John Darko
Portable audio rigs come in all shapes and sizes. DAPs call for us to manage a second device. Dongle DACs attached to a smartphone often make it difficult to pocket. Bluetooth DACs powering wired headphones or Bluetooth headphones/IEMs are plagued by the (sometimes justified) prejudice levelled at their lossy compression and/or DSP processing. The sweet spot, the way I see it, is wired earphones connected to a smartphone: no dongle, no Bluetooth and no second device to manage. But which smartphone should we consider in 2025?
Since Apple discontinued the iPhone’s headphone socket in 2017, we’ve seen the Android field narrow to only a few contenders, chief among them Sony and Asus. But there’s a gotcha: wishful thinking might say otherwise direct experience tells me that the headphone sockets on the Xperia 1 V and the Zenfone 10 1) don’t sound much better than Apple’s 3.5mm-outputting dongle DAC and 2) can’t hold a candle to the sound of LG’s V30 and V40.
Entering the fray in 2024 is the MIAD01 from China’s Moondrop: a phone that diverts some of its built budget away from the camera array and shell materials to its dual-headphone socket array with dual Cirrus Logic-powered D/A conversion and headphone drive. In this podcast episode, I discuss the sound of modern smartphones with Srajan Ebaen to eventually report on how the Moondrop stacks up against the Sony, the Asus, the LGs of yore and dongle DACs. We also go over Marantz’s compact Model M1 streaming amplifier as well as some lesser-known high-end hardware falling out from Munich High-End 2024: Basel Acoustics, Camerton, PSI, MonAcoustic, Fyne and Cube Audio.
๐ฅ Camera 1: John Darko
๐ฅ Camera 2: Srajan Ebaen
๐ฌ Editor: John Darko
๐บ๐ป Motion GFX: John Darko
๐ฐ Ad segment: Jana Dagdagan
If you’d prefer to listen to an audio-only version of this podcast, find it now on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn or use the embedded player below:
๐ As mentioned in this podcast…
Sony Xperia 1 VI
๐ https://amzn.to/3VlGC3s
FiiO KA2
๐ https://amzn.to/4efK5rQ
Moondrop MIAD-01
๐ https://moondroplab.com/en/products/miad01
Marantz Model M1
๐ https://www.audioadvice.com/marantz-model-m1-wireless-streaming-amp-2-1?referral=darko
Campfire Bonneville
๐ https://www.campfireaudio.com/products/bonneville
Campfire Holocene
๐ https://www.campfireaudio.com/products/holocene
MonAcoustic website:
๐ https://monacoustic.us
6moons VC2 preview:
๐ https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/monacoustics-vc2/
Fyne Acoustics webpage for SuperTrax
๐ https://www.fyneaudio.com/supertrax-series
Basel Acoustics
๐ https://basel-acoustics.ch
6moons V01 preview
๐ https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/basel-acoustics-v01/
Cube Audio website
๐ http://cubeaudio.eu
6moons Lotus 10 preview
๐ https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/cubeaudio-lotus10/
Cables and power products by AudioQuest
๐ https://audioadvice.io/Audioquest
Hi-fi furniture and speaker stands by Solid Steel
๐ https://howl.me/ckbW9947Hdi
Room treatment by Vicoustic
๐ https://audioadvice.io/Vicoustic
Darko.Audio may earn a small commission from items purchased via affiliate links, which are indicated with a ‘๐’.
