Anyone else use their iPhone with high quality headphones and music? I'm wondering how good are the iPhone 6 - 6+ components to listen to good quality music on the road.
So far I've paired my phone with a couple Sennheiser headphones and it sounds pretty great but definitely not Hi Fi... Would other non-apple phones have better sound?
You might want to consider an amplifier. I think someone already mentioned the Fiio x7. I just picked up a Meridian Explorer2 DAC I'm looking forward to trying.
I have a pair of Westone W40s and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT880s, the latter of which is the low impedance (I want to say like 18 ohms) version; both sound very good from my iPhone 6 (using either the Beats or Spotify apps at high quality streaming) and MacBook. They seem to be driven well, though I'm interested to see how the DAC will improve the sound (if at all). I'll also note I was playing with the W40s last night and tried out a different, smaller set of tips, and that made a huge and better difference. I'd been using large ones to create the seal I've read so much about, and even had some triple-flange Shure tips that seated really deeply within my ear canal, but the shorter tips made a great difference for me. So definitely experiment with fit.
I got the Beyers from a local audio boutique and had a chance to listen to a bunch of others . . . Audeze, Grado, more Sennheisers, a couple of others whose names I don't recall. I fell utterly and completely in love with a pair of Sennheiser HD800s powered by the complementary amp -- into which I plugged my iPhone and played Spotify tracks. It was jaw dropping.
Of course, both would have cost like $3600 together.
The Beyers cost less than 10% of that but sounded, to me, better than the HD600/650s also within budget. This was purely taste; the latter sounded more analytical and neutral, while the Beyers sounded more dynamic. It was basically, if I wanted to analyze the music, I'd go with the HD650, but if I just wanted to sit back and enjoy it, I wanted the Beyers. Plus I already have a pair of HD598s, which some might posit as splitting the difference.
I think if you're looking for a different device, you might just want a complementary player, rather than a different phone. The Fiio X1 is supposed to be awesome, and it's only $99.