audio quality Does plugging your headphones into the USB port give your better sound quality? The convincing argument.......YES!

[Results45]

Does plugging your headphones into the USB port instead of a 3.5mm jack give your better sound quality? This guy pitches the argument with good reason.......YES!

 

Basically routing audio out of virtually any device through a USB Type-A or Type-C port into a dedicated quality audio DAC (instead of the default integrated DAC/3.5mm jack) will give you measurably better output sound quality than through the included headphone jack.

 

It also dawned on me after watching this video that maybe the gradual death of 3.5mm jacks in phones might not be so bad after all if getting truly great audio means investing in either a USB DAC dongle and/or good headphones. Thoughts?

 

 

If any of this lit within you an interest in audio hardware I recommend watching the video all the way through! 

[Enderman]

Uh, yeah this is common knowledge that if you use a better dac you get better audio quality............................

[GoodBytes]

Not necessarily. USB headphones uses its own sound chip circuit and DAC. That sound chip can be superior or inferior to what you have in your system. If you compare with most motherboard. built-in sound cards, against a decent pair of USB headphones, then usually you'll get superior sound as usually motherboard manufactures uses the cheapest DAC and circuit design they can get... even on premium boards. If you have a dedicated sound card, good chance that you won won't get a superoir sound, if your headphones has both USB and 3.5mm connector.

[rice guru]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Not necessarily. USB headphones uses its own sound chip circuit and DAC. That sound chip can be superior or inferior to what you have in your system. If you compare with most motherboard. built-in sound cards, against a decent pair of USB headphones, then usually you'll get superior sound as usually motherboard manufactures uses the cheapest DAC and circuit design they can get... even on premium boards. If you have a dedicated sound card, good chance that you won won't get a superoir sound, if your headphones has both USB and 3.5mm connector.

More often then not though the  chip on the little usb dongle really isn't that great and the amp implementation isn't good either so your motherboard would be the better option specially with newer motherboards as they have had a noticable improvement over the past few years

 

[kokakolia]

I just can't shake the feeling of being swindled into marketing snake oil convincing me to buy more stuff. I do acknowledge that some budget phones and laptops have horrible sound output out of their headphone jacks. So buying an external DAC makes absolute sense in that scenario. But I feel like an absolute idiot when buying a $100 USB DAC (Audioquest Dragonfly Black V1.5) and plugging it into my iPhone via an unreliable OTG cable which disconnects... often! The solution promises "better sound", at the expense of draining more battery out of your phone, being very clunky and costing 10 times more than the $9 Apple headphone dongle which performs admirably (as stated by actual sound engineers). In my humble experience, the Dragonfly Black and iPhone dongle sound the same to my ears. Actually, the Dragonfly emits a noticeable "hiss" when driving sensitive earphones. But the Dragonfly has more volume and can drive bigger headphones louder, something the iPhone dongle struggles with. 

 

So I'm angry at all the folks online who claim that the humble $9 Apple dongle sucks and that you should use a far more expensive ($100+) and clunkier lightning dongle instead. These so-called audio reviewers are no doubt sponsored by all these audio companies trying to unload their "just about average" products at luxury prices. 

[rice guru]

53 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

I just can't shake the feeling of being swindled into marketing snake oil convincing me to buy more stuff. I do acknowledge that some budget phones and laptops have horrible sound output out of their headphone jacks. So buying an external DAC makes absolute sense in that scenario. But I feel like an absolute idiot when buying a $100 USB DAC (Audioquest Dragonfly Black V1.5) and plugging it into my iPhone via an unreliable OTG cable which disconnects... often! The solution promises "better sound", at the expense of draining more battery out of your phone, being very clunky and costing 10 times more than the $9 Apple headphone dongle which performs admirably (as stated by actual sound engineers). In my humble experience, the Dragonfly Black and iPhone dongle sound the same to my ears. Actually, the Dragonfly emits a noticeable "hiss" when driving sensitive earphones. But the Dragonfly has more volume and can drive bigger headphones louder, something the iPhone dongle struggles with. 

 

So I'm angry at all the folks online who claim that the humble $9 Apple dongle sucks and that you should use a far more expensive ($100+) and clunkier lightning dongle instead. These so-called audio reviewers are no doubt sponsored by all these audio companies trying to unload their "just about average" products at luxury prices. 

I dont think most are sponsored but are just sold on their purchases and really want to justify their purchases. but everyone has different ears. I do something similar with my dongle the one plu s6t dongle is decent but not that great so I had afiio btr1k and plugged iit in to my phone and works clean and sounds noticably better pkus I can unplug it and use it wirelessly wnen I want to. no hiss nothing.

[SolarNova]

Depends entirety on the DAC being used.

 

I have both a Asus Xonar D2X sound card, and a FiiO X3K DAP.

I use the Xonar for my speakers for 5.1 support, and the X3K (in DAC mode via USB) for my M50S headphones, which i primarily use to listen to music.

The difference in quality between the X3k and Xonar when listening to music with my headphones is easily noticeable to my ear.

[Derkoli]

On 11/19/2019 at 2:06 PM, kokakolia said:

I just can't shake the feeling of being swindled into marketing snake oil convincing me to buy more stuff. I do acknowledge that some budget phones and laptops have horrible sound output out of their headphone jacks. So buying an external DAC makes absolute sense in that scenario. But I feel like an absolute idiot when buying a $100 USB DAC (Audioquest Dragonfly Black V1.5) and plugging it into my iPhone via an unreliable OTG cable which disconnects... often! The solution promises "better sound", at the expense of draining more battery out of your phone, being very clunky and costing 10 times more than the $9 Apple headphone dongle which performs admirably (as stated by actual sound engineers). In my humble experience, the Dragonfly Black and iPhone dongle sound the same to my ears. Actually, the Dragonfly emits a noticeable "hiss" when driving sensitive earphones. But the Dragonfly has more volume and can drive bigger headphones louder, something the iPhone dongle struggles with. 

 

So I'm angry at all the folks online who claim that the humble $9 Apple dongle sucks and that you should use a far more expensive ($100+) and clunkier lightning dongle instead. These so-called audio reviewers are no doubt sponsored by all these audio companies trying to unload their "just about average" products at luxury prices. 

I mostly agree about the dongle's and the dragonfly, I actually quite liked the apple dongle with sensitive IEM's, but anything like my HD800s' really need the Dragonfly, but I don't think you should really use HD800s' in public, but sensitive IEM's are generally totally fine with the dongle, one of the few apple product's I genuinely like.

[iKingRPG]

Assuming you dont have good sound card