tablets

Quality of the internal dac

I would say the headphones first. The power required to drive headphones varies widely as does the sound quality. I have driven headphones for many years with an iPad and iPhone. I have not compared to a kindle. But I would wager a good bit of money that the Apple devices sound better. Apple puts a lot of design energy and high technology in their devices. Kindles and other imitations are far behind in quality and components. I have used them to drive headphones, an external DAC and an external amp and all combinations.


Within any device like this is a streamer, DAC, and amplifier. Any and all can be upgraded. But if you are just using an iPad then you want the best headphones made to be driven by a mobile device.
You are using a wired connection? Because if you are not, then the amplifier is in your headphones.

it seems Apple is the way to go -- thanks.

You'll find this to be of value:
https://darko.audio/2021/06/the-best-way-to-stream-hi-res-audio-from-apple-music/

All the best,
Nonoise