iPad audio...is that good or what?

I don't know what kind of DAC it is, maybe one of the better Cirrus Logic chips. But it sounds good on every 'phone I've tried. The headphone output is closer to an ideal voltage source than most portable devices. I prefer that kind of sound. With most headphones, it has a uniform frequency response except for a slightly soft top end. I can't detect any obvious noise or distortion if you don't use EQ--or use the Flat, Bass Reducer, or Treble Reducer presets. iOS 4 will probably fix the rest, when it comes out.

The technical performance of the headphone output is pretty good, even under load. I can post measurements, including an RMAA report, if there is any interest and there isn't too much hostility to that idea. BTW, the iPad  plays 24-bit wave files, which is what I used in one of the tests.

Oh my gosh. So my dad (currently in Korea due to work) decided to order an iPad for himself. He had it shipped to my house, in the U.S., since the iPad isn't available in Korea, and plans to have a relative that came over to Philly to visit some friends take it back to my dad when he leaves the States. My dad said that I was allowed to open it up and play around with it and check it out, but I never bothered putting music on it cause I had my iPod. I didn't really think the iPad's audio quality would be much to glance at because I got the idea that Apple focused on the iPad as more of an all around entertainment device, not something dedicated to music. But....this sounds amazing. My 2G Nano really sounds like crap compared to this. Everything seems so much clearer and opened up. The highs sound much more crisper and less rolled off, the mids are brought out, and the bass sounds so much tighter and refined. Jeeze.....

Note the iPad can also drive an external USB DAC using the Apple camera connection kit. It needs to be 16 bit currently. Here are a list of what currently works and what does not.

-john

I share similar experiences with the aforementioned.  I was taken by how large, clean, and clear sounding the iPad was.  It didn't sound very musical with my RE-Zeroes because they are both very neutral, resulting in a very bland sound.  With my HF2's, it was quite lovely.  I could certainly be very happy with it as a source and preferred the stock sound (unamped) to any EQ/JetEffect configuration on my Cowon.

Hello everybody,

I'm very new to head-fi so I hope you'll forgive me if my questions sound silly.., please be patient and bear with me. I have an iPad 2 and am going to use it as my source, listening mainly to rock in 256kbs AAC or 320kbs mp3, have recently bought (yet to receive) Alessandro MS-1v.2009 phones and just got Sunrise SW-Xcape IEM's and am trying to figure out an optimal set up for these two sets.

The Sunrise's sound very detailed but, being essentially neutral, perhaps, might benefit from an external amping with the iPad 2 as this is very neutral too. As for the Alessandro's, I still haven't had a chance to listen to them (thanks to italian customs ), but after extensive reading I understand they benefit from tubes or similar sounding amps.

So, finally coming to the questions, before reading this thread I felt that it might be necessary to by-pass the internal dac/ap of the iPad 2 in order to get a good SQ and had figured out a few ways to do this while still keeping things portable, but am now beginnig to question this basic assumption if in fact the iPad 2 SQ is as good as everybody here seems to agree.

Up to now the options I had figured out were essentially, in order of savings impact:

-Outsourcing both DAC and amp

iPad2>Fostex HP-P1>MS-1 or SW-X

iPad2>Clas>TTVJ Slim>MS-1 or SW-X

iPad2>Camera Connection Kit>Fiio E7>MS1 or SW-X (assuming you can still get a raw digital signal out of the camera connection, i read somewhere this may no longer be possible, any news here?)

-Using the internal DAC with an external amp

iPad2>Lod>TTVJ Slim>MS-1 or SW-X

iPad2>Lod>Fiio E11>MS-1 or SW-X

Right now I am beginnig to ask myself whether all these solutions perhaps are not really necessary if the internal amp/DAC of the iPad 2 is good enough, and if a good equalizer app could do the trick at a fraction of the cost 8any sujestions would be welcome).

I also realize that considering the phones I'll be using the above solutions might be an overkill, but I think that if I like the MS1's I'll likely upgrade to MS-2's or Pro's fairly soon.

mmm.., I just re-read what I wrote and am shocked at how things got out of hand: up to a month ago I wouldn't even have considered alternatives to the Apple buds I had always used, then these broke and I had the idea of checking out a few reviews to see what other choices there were.., and I ended up on head-fi. Now I rush here every spare minute I have and am seriously considering spending amounts of money I would have never dreamt of (and can't really afford) on head-gear!

Please give me some advice so that at least I don't end up waisting my hard earned money. Thank you all for your patiance

I have to excuse myself, ihope you'll forgive the novice's enthuisasm: I just realized that I totally hyjacked this thread whilst I really should have started a new one, which I'll do right away. My apologies