Phone as DAP?

[Ste_S]

Currently have an iPhone 12, and have been impressed by how well a cheap Android phone (my work Samsung A20) is more flexible for music than an iPhone.

So, I'm thinking about either moving into Android full time, or purchsing a cheap Android phone of my own to use as a DAP. For the latter, the Sony Xperia 10 series have expandable storage to 1TB and a 3.5mm jack, does anyone have any experience of these? Or alternatively, have other recommendations?

 

[Turambar]

Think twice, you will need a tool to cheat the Android mixer or get everything resampled.

 

[staticV3]

Think twice, you will need a tool to cheat the Android mixer or get everything resampled.

UAPP does exactly that (or HiBy Music, Neutron Player, FiiO Music, ...)

I highly recommend UAPP!

 

[Vincent Kars]

Any phone allowing you to add a SD card will do.
If you are not happy with the analog out or if it doesn't come with a analog out, a USB DAC will do if you plan to go wired.
I use a very simple and cheap Ugreen

If I combine it with Onkyo HF player (or any already mentioned by staticV3), I can even play 24/96. Not that it makes any audible difference but the idea appeals to my purist taste.
When traveling I go for the convenience of Bluetooth.

 

[TonyJZX]

where i am you can buy brand name phones with 8gb ram 128gb nvram for around $100 usd

w/ acceptable 3.5mm performance

but i mean with bluetooth it barely matters

256gb sd cards are like $25? heaps of rooms to store music

w/ foobar and just bulk copy files over

 

[Joe Smith]

I still use an older Galaxy 6 phone for this purpose when traveling, as well as a fleet of iPod shuffles that still keep a decent charge for workout/walking use. (The free program "Copy Trans" does a pretty good job of letting me put new music onto the shuffles in Windows 10, without having to fire up an old Mac laptop.)

 

[Duffy Moon]

Moondrop will soon release the MIAD01, which could be promising.

This Android phone for audiophiles offers a hi-res DAC, balanced output and 3.5mm jack – plus a cool cyberpunk look that puts Google and OnePlus to shame

This Android phone for audiophiles combines a headphone jack, DAC and Cyberpunk looks

www.techradar.com

 

[Somafunk]

The Hiby music players work with a stripped down version of android that removes the resampling issue, Hiby have a new R4 player out soon for a very good/cheap price £/$249

Hiby R4 Dap here

 

[ciccio1378]

I use a Samsung A5 2016 with a microSD card and I'm very happy with it. Since I have a WiiM Mini, I also installed its Wiim Home app. The only problem is that this Samsung does not have Ldac, when I use it in bluetooth.

 

[DS_Construct]

 

[DS_Construct]

US$399

 

[sulfuriq]

The bad thing about using Smartphone as DAP, once the Android support has ended for that phone, there will be issues if you use Music Apps Android based as it probably don't support the old Android. The same thing happened to my Samsung Note3 + ifi Hip DAC, limited external storage capacity of 64GB. Now I'm using OnePlus 7T + Hip DAC. Last supported Android version is 12. Bought Hiby R4 and pair it with ifi Hip DAC 3 while my OnePlus 11 for light traveling with Lotoo PAW S1. As more smartphone don't have microsd slot, op for bigger internal storage probably 256GB - 512GB. For my retired Note 3, you can use custom firmware/rom but too much hassle for keeping up to date (plus it use micro-usb). Hiby R4 Android 12 is supported by Hiby itself (System Wide Bit Perfect), so there will be continuous support from them. My main Music Player App is UAPP as I can stream TIDAL through it. You can put the phone in airplane mode to disable the SIM (You still can still use Wifi). Things to look for if you plan to buy used smartphone (android Based)
1. Android version (minimum 12)
2. Internal storage (the bigger the better) + speed (UFS the higher the better) for indexing and transferring
3. USB-C
4. Wi-fi 5Ghz (for hi-res music streaming)
5. Bluetooth codec support
6. Most important battery capacity unless you are using external DAC/AMP with built in battery and speed charging

 

[JCM800]

I really wanted a DAP and a year or so back got a Hiby R2 Gen II ($99) and a terabyte micro SD card ($99). I never use it. I keep putting new acquisitions on it so I guess it acts as a tiny backup, but it serves no real purpose. I'd have gotten far more mileage out of spending $198 on music.

As for the phone-as-DAP approach, I use the free VOX iOS app with the VOX Cloud subscription ($4.99) that offers unlimited storage. It's a Ukraine company, and it feels like the owner has abandoned new development/support, but the iOS app is terrific, and the cloud streaming bit still works quite well (for me; read the forums). I'm pretty sure it's bit-perfect with its own audio engine connecting directly to the output. The subscription also gets you a parametric EQ+presets, and some other audio toys to play with. The free player also has Qobuz, Soundcloud and Apple Music/iTunes integrations, FWIW.

Is it quite a DAP? Probably not, but it scratches the itch of "I want access to all my music at any given time in lossless, bit-perfect quality" well enough for me to be happy.