![]() ![]() Over Bluetooth, the audio limitations are more severe due to the technology's need to compress.Īt the moment, if you want to listen to 24-bit/96kHz or higher, you need an external DAC filling between your iPhone and wired headphones sandwich, end of. Nothing is perfect.You could alternatively go down the Lightning headphones route and plug a pair straight into your iPhone, but in our experience, their DACs tend to ‘only’ handle up to 24-bit/48kHz too (perhaps an Apple-stated requirement in order to be licensed). And Apple’s Camera Adapter only works with MFI-certified charge cables. This cable is not MFI certified.Īs a rule of thumb, E1DA’s USB-C to Lightning splitter will only work with dongles that iPhone believes are drawing less than 100 mA current. E1DA’s USB-C to Lightning splitter is therefore of limited use for third-party dongles – but it works as intended with E1DA’s own DACs. Therefore, iPhone does not charge while being connected to the E1DA splitter.Īnd I wished E1DA added a chip (as in Apple’s Camera Adapter) to make their Lightning splitter universally usable (Apple apparently makes this impossible for audio designers without an MFI license – and E1DA are probably not an accredited MFI contract manufacturer). E1DA’s USB-C to Lightning splitter works different from Apple’s Camera Adapter as it talks to the dongle and not to the iPhones’s power management. As it appears, the Apple Camera Adapter draws some current from the iPhone but also from the power bank. and 13) do not like to draw zero current when they are not told to do so by a controller chip. In contrast, iPhones (tested with SE 1st gen. ![]() Stop! The theory may be easy for Android devices/DAPS, but things can be way more complicated for iOS devices, when the 100 mA current-draw limit needs to be circumvented.ĭriving dongles with DAPS/Android devices and power bank using the E1DA USB-C to USB-C splitter cable works universally. Computers are exempt in our discussion as they always provide enough power to any dongle (USB 2 up to 500 mA). As a result, the dongle draws its power from an external 5V power bank (or out of our 5V wall charger), and its data (“music”) from the phone/DAP/tablet. The theory is simple: just separate power line and data line in the cable connecting host and dongle. Therefore, in order not to run out of juice prematurely – and to entice Apple devices to play through our monster dongles – we need to use an external power source to drive those – and the readiness of the host to accept them. But not for long in each case before you have to hook your device back up to the charger. Current draw of some dongles.Īndroid devices and most DAPs are more forgiving – and work even with the biggest current w**res (excuse my Italian). E1DA have published a useful spreadsheet that tells you which Lightning cables work with which iPhones with their 9038SGD DACs (which draw above 130 mA). Luckily, some third-party Lightning cables exist that trick the iPhone to believe the current draw is lower than 100 mA…which is only a short-term solution, as it does not stop the battery from draining fast. Hidizs S9 Proand ifi Go Bar (both around 140 mA), for example, appear to get around the restrictions, as both work with my iPhone SE (1st gen.), Astell & Kern’s PEE51 does not. There are exceptions, when the iOS device is fooled to believe the draw is below 100 mA…by means of fudging the descriptor table in the software (according to Gordon Rankin of Wavelength Audio). If we connect our dongle with a current draw exceeding 100 mA, we get no music but a cryptic error message instead. Reason is their fear of dissatisfied customers falsely claiming battery failure on warranty when their phones’s batteries drain “too fast”. Remember the 36 hours we got out of our iPod Classics?Īpple adds the “fun fact” of limiting current draw to 100 mA for most of their iOS devices. The first are limited in their performance, and the second drain the host (too) fast. There are principally two kinds of dongles, such that limit current draw to preserve the host’s battery, and such that…don’t (I wrote about this here). Oh no! iPhone tells us it does not want to supply more than 100 mA. They have the advantage that they do not subscribe to planned obsolescence as they do not rely on an internal battery that dictates their life span. Dongles are little DAC/amps that draw their operating current from the host, which is either a computer, phone, DAP, or tablet. ![]()
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