So is there a DAC inside that adapter?

[iBug2]

Looks pretty thin to be housing a DAC and an amp.

 

[Menel]

Most likely. Amp/DAC can be pretty small. You seet he AirPods?

It's also possible the Lightning port is intelligent enough to turn a couple of it's digital IO into analog audio output itself with the right configuration.

 

[voodoo709]

I imagine the DAC in the 6s is better than the one fitted into the lighting to 3.5mm adaptor making it a downgrade, hopeful someone will do a comparison.

 

[drumcat]

Has anyone torn down the headphone adapter yet? I'm wondering whether it's a DAC, or some sort of passive signal passthrough.

 

[Lawney]

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/20/lightning-earpods-teardown-confirms-dac/

 

[Mrbobb]

It must, because lightening's signals are all digital. How good a DAC is it? THAT still under microscope.

 

[sekazi]

It must, because lightening's signals are all digital. How good a DAC is it? THAT still under microscope.

It is said to be as good as the one in the 6S. I am sure better ones will make it out soon enough.

 

[drumcat]

I bought one for shiggles. I'm really surprised at how good it is. I still think it's a mistake; they should have done it *next* rev, and started putting out the converter early. Once you try it, it's fine. It's still annoying in that you can't charge and listen, but the audio quality really is comparable. It is *marvelous* engineering for a problem that didn't have to exist.

I had to ask the question as to whether there was one because dang, it's small, and many were predicting that it would use the internal dac and pass signal analog through the connection. I was sure that was stupid, but ya know.