Recommendations for portable mobile phone to headphone interconnects

[dominicafonso]

I have a Pixel 9 pro with a million options for streaming high quality audio, tidal, Amazon music, etc but how can I get that premium audio offering all the way to my ears without spoiling it?

Is there a reliable usb-c dongle dac option? I have the old LG B&O HiFi Plus and it sounds great but only works with 3rd party audio players like HiBy which can take control of the usb port.

I'd prefer a wired route, however, do any high end Bluetooth dac / headphones / earbuds actually support a high enough bandwidth Bluetooth connection to be worth considering? LDAC, AptX lossless?

Something like the fiio BTR5 would let me use existing headphones.

I want something that will just work and with all apps.

 

[Jimbob54]

The obvious answer is qudekix 5k. Wired or ldac Bluetooth. Gobs of power for it's size. Peq and other dsp on board. Reviewed on here and well thought of.

 

[Berwhale]

+1 for Q5K. I don't think anything else comes close in terms of functionality and useability. The fact it has both native Android app (and iOS) and the Chrome extension makes it a joy to use on my phone, tablet and PC. I find it a little easier to load PEQ settings on the PC and it feels safer when updating firmware (the Q5K has been updated regularly throughout it's life).

 

[dominicafonso]

Thanks for your replies, I will read in to this option. Does it work plug and play on android for all apps? I found with the lg hifi dongle dac that android 15 is fussy about sending audio to the usb port so default apps didn't work.

Surprisingly, I was able to send HiBy audio to the usb port and other audio went to the BT or phone speaker. I didn't expect android to be able to drive 2 independent audio outputs.

 

[Berwhale]

Thanks for your replies, I will read in to this option. Does it work plug and play on android for all apps? I found with the lg hifi dongle dac that android 15 is fussy about sending audio to the usb port so default apps didn't work.

Surprisingly, I was able to send HiBy audio to the usb port and other audio went to the BT or phone speaker. I didn't expect android to be able to drive 2 independent audio outputs.

I tend to use my Q5K with Bluetooth and the LDAC codec which is pretty much transparent for 16 bit content and more than sufficient for mobile usage (my entire FLAC library is transcoded to high quality OPUS on my Nothing Phone (2)). There's a comparison of SBC and LDAC performance here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...c3-review-bluetooth-receiver-bt-codecs.23740/

Opus discussion: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/opus-files.60206/#post-2204442

 

[dominicafonso]

I tend to use my Q5K with Bluetooth and the LDAC codec which is pretty much transparent for 16 bit content and more than sufficient for mobile usage (my entire FLAC library is transcoded to high quality OPUS on my Nothing Phone (2)). There's a comparison of SBC and LDAC performance here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...c3-review-bluetooth-receiver-bt-codecs.23740/

Opus discussion: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/opus-files.60206/#post-2204442

Since, you are an active user, would you mind confirming that the Q5K works without complaint with a wired connection? I don't suppose you know anyone with a pixel 9 pro that would mean you can check for any functionality problems.

I'll contact the manufacturer for their expectations and probably buy from amazon so I have a chance of return in case of compatibility problems.

I've been comparing aac with the wired option through the hifi plus and couldn't believe the difference.

Annoyingly, my earbuds claim to support ldac and so does the phone, but they only show aac and SBC options. I have the original Huawei freebuds pro (2020).

Thanks for the links and sharing your experience.

 

[Berwhale]

The Q5K works fine wired on the various Android phones I've tried it with. To be honest, i've not had any issue with any DAC i've plugged into my phones. This includes desktop DACs like my Topping D50s, various portable DAC/Amps (Q5K, Fosi DS2, Earstudio ES100, Fiio BTR3...), dongles (Tempotec Sonata HD, Samsung or Apple adapters) and my Moondrop FreeDSP IEM cable.

However, I don't chase after unicorns like 'bit perfect' so i'm usually relying on the Android audio stack, rather than trying to talk to the DAC directly like UAPP or some other players can - I use PowerAmp myself because the interface is so much better than UAPP.