Hi Mary!
Interested in what you say about the B&W P7 when connected to the iPhone.
Yeah, output is quite decent though it could be better and I'm not
complaining about that as all the reviews I read on the B&W P7 did warn
about the output of the cans when connected to an iPhone.
I now have a pair of the Sony MDr-7506 canns and - whilst not in the
league of the B&W P7 - they sound very nice on iPhone which is amazing
given the price tak - about a quarter of what one would pay for the B&W
P7 -.
Again this is all subjective and its all down to personal choice and
taste but an interesting discussion nevertheless.
On 19/10/2016 6:34 AM, Mary Otten wrote:
Hi John,
Your findings are interesting. I have not gotten around to actually using
headphones with this little new adapter. I was intrigued, however, when I saw a
post yesterday or the day before from a guy who says he was able to use his EKG
to 40s with the little adapter with great effect. He said they really sounded
good. Those phones typically require an extra amp to be driven decently. I
have a pair of a KGQ701 phones which are really nice, but if you don't have a
preamp, forget it. So I thought I would try them but haven't done it yet with
the little new adapter. I will be curious to see if I hear the same things that
you did. I really liked the P7 even just with the output from the iPhone 6s.
It's not perfect. But convenience can't be beat. I was hoping that the
experience would be even better with this new phone and it's DAC, being better
than the power straight out of the 6S. I guess I will have to get to it and see
what I think.
Mary
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 18, 2016, at 12:17 PM, John Gurd <j.g...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
I got an iPhone 7 a few days ago and had it away with me on a weekend break
with limited opportunities to play with it.
Well, on this list there’s always someone who wants to know what the phone
speaker sounds like. To dispense with that question quickly, it’s the best
sounding iPhone (that doesn’t have a Plus in its name) I’ve heard so far.
Not surprising, as it has two tiny speakers instead of one so Voice Over and
books on Voice Dream Reader sound very pleasant. I don’t listen to music on
a phone speaker and am always surprised when people give this aspect of
audio serious consideration.
Of course the iPhone 7 is the infamous one where they got rid of the audio
jack. So I took my trusty B&w P7 headphones, my ancient and cheap but
much-loved (for sentimental reasons) Koss Porto Pros and my Bluetooth
Plantronics BackBeat Pros and the lightening ear pods that ship with the
device. No DAC except the little lightning to 3.5mm convertor supplied by
Apple.
Here are my first impressions and I have to emphasis they were entirely
subjective with no attempt at rigor. Imagine my shock when I tried my P7s
and thought they sounded awful! The mid-range was thin with a hardness I
never noticed before. The base was there but not particularly extended. The
music sounded kind of flat with no real involvement. For the first time I
felt I knew what was meant when components were described as unmusical. When
I then tried my Koss Porto Pros whose basic design hasn’t changed since the
1980’s and which at one point retailed at around £25 I actually thought they
sounded better but with the qualities described above still present, perhaps
with more space and a warmer tone. The Bluetooth BackBeat Pros sounded the
best with musicality restored and a warmth replacing the hard midrange. The
Apple earpods were what you would expect: a good reason for buying decent
headphones for your Apple device.
The culprit, of course, was the $9 DAC provided by Apple for those folk who
will insist on owning headphones with a 3.5mm plug. The frustrating thing
was that as I was away from home I couldn’t try any other lightning to audio
DAC. I did have my Arcam MusicBoost case but as it is made for the thinner
iPhone 6 I didn’t fancy having my new iPhone 7 permanently wedged in it. Out
of desperation I did gingerly try to insert it but gave up when it became
clear it would end in disaster.
What I didn’t do (and still haven’t done) was try the above headphones with
the audio jack on my old iPhone 6 to see if it really did sound worse on the
iPhone 7 or if it was just a trick of the mind because I was expecting
better. Since arriving home I have tried my P7s with the Oppo HA 2 DAC and
the iPhone 7 and I am glad to say they were back to being absolutely
stunning. That’s a relief. I then tried them again with the little Apple
supplied DAC converter and although they weren’t as shockingly bad as my
first impression they still sounded seriously under par, and that also when
for my little plastic Porto Pros. Yet I still feel even the Porto Pros
sounded better with the old audio jack. It mostly came down to that sense of
hardness and lack of musicality I felt I detected.
Well, what do you expect for what amounts to a $9 DAC, I hear you say. Most
people who have a cheap pair of headphones won’t notice or care and will
just want them to work. I am quite sure that some headphones will even sound
better for it. But as I don’t always want to carry a separate and cumbersome
DAC around with me for casual listening I do wish Apple had spent just a
little more on their convertor.
John Gurd
