Best DAC for iPhone - Volvo Car Play Connection?

This is something I am not clear on.  

The audio is coming from the iPhone and going out of the audio out of the iPhone.  So, therefore, the audio coming out of the iPhone is already going through the DAC in the iPhone.  If that is true, is there any way to bypass the DAC in the iPhone with an external DAC or not?

Please let me know what you think.  Thanks!

+1 Glennewdick

Check out the Audioquest Dragonfly line, notably Dragonfly Red. The form factor is ideal for what you are doing.  Plug it in to a Lightning-to-USB converter.  The Tidal app on your iPhone will recognize the Dragonfly and treat it as a MQA endpoint, direct-streaming digital to the Dragonfly DAC and yes, bypassing the generic iPhone firmware.  I is actually quite good, and can also be used to drive headphones.

Pretty sure your iphone is sending digital to your car.  

Your iPhone is connected to the car's USB input, which is a digital connection. A DAC converts a digital signal to analog. Unless your car's audio system has an analog audio input, there is no way for you to use an Audioquest Dragonfly or any other kind of DAC.

+1 @sandstone

- AQ DRAGONFLY is what I use (along with a requisite cable adapter) … its a small footprint for my iPhone with good results…. And comparatively cheap.

- APPLE LIGHTNING TO USB CAMERA  cable out from the iPhone

- insert AQ DRAGONFLY USB 

- 3,5mm cable out to audio input in the auto head unit .

- there are other bulkier options. Any and all will be an upgrade to the standard basic Apple iPhone output.

- Regardless, also invest in and download a 3rd party HDPLAYER app to play the hi-rez files and improve your streaming output as an upgraded playback app to APPLE’s own; and worthy of a step up to an external DAC.