Will this DAC/headphone-amp dongle work with *your* phone? [Fosi Audio DS2] 

I bought a dongle so small that it was carried off by ants!

It was a Fiio dac dongle that opened my eyes, or rather ears, to what's possible. I still use it with my IEMs in the gym, I would now find it impossible to listen without it. No problems with my six year old mid-range Samsung Galaxy. As a result of that £40 dongle I've spent nearly £1k updating my gear , which comprises some vintage, but all used gear. My Mojo is the star of the show, but these little dangle things represent the biggest improvement in hifi per quid, by a huge amount.

Using the Khadas Tea at the moment with IEMs as my goto gym rig. Cleanest set up I've used so far.

The FiiO LT-LT3, purchased from Amazon at $39.99 USD, works fine with my iPhone 12 Pro and all the dongles and not so dongle DACs I have (FiiO, HiBy, Shanling, Tempotec, Chord Mojo2 and iFi xDSD Gryphon). Cheers!

Always love the unboxings! Just a hint of sarcastic aplomb. :)

Fascinating as I had no idea what DSD was and I believe it happened in the 80's or around then when I only cared about volume and musical enhancements weren't electronic at least not at the user end, they were much more organic. I can see why DSD is niche it is interesting to me the concept of streaming a load of bits that say whether or not its louder than the last bit, anyhow thanks for that ! I also had a look at the datasheet for the ' CS43131 ' thats also a fascinating bit of kit with it's 156 pages of goodness and graphs, a good read if you like datasheets. I do hope the manufacturers of balanced headphones get in touch soon and not to highlight the point but just to inform me who are makers of these headphones please ?.....cheers

I bought a cheapo usb-c to headphone jack for my iPhone and it sounds great. I’m assuming there’s a dac in there.

In the old days we had RS232 serial links, you bought a couple of DB9/25 connectors, decided whether you were using hardware or software flow control and wired them up accordingly, linking out the RS232 signals you weren't using, then you matched the data and stop bits and baud rate at each end and your equipment simply worked, every time. However, many people struggled to understand all that, so along came USB to simplify it, simply plug your device in and everything was taken care of, but then along came the myriad of different connectors, USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.x gen 1, 3.x gen 2, superspeed, superspeed+superspeed, TPLs and so it goes on, I'd not heard of OTG until today, try this cable with that adaptor but only with these devices otherwise use that cable without an adaptor except on the devices that won't work at all, silly you for trying it. This is easier to understand? 😂

Fiio LT-LT2 cable will do the job.

An "Apple Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter" is required with a Audio Quest DrangonFly DAC

For iPhone with lightning, use Apple CCK model #A1440 or model # A1619 . Other non apple connectors may/may not be reliable. Thanks for the vids, sir.

All my phones (past to present) have a headphone jack so that I don't have to deal with this dongle scam.

In Sweden, we had a consumer information program on television. can't remember the name, but the presenter's name was Sverker. Wicked Ringing in everyone's ears. Good program that checked the manufacturers' "performance" against reality. He also had a dustbin in the studio, where the products of the biggest liars ended up. Just a tip.

The only thing that the Balanced Connector did for me with my DS1 DAC is the DS1 ran cooler to the touch.

The 'OTG' function allows a phone to output power to run external devices, like this.

none of these dongle dacs work with google pixel android phones, but strangely enough do work with samsung android phones.

All hedphones that have 2x connector to driver is possible convert to ballanced - for example hifiman sundara etc. ... cable cost about 30$ - of course, same is possible buy over 200$ ... but about 30$ is hi Quality connectors and good wire ... all price up is only paying more for .... ehmmm brand ?

As this type of dongle is likley to be used “out & about”, knowing how well the cables & adapters “lock” in place would be useful to know. Headphone jacks need a little force to pull them out, most USB connectors in my experience come out much to easily, this can be a problem with phone usage, especially where multiple adapters all plugged together,

the big question - does it sound significantly better than the small cheap apple branded iphone dac?

does the bose qc ultra support this on iphone

What about daps v dongles ? Is the sound quality noticeable ? For the amount you spend on a dap you can get 10 dongles with different dacs so i would assume dongles are a better option

Any idea if you can get the 4.4 to RCA or is it just as good from the smaller one to RCA's? Modern listening is very confusing for me now!

This is similar as FIIO KA13 ... but fiio is 2x stronger - yep this drain mobile battery on full level

I look ONLY for DACs with battery. Can anything make more sense?? This frees the device from literally every compatibility issue and takes advantage of the wonderfully low power consumption of the device. I wouldn’t dream of buying a non-battery portable DAC. Portable=battery=portable.

