What is the iPhone 4's DAC's bitrate output?

Question

What is the iPhone 4's DAC's bitrate output?

My iTunes library is completely 16/44.1 or 1411 kbps CD rips.

This is quite a problem because I can't fit all my songs in my iPhone because my files are pretty big... 😟

I know the iPhone is not making use of the full 1411 kbps songs because of the stock DAC

I'm curious to know what the stock DAC of the iPhone is capable of putting out, I heard somewhere that it was around 320 kbps?

If I could find out, I can then compress all my songs to that quality so that the files are smaller while I technically don't lose any quality at all.

At the same time, I'd also like to know the stats on the iMac 27" 2011 and Macbook Pro 15" DACs because I actually have no idea what quality of music I'm listening to, and whether its worth buying a 300 buck 96/24 DAC for my CD records.

Thanks in advance! 😀

iPhone 4

Posted on Jun 16, 2012 8:57 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 30, 2013 10:36 AM in response to TrendyWhistle

I have found that when I compress my music to 256k on the iphone (using the iphone's built-in convert function for the iphone, the highest bit rate they let you select is 256k) it saves a ton of space, but compared to lossless it sounds flat, much less dynamic, and overall kind of lifeless. The "notes" are there, but there is a lot of "music" missing. I'm using Grado SR-325i headphones.

I listened to a remaster of the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Odyssey" that I've listened to a lot.It lacks "emotion" and "feeling" at 256k, but sounds very nice with lossless.

I also listened to music from Al Dimeola's "Scenario" CD and it sounds lifeless and there is no impact to the low end.

If sound quality is important to you, use lossless and only load the music that's really high on your list rather than your entire iTunes library.

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Answer 2

Jun 17, 2012 4:11 AM in response to TrendyWhistle

The iPhone and its DAC will support up to 24 bit, 48 kHz

raw audio (AIFF, WAV, etc.). The quality of audio you hear will depend more

on what you are listening to the music with.

If space is an issue, simply import the songs as Apple Lossless.

There will be no loss in quality as the data is compressed in a

way analogous to how regular file compression is done, hence

lossless. Depending on the song, the result can be a file 30-50%

smaller. This is the format I use for all my CD rips and my LP rips.

As stated at the start, unless you are using very high quality

headphones with the iPhone, you won't hear the difference

between direct CD quality and even 256 kbps or maybe even

128 kbps.

p.s. Here are some audio tests done on the iPhone 4s

http://www.markuskraus.com/RMAA/iphone4s/data.htm

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Answer 3

Jul 2, 2012 3:42 AM in response to woodmeister50

Thank you so much. Yeap, I use apple lossless here too, I am on a ath esw9, so my headphones are relatively average, apparently they're slightly slow so maybe that's why I have a hard time hearing the difference (or maybe its just because I'm not as good as I'd like with sounds)

Also, the data is very helpful and interesting 😀

Thanks!

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