DAC with Volume Control to solve IPhone Volume Issue
Hi folks,
I've been reading here for years, but this is the first time I make a post myself. Hello everyone.
tl;dr: Does a DAC with seperate volume control (Snowsky Melody for example) overcome the issue of not being able to properly regulate the volume on IPhone. My IPhone is too loud even on 1% volume and I need it to go much lower than that. With too loud I mean 1% is still at around 55db which is not acceptable.
Now the whole post:
I recently upgraded to an IPhone 15, bought an official USB-C 3.5mm adapter with it and the music coming from it is just too loud. Even connecting the dongle as "Other", enabling "Reduce Loud Sounds" and selecting 1% volume does not solve the issue.
I searched the web for days, without finding any solutions but the ones mentioned. I then stumbled upon the FiiO/Jade Audio Jiezi and thought I'd found one. I bought it, connected it to the webapp and dialed the global gain down to -12. It does work BUT not as intended. 0 Gain and -12 Gain both produce the same exact minimum volume on IPhone (which is still louder than the Apple Dongle). The difference is that with -12 Gain you can then change the volume slider up 3 bars and it doesn't affect the volume at all. Between the 3rd and 4th bar is where the volume picks up again.
So there definitely is something off with the new IPhones, since that issues is widespread. The internal speaker are too loud too (I limited them to 40% max volume and it is still plenty loud). I then plugged both dongles into my Mac and there they work flawlessly. They are loud too, but when I dial the master volume of any given app down, the dongle just keeps getting quieter until you can barely hear anything. And the -12 Gain on the Jiezi are clearly audible when plugged into the Mac. So it must be a limitation/restriction of the IPhone.
Now, before I go out and buy yet another thing, I wanted to ask those of you who use IPhone if you were able to solve this issue with a DAC with volume control. I'm specifically looking at the Snowsky Melody. I do not care about all the other features, I just want to be able to listen to music normally. Will I be able to dial down the volume to barely over the noise floor like I should be able to or will my IPhone prevent the DAC from doing so like it did with the Jiezi?
I thank you all in advance for reading this post and taking the time to answer this question.
Have a great day everyone.