What's the Best Dongle DAC for Me in 2024?

When Apple launched the iPhone 7 with no headphone jack, they were imagining a future filled with wireless headphones, but they also inadvertently turbocharged the portable DAC market. As more phone manufacturers followed Apple’s lead and removed their headphone jacks, portable DACs and headphone dongles weren’t just for dedicated audiophiles, anyone who wanted to use wired headphones needed one, and the options available have grown exponentially in the years since.

One of the biggest chunks of the portable DAC market is ultra-portable “dongle” style DAC/Amps that connect in line with your phone and headphones and use your phone’s power for a simple plug and play experience. If you want to use headphones with your phone and get the best sound quality and features, this guide some of the best audiophile ultra-portable DAC/Amps, ranging from $70 to $450 to help you find the one that best fits your needs.

DUNU DTC-480 - $70

The DUNU DTC-480 is the cheapest DAC on our list, but it offers really strong sound quality, and having both a 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced output make it a stand-out for its price point in terms of features. The Dual Cirrus Logic CS43198 is also surprising for $70. DTC-480 has a built-in volume control that stacks with your phone’s volume, so both controls are necessary for finding the right levels.

The sound signature leans warm, with a little extra bass, but still provides good detail and doesn’t feel muddy, even with bassier IEMs. Most easy to drive headphones are totally fine with DTC-480, but less efficient models are going to lack dynamics and punch. In general DTC-80 can’t match the imaging quality and dynamics of higher end portable DACs, but for the price, it sounds amazing.

Questyle M12i - $149

Questyle’s portable DACs have been a big favorite at Bloom primarily because of their excellent tuning, and surprising level of detail for the price. The M12i is an updated version of the original M12 that adds full MFi support for Apple products. M12i only has a 3.5mm output, so it’s best with IEMs and very sensitive over-ear headphones. M12i doesn’t have it’s own volume control, so you retain complete control of the volume from your phone.

Like its predecessor, M12i uses the ESS ES9218AC combined with Questyle’s tuning to provide some of the best detail available under $200 with a sound that adds just the slightest extra punch in the bass, and a hint of smoothness in the highs, making it both technically excellent and highly engaging to listen to.

iBasso DC07 Pro - $199

If you don’t want to cross the $200 line, but you also want something with crisper, more revealing highs and a deeper feature set, the DC07 Pro might be the one for you. DC07 Pro provides a monochrome OLED screen that provides your current audio bitrate and some configuration options. You can use the configuration to change the gain level, DAC filters, L/R channel balance, and more. The DC07 Pro’s 4x CS43131 DAC configuration matches that of the brand's DX180 Digital Audio Player. DC07Pro has both 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced output options, and the volume control is managed with a small wheel on the side of the device.

Purely in terms of technical performance, DC07 Pro is quite possibly the best out there in the $200 and under range. The detail, separation, imaging, and soundstage are all excellent, and with IEMs the performance is very close or better than to many DAPs up to the $500 price range.

Questyle M15i - $249

Like the original M15, M15i takes everything you liked about the M12i and adds a high/low gain switch and 4.4mm balanced output. The 4.4mm output improves the separation and dynamics in the sound, and gives M15i stronger performance with a larger range of over-ear headphones. M15i was quite good with a lot of moderately hard to drive over-ear headphones, and seemed to achieve higher volume without clipping than most of the other DACs on this list.

Cayin RU7 - $289

Cayin RU7 uses a unique 1-bit DSD DAC design and gets great results out of it. 1-Bit DACs flip the script on more traditional designs, simplifying the stream of data to provide the sort of timing/clock performance that multi-bit DACs often use external clock add-ons to achieve without compromising the accuracy of the digital to analogue conversion. RU7 features a similar screen setup to manage some basic DAC features.

RU7 has the sort of sound that’s nonfatiguing and musical while remaining incredibly detailed and resolving. It has power, dynamics, and body, but also fine detail and articulation. Since all of these units are simply drawing power from the phone battery, there isn’t a large difference in performance between 4.4mm outputs in each, and RU7 had similar performance to DC07 Pro and DITA Navigator.

DITA Navigator - $299

DITA Navigator has a heavy-duty look and feel and a weighty sound to match. Part of its unique design allows you to turn the device into a phone stand, but other than that, the feature set is simple and straightforward. Navigator uses Dual ESS ES9219 DAC chips and has 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs. Navigator is on the upper end of headphone power output for this form factor.

Navigator stands out sonically with some of the best body and note weight of any of this selection of DACs. Navigator is also the timbre king with an exceedingly natural sound. The tuning strikes as being largely reference, but the strong dynamics and weight give it a little something extra. That sense of weight and dynamics is part of what makes these feel like the strongest with over-ear headphones, since dynamic response is one of the first things that headphones lose when they don’t have enough power.

iFi GO bar/GO bar Kensei - $329/$449

The original iFi GO bar shines with some strong features and great performance with over-ear headphones, but Kensei refines the sound with a stronger presentation of detail. Both feature 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs, iFi’s XBass and XSpace, and iEMatch. Stronger performance with over-ear headphones comes at the cost of a bit more noise with sensitive IEMs than the other devices in this class, which is where the built-in iEMatch comes in.

iFi is known for a slightly warm “analogue-y” sound, and GO bar and Kensei provide it for you. Where the original GO bar can feel slightly soft in the dynamics and like the details are veiled, Kensei preserves the analogue feeling while presenting much stronger clarity and detail.

iBasso DC-Elite - $449

In terms of pure pinnacle audio performance in an ultra-portable DAC/Amp, nothing can match DC-Elite. With a flagship ROHM DAC, fully analog volume control, and an amplification circuit that’s a scaled down version of the DX320 Max, DC-Elite has the best detail, imaging, and resolution in its class. You can find out more about why all this stuff is important in our full DC-Elite Review.

While the sound is impressive, the feature set is more limited. DC-Elite has 3.5mm and 4.4mmm headphones outputs, and the option to output to S/PDIF, but other than that, it’s pure sound.

What's the Best Dongle DAC for Me?

Choosing the best option is going to be a matter of balancing the price along with the key features you need. Under $200, DC07 Pro has the best technical sound and feature set, but Questyle M15i has a more musical tuning. If you want to get the best dynamics out of over-ear headphones, the DITA Navigator and iFi GO bar are great options – with the GO bar adding the option for XBass for extra slam. But if you just want pure detail and a no-compromise audiophile design, the iBasso DC-Elite is the real top of the line.