Is it really worth upgrading your cheap Apple dongle DAC? 

At only $10 the Apple DAC would seem to be the deal of the century. How did it ever make it to market at that price considering that Apple likes to overprice everything?

Same experience for me. I have a number of portable dacs, including the dragonfly cobalt and chord mojo. My ears don’t distinguish much sound quality difference, maybe different sound flavours though. However, the volume they can achieve with hard to drive headphones is essential. But with my Shure SE535 in ears, the Apple dongle is plenty good enough. Thanks for the video.

Hi Bob. I have that If I go link hooked to my tablet. Sounds amazing. I use a douk line level booster to get a little more gain and control of the volume on the tablet.

Got the IFI Go Blu and I like the versality and realistic bass boost. Any gripes with any of them is volume limits. All acceptable these days!

Interesting question..I hate carrying my phone everywhere when I’m using a tethered iem ..so I went with an IFI GO BLUE..and I’m very happy with that feeling of great sound without carrying both a phone and dongle 😎

Love using the Apple dongle for my IEMs, I find that even when I forget to set it to full volume on UAPP, it still drives most of my IEMs at about ~80% volume on my Samsung phone. I do however also carry a Fiio BTR15 for a more portable setup, and a Fiio KA13 when I need a bit of power. I forgot to bring my KA13 to a headphone store and missed out on being able to properly demo some headphones as the Apple dongle didn't cut it in terms of power. I haven't tried to sit down and properly compare all my sources (including a Meizu Hifi Pro and a Fiio K7), but there's no obvious difference that'd make me do a double take between any of them when I switch between DAC/AMPs.

If I can make a suggestion, the fiio ka13, the qudelix 5k, are both under 100 dollars and they provide a stark difference in sound from each other and from the apple dac.

I think you needed better DAC's (not necessarily more expensive) for this test to be worth it and to hear some real differences. I had similar experiences at the beginning with portable DAC’s. Is not about the amount of money as much as getting something current and well implemented. Some recommendations for the future: Hidizs SD2: $46 (right now it has a 15% discount in Amazon), very solid performance for the money and only DAC I have with MIC input. Meizu HIFI Pro: $23 (Considered one of the very best dongles for the money, value budget king) TANCHJIM Space Portable: $89 , maybe the best dongle at that price point and very small HiBy FC4: $80 (but many times at $60 with coupon at Amazon), the DAC that converted my kids to the dark side. The difference from their cheap $10 - $15 dongles was just too great to ignore. I almost wasn’t able to get it back.

Using Apple Dongle with my planar magnetic Hifiman and i need to beef up the volume to around 70-80 percent to achieve my normal listening db comparing to powered amp that only uses 40-50percent. Still workable if you just need something lighter than a dac-amp dangling on your phone 😂

The Apple dongle DAC kills at it's price. Sure, you're right, it does not drive my Sennheiser 660S2 well but it is perfect when paired with my Beyer DT770 Pro 32 ohm headphones and my Moondrop Starfield IEMs.

My iPhone 6 Plus has a 3.5 headphone jack and doesn’t need a Dac. I use it as a stand alone music player. They are cheap to buy.

i could not hear much of a difference between my apple dongle and my chord mojo ( there is one but it is a minuscule difference) with em6L

I'm nopt a headphone user but just play most music in the car or PC. Playing WAV tracks on ad android phone sounds poor with or without a dongle DAC (Dragonfly Cobalt or Astell & Kern HC3). Using an iphone 6S however, the sound is better even with no DAC, better with the Cobalt and much better with the A&K HC3. I don't know why the iphone 6S is better than android (Samsung/Oppo) but it really is. The only issue is that the iphone is knackered for anything else but music and has only enough room for 150 tracks. Sounds great though and improves the PC as well. But WHY? I assume the output from Apple iphone is better than adroid?

I use a $8 aliexpress dongle dac on android and pc. It's loud enough for my needs lol. edit: I basically only listen to IEMs now

I did compare apple dongle to chord mojo and i also could not hear a difference

Really liked this comparison video. I also wanted to point out the apple dongle isn't actually a DAC; it's just an adapter that allows the use of the phones internal DAC because phones don't generally have headphone jacks anymore. The analog signal is sent from the internal DAC to pins on the USB/Lightning port, and the dongle simply transforms those pins into a 3.5mm jack. This is the reason for the level difference between your iPhone and the Android phone and really speaks to the higher quality of the iPhone's internal DAC.

Unfortunately, no matter how good the Apple dongle is, it does not play well with Android.

Were you listening to it at the highest possible audio quality?