iPhone and Philips SHP9500 headphones

I am guessing that the amp cannot drive the headphones as it is less so at lower volume.  I just need a DAC.

Not familiar with these but if you want the very best then Shure SE846 are absolutely incredible and insanely expensive but justified price given the uniquely better performance over all other IEM.

For cheaper light weight over ears with great external sound isolation then the Sennheiser HD 25 will play loud and dynamically and sound pretty good with iPhone.

Portlandlay -

Having followed and commented on your prior thread, my take is:

Don’t expect to get a big increase in performance by adding a DAC - Your headphones were a bargain/ budget choice at $55 so you should simply be happy with them for what they are.

If at some point you plan to take a big step up, then you can consider all new headphones, a dac/amp, etc. But at the price point you’re at now, I would just enjoy your new purchase, let them break in for a bit and in the meantime perhaps tweak the EQ settings in your iPhone to your satisfaction.

BTW - I assume that your new headphones are big improvement from where you were previously correct?

Enjoy!

Greg

Thanks Greg. Yeah these headphone are way nicer than the Klipsch I had been using. I like the open back design. I also like they are over ear. A lot of headphone for $50. These are what I got but not at amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP9500-Precision-Over-ear-Headphones/dp/B00ENMK1DW

Honestly, I think it’s the amp portion more than the DAC. I think a tad more oomph would help drive these. They are absolutely fun regardless. Some material is fantastic some is a but tilted up.

Buying cheap headphones and then spending extra money on a headphone amp for a $500+ iPhone just seems like a dogs breakfast to me. If you want better sound then why not start with headphones.

I admit that people do this with speakers too - often spending 20 times what they spend on speakers to purchase the source, amplifiers and bits of wire between them. 

As they say - you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig.