What do you use as a source for your music with a DAC

[Murrfk]

Sorry for being an obvious NOOB but I am old and grew up with analog. I get how a headphone amp works. And I get that you need a DAC to convert digital to Audio. What I don't get is what people use as a source for their high quality digital audio files. If you hook your phone to the DAC don't you use the bad phone DAC to send signal to the analog headphone jack. So can digital signal be sent to the USB port on the phone? If you want high quality audio into a DAC what portable device can you use? I don't want to hook into a computer USB.

 

[Wes]

smartphone will work

what are you trying to do?

 

[Murrfk]

I would like to understand playing digital files to a DAC with a portable device. Are there dedicated music playing devices that you can use to provide input to the DAC? Is a smartphone just as good? How to you hook it up? Are special apps required?

 

[Wes]

portable as in laptop? just plug it into the DAC, tho many have (all?( have built in DACs, as do smartphones, etc.)

 

[SIY]

Sorry for being an obvious NOOB but I am old and grew up with analog. I get how a headphone amp works. And I get that you need a DAC to convert digital to Audio. What I don't get is what people use as a source for their high quality digital audio files. If you hook your phone to the DAC don't you use the bad phone DAC to send signal to the analog headphone jack. So can digital signal be sent to the USB port? If you want high quality audio into a DAC what portable device can you use? I don't want to hook into a computer USB.

Don't make too many assumptions about phones. Using an iPhone with an Apple headphone dongle, you can have superb performance.

For external DACs, I use my laptop as a source, with a USB-to-optical or USB-to-spdif converter.

 

[raistlin65]

Sorry for being an obvious NOOB but I am old and grew up with analog. I get how a headphone amp works. And I get that you need a DAC to convert digital to Audio. What I don't get is what people use as a source for their high quality digital audio files. If you hook your phone to the DAC don't you use the bad phone DAC to send signal to the analog headphone jack. So can digital signal be sent to the USB port? If you want high quality audio into a DAC what portable device can you use? I don't want to hook into a computer USB.

Right. To use an external DAC, you would use a digital connection on a phone, tablet, or computer. Then that bypasses all analog processing by the device and lets the external DAC take over. So then it really doesn't matter what digital device plays the files. The external DAC and external headphone amp determine the sound quality.

 

[Murrfk]

Right. To use an external DAC, you would use a digital connection on a phone, tablet, or computer. Then that bypasses all analog processing by the device and lets the external DAC take over. So then it really doesn't matter what digital device plays the files. The external DAC and external headphone amp determine the sound quality.

How do you bypass the analog processing?

 

[raistlin65]

How do you bypass the analog processing?

By using a DAC.

 

[Murrfk]

Sorry. This is still unclear to me. So, if you hook your smartphone to the DAC how does the phone know to not do digital conversion? Is it automatically NOT converted if the signal is output through the USB of the phone? I have only used the headphone jack for audio and obviously that is already a converted signal. How do you get the phone to send an unconverted digital signal?

 

[raistlin65]

Sorry. This is still unclear to me. So, if you hook your smartphone to the DAC how does the phone know to not do digital conversion? Is it automatically NOT converted if the signal is output through the USB of the phone? I have only used the headphone jack for audio and obviously that is already a converted signal. How do you get the phone to send an unconverted digital signal?

A DAC is a digital to audio converter. So if the external DAC is being used, it's converting the digital.

 

[Murrfk]

My question is how do you get a phone to output a digital signal. The headphone jack doesn't.Right? So where does it come from on a phone? The micro USB port? If so, how?

 

[Count Arthur]

What sort of phone do you have, Android or Apple?

In either case, this may help: https://blog.jdslabs.com/2014/01/how-to-connect-android-ipad-or-iphone-to-a-dac/

If you're using an Android phone, USB Audio Player PRO will let you connect to the DAC in "bit perfect" mode, this bypasses all the phone's sound processing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.extreamsd.usbaudioplayerpro&hl=en

Lastly, what digital files are you playing? If you have lossy low bit rate MP3 files, you're not going to get the best results, but if you have uncompressed WAV files, FLAC or even higher bit rate files you can get CD quality or better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

Obviously, high bit rate files are big and space will be fairly limited on a phone.

 

[raistlin65]

My question is how do you get a phone to output a digital signal. The headphone jack doesn't.Right? So where does it come from on a phone? The micro USB port? If so, how?

Like I already said, you use a digital connection. A USB port.

 

[Murrfk]

What sort of phone do you have, Android or Apple?

In either case, this may help: https://blog.jdslabs.com/2014/01/how-to-connect-android-ipad-or-iphone-to-a-dac/

If you're using an Android phone, USB Audio Player PRO will let you connect to the DAC in "bit perfect" mode, this bypasses all the phone's sound processing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.extreamsd.usbaudioplayerpro&hl=en

Lastly, what digital files are you playing? If you have lossy low bit rate MP3 files, you're not going to get the best results, but if you have uncompressed WAV files, FLAC or even higher bit rate files you can get CD quality or better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

Obviously, high bit rate files are big and space will be fairly limited on a phone.

