[NewVoid]

Hello,

I have the Red Magic 8 Pro and it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. I am wondering why every reviewer seems to use an external DAC, is it because most other flagships no longer have the port or is an external USB C DAC so much better than what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can provide?

I currently just got the TRN V80, CCA CRA + and the KZ ZS10 Pro X with the Kiwi Ears Cadenza and the Wizzer Kaylin HE10 on their way. Before just now I was using the Enacfire G20 wireless and Taotronics Soundsurge 46.

When using a standard DAC off Amazon for £10 it sounds way worse then the jack. How much better will something much higher quality like a CX31993 or an ES9038Q2M chip be compared to the 3.5mm using my phones internals. If it is noticably better, why do any flagships still have a headphone jack? Everyone seemed mad about the removal but no reviewer uses it.

The volume on the 3.5mm is also insanely loud. 40% volume is blasting my ears never mind 100%, I'd be deaf.

Thanks!

 

[tomb]

Combining smartphone outputs with an external device is always a crapshoot. You can never tell if you're getting a true 2V line-level output. So yeah, the phone is probably optimized for its headphone output, period.

On a different note away from smartphones, DAPs, and other non-standard portable devices (more to the point of your post title): separate audio components (desktop) are always better than combined components. This, despite the current rage with DAC-amps, has been a truism with high-fidelity audio since the very beginning.