The last two are probably passive, and I used to own a OnePlus 6t as a daily so can confirm at least that one is passive, i.e. it uses a DAC built into the phone instead of carrying one inside the cable itself.

Vielen dank, Julian! I haven’t seen anyone else do such proper measurements and reviews of these gear. 99% are KZfaqrs who read the specs sheets accompanied by loud music and jump cuts. I just wanted to let you know that we really appreciate your content

Dude that's impeccable timing. I was just about to buy a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter and wondering which one to get. Thanks for the help!

I hate those adapters😅 wish they just kept the headphonejack

Actually these adapters do get used with lav mics such as the Rode SmartLav+ or Sennheiser XS Lav Mobile, so maybe a more thorough investigation of their pre-amp and ADC performance could be interesting...

Don’t u just hate that the Beyerdynamic DT Siebenhundertsiebzig Pro won’t run well on the Apple ones

I've been wondering this myself, with so many different generic ones on Amazon. Was looking for comparisons and wonder if they were all the same. Thank you for doing the research for us!

Literally hands down the best comparison video on entire youtube!! Words are not enough to thank you

One of the biggest advantages of these dongles, is that the inline remote buttons work on pc too.

I wish companies would do a more clear job of marketing which of these adapters have their own internal dac and which are totally passive.

I used your videos as reference before combining headphones with audio cards. I ended up with DT990 PRO 250ohm with Audient ID4 MK2. I am so happy about the end result. Thank you for engineering level details, charts and everything. ❤

Julian I am a big fan of your videos. Thank you for all the effort you put into making your measurements, I really enjoy them!

Hallo Julian, vielen Dank für dieses tolle Video! Ich bin sehr beeindruckt von deiner Vorgehensweise und werde deinen weiteren gerne Content verfolgen. Weiter so!

It's pretty amazing tech wise, but the hassle of these is still a huge shame. I have a s22+ and the Apple one was too quiet so I got Samsung's own, and while it sounds fine after a while it starts increasingly bitcrushing the audio until the phone crashes...I miss the jack ;_;

Great video. It's pretty random that a lot of entry level audio interface's can't handle that level of accuracy. But I understand that compensates that with a better preamp for inputs. Anyways love your channel and your graphs!

Geiles Video Julian, und sehr nice Graphen👍

Excellent, and most impressively, objective review as always - just what I have been looking for. However, I do agree with some that you might want to consider doing a deep-dive on the mic-input portion (mic-preamp and ADC stages) of these dongles though, in addition to the DAC and headphone amp portions. I am curious about how the dongle analog mic input can compare to full-fledged audio interfaces. More people are shifting to using portable devices such as smartphones or tablets over computers in their audio production nowadays. Wonder if these dongles can produce quality results for audio production like podcasts.

Caught you slipping into German when you mentioned the Beyerdynamics DT Siebenhundertsiebzig 😁

Every time I look for some answers, I just reach for Julian's channel and bam! The answer is right here. Such an excellent details! I'm glad you include the mic tests because I wasn't sure about SNR implied from the chart (high power + low noise floor). The Samsung's noise floor seems to be best but it kinds of changing the sound tone.

Julian, this is what I've been looking for for years! I want to do the review of Apple dongle for quite awhile now and all I lack of is the scientific data to back-up my claim that why the dongle is better than people might think. Big ups to your effort and thank you for your hard work.

Aaaaand Julian Krause strikes again!! Fantastic-useful information as always! 🥳🥳 😄😄

I would love for someone to test the ADCs and mic input - mainly because nobody else is testing this and there are loads of podcasting and video mics that use the 3.5mm format

I am using a pixel and using IEMs so I need this! THANK U SO MUCH this channel is such a hidden gem I'm shocked at the production quality ! Subbed!!

Great video mate. I love the length you’ve gone to to review these adapters 👍🏻 Subscribed 😉 “Don’t worry about it” classic 😂

Great video JK! I suggest a follow-up that measures the mic input too. My reasoning is the following: People use their phone for Discord, Zoom, Clubhouse, Tiktok and even KZfaq. For recording videos, from say from your phone, you can always use a portable/external recorder and sync in post, but I imagine that sometimes you just want to record as-is but wish to have better audio than the built-in mics. Also the usb-c/lightning lapel mics are often limited in quality so some people might want to use their regular minijack lapel (or other connectors with an adapter). I suggest using a well known and good lapel mic like the sennheiser mke2 and maybe one or two others (that requires plugin power), and one or more known dynamic lapel mics. (That don’t require plugin power). Maybe you could also include a normal dynamic mic as well. (Sm58/røde m1 etc) And also compare their recording quality to say a consumer grade zoom h5, and with a good audio interface (Røde has a xlr/3.5mm phantom power/plugin power adapter). It would be great if you could test with both normal speech and maybe something noisier. Would also be nice if you could upload the recordings so we could judge by ourselves. And lastly, please include the Saramonic lightning or usb-c adapter since that is the only one that advertise plugin power combatibility. Maybe a few other adapters on the market might include plugin power without advertising it, so with an mke2 you could actually find that out. I am about to order the saramonic adapter for my lapel mic and use it to shoot a few videos from my vacation and tbh I think it’s probably good enough for speech, but it would be really interesting if you could include the mic inputs in a follow-up. Cheers

The Apple adapter is much more sophisticated than the Samsung. It detects if a headset is actually plugged in and under Windows 10 only appears as an audio device if one is present. The Samsung steals input and output even if there is nothing connected to it.

THANK YOU!. I really needed a detailed version of the affects of the usb c 3.5mm audio adapter. Especially needed the recording of the voice test that you did, so Thank you!..

I'm using the Samsung USB-C 3.5 mm adapter with the Galaxy S24 and Samsung EO-IA500 headphones and i'm surprised by the phenomenal sound quality. I've listened to many headphone amplifiers and none of them offered such a pure sound! All sound components are in their place, the instruments have their own space and air. The separation is just phenomenal! Definitely the best DAC i've ever listened to music on, and what's more, it's cheap!

Thanks for doing this particular video!!!!!

Julian thanks for your evaluation 👍

As always, impeccable test and review!

Great video Julian.

Great video! Thank you for your AMAZING work Julian! I got a pair of HD600s and thought performance would be terrible on my iPad with the USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. In comparison to my Motu M4 it’s only a little quieter, and there’s no audible distortion. But then I’m using a US dongle, with an M1 iPad that provides plenty of power, so maybe that’s why. Either way, I can’t believe it works so well!

Love it will be fun to compare them to the more expensive DACs I already have didn't know they were sold by Google and Samsung. They say the Apple dongle doesn't always work on some Android devices. We shall see.

The oneplus (red) adapter is just a passthrough not a dac. It works very well with their own phones; and, iirc, has much more power to drive the higher impedance headphones.

I listened a lot recently on my Iphone with lightning adapter on a Shure SRH840A and I was pleasantly surprised by the good sound of it. Off course using Spotify isn’t the highest quality, so all in all I think it is the best you can get when you are on the way. I was in a hotel by the way, so far away from any decent gear I have at home, making this the best you can get and it works well. Thank you for confirming!

Thanks for taking the time to buy all those different ones 🤙

Use Kinsound one... The Hi-Res is no Joke. The Best DAC adapter in my opinion at price

Thank you! This was very useful, and I appreciate the breakdown for audio laypersons. :)

I do a lot of field recording, I am curious about the A/D converter also. Thank you for all the data!

Please do a review of the Apogee groove if you can and as always incredible content, I find it incredible we can have this quality of content for free!!

subscribed. thank you for this. hope the channel grows.

Immer wieder interessant! Guter Mann!

Dear Julian Krause, DANKE and thank you once again for an another top-class, easy-to-understand video clip. I lift my symbolic hat off every time I watch your videos. For most people, the Bluetooth connection is enough. If somebody want or need a cable connection because they think it sounds better, then this clip is a really great help. Exactly my opinion, the manufacturer's parts are usually the better choice. With cheaper goods from far east, you end up paying double, mostly. Although some of the manufacturer's parts don't have a long life either, maybe on purpose. Expensive doesn't have to mean more either. But what is most important? Every person in the world hears differently! Keep up the good work. Musical greetings and I say "Servus!" from Bavaria

wonderful information thanks dude.

$20 NZD for Apple USB C, $50 NZD for headphone amp, $25ish NZD for a raspberry Pi Zero W and accessories And you add some HD600's and you have a really really good playback device (stream and local files). Im a recovering Audiopile, Blind tested it with Some of my audiophile mates. Let's just say they were convinced it was some of the expensive audio gear they thought I still had (sold that stuff many years ago to some sukers). Either the Apple is better with the same IEM's than the dac on my S10 of years back...(was testing only a month ago)

Danke dir, echt präzise und hilfreich 👍

Thank you for the data driven comparison.

