Review: Apple vs Google USB-C Headphone Adapters

[amirm]

amirm , your majesty, can I haz phase response graph pleeeease?

I am not happy with the phase measurements I am getting out of AP software. For some odd reason, its normal phase measurement is only relative to the other channel. I have to use a special sweep mode that generates input to output phase difference but has artifacts of its own. When I get confidence in that, I will post.

 

[Graph Feppar]

I am not happy with the phase measurements I am getting out of AP software. For some odd reason, its normal phase measurement is only relative to the other channel. I have to use a special sweep mode that generates input to output phase difference but has artifacts of its own. When I get confidence in that, I will post.

I have much simpler idea, make two tone sound file in Audacity that has two sinewaves, each is -6db and one is 16 KHz and other 4 KHz. Then post picture of original waveform and the Apple adapter output waveform, this is simple, fast, fool proof and very effective way to investigate the phase response.

 

[amirm]

I have much simpler idea, make two tone sound file in Audacity that has two sinewaves, each is -6db and one is 16 KHz and other 4 KHz. Then post picture of original waveform and the Apple adapter output waveform, this is simple, fast, fool proof and very effective way to investigate the phase response.

????
I had just put away the bloody thing. Here is the output as generated in real-time in AP:

Is this what you wanted???

 

[amirm]

Here is AP in loopback mode (testing itself):

 

[Graph Feppar]

Its almost perfect, just one thing, make the waveform graph windows same lenght. The first is 700u and second 180u, its hard to see if the windows arent same lenght.

Make them both 700u please.

 

[jaynyc]

Correct.

@amirm can you share which specific USB (male)——>USBc (female) adapter you used successfully?

 

[amirm]

@amirm can you share which specific USB (male)——>USBc (female) adapter you used successfully?

I bought one and one came free with another dongle. They both worked. This is the one I bought: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B47V967/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[jaynyc]

just curious, does the Apple USBc device also appear in the RECORDING tab of Windows Sound? In other words, does the combo of the USB-c adapter + Apple USBc headphone device also expose an Input to the host PC? We know that via an iPad this item is also an ADC+MicPre of sorts.

 

[amirm]

Its almost perfect, just one thing, make the waveform graph windows same lenght. The first is 700u and second 180u, its hard to see if the windows arent same lenght.

Make them both 700u please.

Sure:

 

[amirm]

just curious, does the Apple USBc device also appear in the RECORDING tab of Windows Sound? In other words, does the combo of the USB-c adapter + Apple USBc headphone device also expose an Input to the host PC? We know that via an iPad this item is also an ADC+MicPre of sorts.

It does show up as a recording device:

 

[Graph Feppar]

Sure:

View attachment 20551

Is this the AP in loop with itself?

 

[Graph Feppar]

I have read that the ouput is limited to 0.1V rms if its connected to android device, is that always true?
What if I buy thay player app I forgotten the name of which bypass the android driver? I am considering buying this for my Huawei M3 8.4 tablet with android 7.0 but I fear it will be limited to 0.1V.

 

[bjrmd]

The apple USB C dongle is limited to 80mV in android stock but with the correct tinymix commands (root needed), will put out 1 volt. Third party android drivers (Neutron) do not work. My measurements (not done with the same quality gear) also show that this Dac dongle is one of the best available especially at 9 dollars.

 

[amirm]

Is this the AP in loop with itself?

Yes.

 

[Graph Feppar]

Yes.

Then its clear that it does have nonlinear phase in passband but only slightly, the phase shift is so small that it would be inaudible. Thank you for conducting this test.

 

[Graph Feppar]

The apple USB C dongle is limited to 80mV in android stock but with the correct tinymix commands (root needed), will put out 1 volt. Third party android drivers (Neutron) do not work. My measurements (not done with the same quality gear) also show that this Dac dongle is one of the best available especially at 9 dollars.

What is that that tinymix thing. never heard of it. I didnt meant Neutron, I meant that pro usb player or whatever it is called. Also, why its limited to 80mV? Did Apple put that voltage limiter there on purpose to precent people from using it with Android?

 

[karadoulis]

Which USB A to USB C adapter did you use for the test? Just bought the Baseus but it doesn't seem to work with Xiaomi USB C to headphone jack dongle. I am waiting for the Apple dongle to arrive, did you change anything in Windows to make it work?

 

[bjrmd]

What is that that tinymix thing. never heard of it. I didnt meant Neutron, I meant that pro usb player or whatever it is called. Also, why its limited to 80mV? Did Apple put that voltage limiter there on purpose to precent people from using it with Android?

Tinymix is a software library subset of ALSA that you can add to a rooted android device to manipulate some DAC parameters. Of course you are still at the mercy of audioflinger quirks (resampling everything to 48K etc). But tinymix does give you control of the DAC digital gain. Both the Apple Dac and dragonfly red are voltage limited to 80, 50 mV respectively (I have no idea why) on android. In versions past, android did not optimize Dac digital gain properly, introducing distortion, so using tinymix to properly adjust this made sense. That issue was fixed in Pie, but tinymix is still useful for Dacs that are not handled correctly by android.

 

[amirm]

Which USB A to USB C adapter did you use for the test? Just bought the Baseus but it doesn't seem to work with Xiaomi USB C to headphone jack dongle. I am waiting for the Apple dongle to arrive, did you change anything in Windows to make it work?

I have used these and the ones that came with one of my dongles: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B47V967/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They both work. And no, I did not have to change anything in Windows other than setting the levels in the control panel.

 

[Graph Feppar]

I think I will just buy the Radsone Ear Studio ES100 for 99€ and connect it to my phone by USB, it weight just 20g so its not much bigger than the 3.5mm adapter.