Audiophile Setup with an Iphone 7

You guys are all way off in your methodologies.

There are a ton of great amp/dac/streamers.

The op has mentioned headphones that doesnt mean the Op dosent have or will have a set of speakers in the future or has a set now.

Also Tidal is important but with Tidal built into the device doesnt mean you have the phone streaming to the device the phone acts as a remote control for the device.

Also useability isnt being discussed.

Products by Naim have a fantastic app and allow all types of streaming to allow for youtube via airplay or android via chromcast plus built in headphone amp, also allows direct blue tooth streamIng.

Naim uniti atom covers all bases.

Also Roon integration isnt being mentioned.

Nor is Mqa.

Nor is how important is sound quality which level of Audize.

Also budget to some people even when they say is open isnt really, many newbies dont really know pricing and what it can go up to.

For example a cary dms 500 streamer is $5000 plus $1500 Cary headphone amp plus cable would be great is $7000 what the op will spend or is $3000 for an Naim Atom or something cheaper really desirable.

You have to ask the right questions nobody mentioned portability is a factor either.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Dear Gentlemen...you are all being very helpful. Thank You !!

Best

All good suggestions here. The Ayre Codex with balanced output is also an excellent option. I use the Ayre Codex in my own personal headphone setup as a DAC/AMP. The Chord Mojo or Hugo are also both good options as well. I’m also using a raspberry pi 3 via WIFI to stream Tidal to the Ayre Codex DAC with pretty good results. I use the Lumin app on my iPhone to control Tidal. The Raspberry Pi is surprisingly good for $35 dollars. I used to use the Apple lightening camera adaptor but I stopped because I didn’t like my phone being tied up in the source chain. I rather use the iPhone or ipad as a music streamer controller. I recently purchase the Sparky USBridge (allo.com) for about $180, which as a built in jitter reclock, so the performance should be pretty good. If you have the money to spent...you won't go wrong with the Ayre QX5/20 streamer/DAC.  Good luck!

If budget is open, the aforementioned Ayre should be a good option.

 The Ayre comments were good but I don't think the OP wants to build a Rasberry PI device.

So the questions the OP should ask himself are:

1: How good do I want it to be which will affect budget?
2: Headphones only or a system with an amplifier for future speakers?
3: Is the size and complexity of the setup an issue? 
4: Do I want the convience of having an app?
5: Do I require of possibly like the ability to stream other sources than Tidal to the system?
6: Is Roon or MQA something I know about or care to maybe play with?
7: Is portability something that matters?
8: Which Audize headphones are going to be used?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