Nice intro B-roll lol 😂

I use a US Apple adapter on a cheap Android phone. When I first used the adapter it was not very loud but I read of and can confirm a workaround. Purchase the app USB Audio Player PRO, connect the adapter, start the app, max the app’s hardware volume setting and exit the app. The volume is now higher than before in all other apps. This process needs to be repeated whenever the adapter is reconnected. The standard phone volume control is not and does not need to be maxed after the procedure. The app has its own audio driver which bypasses the standard Android one. Its boosting effect on volume remains when its app volume is max at app exit. I also read that the standard Android audio driver is programmed to reduce the max volume available when an Apple dongle is detected. Perhaps the iPhone been made to do the same to a Google dongle. My phones headphone audio is poor quality. The Apple dongle is very much better and with the app trick l can now comfortably listen to high dynamic range music such as Classical at a medium phone volume setting. The app is a good player too with many other audio features such as avoiding Androids 41 to 48 kHz resampling when appropriate. This is not an app advert.

I just got my Apple USB-C to 3,5mm adapter. Really quiet when connected to my Google Pixel 6 and Huawei P10 Plus, but it could even drive my HD 600 when connected to my ThinkPads USB-C port.

Great content. Keep doing it hard dude.

About a year back with my pixel 6 I bought an apple usb-c adapter, it absolutely does not drive my M50x, surprisingly. I was curious if it's because of the phone or if it's the dongle. I ended up going for a Fiio BTR5 bluetooth adapter that I am very happy with.

Enlightening review! Only USB-C-3.5mm adapter I have is the stock unit that came with the Essential PH-1 phone, unsure of who manufactured it. It still sounds great with various TRRS buds and 32Ω Sennheiser HD-202 headphones on my Pixel 6. But it's really noisy with my 50Ω Fostex RP T-20 (v2) using a 3.5mm to 1/4" adaptor that otherwise works fine with a Cute II headphone amp and the Fostex off other equipment.

Which is better type c earphones or use 3.5mm connector

Could you potentially go back to your PC mainboards and test their inputs? There are a lot of people complaining about unusably noisy mic input, and i'm curious how much performance you can get out of line in!

Would you still recommend buying headphone adapters with external DAC for around 80 - 100€? Currently using the dt770pro 32 Ohms with a Samsung device via original Samsung Adapter and wondering if it's worth upgrading. Great video thanks ✌️

1:29 I have a suggestion. The table would be more useful if there are columns somewhere around 60 and 80 ohm instead of 150. HD 280/300 PRO are 64 ohm. DT770 PRO can be 80 ohm. 32 to 150 is a big jump.

The Apple cable has a DAC in it, it is not merely a cable adapter.

This video reminded me of Sheldon Cooper's Fun with Flags :D And I sincerely mean that as a compliment Loved the video, it had all that I needed.

It's an excellent idea to use these as just pure DACs that can be hooked up to a dedicated amplifier as a super budget way to get a totally transparent hifi setup on a PC

Honestly, I will just buy the other one because it’s cheaper of the three. But the information in this video is great to know

Love your content

Recently I got a notebook without a jack that came with Asus MU3C-AD(M) USB-C->3.5jack dongle based on ESS ES9260(Q) SoC/DAC chip. In a quick test it showed to be capable of driving 150 Ohm headphones (Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic) to decent enough levels, no problems with driving 32 Ohm headphones really loud, and it was like more than +115 DNR and less than -100 dB THD+N. I mean, these little things I never took seriously became surprisingly good!

Don’t quote me but i heard only the apple dongle (US ver) can do up to 24bit 48khz while the rest only do 16bit 44.1khz? You might be thinking who cares, but when you consider they’re all priced the same, you do admittedly get better value then from the apple one But for those who want to spend some serious money on a dongle but also don’t want to hit diminishing returns, i suuuuper recommend the Fiio Ka3 esp because it goes on big discounts often on aliexpress!!

Hell yeah great idea for a video

The thinner cable used by Apple is significant in its durability. I know it’s not the kind of thing you measure, but I’ve been unpleasantly surprised at how quickly these fail, usually in one ear, when used on short daily hikes. I assume it’s the regular flexing at the pocket or the stress inadvertently put on the cable when putting in or removing from pocket. Now I always buy two at once and fortify the cable between the plugs with gaffer tape. Not pretty but definitely increases usability.

Hai, your review helped me to find a better option, i ended up using samsung usb-c for my 16 oHm headphones works fine

11:20 does anyone else hear a hiss in the google adapter sample? if that was what you meant by 'a bit more noise' it seemed like more than a bit.

I would love to know if I can record my next album using the mic input. Like you said, the DA output is fantastic, so now I’m curious to know about the AD input.

thanks for sharing this informative video on audio adapter

my type c to 3,5 adapter struggle to process mic + sound when I try to use my headset for calls

Super helpful video! Thank you!

I am Using UGREEN DAC ADAPTER for SAMSUNG A73 , and its working flawlessly.

