Basic questions about DACs

[fahfisher500]

I have read some of the threads in this forum and come to the conclusion that my ignorance in this area is profound. I have a Fisher 500c tube receiver with a Dual turntable for vinyl, Yamaha CD player and cassette deck and a Onkyo Iphone dock through which I play my Apple itunes on my iphone 6s. I am presuming that either the phone or the iphone dock is a DAC otherwise I would get no sound at all, what I am confused on is whether a different DAC would make a noticeable improvement in sound or not. It sounds pretty good to me now, but not quite as good as the vinyl (on most albums). I am not interested in playing computer files or other digital sources other than the phone. Thanks for all input

 

[fahfisher500]

Thanks, I just play music on the phone from the apple music subscription, so I doubt it is lossless.

 

[xdd]

If you're looking for a DAC which sounds more akin to your vinyl, try something using a multibit DAC chip. Examples are TDA1543 and TDA1387.
In order to connect such a DAC to your iPhone you'll need some kind of lightning-> USB adapter. Apple's camera kit is one such.

You're correct that your downloaded music won't be lossless but this is of only minor concern.

 

[fahfisher500]

After looking in the archives and doing some more research I decided to get a TEAC cd player (cdp650) with an usb input for the iphone, since I wanted to upgrade my CD player anyway (early 90's yamaha 5 disc carousel) which has been a little flaky lately and probably not worth repairing. Thanks for the input.