DAP or Stack – Choosing between an Audio Player or external DAC

Deciding on buying a DAP (digital audio player) or external DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) is a predicament that every portable audio enthusiast has found themselves in some point or another. It’s a tough call to make (DAC VS DAP), as you’ll find scores of people on each side of the fence, all of them having their own opinion on which is “best”. But in reality, what is best is purely subjective. If we’re talking about absolute sound quality, an external DAC will win most of the time, but there are some things you will lose out on, such as ease of portability. So, when deciding on whether to use a dedicated external DAC or rather an all-inclusive DAP, there will always be some sort of compromise involved. There’s no right or wrong here, and everything will come down to personal preference as to what is more important to you (i.e, absolute sound quality, or portability).
Here are a few things you will need to consider:

 

Cost

High quality portable audio equipment isn’t cheap, and there’s always a point of diminishing returns. However, buck-for-buck an external DAC with equal sonic capabilities to a given DAP will almost always be cheaper, often considerably so. For example, the Astell&Kern AK70 costs a bit more than the IFI Micro iDSD Black Label, but the AK70 couldn’t even hope to compare with the sheer awesome sound of the IFI. But of course, the AK70 is a complete DAP, whereas the IFI would still need a source of some kind. This is where the cost factor can become a little confusing. Technically, if you were to tally up the cost of the IFI and a smartphone, you could easily be looking at the $1000 mark. However, one could also argue that you would already have a phone, in which case your immediate cost right now would only be for the external DAC.
It’s not always quite as simple as simply connecting the external DAC and rocking to your tunes, though. Often your music app or phone might not have the capability of outputting audio to external devices without the purchase of additional cables or apps. On Android, for example, you’ll most likely need to use apps such as HibyMusic (free) or Ultimate Audio Player Pro in order to use the external DAC. You might also need to purchase an On-The-Go cable. For iOS, you’d probably need the Camera Connection Kit cable sold by Apple.

Winner: DAC

Size & Portability

One of the biggest advantages of a DAP is that it’s a single device, whereas an external DAC requires a source (i.e a phone). As such, when connecting a DAC to your source, your entire setup now consists of 2 devices. In many cases this would simply be too bulky to simply put in your pocket, and can also weigh a fair bit. Some people simply prefer not to have to constantly be tethered to their phone, in which case a dedicated DAP makes sense. On the other hand, you might prefer to have all your music on a single device as this allows you the freedom to go wireless (without explicitly buying a DAP that has wireless functionality). To elaborate, if you store all your music on your phone, you’ve already got a device that’s capable of streaming your collection over Bluetooth or WiFi. So, if you want to get the most out of your audio, just connect the DAC to your phone; and when you want to stream your collection to your portable Bluetooth speaker or your car’s audio system, you can simply use your phone.
In terms of portability, this is a bit of a tricky topic to cover, as any device that is battery powered is, strictly speaking, portable.  However, there is a difference between a device that can be used without the need for a power socket, and one that can easily fit into your pocket. With this in mind, a standalone audio player will almost always win as opposed to strapping a second device to your smartphone.
A DAP is also more discrete than 2 or more devices strapped together with cables going all over the place. This is especially true on aeroplanes. Seriously, notice the looks you’ll get (thanks a lot, Hollywood!).

Winner: DAP

DAC VS DAP Sound Quality:

The main problem, really, with an all-inclusive package is that it needs to be portable, but more importantly, you need to be able to hold it in one hand. As such, there is a great limitation in terms of size in which all the components need to fit. Due to this, larger and better components cannot be used in DAPs, so in most cases a dedicated external DAC would offer superior sound quality. External DACs are often a DAC/AMP combo (such as the IFI Micro iDSD Black Label, or Chord Mojo), which means that you can drive high impedance headphones much better than what a DAP or phone could do. The Audio Technica R70X, for example, has a very high impedance of 470-Ohms, and as such would need a reasonably powerful amplifier in order to drive them. Many of the really high quality headphones tend to have high impedance, so if you own a high impedance set of headphones, your only real option to use them on the go would be with a powerful external DAC/AMP device.

Winner: DAC

Storage

A couple of DAPs available today, such as Fiio’s X5 series or iBasso’s DX80, feature dual card storage. The largest capacity commercially available MicroSD cards available to date are 256Gb. That means that you could have a total of 512Gb available for your collection. On the flip side, if your phone can accept external storage, it will likely only have a single card slot. But, many phones today (such as the iPhones) simply don’t feature expandable storage capability at all, and so you’ll be stuck with whatever built in storage is available on your phone.

Winner: DAP

User experience

There are a bunch of dedicated portable music players out there, but the ones that pack the best performance-to-price ratio come out of China. There are a couple of choices here, but they all have the same problem: software. Whilst they’re making fantastic leaps in bringing consumers top-notch hardware at very reasonable prices, very few have been able to get the software right, particularly the user interface. How we interact with a device can possibly have the biggest impact as to how we perceive that product. It’s all good and well to have fantastic hardware, but we still need the software to be the middle-man between us and the hardware. As such, these Chinese DAPs are almost always released with many software bugs and it often takes many months and a fair number of updates for them to get the software stable. So if you’re getting into this expecting to have a device that operates as smoothly and intuitively as your smartphone; DON’T.

The biggest impact (with regards to software) that a device can have on us can be how easy it feels to use. If the user interface looks messy or feels unintuitive and frustrating to use, we tend to automatically lower our perception of the product in terms of value. Sadly, user interface design is not a strong point for these Chinese players. So again, prepare yourself for a bit of a learning curve. For the most part these devices are created as dedicated music players, so the user interfaces aren’t incredibly complex or difficult to get the hang of, but they are definitely not on par with modern smartphones.
As such, if the user experience is towards the top of your list when looking for a high quality portable music setup, then a dedicated external DAC may suit you more. Being able to simply connect the device to your smartphone will avoid that learning curve of having to deal with a new device.

Winner: DAC

 

Power

Any type of processing requires power. When it comes to audio, your smartphone would need to use its internal DAC chips and amplifiers to decode and output the audio into your headphones. By utilising an external DAC to bypass your phone’s internal components, your phone’s battery will last longer. Some external DACs, such as the Fiio E18, IFI Micro iDSD, and Oppo HA-2SE can also be used as a power bank to charge your smartphone if need be.

Winner: DAC

 

Conclusion

As previously mentioned, whichever solution you end up choosing, you’re going to have to compromise somewhere. Perhaps the first step is to decide what your budget is, and then check what your best options are for each type of setup. From there you’ll have to consider each of the other aspects and rank them for yourself in order of importance.  If absolute sound quality is high on your list, you’ll end up leaning more towards the external DAC setup (unless you don’t mind spending close to or above $1000). But, if you’d prefer a smaller package, something like Fiio’s 3^rd generation X5, or iBasso’s DX80 are highly recommended.

 

Reach a Decision on DAC VS DAP then:

Check DAC Shop at Samma3a for all options

Check DAP Shop at Samma3a for all options