It basically provided the same sonic features (24-bits up to 48kHz) as the headphone output from the iPhone 6. Ultimately, this little adaptor is a utilitarian device that compensated for the loss of the headphone jack starting from the iPhone 7. Lü Siqin's rendition of the classic Chinese piece The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto (1997, DR12) sounded pretty good still with the combo of Audio-Technica headphones + iPhone + Lightning Adaptor although for classical I do prefer the more "intricate" sound of open headphones (like the Sennheiser HD800, but that's of course in another price category!). Far from the best sounding recording but the iPhone + Lightning Adaptor had no problem conveying the "energy" similar to my desktop DAC (the old ASUS Essence One). For example, recently I've been listening to Temples' Volcano (2017, DR6). The volume was strong enough for enjoyment and frequency response was fine although subjectively I thought I could hear a bit more bass in some of the music with a stronger headphone amp. I did listen to a few tracks through the iPhone and this adaptor with my Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones (99dB/mW sensitivity) and it sounded decent enough. BTW, I've seen little actual information on the Lightning port, a proprietary Apple digital interface of course, said to be able to transfer data at around 25-35MB/s about the speed of USB2.0. It's also the first time I've put any Lightning port device through the test kit demonstrating yet again that jitter doesn't appear to be an audible issue although obviously that was not the nicest looking Dunn J-Test result I've ever seen. It's "free" with current iPhones and replacement cost is around US$10 at the local BestBuy. Arguably this is the least expensive external DAC I have ever measured. But I think it's useful to measure and have a listen even to something like this in order to obtain perspective on what the "low end" sounds like these days. Like the ubiquitous asynchronous USB DACs that can achieve excellent temporal accuracy these days, I suspect it's the same with these little dongles. Remember that the audible spectrum from 20Hz-20kHz is relatively low frequency compared to the demands of megahertz and gigahertz electronics these days and great timing accuracy can be achieved without needing "femtosecond" upgrades.Ĭonsidering that this is the first time I've looked at a DAC operating off the Lightning connector, I don't see any concerns (nor did I suspect any issue). As I've said in the past, jitter isn't really a problem these days for DACs. We also see a pair of low-level sidebands. There's some "skirting" of the primary frequency suggesting the presence of low-level timing anomaly. Not the best but far from terrible! A bit of low-level noise in the noise floor of the 16-bit version which drowns out the usual square wave jitter modulation tone in the LSB. Oscilloscope, Impulse Response, and Digital Filter Composite Since I didn't find any meaningful difference between the iPhone and iPad measurements, apart from the impulse response and square wave, the rest were recorded from the iPhone for consistency. For bit-perfect playback, I'm using Onkyo HF Player latest version 2.6.0 (obviously, all EQ and resampling off) using FLAC-encoded test signals. Both the iPhone and iPad are on the latest iOS 11.2.2 (notice I'm using the iPhone 6 because I also want to compare the output with the headphone out on the same device). IPhone 6 / iPad Air 2 -> Lighting to 3.5mm jack -> 6' shielded phono-to-RCA cable -> Focusrite Forte ADC -> 6' USB -> Windows 10 laptopįor RightMark measurements, I'm using the latest 6.4.2 PRO version. Yes, it works, in fact this adapter should work with any iOS 10+ device. As you can see, I've got my usual set-up running to measure the output from that little dongle attached to an iPad Air 2 in this image.
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