Comments on Profile Post by rlow

I’m not up on these things at all - is the AQ Dragonfly the only game in town if I want something as small as possible?

I have no issue with LDAC Bluetooth connection to Shanling M0 to wired IEMs. Not sure if iPhones do LDAC though.

Sony invented LDAC. No way in hell Apple would use LDAC if they can't own it, control it, and make you pay for it. You're stuck with AAC.

Nah...no LDAC via IPhone

Geez doesn’t look like many options out there other than the DragonFly. Found the Audiolab M-DAC Nano, and the Cyrus Soundkey. The DF and Soundkey both require the Apple CCK...

M-DAC Nano does look decent though...

After the cost of the dragonfly and cck, might as well start looking at inexpensive stand-alone DAPs.

I'm not an apple guy but pretty sure you can use the ifi Nano Black Label without a CCK. Not pocketable really, but one cable helps. The Nano BL has a nice inset usb dock which makes it more low profile.

Couple of things to consider: the inline ones are powered by the phone, so watch power consumption for long journeys (eg plane trips); and if you want to use a non-inline one on a plane, you'll need a wired connection in addition to Bluetooth.

Data point for inlines: Dragonfly Black gives me >10 hours play time from an Android phone.

@Elnrik was looking to avoid carrying another full device (DAP).

@imackler The Ifi’s are a bit bigger than I was looking for.

@Biodegraded yep I realize about the battery drain, but that’s fine I only need for a couple hours at a stretch max.

At this point I’m wondering if it would be simpler to just go with a set of TWS BT buds...

TWS for me. Fostex TM2 with the adapters or something similar. Wired isn't worth the SQ gain if you're starting with an iPhone (unless you want to run something like a Mojo).

Or adapters. Have a look at the last page of the IEM General Discussion thread.

1) @rlow It’s a complete shitshow. The goto used to be the Geek Out 450 and Leckerton UHA-6s mkii combo, then became just the Geek Out V2 / 2A straight from its balanced out. There are versions of the V2/2A with a battery that might work straight out of a CCK. No idea what the battery replacement situation is.

2) I had the DF RED which was an incremental improvement that put out a lot of power, but at a real expense to battery life. At the time I had a 6S and it made popping sounds from the CCK USB 2.0, as it appeared to not supply quite enough power. The CCK USB 3.0 solved that issue but it is larger and cumbersome. To top it off the wire is short, stiff, & Apple. So it will fail if not kept straight.

3) All options are bad:

a) Go bigger w/ batteries & wiring
b) Use the little Apple dongle which sounds worse than the old iPhone hp outs.
c) Go wireless AAC. Music isn’t subject to sync probs, but video will depend on the app taking your BT gear’s latency into account (native player & netflix do, youtube doesn’t). Sometimes the BT hardware is low latency enough for it not to matter.

4) Your best bet is probably something like the Radsone ES100. I’ve not been able to give mine any real time but it seemed decent on first blush, and it’s popular amongst some members here. FIIO also make a similar product.

Thanks for all the info @BenjaminBore. Will weigh my options, but at this point I’m leaning towards saying screw it and just going TWS. Good to know about the potential sync issues with video.

Just confirming how bad the alternatives are for you ;)

I purchased the TWS Cambridge Audio Melomania IEMs as a gift last year. For the price, form factor, performance, staging, and tonality they were pretty bloody impressive. Graphene FTW.

The Apple Lightning adapter is serviceable with the Andromeda. Not perfect, but very good and minimum hassle compared to alternatives. Many wireless options I tried have obnoxious and audible hiss.