Comment by astrange
4 hours ago
The DAC in Apple's $10 adapter is higher quality than most "audiophile" DACs because Apple has a larger R&D budget and is better at manufacturing than the entire audiophile industry combined.
Same for Google's, though it's slightly less good iirc.
They aren't perfect - the maximum volume and impedance are pretty low so you do need an amp to electrically drive insensitive headphones.
There’s a difference between the European version of the Apple dongle and other regions. The European version maxes out at 0.5 Vrms instead of 1 Vrms.