Setting up your phone for better music

Between the track in your app and the sound in your ear there are a few steps. At each step some quality can leak away, and at most of them you can change something. The nice part is that the first steps cost nothing: a few switches in your app and phone.

One thing first: the biggest gain is almost always at the end. IEMs that seal well with tips of the right size do more than any setting in this article. If you're unsure about that, read our ear tips guide first.

Almost every service sets quality lower than it could by default, to save data. You usually set it three times: for Wi-Fi, for mobile data and for downloads.

How much will you hear? The difference between a good compressed stream and lossless is small, and on a train it disappears in the background noise. At home, in a quiet room with good IEMs, you may hear it on some tracks. Lossless costs nothing extra with these services, so switching it on is an easy choice.

And 24-bit/192 kHz? It does no harm, but don't expect miracles. How an album was recorded and mastered usually matters more than the number on the screen.

• Lightning or USB-C: the iPhone 15 and later have USB-C, so a USB-C dongle plugs straight in. Older iPhones up to the 14 and the SE have Lightning. For those you need a USB-C to Lightning cable, such as the FiiO LT-LT5, or a dongle that comes with a Lightning cable, such as the FiiO KA13.
• Power: Apple says iPhones with USB-C supply up to 4.5 W to an accessory. For Lightning, Apple gives no fixed figure. If your iPhone says an accessory needs too much power, set the dongle to a lower gain or switch off its desktop mode.
• Hi-Res: according to Apple you need an external DAC for anything above 48 kHz. With a dongle, Hi-Res Lossless does arrive; through the built-in route it doesn't.
• EQ: Apple Music has fixed EQ presets under Settings > Apps > Music > EQ. They only work in Apple Music. Headphone Accommodations, according to Apple, only works with Apple and Beats headphones, so not with IEMs on a dongle. For your own curve, use the EQ in a FiiO dongle or the equaliser in Spotify.
• Volume: you can set a maximum under Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety. More on that in our safe listening guide.

On Android you plug a dongle into the USB-C port and the sound goes there straight away. On some brands, such as older OPPO and OnePlus phones, you first have to switch on OTG in the settings.

What fewer people know: Android mixes all sound from apps and notifications in one mixer. That mixer often converts everything to one fixed sample rate, usually 48 kHz, and handles volume digitally. For most people that's inaudible in practice. If you still want the file to reach your DAC unchanged (bit-perfect), there are two ways:

• Since Android 14, apps can ask for a bit-perfect USB mode. It only works if both your phone and your app support it, and that is far from everywhere yet. Look in your app's settings for an option like USB exclusive or bit-perfect.
• Apps with their own USB driver, such as USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP, paid), bypass the Android mixer and send straight to your dongle. UAPP can play Tidal and Qobuz itself.

Many phones have their own sound effects, such as Dolby Atmos on Samsung. They work on a dongle too. If you like them, keep them on. When you compare IEMs or settings, switch them off for a moment. For an equaliser across all apps there's Wavelet; see our EQ guide.

The Bluetooth settings live in the developer options. You unlock them by tapping the build number seven times under Settings > About phone. There you'll find, among others:

• Bluetooth audio codec: which codec is in use right now, and you can pick one if your headphones or receiver support several.
• LDAC playback quality: the default adapts the bitrate to the connection. The top setting of 990 kbps sounds best but drops out sooner in busy places such as a station.
• Disable absolute volume: normally phone and headphones share one volume. With this on, each has its own. Handy when even the lowest step is too loud on your Bluetooth receiver.

Names differ a little per brand and Android version. Some phones reset the codec after reconnecting.

If your app streams lossless and you listen over Bluetooth, the music gets repacked on the way with the connection's codec. So you never hear more than SBC, AAC, aptX or LDAC lets through. Our wireless guide explains which codec does what.

One exception is aptX Lossless: it can pass CD quality when both ends support it and the connection is strong enough. Most phones don't send it themselves, but a USB-C transmitter such as the FiiO Air Link or iFi UP Play Max does.

If you want to be sure you hear the full quality, use a cable and a dongle. Wireless is lovely on the go; at home in your chair, pick the cable.

• Set the download quality separately. In most apps that's its own switch, apart from streaming.
• If you change the download quality in Tidal, it only applies to new downloads. What you already had needs to be removed and downloaded again.
• Lossless takes a lot of space. With Tidal's figure of up to 40 MB per minute for Max, an hour-long album takes about 2.4 GB. Check how much space your phone has left before you go.
• Download at home over Wi-Fi. Then you don't need to stream on the way, and you can just listen on a plane or on a train without signal.

A dongle has no battery of its own: it draws its power from your phone. These habits keep the drain low.

• Use the lowest gain that's loud enough. On the FiiO KA13, switch desktop mode off on your phone; that mode is meant for sources with more power.
• Listen to downloads instead of streaming over mobile data. Your phone then doesn't have to keep receiving data.
• Unplug the dongle when you're not listening. A connected dongle can draw power even when nothing is playing.
• Want to charge while you listen? Get the FiiO SnowSky Tiny A, with an extra USB-C port for a charger.
• Listening for hours on end? Choose something with its own battery: the FiiO BTR13 also works as a USB dongle on its own battery (about 8 hours), and the iFi hip-dac3 lasts 8 to 12 hours.