Really helpful video! I found this video searching for a solution to a problem I have with my adapter, I bought a Xiaomi phone and a samsung adapter. It ended up sounding really low, I'll search for the Xiaomi one and test if there's any difference. Thanks for yout video!

I agree with that. But I have no problems to get my DT 1990 Pro loud enough with the Apple lightning dongle if I switch audio normalization off. It is definitely loud enough for my ears and I have reserves. I do not know how loud other people are listening. When I turn the lightning dongle all the way up with my DT 1990, it sounds for me as I would damage my hearing.

Please, always provide a table that ranks and summarizes the presentation. Thanks

These adapters can be used as AUX outputs for any audio amplifier with the AUX input.

Amazing video as always. I think this video shows that 'basic' specs don't give the picture anymore. I think you need to up the complexity of your quoted specs and educate your audience further. This would make more sense in general for your more expensive products you review. I want you to do really well and I want you to get great sponsorship. But to get that you need to be able to show why people should pay more for the more expensive kit. Often there is a justifiable reason, you just need to find it. For example. - Intermodulation distortion - Phase delay with frequency - Waterfall - Clock accuracy and stability - RF noise susceptibility - input power - Clipped audio playback behaviour (beyond 0dBfs true peaks). - Power droop with frequency. - energy consumption - Frequency response at different playback levels. My experience is that many of these devices with 'is that real?!' specs have made other compromises which in an AB comparison are instantly audible but hide within the specs.

Superb video! Thanks for the research. Always a pleasure to meet a nerd. ❤ Could you also test if volume rockers work? And the audio quality during calls. Sometimes the volume tends to jump around from music to calls. Cheers!

Thank you so much Julian this video is end game for my dongle search ..i wish you compare OnePlus type c dongle also

¡Has realizado un excelente trabajo!

Such nice video

surprised he didnt try any of the audiophile ones from fiio and ibasso and other audio brands

Very useful stuff. I heard that the Apple dongles were quite good; it's nice to hear that Android dongles are about as good. I was left curious as to what sample depths and rates the dongles can work with. (Hint: I would be quite happy if they can provide 24/96k with Amazon HD Music.) All of these seem better than my present, primitive 'class D, USB, BT' amp on my PC desk that only works at 16/44.1 Thanks for all your useful stuff, Juian.

Excellent video! Please compare these to 3rd party adapters, so that we don't have to buy a phone for the adapter ;-) I purchased a couple of dongles that pass through power and they had absolutely terrible noise floor! Finally I purchased adapters with only headset but listed the frequency range of the chips and it was much better. (unfortunately this means I can't charge . . thanks Apple . . and everyone who copied)

Nice video Julian. I think the problem with the adapters that you couldn’t get working is that they may be passive, the Apple and Samsung adapters definitely have converters. Cheers, Dave.

Tks for this mate. I got tired of the dongle game and just bought some TWS Samsung Galaxy buds pro. The fact Apple castrated their dongles in EU really sucks.

Nice! I just started googling for new info on this topic so glad you've just made this! I'm using a Google Pixel 3 and since it's been hard to find the Google adapter here in Finland, i've had instead the Apple adapter, but haven't really been able to use it because the volume is not enough even if cranked to full volume with any headphones. But because of your videos(!), i've attained new info on amp/headphones compatibility and thought to try again to find a better suited option. I guess if the Google adapter still isn't available here, i'm gonna try the Samsung one since it looks to give better output to 32ohm (Ollo S4X), but apparently since it varies depending on the audio source, i'm already prepared to return it if/when it doesn't help :).

I love the Beyerdynamic "siebenhundertsiebzig" 😆

I should test some of them with my dt880 600ohms on my lg valvet(worn out headphone jack). 🤪 jokes beside does the usb port link to the same dac as the headphone jack on phones?

Can you find out which Samsung phones are compatible with the new apple usb-c earpods using the microphone?

Thank you so much for your research!

Just listening to/watching your review by using an Apple USB-C adapter, using quite low priced (about € 60) JVC HA-RX900 headphones with 64 Ohms. Can sound very loud!

in which category would a high quality hifi dongle dac like the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt measure different?

could you do that to cheap phone DACs? like Tempotec stuff etc.

Very helpful. Thank you

Speaking of sound quality, there's a little bit of ringing in the low middle bass in your recordings. I think you could kick up the sound a notch with a little EQ right there!

Well, you need to mention the price and hence, price performance ratio. In my place, the apple adaptors are selling at USD8 a piece, and the quality is so good. I even use them to drive a powered speaker (then, the not enough output power issue is gone), and compare with other dongles 10x the price, those 'cheap' adaptors are still performing so well.

Great video. Thanks for testing. I was interested to know about Samsung adapter, because i have S22 Ultra