Newbie DAC user - btr15

[artshotwell]

HI, I've just got a btr15 and I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to DACs. Here's where I am... I've been streaming music from an iphone 13 to Sennheiser HD450BT headphones. I'm trying to up the game a bit with a DAC/AMP from Fiio. I have a couple of questions.... It looks like theDAC must connect to the headphones via wire. Bluetooth is for getting the signal to the DAC, right? When I stream Apple Music, the DAC reports AAC 44.1k via BT from iphone to DAC. Is this good? Or, no improvement at all. I'm suspecting that, while Apple promotes is music as special or hifi or hi def, it isn't? Or am I doing something wrong? Or, am I on the wrong music service? I also see, when I play from my MacBook via wire to the DAC and wire to the headphones, it can show up as better, like PCM384k ... after I play with the MIDI app on my MacBook. Am I going in the right direction???

 

[staticV3]

It looks like theDAC must connect to the headphones via wire. Bluetooth is for getting the signal to the DAC, right?

Right.

I stream Apple Music, the DAC reports AAC 44.1k via BT from iphone to DAC. Is this good?

It's the best your iPhone is capable of via BT. For lossless transmission to the FiiO, you'd have to plug the FiiO into your iPhone via Lightning.

Or, no improvement at all.

You mean compared to iPhone connected directly to the HD450BT?

The only real improvement in this case would come from you using the FiiO's built-in EQ to apply headphone correction (Link).

Without EQ, there should be no tangible difference between iPhone->BT->HD450BT and iPhone->BT->BTR15->Analog->HD450BT.

I also see, when I play from my MacBook via wire to the DAC and wire to the headphones, it can show up as better, like PCM384k ... after I play with the MIDI app on my MacBook. Am I going in the right direction???

Not exactly.

Increasing the sample rate in the MIDI settings will not improve sound quality.

Any sample rate higher than 48kHz is 100% pointless for music enjoyment. You cannot get higher quality sound that way.

To improve sound quality, apply headphone correction and play with crossfeed.

Correction can be done using the BTR15's onboard DSP, or with SoundSource running on your MacBook.

 

[artshotwell]

Wow. Thank you. Sounds like the DAC is really only a help when I’m tethered to a phone or laptop. Except for the equalization. Thanks for the link to the headphone EQ profile (?). Never seen those before. Who creates those? Any idea how Apple Music compares to Tidal or Qobuz? Thanks

 

[staticV3]

Who creates those?

They're created by @oratory1990

Any idea how Apple Music compares to Tidal or Qobuz? Thanks

All three offer lossless audio, so no difference there.

 

[artshotwell]

Thanks. You’ve been a help. Art

 

[oratory1990]

Thanks for the link to the headphone EQ profile (?). Never seen those before. Who creates those?

You can find a list here: http://reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

 

[artshotwell]

You can find a list here: http://reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

That's a huge list. Thank you for your work.