DAC or Amp for phone...?

[DrToffnar]

So I've had a google around but it's Monday morning and I need something explained in baby talk to me.

Is there any advantage to picking up a DAC or Amp for a mobile device like a phone? I assume that music that's played over Spotify will change very little as it has to be compressed in order to be streamed? Does it only really make a difference if you're trying to power expensive IEM's?

(I'm using Sennhieiser Momentum 2.0 IEMs)

 

[Marsman]

I suppose it depends on the phone. Some are likely to have better audio output that others. If it's a phone that's known to have decent sound quality, then I'd hazard a guess that unless you have high quality earphones, then it probably won't be worth the cost of buying a DAC.

Do the IEMs go loud enough?

 

[rids57]

DAC/amps for phones are only really useful when ...

1) You have high end IEMs that show up the shortcomings of your phone's internal DAC
2) you want to run full sized headphones with either low sensitivity or high impedance (or both)

Your Momentums while decent are not revealing enough to warrant an external DAC/Amp in my opinion and the weakest link in the chain is Spotify itself, so even with better IEMs you wouldn't hear any real improvement. It would be a good move if you were listening to Tidal through a pair of Campfire Andromedas but until then, save your money.

 

[Rroff]

Medium to higher end phones actually have reasonably decent, albeit not flawless (usually due to software issues unfortunately), DACs on them so unless the headphones aren't getting enough power it isn't really worth it.