How do I connect my new iPhone 15 Pro to DAC?

Thanks for the reply Art64. I’ve tried that adapter, but only get analog out. Are you able to use your DAC or just as an amp? I can use my DAC/Amp and hear sound, but the iPhone is not putting out hi-res signal. Do you see a headphone icon on your phone, and can you control volume from phone? If so, I think the SMSL is only amplifying and not using the DAC.

I need to make a correction on my post. The USB C to USB (full size) connector is not Apple. I bought it from Amazon years ago. I have 2 of them and I have them connected to my Mac Mini’s USB C ports.

I do believe it’s not just amplification because on Tidal, it’ll show if the music is MQA, HI RES, or 44k or Dolby. On Apple Music the bit rate changes too. But I have to verify. The Apple Music and Tidal are both set to their max.

They are made by Synthec and sold in pairs. The cables have braided covers. I use the SMSL on the stereo. When I change the filters on dac setting, the audio changes as well. Works exactly as like the previous iphone models. I also have an iphone 6 that I use from time to time. No streaming on this one only music files and video files.

I have tried everything too, I can get audio out on 2 external DACs, but they are not playing in their highest quality, the DAC color on the lights on the firefly and ifi go confirm they are not playing at the highest quality format, and Amazon Music also shows and confirms this. The Amazon music app shows the tracks quality and dacs capable quality and shows the iPhone is lower then Both! Please fix Apple! Works fine on my iPhone 12 but not iPhone 15 !!!

These are some good tips.

How can you tell what the output resolution of your phone is? I'm running to the USB-C input of my Beats studio pro headphones. They have a built in DAC if you use the USB cable.

I have a similar issue on my iPhone SE Gen 3. I have been using on previous iPhones and still use on iPod Touches, a Meenova Lightning to Micro USB Smart Cable to connect these devices to a Chord Electronics Hugo 2 Digital to Analogue Converter/headphone amplifier to play from the Music App. It appears as if there is no longer any digital PCM audio stream from these phones, which are about the same generation as the iPhone 15 above. Why does Apple keep disabling things that people use, for no apparent good reason. I have not tried with the Camera adapter as yet to see if that is a work around but from the above posts, I suspect that will not work either. Luckily I have an excellent pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 bluetooth wireless phones I can use but I would prefer to use my expensive Hugo 2. I suppose the next thing is we will lose the PCM streams from laptops, thereby making all of my expensive Benchmark Media DAC's into paperweights.

Update: As expected Apple Camera adapter does not help - still no digital Audio Output from iPhone SE-3 on OS 17.3.1

Please tell me, How can i connect my iphone 15 to my car DSP (via toslink). i wanna hear high res lossless (24 bit / 192 kHz) from apple music.

can i direct link from iPhone 15 USB type C to my car DSP Toslink (b'coz toslink is digital file), or must use the DAC. Thank U before. Pic below is my Car DSP.

I’ve gone through the steps mentioned about - my iPhone recognises I haven’t got headphones connected (I selected the “other” option when I inserted the Ian cable that goes to my DAC) but it’s still limiting the output to 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. I’ve tried going through the steps several times and no success. The dac I’ve got is a Chord Hugo 2; I don’t know if this is a factor? Any ideas anyone?

I had two really short USB C to 3.5mm audio cables that were different one was an Apple branded one the other I got with my Samsung galaxy note 10 My iPhone 15 pro max recognized one of them as head phones and the other one as a USB accessory but I had to use that one one when connecting it to my Akai MPC one

I recently purchased Focal Bathys headphones, which has a built-in DAC mode switch. I can't get it to work with my iPhone 13 Pro. Focal Support said to use the QITEK converter to iPhone ---> USB-C to USB-C cable ---> Bathys headphones. When I have it all set up and set the Bathys to DAC mode, and play music, the music comes out of the iPhone speakers. It basically ignores that the cable is connected. I did follow some the comments suggestion of turning off "Forget All USB Audio Accessories", but nothing changes. Are there any other settings on the iPhone to tell it to use the cable output for sound?

m-thomas, thanks for this info, but where is this setting? I can’t find it anywhere in Settings app. I tried googling it too with no luck. I could only find the USB setting on Lock Screen.

If you don’t see “forget” option, I think you can skip this step as the DAC has never been recognized by iPhone. Did you use USB C hub instead of directly connecting by USB cable?

This worked, however, I had to deselect the option "Connect to headphones".

Where do I find the USB audio accessories settings on my iPhone? I want to configure it to pass digital music files to my Chord Hugo 2. Many thanks in advance.