Budget Headphone Dac/amp

Check out Fiio's website. They have a range of dac/amps. If you buy from Amazon, make sure it is a legit dealer. There have been a few fakes.

Check out the Audioquest Dragonfly. It's not real cheap ($250), but it's the size of a USB thumb drive and meets your other requirements.

Fiio E10 or Fiio E17. Both are amazing! I own the E10, and to my ears it is much better than the NuForce.

Deleted.

The E17 is great. Size of a smaller smart phone. Good sound. I use mine with my computer in my office at work.

Do any of these units connect directly to iphone? I mean do they bypass the Iphone's built in DAC?

With a lod. It will bypass the internal DAC. Fiio sells them also on Amazon.

I'm not an iPhone owner, so I'm not positive about this. But I'm pretty sure the LOD bypasses the headphone amplifier in the iPhone, not the DAC. LOD=LINE OUT DIRECT. So it would be an analog signal that has already been processed by the DAC in the iPhone.

Unfortunately, no. Even a Line-Out Dock connector wouldn't do much. Only iDevice approved DACs can bypass the internal DAC inside an iDevice (iPod, iPhone, iPad). The only other way to bypass the internal DAC is to use the Pure i-20 dock and set it up with an external DAC. However, this eliminates any possible chance of portability.

If portability is what you want, check out ALO Audio as their DACs are iDevice approved. However, if you are on a tight budget, these may not appeal to you.


Destroysall.
Edited by destroysall - 10/31/12 at 5:50pm

http://supercurio.project-voodoo.org/audio/for-engadget/E17-iPad-NexusSVoodoo.htm

Test FiiO E17 USB DAC

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: +0.01, -0.57
Noise level, dB (A): -97.2
Dynamic range, dB (A): 97.5
THD, %: 0.0015
IMD + Noise, %: 0.036
Stereo crosstalk, dB: -93.7

Which iPhone?

The first iPhone had serious bass losses with typical 16 ohm headphones, but later models not so much:

http://www.swedroid.se/rightmark/x10_mini_comparison/x10miniaudicomparison.htm

iPhone 3GS

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: +0.31, -0.20
Noise level, dB (A): -83.7
Dynamic range, dB (A): 83.6
THD, %: 0.0095
IMD + Noise, %: 0.045 0
Stereo crosstalk, dB: -79.9

Apple upgraded their IOS device headphone amps in general about his time so later models should be no worse.