm cable already connected so I been using it that way......direct plug in to the EX5 with the 6.35. I noticed there is another cable with a 4.4mm. Which should I use? (unblanced vs balanced)

Does anything you have have a 4.4mm output? The xlr on the ex5 is wired exactly the same as the 6.3mm. It isn't balanced anyway.

But that shouldn't matter as the ex5 gets loud enough anyway?

 

[NiagaraPete]

******************************************
This article recently came out, and this guy claims the new Fiio K9 Pro ESS just sounds better then the Topping DX5:

"My New Go-To Device" - FiiO K9 Pro ESS Review

Hey, folks, welcome to another Passion for Sound audio review. Today we’re taking a look at the K9 Pro ESS from FiiO. This is basically their flagship all-in-one device, and whilst not always being a fan of all-in-ones, I was keen to see how the K9 performed after being quite impressed with the...

apos.audio

Good:
Bluetooth 5.1 - amps supports AAC/SBC/aptX/aptX LL/aptX HD/LDAC/aptX adaptive lossless
Uses 2 separate DAC chips for left and right vs one chip
Phone App to control it's own EQ
Has IN RCA, and USB ports

Bad:
No Remote - but that's fine as I can reach the volume now.

Overall, this K9 seems to have best of both worlds of Schiit Heresy and EX5, for an extra $500 in one box........and maybe the sound is richer? lol

Link to Amazon: Fiio K9 Pro ESS
******************************************

Awesome, run out and buy that as well. Send it to Amir to see if "This guy's review" is true. Haha you're killing me.

 

[Katji]

Choose the one which has the most multi-IO options.
Then you can connect everything and test which sound better.