External USB DACs support for Deezer

I had to learn about this problem the hard way: My first dac ever arrived today and it’s worthless with Deezer. So I think I’ll cancel my Deezer account … sadly.. 

Hi everyone,

Does anyone find a way to pass hifi via apple lightning to USB camera adapter and a dac (like dragonfly red)? 

I have just tried it after spending a lot of money on adapter and the dac itself and the app is useless. No point at having the HIFI subscription if you can use it with a phone.

Hi Gobara,

it’s not a problem with iPhone. Just go iPhone → USB camera adapter → cable to your → DAC → headphones .  I had to learn that on my DAC (Qudelix K5) the small camera connector did only work when charging of DAC is deactivated. With the big camera adapter it works with or without charging. 
the problem discussed in this thread is about deezer App on Mac computers (or maybe on windows, too)

Hi zuchi, 

It's not working with my iphone and the Deezer app. May you please give me more details about your solution.

Here is my setup: 

Iphone 12 pro (ios 15.5) → lightning to USB camera adapter (the bigger one with two usb and lightning outputs, allowing charging) → dragonfly red → 3.5 mm audio cable → Sony wh-1000xm3 headphones.

These are my settings in the Deezer app ( everything is high fidelity):

I have restarted the Deezer app, my iphone, listening to downloaded files within Deezer or streaming and no success for putting hifi audio to my headphones. My dragonfly indicates green color which corresponds to 44,1 kHz. The sound quality is even worse in comparison with the cheap 10 bucks lightning to 3.5 mm aux dongle. I have also tried using the dac when charging the phone via the lightning port on the adapter, but the result is the same.

On the other hand, if I try Safari app or lossless file on my iphone, I hear the difference and the dragonfly dac detects the higher quality and displays the magenta color 96 kHz.

I guess that I will need to return the hardware and hope for a refund or use another music service.

Hi Gobara, 

that’s kind of confusing. Deezer ist always 16-Bit/44.1 kHz FLAC as far as I know: https://support.deezer.com/hc/de/articles/115004588345-High-Fidelity-HiFi-

Never heard that Deezer can go 96kHz. But maybe there is a reason for this: On my MacMini (like on every Mac) the audio is sent through Audio-Midi-Settings, because Deezer sadly has no “exclusive mode”. This means I have to do the settings for audio quality in Audio-Midi-Settings manually. Indeed I’m able to set higher quality than 44.1 kHz and the color of my DAC changes along this. But this doesn’t change the fact, that Deezer is 44.1. Fun fact on Mac desktop: When I do this, close Deezer and start again, there is no sound. I have to fix this by setting the Audio-Midi-Settings back to 44.1kHz. To make confusion perfect: Setting 48 kHz works all the time without loosing sound after closing and restarting the Deezer app. 
In a nutshell: On a Mac Deezer really needs an exclusive mode … but for some reason Deezer does not give this to us. 
On my iPhone I have no problems connecting my Qudelix K5. Deezer iOS App plays with 44.1kHz when connected wired with adapter. 
Using my mobile DAC with Bluetooth I don’t care about any kHz-Settings, because Bluetooth limits the quality itself.  Bluetooth with Apple devices is never lossless audio (at the moment). 

PS: Talking about the 10 bucks apple dongle: This one is known to be very good sounding! A lot of people are kind of disappointed that their expensive DAC only does a very small amount of better sound.

Hi zuchi,

Thank you for the explanations! 

I did some more listening and you are correct - the iphone sends lossless signal to the dac and to my headphones. I was initially misled by the color of the dac, which for the Deezer app indicates audio sample rate of 44.1 kHz. For example, Apple Music reaches higher levels and thus different color, but personally for me it doesn’t make much of a difference for casual listening.

And like you, I also think that the 10 dollar/euro 3.5 mm adapter is the best budget option for the moment.

So at the end I am enjoying the dragonfly dac purchase with the Deezer HiFi playlists. Just one advice for people who would like to try the same setup - take into account that the camera adapter, the dac and the wire makes your phone difficult to carry and reduces the portability ;)

Hi,

16bit/44.1kHz 1411kbits bitrate is today ok but maybe (and hope) later Deezer will upgrade to 24bit/192kHz the resolution, in this case the difference will be bigger between bitperfect or not bitperfect playing. 

On mac you can use the LosslessSwitcher add-on to your mac. With this tweak you can listen bit-perfect music.

By the way on Win10 OS the Kernel streaming possibility or use JPlay output would be also nice (and increase the sound quality!) by using Deezer.

+301

Lossy without DAC control is akin to v1.0 of Tesla's FSD… pretty but worthless.

Seriously, would love for Deezer to provide a timeline or some context to the why? What was prioritized over this?

Yeah, Dee’s software decoder sucks, i cannot believe my old Symbian UIQ phone pulls better sound from mp3s than this “HQ” streamer.

The need for this feature is real.