Best DAC for iPhone - Volvo Car Play Connection?

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.

Speaking of Volvo's, my 2012 C70 radio reception SUCKS. It cannot get WBGO unless it is overcast.

A few auto audio shops tell me they have no solution.

Has anyone found a way to improve reception????

OP,

The iPhone musically performs three functions in musical streaming… streamer (creates a bit stream, digital) —> DAC (translates bit stream to analog) —> amplifies (here you would use headphones) —> headphone jack (new models do not have one, they expect to use Bluetooth).

You get a digital output (USB) if between the streamer and DAC. You get an analog output if you connect after the DAC (headphone jack).

Since you are connected via USB, it must be pre-DAC.