Kind of funny. Long story short, my headphones broke and since this is my first iPhone after 13 years on Android, I just had to try it out. My initial thought was that the pixel didn’t have a dac and neither did the USB hub, but it works on the iPhone and I’m a bit surprised 😂👏
Wow, so many incorrect info on this thread.
USB or lightning outputs have digital only. They cannot output analog audio. So these phones do not have audio DAC nor amplifier. DAC and amp are on dongles or external devices.
Phones with headphones jack have built in DAC and tiny amplifier, which can output analog signal directly.
As to why OP's external device works with iPhone and not pixel is likely compatibility. Dongle will state which device it is compatible with.
Thank you very much for the clarification, I thought it wouldn’t be the main discussion to be fair lol.
The last part makes me really interested. I have tested the hub on: MacBook Windows machine Raspberry Pi iPhone
And it worked with all of them. Would love to try it on a Samsung.