Product page states, dynamic range 108 dB . Manual ,in video, states 130 dB......?

firewire to usb adapters have the best stnr and distortion figures by far

What I miss here is: How does this thing sound?

I heard some geezer back in the day had an idea called blutooth 😂

Could you review the Homage by JDS labs and ZMF?

Balanced heaphones ....balanced vs what exactly? where in the circuit is this mystical impedance fulcrum? And ...Where are all the balanced speakers in the world ........yet!

If ever there was a prime example of "Old Farts & Technology", this video is it. Yes, OTG Cables, SOOOOOOOOO Complicated to understand. 🤣😂🤦‍♂ First things first, standard Lightening Cables, are POWER ONLY. They do not carry Data. This is designed as a safety feature, because most Apple users dont know not to stick their cable into random charging stations that will strip data off your phone. So if you want to move Data off the iPhone, you need a specific OTG Cable, that supports both Power AND Data. If you have an issue with understand that...blame Apple. Or, more specifically, blame Apple Users for being so dumb that Apple had to make their cable Power Only. Now that we have that out of the way... The reason why your iPhone 11 didnt work with the Dongle, and probably wouldnt work with half of todays modern HiFi dongles, is because the iPhone 11 doesnt output enough power over the Lightening Port. The reason why your iPad worked, is because the iPad is designed with powering and charging accessories in mind. Things like keyboard covers, and the Apple Pencil. And all of the data functions are enabled by default on the iPad Lightening Ports. Even slightly older Android Devices, Like the Galaxy S10, or the LG G8, The Google Pixel 3 and 4, and yes, even your older iPhone 11, do not support higher voltage power output to their respective USB or Lightening ports. And they too struggle to have clean audio playback, or even be detected at all, by higher power DAC's. Some smaller Single Ended 3.5mm only all in one dongles, will work with these older devices just fine. Like the Original Apple iPhone Dongle, for example. It wasnt until the iPhone 12, and the Galaxy S20, and the LG V60 the following year, that suddenly things like "Reverse Power Sharing" where added as features, allowing for higher than 2.2v output on their USB/Lightening ports. And now, on modern phone like the Galaxy S24, they can even Fast Charge from the phones USB port to another connected device. Even the iPhone 15, despite not supporting Fast Charging, now also allows for higher voltage output from its USB3.0 port. Honestly, you made this WAY more complicated than it needed to be, and drew a lot of inaccurate conclusions on account of being completely technologically unaware. And for someone who likes to get their jollies off of poking fun at other peoples perception inside this Audio Hobby...that's beyond hypocritical. All that being said the Fosi DS2 is a fantastic DAC for the price. It is very neutral with minimal coloring of the sound, and works for near every genre of music, without any weird filtering or EQing as is common on some other DAC's out there. For ~$50USD, its a steal, and should be a DAC that everyone has in their collection. Especially if you are just getting started in the ChiFi IEM Market. And as for the 4.4mm output, well it punches significantly more power than the single ended ground of the 3.5mm, and can make things sound a little less muddied as a result on some tracks. And MOST things sound better with more cleaner power behind them. So its more than just placebo effect for the 4.4mm jack. It is also quite a bit stronger physically than the 3.5mm jack, so for mobile listening, I prefer the 4.4mm style. Slap this DAC into a MagSafe Wallet, and you're all set.

You need a new iPhone. They’re all USB-C since the 15.

I really disappointed,worst fosi audio ds2, without this dac my samsung a34 direct sound is too good, with this connect to my Sony xb55 earphones I connected,but veryyyy bas bass, worst sounding

Hello again! Which do you prefer? This one, or the IFI GO bar? Can you quickly do a A/B test, and declare which is the winner in terms of sounding better? Which bringsa out the nuances more in the music? Better Bloom from one pehaps? Is one more forward than another? Sibilant difference? Sound stage maybe? Timbre? Weight, perhaps in the the testing? Its not all about the numbers! Please start being subjective in your reviews if poosible. BTW, are you going to introduce DM Merch? Mug shots of you on mugs and t-shirts etc?

DSD is Sony proprietary. 😠

Your music is far too loud, you have no respect for the audio-chain or us!

I'm sorry, but "USB Type C cable", "OTG function", "Lightning to Type-C OTG cable", "some devices may not have volume control in exclusive USB audio access mode" 🤣😂 Dongles 🙄😵‍💫 . Dropping the standard headphone jack + decent built-in DAC from phones and tablets IMO was one of the most boneheaded decisions ever made. All so they could sell you new headphones and/or accessories. And lots of Dongles.