I’ve wanted a pair of high end headphones and recently Monoprice had the Monolith planar magnetic M1060 headphones on sale so ordered. I’m now trying to figure out the right DAC/Amplifier that will power the headphones adequately while also working with an iPhone. Portability isn’t a major concern especially if it compromises sound quality. Looking to spend $300 or less so not on the higher end of course, but not wanting to go too cheap and thus needing to start over again. Anyone an audiophile with experience have suggestions?
Something to keep in mind -- the ideal situation, sound-wise, is to use some sort of DAC which has a digital connection (meaning lightning cable) to your iPhone. That way you are leveraging the DAC on your expensive equipment, rather than simply passing the already converted signal from the iPhone into an Amp. In other words, not going straight from either your iPhone headphone jack, nor using the Lightning-to-3.5mm dongle from Apple. (Apologies if you already knew all this)
In doing a little research, it seems like you'll end up with a DAC that has USB input (for digitial audio), and then it's a matter of having the right adapter to go from the Lightning port on your iPhone to the USB on the DAC.
A few options listed here:
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-headphone-amp-with-built-in-dac/