Compared to the same songs in flac or wave on my dap or phone, or even Napster Tidal sounds weird to me. It sounds like everything has been put through a smooth jazz filter/eq/sound effect or whatever. It’s not always a bad thing. It can soften some harsh poorly recorded, mixed, mastered etc music but if it’s music that actually sounds good lossless I’m generally not a fan of how it sounds compared to other options.

What? Huh? What? Huh?

Dongle is fine and if there’s something about the sound you don’t like different eartips can make a huge difference. That said, I’m currently using a gaming phone so it has a 3.5mm jack but I still bought a dap so my headphones aren’t connected to my phone, especially while I’m out of the house. I bought a tiny one, (Shanling m0 pro) and love it. I clip it on the outside of my pocket I paid $130 for it and it’s been completely worth it. But that’s so I don’t have a cord attached to my phone not for sound quality and I’m using downloaded files on it. My dap also works as an external DAC/amp but I’ve only used it that way to get more power to some over ear headphones.