Is there audio quality lost when using a headphone jack adapter instead of having the jack built into the iPhone X?

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Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter

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2 Answers from the Community

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    The built in dac and amp in the apple branded headphone adapter is roughly on par with the ones built in the iPhone 6s.
    Some tests show audio quality being ever so slightly worse, while some tests show it to be every so slightly better. Though most people wont notice any difference between the two.
    Since the lightning connector sends out a digital unaltered signal compared to the analog jack, it does give you the potential to have better sound quality if you use a higher quality third party adapter.

    If you want the best sound quality then use a lightning to USB adapter which will allow you to attach a very high quality hi res audio USB dac/amp.

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  • Having recently moved from a iPhone 6 to 7plus I find the bass and separation degraded. I don’t know if Apple have used a different DAC in the adapter compared to the on board DAC in the 6 but certainly the sound has deteriorated. Listening via Sennheiser Momentum phones, Onkyo HF Player App, Hi Res FLAC Files.

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