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 theres always someone who wants to know what the phone speaker sounds like. To dispense with that question quickly, its the best sounding iPhone (that doesnt have a Plus in its name) Ive 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 dont 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 hasnt changed since the 1980s 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 couldnt 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 didnt 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 didnt do (and still havent 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. Thats a relief. I then tried them again with the little Apple supplied DAC converter and although they werent 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 wont 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 dont 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
