Arcam MusicBOOST – iPhone 6 digital audio and battery upgrade

You may recall me reporting from the launch of the Arcam MusicBOOST – well, it has just gone official!

MusicBOOST is a portable headphone amplifier with a high-precision DAC and powerful battery pack for the Apple iPhone 6, all in one sleek protective sleeve case weighing just 100 gms.

This is an ideal Travel Product, able to be easily swapped in/out depending on usage and totally ends battery anxiety when your boarding pass is on the phone.

Most iPhone owners are quite happy with the sound from their fruity Phone, but the sound quality of all mobiles is compromised by build budget, battery life requirements, space constraints and interference from the radio and digital components of the phone.

The MusicBOOST cuts through the noise (literally) by extracting pure digital audio from the iPhone Lightning Port, feeding it via a high-performable Texas Instruments DAC and then amplifying it with a powerful Arcam headphone amplifier.

Arcam have done a good job and use a fully licensed Apple Lightning Audio Module to extract the pure sound from the iPhone

You can appreciate the remarkable improvement in sound quality, even with basic White EarPods and a Spotify stream. When you plug in serious £30 – £100 in-earphones the benefits are huge and if you like big over-the-head-phones, the MusicBOOST will give them a kick that no phone can match.

Totally transparent to the source. If an app can play audio, the MusicBOOST will upgrade it. The performance boost is there for Music App, Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud YouTube, Movie Soundtracks, FLAC Player and much more.

The combined Digital Audio Converter (DAC) powerful headphone amplifier and battery pack utilises an advanced Lithium Polymer battery that doubles iPhone battery life and drives the music system for up to 120 Hours Music Replay with the iPhone in Airplane mode.

The MusicBOOST upgrades all iPhone audio from Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz etc and can play FLAC, WAV music files etc via 3rd Party iOS Apps such as FLAC Player.

Charlie Brennan, Arcam MD, says:

With the MusicBOOST, we’ve applied our serious audio engineering talents to the iPhone. The improved sound will make you want to listen to more and more music, so even better that it also doubles iPhone battery life.”

UK Price £120 inc VAT – On sale now but iPhone 6 Plus owners will have to look for another solution as there are currently no plans by Arcam to make a super-sized version.

Music Boost key features at a glance:

• 'Made For iPhone' officially licensed accessory

• Digital Audio via in-built Apple Lightning Audio Module

• High-precision PCM1502 internal DAC

• Dedicated internal headphone amplifier

• Internal Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery, powers Amp and DAC

• Recharges iPhone for double the battery life

• Up-to 120 Hours Music Replay with phone in Airplane mode

• Four LED charge indicators

• Power and Battery Check buttons

• Micro USB charging with lead supplied

• Phone Priority Charging - the phone is charged to 100%,

  then MB charges its own battery.

• Soft touch sleeve case protects iPhone

• A massive audio upgrade for iPhone headphone users

• Arcam quality DAC & Amplifier markedly improve sound quality

• Power to drive headphones large and small

• Upgrades all iPhone audio from iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify,

  Tidal, Qobuz etc

• Play FLAC, WAV files etc using 3rd party apps such as VOX, Flac Player+

Music Boost specs:

Headphone Impedance / Output Power

• 16 Ohm 44 + 44mW

• 32 Ohm 22 + 22mW

• 64 Ohm 11.5 + 11.5mW

• 300 Ohm 2.5 + 2.5mW

Battery - 2800 mAH Lithium Ion

WxHxD 69 x 153 x 14mm.

Weight 100g