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Review: Apple vs Google USB-C Headphone Adapters

FLX90

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The Apple Lightning to 3.5mm dongle output power depends on the host. If the host is and European iPhone it delivers 0'5 Vrms. If the host is an iPad or a non EU iPhone the dongle belts out 1 Vrms.

Apple EU iPhone output voltage cap is firmware enforced. If your iPhone has an EU serial number it will be capped.
Any idea how to circumvent this restriction? Maybe another adapter?
I want to use this Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter on my EU iPhone.
 

cancunia

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After a few days of subjective listening, I get the feeling that the Apple DAC is very good, but not quite as 'warm' as the LG G5 WiFi Plus DAC. For me, that's quite a good thing as the LG works better with some smaller speakers that I have. All in all, it's an excellent price and more flexible than the Pi I2S DAC that I was going to get before reading this thread.
 

zfs

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I'm a newbie in many ways. This is my first RPi build of anything, my first streamer, etc, etc.

I have a Pi Zero W hooked up to an Apple USB-C to headphone adapter with Picoreplayer as my software. It sounds great.

My question is whether one can use the headphone out from the Apple to Amp input for driving large speakers. If not, is there a workaround? I like the price and sound of the Apple adapter.

Thanks
 

zfs

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Thanks.

I read about adding in line resistors to bring impedance up to line level. It sounds like that's all unnecessary.

I'm hoping to use these DACs as part of a multiroom set up with a 16 channel Class D amp. Any obvious issues with such a setup? It seems too good to be true compared to even low priced RPi DACs.
 

stanroz

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I have an ipad pro 12.9 2021 and the US version of this USB-C dongle. I am currently shopping for headphones.

Based on the measurements, what are the spec limitations on the headphones that I should look for? Maximum impedance? Minimum sensitivity?

I am hoping there is a way to tell if a headphone can be driven by this dongle without actually buying the headphones and trying?

Thanks for your help.
 

staticV3

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Apple A2049/A2155 max output voltage before clipping vs load:
Apple A2049 max output before clipping vs load.png

Measured with Cosmos ADC and Cosmos load board.
 

staticV3

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I have an ipad pro 12.9 2021 and the US version of this USB-C dongle. I am currently shopping for headphones.

Based on the measurements, what are the spec limitations on the headphones that I should look for? Maximum impedance? Minimum sensitivity?

I am hoping there is a way to tell if a headphone can be driven by this dongle without actually buying the headphones and trying?

Thanks for your help.
Use this calculator and avoid impedance and sensitivity numbers provided by the manufactuer: http://www.digizoid.com/headphones-power.html
 

AudioManNewb

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I have the Atom+ amp looking for a really budget DAC that performs better than my Realtek ALC1220-VB to pair with it. From the looks of it this does not produce the needed 2V.
 

cryptout

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I have the Atom+ amp looking for a really budget DAC that performs better than my Realtek ALC1220-VB to pair with it. From the looks of it this does not produce the needed 2V.
The JDS Atom DAC+ seems like a nice fit. Or else pretty much any Topping DAC.
 

AudioManNewb

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You can use them as though they were standalone DACs. Simply buy a 3.5mm to 2x RCA adapter and plug them into an amp of your choosing.
I currently own the Atom Amp+ have the ability to connect via 3.5mm to 3.5mm or 3.5mm to 2x RCA. Currently running into my motherboards Z390 Aorus Elite onboard Realtek ALC1220-VB which will probably score similar to the Z390 Aorus Master. Currently have the Smart amp turned off and running the Front Speaker out as the line out.
 

Art of sound

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This is a review, detailed measurements and comparison of Apple's USB-C adapter to the current and last version of Google Pixel headphone adapters. The Apple adapter costs just $9 including one day shipping for free. The Google dongle costs $12.

Not that any of these are large by any stretch but Apple's is also the smallest of the three:


Oddly there is no apple logo or markings on the device. The others don't have it either but I thought Apple would insist on that.

All three adapters work in Windows with the appropriate adapter and that is how I tested them, allowing my analyzer to fully control and quantify their performance.