Thanks. That explained what I needed to understand. I had not heard of an OTG cable. I use an Android. Are there dedicated devices that are similar in size to a phone that can also be used to store and play audio files?

EDIT:. Further research has allowed me to the that there are digital audio players. DAPs. What advantage do these have over my phone?

 

[Count Arthur]

Are there dedicated devices that are similar in size to a phone that can also be used to store and play audio files?

Yes DAPs, Digital Audio Players: https://headfonics.com/category/sources/daps/

Do you specifically want something portable? If not, a Windows PC is going to work out a lot cheaper. You don't need blistering performance for a "media player", an entry level 2 core processor and 4 or maybe 8GB of RAM will be plenty and you can get a 2TB hard drive for around £50, enough to store 2 to 3,000 CDs worth of uncompressed WAV files.

 

[Jmudrick]

I'm old. LG V30 has a great internal ESS DAC and uses a micro SD card. I have 400GB (1000 albums) on mine. Using USB Audio Player Pro. Sounds great on iem/headphones or plugged into the car. Paid $148 for it because it's a 2 year old phone. Add $50 for 400gb SD card. Do that.

PS it also serves as remote for my computer based streaming system feeding my RME DAC and Kali speakers.

 

[blueone]

A CD player's digital output, and a cheap bluetooth receiver I stream Amazon Prime Music and Sirius XM through from my Mac or my iPhone. The bluetooth thing is a replacement for the Marantz tuner I used to use for casual listening or background music, but the sound quality is better. For when-I'm-paying-attention listening it's always CDs.

 

[laudio]

An inexpensive solution is to build a Raspberry Pi and connect to your DAC with USB. Then use your phone to control it.

 

[Cahudson42]

V30 has a great internal ESS DAC and uses a micro SD card. I have 400GB (1000 albums) on mine. Using USB Audio Player Pro. Sounds great on iem/headphones or plugged into the

You can also get, for $120, a NIB LG V20 H910 with the same Quad EES DAC:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-in-Sea...-7-Unlocked-UNLOCKED-Smartphone-/143130320084
Use it to feed a $100 headphone amp. I use a Liquid Spark and HE400i phones. Works great! Others would likely choose an Atom or a Heresy. You do not need - or should - use an OTG cable. Use a 3.5mm to RCA cable to directly drive whatever Amp. (I've assumed you will be using headphones, but the V20 also is a fine source for a stereo receiver or AVR. Simply plug the RCA ends into the CD in or other line in input)

The V20 Quad DAC is far from 'a bad phone DAC' @amirm test of the Quad DAC in a LG g7 showed it equal or better than many desktop DACs with 110 SINAD. Fine for 16/44.1 FLAC files etc. As good as or better than many purpose-built expensive DAPs.

You don't need to subscribe to AT&T or any other cellular service. It will work fine on 5G or 2.4G wifi w/o a SIM card. Add a micro SD if you like.

I use Amazon Music HD, but anything available on Google play for Android 8 should work - tidal whatever.

Perhaps take the time to search here on ASR for 'V20' and read the various related threads about it

PS - I'm 77 yo so no worries - you can easily get a great HP setup, too.

 

[Jmudrick]

You can also get, for $120, a NIB LG V20 H910 with the same Quad EES DAC:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-in-Sea...-7-Unlocked-UNLOCKED-Smartphone-/143130320084
Use it to feed a $100 headphone amp. I use a Liquid Spark and HE400i phones. Works great! Others would likely choose an Atom or a Heresy. You do not need - or should - use an OTG cable. Use a 3.5mm to RCA cable to directly drive whatever Amp. (I've assumed you will be using headphones, but the V20 also is a fine source for a stereo receiver or AVR. Simply plug the RCA ends into the CD in or other line in input)

The V20 Quad DAC is far from 'a bad phone DAC' @amirm test of the Quad DAC in a LG g7 showed it equal or better than many desktop DACs with 110 SINAD. Fine for 16/44.1 FLAC files etc. As good as or better than many purpose-built expensive DAPs.

You don't need to subscribe to AT&T or any other cellular service. It will work fine on 5G or 2.4G wifi w/o a SIM card. Add a micro SD if you like.

I use Amazon Music HD, but anything available on Google play for Android 8 should work - tidal whatever.

Perhaps take the time to search here on ASR for 'V20' and read the various related threads about it

PS - I'm 77 yo so no worries - you can easily get a great HP setup, too.

I do have the Atom amp but it rarely sees use as the V30+ drives my BLON-03 IEM and HE4XX HP sufficiently and the huge advantage of the device is its portability which i take full advantage of. The V30 or V30+ is a few more bucks than the V20 but IMHO it's a much more usable device with its OLED screen, phenomenal battery life, and ability to run a modern operating system (stable on Android 9 and soon on 10).

I could be wrong but last I looked Amazon HD audio was being resampled by Android rather than being sent direct as is done via USB Audio Player Pro with Tidal, Qobuz, and on board FLAC.