So I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max coming, I use Plexamp as my daily music player. But recently looked at some DAPs from Fiio and Astell & Kern. My questions are, are these expensive music players actually worth the price? If I can already play my hi-res 192khz-24bit files with Plexamp, why exactly would I need one of these DAPs? Is the sound quality that much better than the current iPhone running Plexamp?
All of my files are either FLAC or ALAC, 44-16 cd quality up to 192-24bit hi res audio. If those of you with DAPs would share, I would be interested to know why you use one over an iPhone w/Plexamp.
I work in the music industry and have a hard time getting on with the hi-fi audiophile community because a lot of what they say is so untrue. However I’m open to better music sound quality if that’s at all possible and within reason. Thanks!
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I haven’t gotten to the point of wanting a portable DAC because I’ve not found a pair of wired earphones I like. I don’t think I’d enjoy a portable DAC hanging off my phone though. Maybe that’s why a DAP has a market.
I have DAPs from Fiio, iBasso, and Astell and Kern.
I think they are worth it soundwise, but only if you have a decent pair of wired headphones (usually over $300). Bluetooth is definitely not there yet for serious listening.
Personally I think a DAP of $400 would be good enough if it has WiFi and native 24bit… Above that we quickly hit diminishing returns. After doing audiophile for decades, it really seems to me your ears will adjust to small quality and equalization issues. My A&K improves about 10% more of my Flac files compared to my much cheaper iBasso (which sounds fine for 90%).
At home I use the A&K and planar headphones with my Plex server as the source. These are connected through WiFi. This is a DLNA connection, I am hoping A&K one day allows a pure Plexamp install on the DAP.
One thing - a DAP is not bothered by any annoying phone notifications. I can listen uninterrupted while texting. I do not care about refinancing my nonexistant student loan when I’m lost in the dramatic middle of a 20 minute music track.
Also, since a DAP is a separate device, there is more time between recharges.
Personally, I don’t think a DAP makes much sense for me. The sound quality from an iPhone is sufficient for most times when I want to listen to music on the go. At least for me, the situations I’d want to use a DAP are the same as when I’d want to listen using my phone, and they’re not exactly great critical listening situations (in the car, on the train, plane, travel, while doing housework or walking the dog). The sound output from the iPhone is good enough for those situations. Plexamp on the iPhone can do sample rate matching, keeping it bit-perfect. For portable audio, I think this is good enough. If I want to do some serious listening, then I sit down at home in a quiet environment with my DAC, Amp, and good headphones.
I have cycled through 2 DAPs and am trying to decide what I want to do next. I have a Fiio and an Onkyo. The Onkyo is no longer supported and the Fiio has a connection issue with the headphone jack.
Here’s what I use a DAP for:
Setting up a pair of speakers outside for parties when I want to keep my phone on me.
Commuting via bus/rail, air travel
Sitting on the beach, by a campfire, on a rock on a break while hiking
Long walks around the neighborhood
Playing a pre-set playlist/mix before events or during DJ gigs when quality matters
Now that I’m working from home, I don’t pull out the Onkyo as much as I used to though when I do, the experience makes me happy.
For me it’s the single-purpose part. I enjoy having a device that’s dedicated to JUST playing music the same way I enjoy the process of listening to a vinyl album. I’m engaging more directly and intentionally with the album I’m choosing to listen to.
Is the sound noticeably better? I don’t know. I’ve never done a test. I mean they’re clearly better sounding than MP3 or AAC, but I’ve never compared my CD rip of Kind of Blue to the 24bit 192khz version, though I’ll always choose the higher res when I can.
After years of cycling through music gear, formats, etc. I’ve landed in a place where I get the highest quality version of things that’s reasonably affordable. I rarely regret high quality… and I’ve been stung buying cheap players or committing to smaller file sizes for convenience in the past. I look at it from a forward compatibility and regret aversion perspective.
All that said, I’ve been considering getting an android powered DAP or even a discontinued LG smartphone so I can marry the convenience of plexamp with a higher quality DAC chip than I get on an iphone. Also, having it remain single purpose would be nice. The bluetooth and wifi features on my onkyo don’t work anymore which is only a bother for convenience sake. I rarely use them anyway. But having access to playlists across devices sure would be nice.
Short answer: it’s worth it if you’re the kind of person who would use it regularly and it would make you happy.
Just reread your post. I do not think an expensive A&K is worth it over a middle of the road Fiio. I own both. I think a DAP is worth it, but not an expensive one. Compared to the true cost of a phone, DAPs can be pretty cheap.
I use a phone in some situations as does DaveBinM, but I really do not like doing it. Things sound a little gritty and annoy me after a while. Good enough for MP3s though.
Also,I find the the phone controls to be a pain. Maybe I just do not get the hang of pause, forward, backward, and volume when the phone is in my pocket.
I have also tried and thought about getting higher end DAPs. DAPs are out for me if I can’t install Plexamp.
And that’s most of them. The ones you can are a bit pricey. But I do like having one device for music. My simple and somewhat ratchet solution is .
I use my previous generation cellphone as my DAP, my Pixel 5, with a ikko zerda or a ifi go blue as a dongle. I made a phonecase attachment that holds the ikko or ifi and it’s USB chord in place. The dongle handles the conversion and I can use whatever wired headphones I want.
This serves me well especially the ifi go blue. It’s dual purpose, if you plug a USB-C into the ifi it works as a dongle Dac if you pair via Bluetooth you can use whatever wired headphones you want and it makes them Bluetooth. Great for travel, cause you can then use the ifi with a laptop.
Good solution. I thought about a DAC solution (with old phone) too, but for me the external controls made the DAP decision. Even at home a phone/DAC/amp stack was too much for me. I do not us bluetooth headphones, so this stack did not end up being cheaper than a DAP. I do not know if there are DAPs where Plex can be installed,
If the DAP I use does not allow Plex to be installed, then it should at least be able to access Plex as a local network source. And it must have its own EQ. I really like the Plexamp features, but for music only with headphones I usually end up accessing by folder instead of metadata. For the big speaker system I never want to give up the Plexamp front end.
Now that I think about it a bit more, In my mind Plexamp does make DAPs obsolete, unless the DAP can run Plexamp of course. If DAP can run Plexamp then you have a very awesome device. I agree with you It would be nice to have a few physical buttons to press. And that for me would be the only reason to ditch my older phone as a DAP to have the physical buttons. I only use my second phone setup, when I am traveling though…
I can definitely understand that. Especially if you have a DAC connected to the phone. I would also need an amp, but that is only because of some of the inefficient headphones I like.
With the A&K I have not found any functionality I use missing from that of a Plexamp install, with the exception of fade in/out. The A&K has a lot more sound and access settings than Plexamp, but I do not think I really need them enough to justify the cost. For example, I do not care if I can display only MQS material. Plexamp is missing a balance control, but my hearing does not really need that yet.
I purchased the A&K before Plexamp was usable for me (it did not have selectable output for direct/ALSA to bypass the computer screwing with the stream). If I did it now, I would seriously consider the old phone/DAC/Amp route, especially if I could get used to not having external controls. Hard to do that after many years of separate DAPS.
So far I have not seen that either A&K or Plexamp will display song lyrics, but both have remote network control, equalizers, playlist support, and display by any meaningful metadata field.
When I say Plexamp and A&K I, of course, mean Plexamp on a phone and A&K running the default software. Trying to compare apples to apples here. A DAP can have some great hardware features, and Plexamp can install on different types of devices. There is room for both in the world, it depends on your needs.