Format wise, Apple's supports the key ones:
View attachment 18461

So very similar to Google Pixel V2 and better than V1 which only supported 48 kHz.

Note that volume control in Windows is active at all times even if you use WASAPI exclusive mode!

Not much else to talk about than getting into measurements.

Measurements
As always, let's start with our dashboard view at maximum volume:
View attachment 18462

Oh wow! That is good. Very good for a dongle. Here is how the SINAD compares:

View attachment 18463

As you see, it leaves both Google dongles in the dust. Mind you, built-in DAC in LG G7 ThinQ is much better still so Android fans don't need to kill themselves. :) Clearly someone cared about audio performance here in design of Apple dongle.

Let's look at jitter:
View attachment 18464

That's massively lower noise floor and distortion spikes than the Google pixel V2.

Seeing how this is a semi-serious DAC performance, I thought I run some adult tests on it like Linearity:
View attachment 18465

Most excellent again for something that is tinier than your fingernails!

Here is Dynamic Range:

View attachment 18498

The most important metric for these is how much power they have. There was some criticism of my Google Pixel measurements so I decided to remeasure them and refine the graphs and setting. While Google Pixel V2 repeated its past performance, the V1 produced less power. I don't know what is up with that. But here is the data anyway:

View attachment 18467

The Apple USB-C headphone dongle betters both in noise. It then proceeds to produce much more power than Google Pixel V2 and a bit more than V1.

Here are the results for much more stressful 33 ohm load:
View attachment 18468

Here the noise performance is similar but the Apple Dongle has a commanding lead over both Google dongles with respect to power.

Putting these in a graph we get this (sorted by 300 ohm power):
View attachment 18469

As we see, the Apple USB-C adapter even beats the small thumb drive sized Audirect Beam!

Story doesn't end here. Let's look at the output impedance:
View attachment 18470

At 0.9 ohm, the Apple USB-C dongle has near ideal output impedance whereas Google V2 is far higher at 7.6 ohm.

Listening Tests
I started my listening tests with my AKG K92 headphones. Here, there was ample power with excellent fidelity when using the Apple headphone adapter. Hard to imagine this much oomph coming out of such a tiny thing. The extra power was very audible as compared to Google V1 and V2. I am listening to the Apple dongle as I am typing this, having to keep the Windows volume control at just 18 out of 100 on my headphone electronic music.

Switching to high-impedance 300 ohm Sennheiser HD-650 nearly killed performance. The sound was OK but bass is week and dynamic range just not there. Here my reference is more powerful desktop and battery operated portables.

Finally I tested the Hifiman HE-400i. This wasn't nearly as loud and dynamic as AKG K92 but still quite good!

Bottom line: if you have a lower impedance headphone or an efficient one, there is no reason to apologize for using the Apple headphone adapter.

Conclusions
It is time for us Android users to crawl under a rock. :) Apple showed us that a bit more thought and engineering put in a dirt cheap and small audio product can produce respectable performance. The objective performance gap with Google dongles especially with their regression to version 2 is vast. This is both on objective front and subjective listening tests.

Note that my testing is all on Windows. I attempted to test on my Samsung S8+ and got odd results. Using both Google dongles, all they did was route the not so good sound of the internal DAC through the dongle (???). With Apple dongle I got music but level was very low. So if you plan to use the Apple dongle on an Android phone, you should do some compatibility testing.

FYI I have two other dongles to test in the future. For now, I can recommend the Apple USB-C headphone adapter. For many people it may replace the portable thumb drive dac+amps.

Now please forgive me as I go drown out my sorrows as an ex-Microsoft guy having to recommend an Apple product....

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I've been reading Geoff martin's post on Hi-res audio (https://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2021/06/24/high-res-audio-part-6-noise-noise-noise/) and realized how apple managed to think different with this product design. I have to commend them on what they managed to do with this dac. I recently purchased two cs43131 dongle's for 20 and 25 usd and i stumbled on this page to look at how low cost DAC's are being build by manufacturers.
 

AudioManNewb

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Dec 22, 2020
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For $10 you can not beat the apple dongle. I wonder if the TempoTec Sonata HD II beats it in performance and if it can actually output 2Vrms.
 
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